Creativity vs Intelli

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    1/12

    Creativity - A Special ReportHow to generate bright new business ideas.

    1

    2

    3

    4

    51 2 3 4 5

    HOW TO GENERATE BRIGHT NEW BUSINESS IDEAS

    Can you make it to the top in business if youre not highly creative? Many of us would say,certainly you can: We would rank drive, decisiveness, and an analytical mind high above

    creativeness among the qualities you need to reach the true heights.

    But surprisingly, many top companies are beginning to think differently. Faced with increasinglystiff competition both at home and abroad, they are realizing that they desperately need newideas.

    Some of them, taking their cue from the best-sellingIn Search of Excellence From America'sBest-Run Companies, have tried to build creativity into their corporate structures. Kodak and

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    2/12

    Goodyear have innovation committees in each division and Hewlett-Packard has anintrapreneurship program to provide research and development funding for innovative ideas

    outside the corporate mainstream.

    Many of these corporations are also packing their employees off to training programs run by thedozens of creativity consultants who have set up shop.

    Even Business schools now teach creativity alongside basic accounting or organizational theory.

    At Stanford University, Professor Michael Ray leads M.B.A. candidates through a variety ofmental exercises to help them release their bottled-up ideas. They may sit in a semi-circle in thedark, listening to soothing Indian music or chanting in unison. Lights on, they may draw circlesand create designs within them: mandalas, the ancient Indian graphic that symbolizes theuniverse. There are also lessons given in deep breathing, mediation, and I Ching.

    Designed to awaken capacities for innovation slumbering within students psyches, the course isbased on the premise that, as Ray says, Creativity is within everyone and is essential tohappiness, health and success in a business career.

    Shouldnt creativity be reserved for the Picassos and Einsteins among us? The answer dependspartly on what you mean by creativity. Tudor Rickards, a professor at the Manchester BusinessSchool in England, sees two very different usages of the term. On one hand, there is artistic andscientific creativity that rare gift of genius and insight capable of unlocking the great mysteriesof the universe. On the other hand, there is creative problem-solving the ability to overcomeobstacles by approaching them in novel ways. This is the kind of creativity that comes in mosthandy in the business world. And it is here that creativity experts are concentrating their energies.

    Why is it that some people can generate a terrific idea every minute, while others are lucky tocome up with one in a year? The answer may lie in the way our brains process information.

    Specialists believe that most people, including the vast majority of businessmen, tend to rely ontheir speech-centered left hemispheres to a greater extent than do, say, artists, who are typicallyright-brained and emotion-centered. So the key to making executives more imaginative is toteach them to use their right brains more.

    Even if they dont buy the split-brain notion, almost all advocates of creativity training contendthat everyone is inherently creative to some degree. Unfortunately, they say, this creativepotential is suppressed by external forces: The suppression starts in early childhood, and by thetime we get to be adults, most of us have all but lost the ability to think novel thought. Mostexperts claim that if you break down these life-long artificial barriers to creativity, ideas will gushforth from you like water from a broken dam.

    Many of the creativity-enhancing techniques currently marketed by consultants are based onbrainstorming, developed by legendary adman Alex Osborn in the 1930s. Simply put, it involvesgathering people in a room, giving them a problem, and encouraging them to throw out as manypossible solutions as they can- the more ridiculous the better. The theory is that somewhere in theuntidy pile of ideas is the one youre looking for. Other experts, using methods with names like

    morphological analysis and synectics, have developed highly structured ways of moving from thegerm of an idea to a full-blown solution to a problem.

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    3/12

    But do all these activities really have direct bearing on business creativity? Yes, says TudorRickards: The opposite side of creativity is stuckness, or habitual thinking. Although creativity

    training may not turn out many Einsteins, it can help [individuals] cope with stuckness, and it canteach people how to escape from that condition in order to find better resolutions to problems.

    N. A. Howard

    INNOVATORS AT WORK

    Meet a breed of business leaders who tackle the task of creativity on a daily basis. Faced with the

    job of fostering new ideas, each has developed his own style. But there is a common theme:

    Creativity does not merely happen; one must prepare for it and cultivate it.

    Synthesizing Sales

    Every morning Jeffery McElnea, president of Einson Freeman, Inc., a New Jerseysales-promotion agency, takes on the challenge of creating new concepts.

