On numerous occasions I have written from different directions around the idea of creative constraints. Thoughts on “Tenner”, now called the 10x Challenge.
Yesterday, in response to a post about the need to and power of accepting difference in the school education system, I sent a message to a dear friend in Cayman around how, globally, we remain largely stuck in the industrial era system of education that, two hundred years on, still looks to create people good at the three ‘r’s (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmatic), yet when diversity appears, whether in terms of how students having differences in function and processing or simply fresh ideas outside the accepted norm, our system both struggles to support students as well as to accept diverse ideas and views.
Now, in a serendipitous way, today I connected to an idea which could support diverse ideas in Cayman and beyond.
First, on numerous occasions I have written from different directions around the idea of creative constraints, most recently (also) yesterday with: “Create Boundaries, then Improvise“
In response to that post, Oli Barrett, a highly creative, prolific and abundant person who lives to connect people and ideas, replied on Twitter (see threads here and here), resulting in me looking up “Tenner”, now called the 10x Challenge. In short, Oli noted: “I’m convinced that Tenner’s boundaries (£10, one month, one challanege) sparks rather than dampens creativity.”, then as I replied with curiousity about Tenner: “We started Tenner with a “what if”. What if we gave 10,000 school kids £10 each and one month to make money and make a difference? Many said give them longer, give them more. 500,000 participants later (including Fiver for primary schools), I’m happy we set those boundaries.”
Wow, how very, very cool.
The 10x Challenge is part of Young Enterprise in the UK, itself a part of Junior Achievement worldwide, which has me thinking of connections beyond the UK, including my home country of the Cayman Islands, which has had a thriving Junior Achievement programme for decades. I can absolutely see real value in them looking to create something simple and with the “creative constraint” of a “tenner” and four weeks. I’ll send this post on to my friend, as well as others in Cayman I know are in a position to think about this and influence change.
Meanwhile, I close by sharing Sir Ken Robinson’s seminal TED talk: “Do schools kill creativity” , which, btw, is the most watched TED Talk of all time… hence the following image 😉
