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I recently spoke at a global leadership event with over 2,000 CEOs, where we explored the future—AI, technology, religion, politics, and humanoid robotics. Sophia the robot gave a keynote (though I’m not worried about her taking my job as a speaker just yet). What stood out was the shared curiosity about what’s possible. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is the exception, not the norm.
Most of us solve problems using IF: THEN logic—we take what we already know and apply it forward. But this limits creativity. A great example of this lies in these two simple maths equations:
- 5 + 5 = 10 is how we usually think—one set of inputs and therefore one predictable outcome.
- But if I ask _ + _ = 10, suddenly there are 11 solutions, and infinite solutions if we allow negative numbers.
By shifting focus from the given inputs to the desired outcome, we open up new possibilities.
There are a multitude of ways to achieve your goal or solve your problem.
The Shazam Example
Chris Barton, the co-founder of Shazam, shared his story at that same event. When he first pitched the idea of an app that could identify songs in seconds, people told him it was impossible. But instead of accepting “5 + 5 = 10,” he thought differently. Years later, Apple bought Shazam for $400M.
The Ultimate Creativity Hack
True innovation comes from challenging norms and reframing the question. Even in math, 5 + 5 doesn’t have to be 10—it could also be 55 if I redefine the “+” symbol.
If we want to solve problems differently, we need to stop assuming the answer is fixed and start thinking about what is possible.
In a world of 10s, I’d rather be a 55.
At the heart of innovation and creativity is a unique approach to problem solving. Did you know that we can grow food from microbes? We can now reproduce milk, beef, chicken and eggs all in a lab by growing them using microbes. And we can do it at scale. The days of significant energy and natural resources, clearing rainforests and pumping animals full of antibiotics to produce a kilo of meat or a litre of milk could soon be a thing of the past.
What every speaker shared was a curiosity around our future, the direction society may take, the possibilities that could be. It was a magnificent event, full of creativity and possibility. And it stood out because it was the exception.
Most of the corporate world works on IF: THEN decision making and processes. We take what is given to us and therefore get the obvious or expected solution. Sadly, this approach leads to little innovation or change, little out-of-the-box thinking. Even in projecting the future, most of us are still confined by what we already know.
There are a series of famous illustrations of what life might look like in the year 2000, published in the 1950s. What is interesting about the image above is while technology always excites us (a flying car/personal helicopter for all), the artist failed to predict social change (the emancipation of women) or even fashion changes (he is still wearing his same fedora hat 50 years later).
We often do this as business leaders, taking what we know and simply predicting it forward. But doing that is likely to get us the same results we have had previously, and again this is not how innovation works.
This is how most of us approach our life, personal and professional, in terms of problem solving on a daily basis. You didn’t even have to think about the answer, it was just automatically calculated for you as your eyes scanned the above.
We take what is given to us, our known processes, societal norms and rules, expectations and get the obvious answer, 10. We deliver the exact predicted outcome based on the inputs. But when we do this, when we approach problem solving in this way, we will always get the same answer, it will always be 10. There is only one solution, the known solution.
The next framing is where things get more interesting
1 + 9 is as valid as 8 + 2. In fact, even 3 + 7 and 7 + 3 are alternative solutions, if we accept that numeric order is a differing factor. So now suddenly there are 11 different solutions to this problem, when before there was just one.
And you can go even further if we Introduce negative numbers. Minus 10 + 20 also equals 10. Moving to include negatives actually gives us infinite possibilities, literally. Minus 454 + 464 = 10 as does 2958 + minus 2948, you can go in either direction, infinitely.
Not to get lost in the mathematics of this, the point is very simple.
When we think about the desired outcome, and the myriad of different and potential ways of getting there, we open our minds – ‘something’ plus ‘something’ will equal ten, so what could those ‘somethings’ be? We then lean in to unlocking our potential, a life full of curiosity and creativity, of challenging the way things are instead of simply accepting them.
The ‘ten’ becomes the desired outcome, our destination, our desire, and we then turn our energy and attention into making it happen. We explore all of the alternatives that might get us there and that very curiosity drives change, innovation and success.
The other way around doesn’t work as well. 5 + 5 will always be the same 10.
Chris Barton, one of the founders of Shazam, spoke at the same leadership event this week and we shared a dinner later that evening, The Shazam story is a fascinating one. A music-app built at a time when the vast digital music libraries of today did not exist. A conceptual algorithm they were told could and would never work.
For years the company struggled against the perception that what they were proposing could not be done. That they were trying to make 5 + 5 = more than 10. But this is where the ‘something’ plus ‘something’ model shines. When we approach risk and failure, two of the key components of innovation, with curiosity, we open possibility.
Shazam changed the world of music, of algorithm possibility, and became a verb. In cyber-behaviouralism (how digital interactions affect real-world expectations) it was a significant driver of our ‘I want it and I want it now’ consumerist value of today. I need something (to know who sings that song) and I expect the answer in a few seconds. That then spills over into our day-to-day expectations with every brand and business, even into your personal life.
Did Shazam succeed? Well yes. Chris and his team sold the product to Apple in 2018 for $400m, not a bad outcome. 5 + 5 = $400m. That’s a maths equation we’d all like to output straight into our bank account.
What we are talking about here is having the courage to embed lateral thinking in your everyday. To have the courage and vulnerability to question what is given to you (5s) and focus on where you want to go instead. To break free of the expected and to focus on the possible.
55 is also just as valid an answer. It depends on your definition and interpretation of the ‘+’ symbol.