    Of course he is familiar with the dozens of tried-and-true gambits for stimulating

    point-of-purchase sales, such as cents-off coupons, cash refund, sweepstakes, and premiums.We flash every established technique onto a screen. Says McElnea. Then we go though each

    alternative and hypothetically try to fit the products to it- just to see what would happen. Then westart to combine and recombine the techniques, and theres where the unique part comes in. New

    techniques are created by synthesizing the old.

    McElenas process has resulted in scores of award-winning promotions, including The Smallerthe Better Sweepstakes, which required contestants to walk into a store and listen to the newSony Walkman to determine whether they had won a prize.

    The Pause that Creates

    Two years ago, Paul MacCready, Ph. D., chairman of AeroVironment Inc., of Monrovia, Calif.,was racing to build the first successful man-powered airplane. Others were experimenting withsmall planes barely able to carry a pilot. He searched for a better way.

    He had put the problem aside and was on vacation, doing some studies of birds turning radii,flight speeds, and power per pound. Suddenly, he says, I realized that the way to build the

    man-powered airplane was to make it more like a soaring bird not tiny, but extremely large andlightweight, His invention, the Gossamer Albatross, brought him the title of Engineer of theCentury from the American Association of Engineers.

    Sometimes, he says, you allow your mind to work subconsciously with the data.

    Fiero Finesse

    Hulki Aldikacti, assistant chief engineer of GMs Pontiac division, designed the new Fiero,which sold 100,000 units in 1984, double the previous record for a two-seat sports car sold in theU.S.

    The key to the Fieros design is the space frame, a steel skeleton that contains all the workingparts. Plastic panels are attached to it to provide lightweight beauty.

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    4/12

    Aldikacti was working on a Fiero prototype when he encountered a seemingly insurmountableproblem. Mass-produced plastic panels would not fit on the space frame. We were trying to useplastic like metal, he recalls. It just kinked, like paper.

    For three days and nights he wrestled with the problem. Then suddenly the solution came whenhe borrowed a concept from the casting industry. There were 39 points where the plastic had to

    attach to the space frame, he recalls. By manufacturing the frame so that all those points werelarger than they should be, we could put the frame into a milling machine and mill them down sowe would get a perfect fit.

    The 15 Percent Solution

    Since the 1920s, 3M has allowed its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time on whateverproject interests them. A few years ago, Art Fry, a scientist in 3Ms Commercial Office Supply

    Division, turned his attention to a personal bugaboo.

    While singing bass in his church choir he had become upset as he tried to mark the pages of hishymnal with bits of paper. The scraps fell out.

    Fry remembered an adhesive developed by a colleague that everyone thought was a failurebecause it did not stick very well. I coated the adhesive on a paper sample, he recalls, and I

    found that it was not only a good bookmark, it was great for writing notes. It will stay in place aslong as you want it to, and then you can remove it without damage.

    The resulting product, called Post-it Notes, is one of the most successful office products everintroduced.

    A Shower of Ideas

    Wayne Green of Peterborough, N.H., is a multifaceted entrepreneur. He publishes computer

    magazines and owns the Software Centers International chain, two software-writing firms, adistribution company, and a publishing school. Green scans no fewer than 300 magazines amonth, from NEWSWEEK to UFO MAGAZINE, ripping out new ideas.

    Several years ago I read something about creativity that works for me, he says. When you take

    a shower, the flow of water knocks electrons off your skin and generates a negative-ionatmosphere. Those negative ions are supposed to generate a creative frame of mind. I dont

    understand the science, but it certainly works for me. When I get into the shower, the light goeson in my head. William Hoffer

    INSIDE THE CREATIVE MIND

    Where does the creative spark come from? Psychologists, frustrated by their inability to crawlinside the human mind, have had to settle for the next best thing. For years, they have been sittingcreative people down and asking them, How did you come up with idea? The moment ofcreative insight, they have found, comes not when you try the hardest, but just when you leastexpect it. In most cases, creative people had been grappling with the problem for a long timebefore their sudden insight.

    The moment of inspiration, when an idea or a solution does bubble up, comes at first not as a

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    5/12

    clear, focused piece of logic, but as a fuzzy, amorphous image. Initially, we may have difficultyputting the idea into words because the creative parts of brains work in images and metaphors.Thats why many creativity experts use visual props and voyages into fantasy to trigger ideas.

    This technique came in handy, for example, when NASA was trying to figure out how astronautswould be able to manipulate buttons on their bulky space suits. Asked to construct fantasies aboutrain forest, one member group imagined himself running through the forest while thorns andstickers tore at his clothes. The result was Velcro.

