When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being
brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
—Cynthia Heimel, writer and columnist
Let's will look at six major creative thinking principles :
1. Separate idea generation from evaluation.
2. Test assumptions.
3. Avoid patterned thinking.
4. Create new perspectives.
5. Minimize negative thinking.
6. Take prudent risks.
1. Separate Idea Generation from Evaluation
If
you don’t remember anything else, remember this: when you generate
ideas, separate generation from evaluation. This is the most important
creative thinking principle. You’ll never your full creative potential
until you apply this principle every time you generate ideas. The reason
is simple: creative problem solving requires both divergent and
convergent thinking. Idea generation is divergent; you want to get as
many ideas as possible.
Idea evaluation is convergent—you want to
narrow down the pool of ideas and select the best ones. If you try to do
both activities at once, you won’t do either one well.
Effective
problem solvers have learned to separate these two activities; that is,
first they generate ideas and then they evaluate them. Most “average”
problem solvers use a sequential approach instead:
generate-evaluate–generate-evaluate-generate, and so forth. These
problem solvers commingle generation and evaluation. They rarely move on
to think about another idea until they have analyzed the previous idea
in all possible ways. The result is a limited number of overanalyzed
ideas.
For many people, such mixing may seem natural. They may use
this method frequently because it is what they have always done. There
is one thing wrong with this system, however: it is the worst way to
generate ideas! Commingling generation and evaluation usually yields few
ideas. It also creates a negative climate not conducive to creative
thinking.
Before beginning any idea generation session—whether alone or in a group—remember
that the best way to get ideas is to defer judgment. Save the analysis and critical thinking
for later, after all possible ideas have been generated. Then and only then will it be time to
evaluate the ideas.
2. Test Assumptions
Testing
assumptions is probably the second most important creative thinking
principle, because it is the basis for all creative perceptions.We see
only what we think we see. Whenever we look at something, we make
assumptions about reality. Optical illusions, one form of creative
perception, depend on this phenomenon. Most psychology students, for
instance, are familiar with the picture combines an old woman and a
young woman.
Which of the two women we see depends on how we look at
the picture. How we look at the picture depends on the assumptions we
make about the stimulus elements in the picture (that is, the lines and
their relationship to one another).
Everyday Assumptions
We
can’t be effective problem solvers unless we know how to test
assumptions. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t very good at this. Every
day we act before thinking through what we are doing or the possible
consequences. In fact, we make so many daily decisions that it is
impossible to test all the potential assumptions. For instance, the
simple act of talking with someone else involves many assumptions. We
must assume that the other person actually heard what we said and
understood us, that the person’s nonverbal reactions indicate what we
think they indicate, and that we can figure out any hidden meanings or
purposes.
Breakthrough Solutions
Another
reason testing assumptions is important is that it can yield perceptual
breakthroughs. Testing assumptions can help us shift perspectives and
view problems in a new light. As the philosopher Marcel Proust once
said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands,
but in seeking with new eyes.” The result often is a breakthrough
solution or, at the least, a new problem definition. There is an old
joke that illustrates this point nicely:
Two
men were camping in the wilderness when they were awakened one morning
by a large bear rummaging through their food supply. The bear noticed
the men and started lumbering toward them. The men still were in their
sleeping bags and didn’t have time to put on their
boots, so they
picked up their boots and began running away from the bear. The terrain
was very rough, however, and they couldn’t make much progress. The bear
was gaining on them.
Suddenly, one of the men sat down and began
pulling on his boots. His friend couldn’t believe what he was seeing and
said, “Are you nuts? Can’t you see that the bear is almost here? Let’s
go!”
The man on the ground continued putting on his boots. As he did
this, he looked up at the other man and said, “Well, Charlie, the way I
look at it, I don’t have to outrun the bear—I only have to outrun you!”
And
so, another problem is resolved by testing assumptions. In this case,
both men originally assumed the problem was how to outrun the bear. When
one of the men tested this assumption, a creative solution popped out.
This single act provided that man with one critical extra option. His
spontaneous creative thinking enabled him to gain an edge over his
“competitor.”
