Transcriber: Denise RQ Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
Shalom everybody.
You were probably asking yourselves what was I building.
It's a molecule. Not just a simple molecule, it is a peptide.
And as you can see, it can adapt
to a huge number of different conformations.
Each conformation differs in its 3D structure and properties.
I studied this peptide for two years.
I studied the physical equations that rule these conformational changes,
and I found out that these conformations are not chosen randomly.
They are determined by the environment surrounding the molecule.
And then I asked myself, are there any other places
in which our behavior or level of creativity
is determined by the environment?
Of course! It happens to me every morning when I go to work,
my behavior and level of creativity is determined by the environment I work in.
It is determined by the physical working space,
by the project deadlines, by the people I work with.
Sounds familiar?
My name is Elad Segev, I am a scientist and a teacher.
For the last several years,
I studied the relation between the working and studying environment
and the level of creativity.
I think we can learn a lot about creativity from this molecule.
This molecule, as you can see, can adapt very quickly
to the fast changing environment.
It can sample millions of different conformations,
and choose the best one in no time.
How does it do it?
I think that the answer is hidden in the degrees of freedom.
There are torsional angles in this molecule, as this one,
which can rotate almost freely, without any constrains.
These are the degrees of freedom of the molecule.
How can we translate these molecular degrees of freedom
into our studying and working environment?
To answer this question I gave my 7th grade students the following task.
You have a box of matches, some matches, and a piece of plasticine.
Please build a structure that will prevent these sprinkles
to stick to the wafer.
This task was very joyful.
Most of the students solved it in several minutes.
I want to show you some of the results.
As you can see, every student solved the same problem in a different way.
If you look at these pictures,
it seems like the box is an essential product
in order to solve this problem.
And then I asked myself, how can we add some degrees of freedom to this task?
In order to do so, I reformulated the task and instead of telling them,
"Please build a structure that will protect the wafer," I just told them:
"When you're done, I'll spread some sprinkles from above,
your mission is to prevent these sprinkles to stick to the wafer."
Now, I didn't limit them to solve the problem by building any structures.
Moreover, I even didn't mention what are the available resources.
I assumed they can see it by themselves.
I thought it would take them several minutes as it took before,
but now, after only few seconds, a girl raised her hand and asked,
"Is this OK?"
Of course it is OK, it was even better than I could imagine.
She solved the same problem in no time
and didn't choose any of the resources even though they were available.
The second student just flipped the wafer over.
Now the chocolate was not exposed, nothing can stick to it.
When I approached the third one,
I thought that I forgot to put a wafer on his table,
but a deeper observation exposed the crumbs leftovers.
He ate the wafer. (Laughter)
And when I came to his table, he just said:
"Try to stick anything to it now!" (Laughter)
All of these students solved the same problem in no time,
they gave a solution that didn't use any of the resources,
even though they were available.
They gave a better and a cheaper solution.
This autonomy, these degrees of freedom are essential for us
to think in an open manner way.
The most innovative companies already know it and use it.
It is well known that Google gives autonomy in project selection,
20% of its employees' time is devoted
to projects the employees choose to work on.
All the telecommunication companies give autonomy in working space,
Cisco and AT&T allow their employees to work
from wherever they want to at least several days a week.
Other companies like GAP, give autonomy in working hours.
Now, back to the molecule.
In certain conditions,
this molecule creates strong internal bonds.
Now it loses its flexibility, it becomes rigid.
This may happen to any one of us.
In stressful conditions, we lose our flexibility, we become rigid.
Now the question was: how does stress affect the outcome of the same task?
In order to answer this question,
another group of students was given exactly the same task
only now they were told it was a competition.
They were told that the first one to finish is the winner.
Now it was no longer a joyable riddle, it was a real competition.
I want to show you the winner's results.
Five seconds after he started I thought he completed the task.
For a second I thought that maybe, maybe,
this stress and competition encouraged him to work faster.
Maybe not to find the most creative result, but still very fast.
But then something happened,
he continued building, and building, and building, and building.
Does anyone have any idea what is he doing?
He is in stress. He cannot think in an open manner.
He used all available resources even though they were not essential.
He wasted his time.
Stress and competition reduce our level of creativity,
and it extends the task duration.
Our level of creativity relies
on our personal characteristics and abilities.
These abilities can reach their full potential
only on suitable environments.
We, as parents, teachers, and managers can and should improve
this environment and we can do this
by reducing a little bit the stress and competition,
by adding some degrees of freedom, some autonomy.
And to finalize, with these two small changes,
we can make a better environment
which supports the flourishing of creativity and innovation.
Thank you.
(Applause)