    Psychologists now believe we are all born with creativity, but somehow allow it to atrophy as wegrow older. What kills this ability? Psychologists say its our social conditioning, which teaches

    us to squelch curiosity, fear, failure, and inhibit any new, nontraditional ideas. Eventually, webecome so used to conforming that creative thought becomes uncomfortable. Ashley Montaguonce said that all man wants nowadays is a womb with a view.

    For some, the hypnagogic state those moments between wakefulness and sleep are highlycreative. Scientists have recorded more theta waves in the brain during this state, perhaps a signal

    that the subconscious censor is falling off. Roger Firestien, an expert in creativity, recommendskeeping a pad and pencil by your bed to note down thoughts. I have one friend, he says, whokeeps a grease pencil in the bathroom so he can scribble on the shower walls when an idea hitshim. Other suggestions include using relaxation techniques or finding a quiet place to unwind.

    To break through creativity blocks, we must, according to Scott Isaken of BuffalosInterdisciplinary Center for Creative Studies: Defer judgment. That is, learn to accept all ideas,without prejudice, and examine them each in turn. Strive for quantity. Open your mind to asmany different kinds of ideas as possible - the more the merrier.

    Creativity is not just a matter of intellect. Its also a matter of personality. The creative person,

    says Professor Abe Tannenbaum, a psychologist at Columbia University Teachers College, is

    willing to live with ambiguity. He doesnt need problems solved immediately and can afford towait for the right idea. Creative people also, say the experts, are unconventional, have a sense of

    humor, and are highly motivated but easily bored. Often they need others to transform their ideasinto action.

    Thats why some companies have facilitators to connect idea people with managers and

    workers. We may not know all there is to know about the creative process, but as Roger Firestiensays, there are many ways to court the muse. Dina Ingher

    FLASHES OF GENIUS

    Archimedes, overwhelmed by his sudden vision of the theory of specific gravity, leaped from the

    public bath and ran home naked, shrieking Eureka! Inspiration does not always catch us withour pants down, but it may strike unexpectedly. Consider these examples:

    Takeover History

    For seven years Manor Care, Inc., a large, publicly held nursing-home corporation based in SilverSpring, Maryland, had been trying to buy the Four Seasons Nursing Centers from the AntaCorporation. But Anta, whose other interests were in oil drilling, refused to sell, and its

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    6/12

    management were certain that they would not be the target of a takeover attempt: They ownedhalf of the stock.

    In November 1983, Stewart Bainum Jr., Manor Cares vice-chairman, was on a flight fromOklahoma City to Washington when he had a sudden idea that resulted in what one Wall Streetobserver called takeover history.

    When the stock market opened Monday morning, the Street buzzed with strange news.ManorCare had made a hostile tender offer for Anta, something never attempted when the largestshareholder owns more than 20 percent of the stock.

    I couldnt tell them what we were trying to do, Bainum recalls. When the dust settled, we hadonly 25 percent of Antas stock, but we had their attention.

    The block of stock was large enough to put Bainum on Antas board of directors, and in April

    1984, rather than endure harassment of its every corporate decision, Anta traded Four SeasonsNursing Centers in return for its captured stock at a price tag of less than it had offered for astraight buy-out.

    The Real- Estate Auction

    Sheldon Good, a Chicago realtor, went to a charity auction. This was a class act, he recalls.The auctioneer was wearing a tuxedo. There was champagne, a buffet dinner, and dancing. Ithought, Why couldnt this work for real estate? He enrolled in a cattle and tobacco auctioneers

    school in Kansas City and, upon graduating, announced that he was a real-estate auctioneer.

    So far, both sellers and buyers have been happy with buying properties at Goods auctions. And

    Good is happy, too, having pocketed commissions on the sale of some 6,800 homes and businessproperties in 20 months.

    A House of a Different Color

    Marjorie Douglas answered a newspaper ad, and ended up renting her suburban New Yorkkitchen to a production crew filming a television commercial. More house-rental shooting datesfollowed, but sometimes directors turned down her home because they were looking for anotherdcor.

    Then one evening Marjorie said to her husband, Wouldnt it be fun to buy a house and remodelit just for filming commercials?

    One year later, the Douglas house opened for business. When outside shots are called for, adirector of TV commercials can choose to film in front of a colonial facade, a suburban tract

    home (complete with basketball backboards), or a Victorian house with a porch swing.

    Inside the Douglases have installed a number of movable interior facades, furnishings andfixtures, such as bookcases and windows. Within minutes, the particular style and color requiredcan be provided.