How to Test Assumptions
In
most organizations, this may all sound familiar. Sometimes all it takes
is one extra option to give us an edge over our competitors or to
resolve a difficult-to-solve problem. In addition to using the
activities in this book, you can get that competitive edge or solve that
problem by testing problem assumptions. Of course, you can’t test
assumptions about every problem. You can test assumptions, however,
about problems of strategic importance or problems with potentially
serious consequences. The lesson, then, is: be selective.
So how do
you test assumptions? Albert Einstein provides one answer: “The
important thing is to never stop questioning.” Ask a lot of questions
about whatever problem you’re trying to resolve. The more questions you
ask, the better you will understand your problems.
One way to enhance the questioning process is to use the basic journalism “five w” questions
of who, what, where, when, and why. These questions can help us seek data more efficiently.
For
instance, you might ask the following questions: Who is the
competition? Who are the customers? What does our organization do? What
is our mission? Where can we make improvements? Where can we get data
about our competition? When should we enter a new market? When are our
customers most likely to buy our products? Why do people buy our
products? Why do we want to enter a new market?
Ask lots of questions
and you’ll understand your organization and its environment better. If
you have a better understanding, you’ll get more creative insights on
how to improve it. It’s as simple as that.
3. Avoid Patterned Thinking
Try
this little exercise: Fold your arms the way you normally would cross
them. Note which hands are on top of your arms. For instance, my left
arm lies under my right hand. Now quickly reverse this position (in my
case, my right arm should lie under my left hand). You’ll probably
notice that the second position is more difficult. It’s not “natural.”
Here’s another, similar exercise: Interlock your fingers in the way most
comfortable for you. Either your right or left index finger should be
on top. Reverse your fingers so the opposite finger is on top. Not so
easy, is it? We all have certain patterns of behaving and thinking which
impede our creative thinking.
Habit-Bound Thinking
What
you just experienced is habit-bound behavior. We all have a
comfortable, secure way of doing things, and there’s nothing wrong with
that. A little security can’t hurt. Aproblem occurs, however, whenever
we try to break out of a rut. The very thought of doing something
different can be terrifying.
Yet, creative thinking frequently
requires we do just that. As Charles Kettering, inventor of the electric
automobile starter, once noted, “We’ll never get the view from the
bottom of a rut.”
Try these activities with yourself or others to
illustrate habit-bound thinking: First, repeat the word “joke” three
times. Now, quickly, what is the white of an egg called? Here’s another:
What word is formed by adding one letter to the following? __ANY. Very
good! Now, what word is formed by adding one letter to the following?
__ENY. Most people who respond to the first exercise say “yolk.” Of
course, this is incorrect. By repeating the word “joke,” we establish a
pattern involving the “oak” sound. To solve the problem, however, we
have to break away from the pattern and focus on the correct answer:
albumen.
The most common response to the first word in the second
exercise is the word “many” (a few independent thinkers may say “zany”
and mess up the demonstration). The “many” response then establishes a
pattern with the sound of just one word and makes it more difficult to
think of the second word, “deny.”
Breaking Out of a Rut
All
these activities illustrate how difficult it can be to do something
differently. We become so accustomed to doing things a certain way that
we may lose the ability to break away.
So what can we do? Perhaps the
most important thing is to increase our awareness of how everyone is a
victim of patterned thinking. Once we do this, we’ll be more aware of
when we are caught in a rut. Beyond simple awareness, however, we also
can break away with some practice.
Familiarity is the handmaiden of
habit.We sometimes become so familiar with things that we aren’t even
aware of it. For instance, try to draw the face of your watch in detail
without looking at it. (Many people add numbers that don’t even exist.)
Or the next time you drive to work, notice something you’ve never seen
before. After a few mornings of this activity, you’ll be surprised at
all you see. To break out of patterns, we must make a conscious effort.
First become more aware of your habit-bound thinking; then deliberately
practice changing it.
4. Create New Perspectives
When I have arranged a bouquet for the purpose of painting it, I always turn to the side I
did not plan.
