Creative Thinking

IACER Spring 2015

When was the

last time you
came up with a
creative idea?
q This morning
q Yesterday
q Last week
q Last month
q Last year

What was it?

What motivates you to
be creative?

Creativity

Why be creative?
u When its no longer possible to
solve current problems with
yesterdays solutions
u Its fun to be creative
u Ideas, like organisms, have a life
cycle. They are born, they
develop, they reach maturity, and
they die. So we need a way to
generate new ideas. Creative
thinking is that means.
- Roger von Oech

Creative thinking
A. Think visually. Mind/Concept Mapping
B. Form relationships. Make connections
C. Re-think. Think dierently.
D. Yoke heterogenous ideas together.
E. Metaphor. Simile. Haiku.

A. Visual thinking

Visual Thinking

Visual Thinking
3/4 of our brains sensory
resources are dedicated to
vision. Only 1/4 for all the other
senses combined!
We process verbal and visual
information with dierent parts
of the brain: left hemisphere
(verbal, logical, sequential,
analysis) and right hemisphere
(visual, emotional, intuitive, non-
linear, big picture, synthesis).
Learning depends on both
hemispheres. To make use of
your whole brain, you must put
your visual thinking into play
with verbal thinking.

Mind Maps

7 Steps to Making a Mind

Map

Start in the CENTRE of a blank page turned

sideways. Why? Because starting in the centre
gives your Brain freedom to spread out in all
directions and to express itself more freely and
naturally.

Use an IMAGE or PICTURE for your central idea.

Why? Because an image is worth a thousand words
and helps you use your Imagination. A central
image is more interesting, keeps you focussed,
helps you concentrate, and gives your Brain more
of a buzz!

Use COLOURS throughout. Why? Because colours

are as exciting to your Brain as are images. Colour
adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map,
adds tremendous energy to your Creative
Thinking, and is fun!

Make your branches CURVED rather than straight-

lined. Why? Because having nothing but straight
lines is boring to your Brain.

CONNECT your MAIN BRANCHES to the central

image and connect your second- and third-level
branches to the rst and second levels, etc.
Why? Because your Brain works by association. It
likes to link two (or three, or four) things together.
If you connect the branches, you will understand
and remember a lot more easily.

Use ONE KEY WORD PER LINE. Why Because single

key words give your Mind Map more power and
exibility.

Use IMAGES throughout. Why Because each image,

like the central image, is also worth a thousand
words. So if you have only 10 images in your Mind
Map, its already the equal of 10,000 words of
notes!

B. Form
relationships

Form relationships
Make connections--
similar to mapping but
adding text as to why
concepts connect.

C. Think Different

Think Dierent
Discovery consists of
looking at the same
thing as everyone else
and thinking something
dierent.
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Nobel Prize Winner,
Physics

Picasso
When he created Bull's
Head in 1942 by adding
a bike's handlebars to
its seat so they became
horns, Picasso put
Duchamp in his place.
This is the 20th
century's greatest
readymade, Picasso its
supreme creative
gure.

Mental locks

Mental Locks

1. The Right Answer

Much of our educational system has taught

us to look for the one right answer. This
approach is ne for some situations, but
many of us have a tendency to stop looking
for alternative right answers after the rst
one has been found. This is unfortunate
because often its the second or third, or
tenth right answer thatis what we need to
solve a problem in an innovative way.

Tip #1: A good way to be more creative is to

look for the second right answer. There are
many ways to pursue this answer, but the
important thing is to do it.

Tip #2: The answer you get depends on the

questions you ask. Play with your wording
to get dierent answers. One technique is
to solicit plural answers. Another is asking
questions that whack peoples thinking.

2. Thats not logical!

Logical is an important creative thinking

tool. Its use is especially appropriate in the
practical phase of the creative process
when you are evaluating ideas and
preparing them for action. When you are
searching for ideas however, excessive
logical thinking can short-circuit your
creative process.

Tip #1: For more and better ideas, I

prescribe a good dose of soft thinking in
the germinal phase, and a hearty helping of
hard thinking in the practical phase.

Mental Locks

3. Follow the Rules -

Creative thinking is not only

constructive, it is also destructive.
You often have to break out of one
pattern to discover another one. So
be responsive to change and be
exible with the rules. Remember,
breaking the rules wont necessarily
lead to creative ideas, but its one
avenue.

Tip #1: Play the revolutionary and

challenge the rules especially the
ones you use to govern your day-
today activities.

Tip #2: Remember that playing the

revolutionary also has its dangers.
Looking back on the decision,
sometimes it goes too far.

Tip#3 : Have rule - inspecting and

rule- discarding sessions within
your organization. You may even
nd some motivational side
benets in this activity nding
and eliminating outmoded rules
can be a lot of fun.

Mental Locks

4. Be practical

This world has been built by practical

people who knew how to get into a
germinal frame of mind, listen to their
imaginations, and build on the ideas
they found there.

Tip #1: Each of you has an artist and

a judge within you. The open-
minded attitude of the artist typies
the kind of thinking you use in the
germinal phase when you are
generating ideas. The evaluative
outlook of the judge represents the
kind of thinking you use in the
practical phase when preparing ideas
for execution.

Tip #2: Be a magician. Ask what if

questions and use the provocative
answers you nd as stepping-stones
to new ideas.

Tip #3: Cultivate your imagination. Set

aside time everyday to ask yourself
what-if questions. Although the
likelihood that any given what-if
question will lead to a practical idea is
not high, the more often you practice
this activity the more productive
youll become.

