Have you ever heard of Crash Adams? Two friends from Toronto Canada who like suits and bring a contagious energy with their music. One of the ways that I was introduced to this band was through social media. Their music came up on a Reel when they were asking people to freestyle within their songs. The concept of the video as well as some of the talent they came across is excellent. Check this out:
Additionally, here is John Michael Howell in his own “freestyle” video
Are these truly freestyle? That is debatable. Looking at the comments, there is a lot of pessimism about the development of the videos, but there is a massive amount of talent being shared to millions of people.
These videos made me think about the concept of freestyling outside of music. As a teacher in a classroom, leader of a team, or professional in every other business, freestyling is a necessary investment.
Freestyling can lead to the development of new ideas, the birth of solutions to problems, and the creation of spaces for ideas to grow, iterate, fail, and evolve. Jeff Bezos said in a podcast interview, “To be innovative, you have to experiment. You need to do more experiments per week, per month, per year, per decade. It’s that simple. You cannot invent without experimenting. We want failures where we’re trying to do something new, untested, never proven. That’s a real experiment. And they come in all scale sizes.”
Do you feel that you have the ability in your workspace to experiment? To freestyle or brainstorm ideas for solutions that are not the most common or simplest response? In many ways, the culture of your workspace might not encourage a freestyle experience. Google gives a contracted amount of time for their employees to freestyle, developing new ideas, products, and innovations out of passion and inspiration.
So how do we create a culture of freestyling within our workspace and beyond? Here are 3 ideas:
One: Put on a different set of glasses
There is a great book series called Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. Within the story, the main character Alcatraz learns about his magic abilities using different lenses in glasses. As you think about how to freestyle your projects, plans, or processes, try some different lenses. In his 2023 book Ai for Educators, Matt Miller talked about putting on our “tomorrow glasses” when it comes to working with AI in the classroom. As you are engaging in the next project or problem, what lenses or glasses do you have in front of you to think through? Client glasses? CEO Glasses? One of my favorite repetitive phrases in the movie Philadelphia is from Denzel Washington who played lawyer Joe Miller. Continually, when questioning witnesses both in and outside of court he said “Explain this to me like I am __ years old”. If I remember right, as the movie continues, Denzel gets younger and younger so that the information can be more easily understood. Putting on our different sets of glasses can give us new ideas and approaches to freestyle against the problems that we face. Approaching from different experiences, age groups backgrounds, and preferences can provide more understanding about where we are and where we are headed. No matter what the muse for the glasses (I have worn new glasses out of professional frustration before) there are opportunities to let those ideas develop and move into a process of innovative growth.
Two: Go to the “Bad Idea Factory”
Do all freestyle ideas have to be good ideas? How often have bad ideas inspired great ideas? The beauty of invention, innovation, freestyling, and creativity is that one idea can spark 5 different ideas. There is an activity that I have done with students and adults in various settings called “Yes and.” I originally experienced this when a group of consultants introduced our team to it based on the book Yes and from Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton of The Second City Comedy Theater in Chicago. The concept is that you don’t say anything to an idea except, “Yes, and…” The initial response that we all have within us is to say “Yeah, but…” Think about it, when a child comes up to you and says, “Wouldn’t it be great to have shoes that could fly and dispense cookies at the same time!?!?” with the logical adult saying “Yeah, but we can’t fly”. The “Yes, And” approach starts the idea that freestyling should be free. There are no stops when you freestyle. Ideas flow without editing or hesitation. Getting the idea on paper, sound into Garageband, whatever the medium. “Yes, and…” is a great experience that connects well to what one teacher called “the Bad Idea Factory”
Remember, Google gives 20% of their employees paid time to develop and freestyle. Within education realms, this was adopted as an idea called “20 time” or a “20% project”. One teacher took this idea, developed a website, and shared some incredible resources, including the “Bad Idea Factory”. The “BIF” is a space where kids don’t come up with great ideas that they want to pursue, but really bad ideas. It’s almost a competition to see how creative, obscure, and wondrous, or impossible an idea can be. The ultimate goal is that one of these really bad ideas could inspire an incredibly great idea in someone else. To see examples of the bad idea factory, check out the site here: https://www.20time.org/the-bad-idea-factory
Embrace the power of building bad ideas, for within them lies the potential to inspire greatness. Coupling a bad idea with a resounding “yes and” collaboration can unlock the gateway to wondrous magic yet unseen. The art of freestyling is not about finding the final product right away: it’s about fearlessly diving into the creative chaos and piecing together concepts that can pass previously imagined ideas. Live in the messiness, for it is within this real that remarkable ideas are born, destined to evolve into the extraordinary.
Three: Freestyle other’s ideas…it’s not stealing!
“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”
In the late 90s early 2000’s there was a trend within movie theaters. Themes or ideas would be produced into multiple movies. Competing studios would develop movies around a similar topic to jump onto the topic’s bandwagon. Disney/Pixar developed a Bugs Life and Dreamworks released Ants. Bruce Willis started in Armageddon while Deep Impact was also supporting the most popular star in the theater, global destruction from above. The idea of taking someone elses idea and freestyling it making it new and better is not a new idea. You might observe a school or classroom and see a way of assessment or classroom culture, take it back to your own space and modify it to fit your style , curriculum, or topics. Being able to think creatively about an idea is the essence of freestyling. Often times, the ideas that we are coming to are not original ideas, but the need for a revamped experience, product, or process. Being able to take an idea, replicate it and make it different is an art. Recently, as my children have gotten more opinionated on music, we have had a heavy Disney influence, listeng to any princess song that is out there. That’s when I discovered artists like Peyton Parish and the Punk Rock Factory. These are cover bands. Taking Disney songs and covering them in a punk or heavy metal style. Taking an original pice of work and changing it to embody a different style, or to save every dad driving down the highway.
Check out the current favorite:
Freestyling ideas should stand as a cornerstone in the chase for innovation. Iterating upon and examining bad ideas from diverse perspectives while drawing inspiration from viral trends can unlock a new era of creativity and transformative thinking. The messiness of freestyling can create a path of uncovering hidden potential and create a culture of creativity that spans the entire development process.
All in, embrace the chaos, unravel the extraordinary and chase innovation.
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