—Pierre Auguste Renoir
When
the impressionist painter Renoir made this statement, he suggested the
importance of developing creative perspectives. It could be argued that
there can be no creative product without a creative perspective. To
produce something new, we must see something new. What we see may be
some previously overlooked element of a problem or a solution
from
combining two previously unjoined problem elements or ideas. Two
Insightful Thinkers Perhaps the most well-known historical example of a
sudden insight involves Archimedes, who jumped out of his bathtub and
ran naked through the streets, shouting,
“Eureka! Eureka!” This rather odd behavior followed his discovery of the principle of displacement.
While
taking a bath, he noticed how his body weight displaced an equal amount
of water. This led him to an insight, or new perspective on how to
determine whether a crown was solid gold.
Amore contemporary example
is Art Fry, inventor of Post-it® Notes. He combined his need for a piece
of paper that would stay put when he marked his church hymns with a
scrap of paper that used a “failed” glue developed by Spencer Silver,
one of his colleagues at 3M. Both Archimedes and Art Fry produced a more
creative perspective when they combined two previously unconnected
problem elements.
Keeping Sight of the Big Picture
Not everyone can make creative connections easily. We sometimes get so close to a problem
that
we lose ourselves in it—something like the old expression, “We can’t
see the forest for the trees.” In one respect, becoming deeply involved
with a problem automatically increases
our understanding of it. This is good. We must understand problems to deal with them.
Too much understanding, however, can be harmful because it causes us to narrow our focus
and lose a broader perspective. This is bad. Too much detailed problem awareness causes us to lose sight of the big picture.
The
solution: create new perspectives. Each activity in this book will help
you produce new perspectives and see problems with new eyes. Idea
generation activities do this by facilitating free association,
combining problem elements, promoting interaction with other people, or
eliciting responses to various stimuli. In each case, the outcome is the
same: new ways of thinking about a problem. Over time, most people find
that the more they use a variety of activities, the easier it becomes
to create new perspectives.
5. Minimize Negative Thinking
Unless
you are an exceptional person, you are a natural critic. From an early
age we have learned to analyze and criticize anything new. Now that we
are adults, being critical is second nature. We are experts at it.
Develop Balanced Responses
To
break out of the negative thinking groove, try to develop more balanced
responses to new ideas. There are a number of ways to do this. Here are
three:
1.Try viewing ideas as raw material; that is, initial ideas
are the fragile creatures we often transform into more workable
solutions. So be gentle. Support and cradle all new ideas—they
frequently can be modified or can help stimulate improved versions.
2.
Every time you hear a new idea, train yourself to think or say, “What’s
good about it? What is at least one positive feature of that idea?” If
you can think of one positive aspect, then you will benefit from what
may initially have appeared useless. Moreover, the positive feature may
stimulate a better idea.
3. Use a balanced response to evaluating new
ideas. Say (or think) what you like about the idea, what you find
interesting about it, and then what you dislike. This might help prevent
the negative climate in individuals and groups that often accompanies
responses to ideas.
6. Take Prudent Risks
A failure is an opportunity to start over again, but more intelligently.
—Henry Ford
You can’t be a creative thinker unless you are a failure. No one ever truly succeeds without
failing
first. For instance, novelist John Creasey supposedly got 743 rejection
slips before he published 562 books. Sports fans know that Babe Ruth
struck out 1,330 times— a pretty poor record. Fortunately, he also hit
714 home runs. And R.H. Macy failed seven times before his New York
store caught on.
Creative thinking involves a certain amount of risk
taking. Many people fear risks, however, because risks can lead to
failure. And who wants to be branded a failure? Yet we must take risks
to have any chance to succeed. An old quotation describes this
philosophy perfectly:
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To place our ideas, our dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
Only a person who risks is free.
—Anonymous
Literature:
Arthur Van Gundy, Ph.D.
101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is
a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, where
a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious
circumstances. According to the US Navy, the triangle does not exist, and the
name is not recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names. Popular culture has
attributed various disappearances to the paranormal or activity by
extraterrestrial beings. Documented evidence indicates that a significant
percentage of the incidents were spurious, inaccurately reported, or embellished
by later authors. In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for Nature identified
the world’s 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the Bermuda Triangle was
not among them. So, what does make Bermuda Triangle so mysterious?