    The Douglases daughter and son-in-law now live in the house, but it continues to providebackdrops for dozens of commercials. Have you seen Time-Life decorating books, American

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    7/12

    Greeting Card, Dodge automobiles, ATT, or Corning Glass advertised on TV recently? Thenyouve also seen the Douglas house.

    Booked an average of three days a week at a fee of 1,200 for 10 hours, it is truly a dream house.

    Lucky Break

    Tom Adams bent to tie the lace on his right tennis show. A Maryknoll Father taking a weekendfrom church fundraising activities, Adams was playing a tennis tournament in Milwaukee. In hishurry to resume the game, he tugged at the shoelace and it snapped apart.

    The lace had broken into two nearly equal pieces, he recalls, so I tied two bows- one acrossthe ball of my foot, one across the instep.

    As the match continued, he became aware of a strange sensation. My right foot felt better than

    my left foot, he says. By separating the tensions I had reduced slippage. There was no heatbuildup on my right foot.

    That match, which Father Adams won, was in 1962. Eight years later, having left priesthood, hepatented the design that featured two separate laces, and in 1975 he launched Kaepa, Inc.

    Today the company markets a full line of double-laced athletic shoes and is setting up licenses inmajor foreign countries. Sales in 1984 are estimated at more than $20 million. William Hoffer

    TEST YOUR C.Q.

    Everyone possesses the mental abilities that underlie creative problem-solving, but most peopledo not exercise them strenuously enough to perform at their creative peak. Their *creativityquotient should be higher.

    The following problems will give you a brisk little mental job:

    Close Associates

    The brainchild that launched the L.L. Bean mail-order business (1983 sales were $230 million)was born from a wholly original mating of two familiar articles of footwear. Founder Bean, itseems, loved hunting but hated coming home with soggy leather boots. In 1911, while he wasgazing upon a pair of rubber galoshes in his Maine dry-goods store, a light bulb flashed. Why notcombine leather tops for support with rubber feet for waterproof comfort? Why not, indeed.

    The following exercise will test your ability to combine and recombine words. So sharpen upyour synapses!

    Think of one word that can precede the first two words in each group below. You may usecompounds, hyphenated words, colloquial expressions, or slang. Examples; 1) break, strings;purple, take. (answer: heart) 2) sell, rock; work, hit. (answer: hard) 1) rate, account; savings, left.2) salad, head; lay, rotten. 3) corner, rope; sit, hold. 4) opera, house; flash, flood. 5) artist, clause;narrow, fire. 6) jacket, changer; world, off. 7) dog , skin; herds, count. 8) in, ugly; spark, drain. 9)ox, bunny; deaf, strike. 10) backer, drawing; fishing, phone. 11) shooting, door: shut, tourist. 12)ware, foot; fall.

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    8/12

    Loose Strings

    People often jump to conclusions even before they have a full understanding of the situation. Apoorly analyzed problem, however, invariably results in an inadequate or wrong response.

    When a problem fails to yield a quick answer, many people doggedly stick to the one avenue or

    approach they have chosen. A good problem-solver, on the other hand, turns the problem over onall possible sides and defers early commitment.

    The following exercise is an excellent means to overcome this serious barrier to problem-solving.Remember to restate the problem in many ways, and try to get the total picture in terms offeasible solutions before you actually tackle it.

    Imagine that you are standing in a room. You have been given the task of tying together the endsof two strings suspended from the ceiling. The strings are located so that you cannot reach onestring with your outstretched hand while you are holding the second in your other hand. You canimagine that the room contains all the things you might need for solving the problem. Try to findas many different solutions as you can.

    Scams

    The purpose of this exercise is to build your fluency of thought and expression. At first, youmight find that you can think of only a few sentences; but if you persist, more will occur to you.Write five-word sentences, whose words begin with the following letters in the order given:S-C-A-M-S. Examples: Senior citizens arrange maximum security. Sarcastic comments aremeant seriously. Now its your turn. See how many sentences you can produce in five minutes. Eugene Raudsepp

    * * * * * * * *

    INTELLIGENCE vs. CREATIVITY

    When I became a scientist, says Nobel Laureate Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, Iwould picture myself as a virus, or a cancer cell, and try to sense what it would be like to beeither. It takes a fantastic creative leap to imagine yourself as a cancer cell, and that may be why

    Jonas Salk refers to himself not only as a scientist but also as an artist.

