How are great ideas generated?

EUREKA!

Graham Wallas,

social psychologist

and co-founder of

the London School

of Economics,

argued that great

ideas evolve in 4

stages

1. Preparation

2. Incubation

3. Illumination

4. Verification

Art of Thought –The Model of Creativity

(1926)

Stage 1: PreparationResearch, gather knowledge, profoundly understand your subject

Chance favors the prepared mindLouis Pasteur

It takes a lot of time to be a genius,

you have to sit around so much doing nothing,

really doing nothing. Gertrude Stein

Stage 2: IncubationSet the subject aside from all deliberate work, let it remain only in the unconscious mind.

Stage 3: IlluminationAssociations & combinations, dreams & fantasies conspire to offer an “aha!” moment of discovery!

Eureka! Eureka!Archimedes

Eureka! GravityNewton sees an apple falling and the moon suspended out there and wonders if it’s the same force

RelativityEinstein imagines he is travelling on a beam of light

Richard Feynman’s

breakthrough ideas came when he was playing

Picasso’s

creativity always began with an act of destruction

Eureka! Arthur Koestler

argued in 1964 that breakthroughs come with bisociation – association of unrelated frames of reference

Great ideas

are not driven by logic, but by seeing things from new points of view

Stage 4: VerificationProve your idea works

All good ideas are logical a posteriori,

though they may not be so a priori.

Scientists (as opposed to pseudo-scientists) must test and validate their claims.

Practical lessons from Wallas and Koestler

Creativity needs

Groundwork

Tranquillity

Stimuli

Proof

Contemporary creativity practise builds on the thinking of Wallas and Koestler

Using

methods to make creativity

deliberate & efficient

techniques for idea generation

and evaluation

rapid prototypes for fast

verification

Contemporary creativity practise also

Emphasizes

teamwork and collaboration

structure for purposeful idea

management

culture to create the context

that supports innovation

Innovation pulses 12 slides

Contact info@dimis.org to discuss your innovation issues, or for a keynote

EUREKA!

EUREKA! How are great ideas generated?