We can interpret it as ‘the sum of’ and get 10, or we can equally see it as a simple ‘and’ resulting in a far more exciting 55. How you interpret that ‘+’ is a choice you make, a choice most of us never challenge because we are trapped in habit or behavioural norms. We just accept that it is telling us to ‘sum’ the numbers.
But you are always free to choose possibility.
In a world of 10s, be a 55.
The Key to Better Problem Solving: A Shift in Perspective
This week I was speaking at a CEO global leadership event, 2000+ delegates all focused on the future. There were speakers on health and wellness, politics, religious leaders, AI and technology. Every speaker pondered what the world may look like by the year 2100. Sophia the robot gave a short keynote on humanoid robotics (I feel safe that she won’t be stealing my job anytime soon as a speaker).
What every speaker shared was a curiosity around our future, the direction society may take, the possibilities that could be. It was a magnificent event, full of creativity and possibility. And it stood out because it was the exception.
Most of the corporate world works on IF: THEN decision making and processes. We take what is given to us and therefore get the obvious or expected solution. Sadly, this approach leads to little innovation or change, little out-of-the-box thinking. Even in projecting the future, most of us are still confined by what we already know.
Why Traditional Problem Solving Fails
There are a series of famous illustrations of what life might look like in the year 2000, published in the 1950s. What is interesting about the image above is while technology always excites us (a flying car/personal helicopter for all), the artist failed to predict social change (the emancipation of women) or even fashion changes (he is still wearing his same fedora hat 50 years later).
We often do this as business leaders, taking what we know and simply predicting it forward. But doing that is likely to get us the same results we have had previously, and again this is not how innovation works.
A Simple Math Trick That Unlocks Creativity
I came across this set of maths equations years ago and often come back to them for their simplicity in proving this very point on creativity, innovation and problem solving. The first is laid out as follows:
This is how most of us approach our life, personal and professional, in terms of problem solving on a daily basis. You didn’t even have to think about the answer, it was just automatically calculated for you as your eyes scanned the above.
We take what is given to us, our known processes, societal norms and rules, expectations and get the obvious answer, 10. We deliver the exact predicted outcome based on the inputs. But when we do this, when we approach problem solving in this way, we will always get the same answer, it will always be 10. There is only one solution, the known solution.
The next framing is where things get more interesting
Reframing Problems to Find More Solutions
A simple reframing of the equation moves the conversation from inputs to our desired outcome. In the first equation we took what was given to us, the norm, and of course arrived at the expected outcome. But here in this second version, we realise the multitude of solutions.
1 + 9 is as valid as 8 + 2. In fact, even 3 + 7 and 7 + 3 are alternative solutions, if we accept that numeric order is a differing factor. So now suddenly there are 11 different solutions to this problem, when before there was just one.
And you can go even further if we Introduce negative numbers. Minus 10 + 20 also equals 10. Moving to include negatives actually gives us infinite possibilities, literally. Minus 454 + 464 = 10 as does 2958 + minus 2948, you can go in either direction, infinitely.
Not to get lost in the mathematics of this, the point is very simple.
When we think about the desired outcome, and the myriad of different and potential ways of getting there, we open our minds – ‘something’ plus ‘something’ will equal ten, so what could those ‘somethings’ be? We then lean in to unlocking our potential, a life full of curiosity and creativity, of challenging the way things are instead of simply accepting them.
The ‘ten’ becomes the desired outcome, our destination, our desire, and we then turn our energy and attention into making it happen. We explore all of the alternatives that might get us there and that very curiosity drives change, innovation and success.
The other way around doesn’t work as well. 5 + 5 will always be the same 10.
Thinking Beyond Limits: The Shazam Success Story
Chris Barton, one of the founders of Shazam, spoke at the same leadership event this week and we shared a dinner later that evening, The Shazam story is a fascinating one. A music-app built at a time when the vast digital music libraries of today did not exist. A conceptual algorithm they were told could and would never work.
For years the company struggled against the perception that what they were proposing could not be done. That they were trying to make 5 + 5 = more than 10. But this is where the ‘something’ plus ‘something’ model shines. When we approach risk and failure, two of the key components of innovation, with curiosity, we open possibility.
Shazam changed the world of music, of algorithm possibility, and became a verb. In cyber-behaviouralism (how digital interactions affect real-world expectations) it was a significant driver of our ‘I want it and I want it now’ consumerist value of today. I need something (to know who sings that song) and I expect the answer in a few seconds. That then spills over into our day-to-day expectations with every brand and business, even into your personal life.
Did Shazam succeed? Well yes. Chris and his team sold the product to Apple in 2018 for $400m, not a bad outcome. 5 + 5 = $400m. That’s a maths equation we’d all like to output straight into our bank account.
Lateral Thinking: The Ultimate Creativity Hack
What we are talking about here is having the courage to embed lateral thinking in your everyday. To have the courage and vulnerability to question what is given to you (5s) and focus on where you want to go instead. To break free of the expected and to focus on the possible.
10 is not the only answer to 5 + 5.
Of course, returning to the first equation, if we are to truly live those lateral thinking values, I lied to you earlier. 10 is not the only answer to 5 + 5.
55 is also just as valid an answer. It depends on your definition and interpretation of the ‘+’ symbol.
We can interpret it as ‘the sum of’ and get 10, or we can equally see it as a simple ‘and’ resulting in a far more exciting 55. How you interpret that ‘+’ is a choice you make, a choice most of us never challenge because we are trapped in habit or behavioural norms. We just accept that it is telling us to ‘sum’ the numbers.
But you are always free to choose possibility.
In a world of 10s, be a 55. 