    That may sound heretical at first, but art and science are deeply intertwined. Intelligence is bynature creative. According to psychologist Howard Gardner of Harvard University, intelligence isnot measured only by verbal and mathematical aptitude. It is also spatial (as seen in thearchitects ability to find his way around an environment), musical (the composers ability to

    perceive and create tonal and rhythmic patterns), kinesthetic (the dancers grace, the athletespower and sureness), intrapersonal ( the novelists skill at sensing and expressing exactly what hefeels) and interpersonal ( the politicians capacity to instantly interpret and respond to the way theothers feel).

    World Series hero Jim Bouton claimed that pitching was the thinkingest of all activities in

    sport. Pitching, he said, challenges your ability to put mind and body together. Isnt that

    ability creative and intelligent? Martha Graham, the premier modern dancer of this century,said, if I could tell you what it is, she said, I would not have danced it. But, of course, she did

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    9/12

    tell us weaving into her stunningly intelligent body a world born out of her creative mind. -JillNeimark Gurus of Innovation

    GURUS OF INNOVATION

    Can you really learn creativity from expert trainers? SUCCESS interviewed five such experts,

    each with a favorite way of getting his message across. Significantly, all these experts agreed ontwo things: Everyone is born creative, and everyone can learn new ways to release the creativeenergy within.

    Problems as Opportunities

    A woman attending a problem-solving conference thought her problem was that her husband haddied recently until a workshop leader noted that this was not a problem but a fact. Sidney J.Parned, president of the Creative Education Foundation of Buffalo (which ran the conference),points out that fact as fact. Problems are opportunities, challenges that grow out of a fact. If youcan define a problem, youll be more likely to solve it.

    Founded by brainstorming originator Alex Osborn, DEF holds five-day Springboard sessions forgroups of up to 200 people at a time. Trainees increase creative output by deferring judgment onideas and simply listing many criteria for evaluating them. Quality and quantity correlate, says

    Parnes.

    Fostering Teamwork

    Cambridge-based SYNECTICS, INC., emphasizes the importance of positive reinforcement.(The name is created from the Greek syn for coming together and ectics for diversity.)

    In a three-day Innovative Teamwork Program, participants are confronted with a problem andvideotaped. This helps senior managers see that the ability to make quick decisions also limits

    development of practical ideas. When an employee brings up an impossible-sounding proposal,its suggested the manager say, In its current form, here are the pluses it has a lot going for it.But here are the flaws and some thing we need to do together to make it work. SYNECTICSstresses that problem-solving groups be diverse because diversity breeds creativity. If we have achemical engineering problem, president Richard A. Harriman explains, the last thing we need

    is a group of all chemical engineers.

    SYNECTICS advice for those who are stumped: Dont go to an expert on the subject. Discussyour situation with someone whos not familiar with it, and you many be better prepared to solvethe problem on your own.

    Making Connections

    Once affiliated with SYNECTICS, Inc., W.J.J. Gordon says that all the problem-solver needs isThe New Art of the Possible, a text with exercises offered by his own group, SES Associates,also in Cambridge.

    His version of the synectics process goes roughly like this: First, get at the heart of the problemby stating the paradox or the conflict it presents. Next, come up with an analogy. Finally, developa solution to the problem based on the analogy.

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    10/12

    In the SES files is the story of a company with a missile that was to fit so closely within its silothat it couldnt be pushed in. A group used the analogy of a horse that cant be pushed into its

    stall. Solution for the horse: lead it in. Solution for the missile: pull it in with a cable.

    Creative by Design

    Mike Vance, who sells mail-order cassettes on creativity, likes visual aids. Formerly with theWalt Disney organization, he suggests you try this simplified version of displayed thinking: Pinrelevant drawings, cartoons, notes anything up on a wall where you can see it all the time.The trigger effect that results, he predicts, will help your mind shape a solution.

    Vance has developed a series of cassettes called A Kitchen for the Mind with recipes for

    designing a creative-thinking area at home.

    Spurs to creativity, says Vance, are change, stress, and excess. Moderation kills creativity.

    Average people can achieve great things, he promises, when theyre pissed off or theyre on

    fire with a cause.

    Opening Mental Locks

    Roger von Oech of Creative Think in Menlo Park, Calif., discusses 10 mental locks. As vonOech explains in his cartoon-filled workbookA Whack on the Side of the Head(Warner Books),locks are things we all tell ourselves we should or shouldnt do that inhibit self-expression,such as I must have The Right Answer. And: Follow the rules, Avoid ambiguity, Thats

    not my area, and Im not creative.