Mental Locks

5. Avoid Ambiguity -
Most of us have heard to avoid
ambiguity because of the communication
problems it can cause. This is an especially
good idea in practical situations where the
consequences of such misunderstandings
would be serious.

Tip #1: Take advantage of the ambiguity on

earth. Look at something and think about
what else it might be.

Tip #2: Try to use humour to put you or your

group in a creative state of mind.

6. To Err is Wrong
There are places where errors are
inappropriate, but the germinal phase of
the creative process isnt one of them.
Errors are a sign that you are diverging
from the well-traveled path.

Tip#1: If you make an error, use it as a

stepping-stone to some new idea you
might not have otherwise discovered.

Tip #2: Strengthen your risk muscle.

Everyone has one, but you have to exercise
it or else it will atrophy. Make it appoint to
take at least one risk every twenty-four
hours.

Tip #3: Remember these two benets of

failure: First, if you do fail, you learn what
doesnt work. And second, the failure gives
you an opportunity to try a new approach.

Mental Locks

7. Play is Frivolous -
If necessity is the mother of invention, play
is the father. Use it to fertilize your
thinking.

Tip #1: The next time you have a problem -

play with it.
Tip #2: If you dont have a problem, take
the time to play anyway. You may

nd some new ideas.

Tip #3: Make your work place a fun place to

be.

8. Thats not my area

Specialization is a fact of life. To function in
this world, you have to narrow your focus
and limit your eld of view. When youre
trying to generate new ideas, however,
such information -handling attitudes can
limit you.

Tip #1: Develop the hunters attitude, the

outlook that wherever you go, there are
ideas waiting to be discovered.

Tip #2: Dont get so busy that you lose the

free time necessary for idea hunting.
Schedule hunting time into your day and
week. Little side excursions can lead to new
hunting grounds.

Tip #3: Look for analogous situations. Often

problems similar to yours have been solved
in other areas.

Mental Locks

9. Dont be Foolish -
Some people are so closely married
to their ideas that they put them up
on a pedestal. Its dicult, however,
to be objective if you have a lot of
ego tied up in your idea.

Tip #1: Occasionally, let your stupid

monitor down, play with fool, and
see what crazy ideas you can come
up with.

Tip #2: Recognize when you or others

are conforming or putting down the
fool. Otherwise, you may be setting
up a groupthink situation.

Tip #3: May the FARCE be with you.

10. Im not creative!

The world of though and action
overlap. What you think has a way of
becoming true.

Tip #1: Whack yourself into trying new

things and building on what you nd
especially the small ideas. The
creative person has the self faith
that these ideas will lead somewhere.

The Wise Fool

Heraclitus
Shakespeare
Nietzsche
Devkota

Carrying the strategy of "looking at things

dierently" to extremes brings us to the realm
of the Wise Fool, the being for whom everyday
ways of understanding have little meaning.

Heraclitus
No man ever steps in the same
river twice, for it's not the same
river and he's not the same man.

The sun is new each day.

The awake share a common

world, but the asleep turn aside
into private worlds.

Shakespeare
Some are born great, some
achieve greatness, and some
have greatness thrust upon them.

What's in a name? That which we

call a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet.
Cowards die many times before
their deaths; the valiant never
taste of death but once.
Many a true word hath been spoken in
jest.

'Foolery, sir, does walk about the

orb like the sun; it shines
everywhere.'
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou
hadst been wise.

Nietzsche
The Christian resolution to nd the
world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.
What is the seal of liberation? No longer
being ashamed in front of oneself.
Morality is herd instinct in the individual.
While the noble man lives in trust and
openness with himself, the man of
ressentiment is neither upright nor naive
nor honest and straightforward with
himself.
One loves ultimately one's desires, not
the thing desired.


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Pagal

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Yoke Heterogenous
Ideas Together

Yoke heterogenous ideas

together
The wine press

The coin punch

E. Using an Image
Metaphor, Simile, Haiku

Camera Obscura

17th Century Sketch of a Camera Obscura

Feuerbach on religion
Thus god is nothing
else than man; he is so
to speak the outward
projection of mans
inner nature

Marx
Transformational
Criticism
Theory of alienation
Ideology
Fetishism of
commodities

Just as in religion the

spontaeous activity of the
human imagination
operates independently of
the individualthat is,
operates on him as an alien,
divine or diaboligical activity
so [too] is the workers
activity not his spontaneous
activity. It belongs to
another; it is the loss of his
self.
Economic and Philosophical
Manuscripts, 1844

Marx
Ideology

If in all ideology men

and their circumstances
appear upside-down as in
a camera obscura, this
phenomenon arises just
as much from their
historical life-process as
the inversion of objects
on the retina does from
their physical life
process.
(The German Ideology,
1845)

Poetic Thinking
A picture is worth a thousand
words, but a poem is worth a
thousand pictures
John Carder Bush

Haiku
Take a pair of wings
From a dragony, you
would
Make a pepper pod.

Add a pair of wings

To a pepper pod, you
would

Make a dragony.

Aesthetics of social
change
The challenge of
peacebuilding and the moral
imagination is precisely what
Bash posed for his disciple
as he described the challenge
of haiku: How do we
compose and give life to that
which we create? Aesthetics
helps those who attempt to
move from cycles of violence
to new relationships and
those of us who wish to
support such movement to
see ourselves for whom we
are: artists bringing to life and
keeping alive something that
has not existed.

The End