    A Stanford Ph.D. who started out at IBM, von Oech works on helping people recognize when itsimportant to be creative and when its not. Once well into a project, for example, you dont need

    an expert saying it would be better done another way.

    The working title of von Oechs next book iA Kick in the Seat of the Pants, for those who justcant get into action. Right now, von Oech likes an original exercise in his first book. CalledFools & Rules, it encourages employees to make fun of company products or corporate values.Humor helps people open up, von Oech says. Helen Johnson

    BOOSTING YOUR IDEA POWER

    Psychologists and other students of creativity have devised many ways to stimulate new ideas atwill. Here are some of the best.

    Brainstorming

    A brainstorming group produces lots of problem-solving ideas quickly. The style is freewheelingand evaluation is postponed till the end.

    How To Use Brainstorming

    Choose a chairman who encourages production of ideas and deflects criticism.

    Select a secretary who writes down a running list of ideas where all can see them.

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    11/12

    Pick the participants (between 7 and 12 is ideal) and explain the ground rules, making sureeveryone understands and accepts them. (Inhibited participants may be put off at first by thefree-for-all atmosphere.)

    State the problem as a very specific question: In what ways might we ? (Fill in your own

    problem).

    Set a quantity goal and a time limit which the chairman monitors. (Try for 100 ideas in 30minutes.)

    Ground Rules

    Suspend all judgment:Dont evaluate anyones offering, including your own.

    Contribute whatevercomes to mind, no matter how wild or incomplete. The more off-beat, thebetter.

    Speak wheneveranything comes, even when others are speaking. Repeat your idea, if necessary,

    until it gets noted.

    Build on, combine with, and alter anything you hear, hitchhiking on everyone elses words,meanings, and images. The more ideas the better. The best ideas often come late in the session.

    Idea Logs

    An idea log does for an individual what a brainstorming session does for a group: It generates lotsof ideas which trigger still more ideas.

    How To Use An Idea Log

    In a pocket-size notebook, write at the top of page 1 this question: In what ways might I .?(fill in with your own problem). Follow with any word or idea that comes to mind. Head page 2with an unrelated word or idea. Put the notebook in your pocket. Without focusing on it, yourunconscious will incubate the problem, delivering possible solutions unexpectedly throughoutthe day. Enter each new idea on either page, then combine this entry with the one preceding it,creating a third, synergistic idea. At the end of each day, look over your pages. Combine anysimilar ideas, eliminating duplications. Pick the two most intriguing entries and use them to headthe next days pages. After several days of log-keeping, you should have a large number ofusable ideas.

    Lateral Thinking

    Edward de Bono, the noted authority no thinking and creativity, coined the term lateralthinking to describe the process of gaining new insights by rearranging information into new

    patterns. The two key elements are deliberate generation of alternatives and challenging ofassumptions. The contact lens is an example of a product produced this way.

    How To Use Lateral Thinking

    Lateral thinking is as much an attitude as it is a process. Three of the most useful techniques fordeveloping this innovative attitude are:

  • 8/2/2019 Creativity vs Intelli

    12/12

    Make analogies. Analyze a completely different situation. Then apply to the problem at hand theinsights you have gained from the analysis. Force these insights to fit the problem at hand, even ifthey seem far-fetched.

    Shift attention. Focus on a fact or detail you would otherwise ignore. This enables you to makedifferent use of the information. Or, think first about the middle or the end of the problem. This

    triggers a new train of thought. (Many detective stories use these techniques.)

    Use random stimulation. Relate a randomly chosen and seemingly irrelevant word or object to aproblem and, through free association, provoke new insights.

    Other techniques worth looking into include:

    Attribute listing. You note down the main parts of your problem, then in a parallel column listpossible substitute procedures, the more of them the better. A solution will soon emerge.

    Imaging. Jolt your imagination alive by focusing on images that reflect positive solutions to yourchallenges. As the images come through, note them, then leapfrog beyond them to other images.

    Checklists. In his classic bookApplied Imagination, Alex Osborn, inventor of brainstorming,suggests applying certain active verbs to your ideas: Thus, you adapt, modify, magnify, minify,rearrange, reverse, or combine these ideas to come up with new concepts.

    Forced relationships. Jams together two unrelated concepts chosen at random, and meld theminto a new idea. A dream, an accident, a wild idea these occur to all of us, but we rarely makeprofitable use of them. Now, using the techniques described above, you can be flexible, fluent,and original. Eleanor Wakin