2023 Author: Katelyn Chandter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:08
Be creative and dodge your competitors when cornering. Everyone can become more original, interesting and creative. Here are some tips on how to develop and show your hidden creativity.
Stanford lecturer, Ph. D. Tina Seelig is confident that anyone can be creative. Want to learn how to generate truly disruptive ideas? Heed the advice in Breaking the Pattern.
1. The ability to pose the question differently is an effective method of developing the imagination, because with a change in the wording, a huge number of possible solutions opens up.
"What is five plus five?" "Which two numbers add up to ten?" There is only one answer to the first question, but to the second there is an uncountable set, especially when you take into account fractions and negative numbers. These two examples for simple addition differ only in wording.
It is not for nothing that Albert Einstein once said: “If I were given an hour to solve a problem on which my life depended, then 55 minutes I would have spent on formulating the question precisely. And in order to answer a correctly posed question, I need no more than five minutes."
2. Remember: absolutely everything gives you the opportunity to whip up a flight of imagination.
Until recently, applicants from All Saints College in Oxford took the "one-word exam." They both anticipated and feared The Essay itself, as it was called.
At the exam, each of them, at the same time as the others, turned over a sheet of paper on which was written one word - for example, "innocence", "miracles", "water" or "teasing." In three hours they had to write an essay inspired by a single word.
3. The ability to doubt one’s rightness and switch from one point of view to another is necessary for the development of imagination, because in this way we bring to life completely new images.
To achieve this effect, you can imagine how different people see the same situation - a child or an old man, a beginner or an expert, a local resident or a tourist, a rich man or a poor man, a giant or a midget. Each new point of view will suggest unusual images and ideas.
4. The ability to connect and combine non-standard ideas and incongruous objects is an important stage in creating innovations and a key element of creative thinking.
To form new ideas, you need to learn how to reorganize and regroup old ones. This principle is adhered to by fans of the Japanese art movement chindogu.
Chindogu is the creation of strange, unusual inventions by combining the incongruous. For example, a suit for an infant with a doormat on his stomach - while crawling on the floor, the child simultaneously cleans the apartment. Or a shirt lined at the back so you can tell exactly where you need to scratch your back. Of course, these inventions are impractical, but they may well be the first step towards creating something truly useful.
5. The setting influences the creative process.
Not a single detail can be overlooked, including wall color, background music, and more. For example, research shows that red wallpapers help focus attention and blue wallpapers stimulate creative thinking. The biggest ideas come from outdoors or in offices with high ceilings.
We are influenced not only by the environment in the room, but also by the view outside the window. A 1984 study found that the rate of recovery of patients depends on what they see from the window. The experiment was carried out at a Pennsylvania commuter hospital.23 patients from wards overlooking natural objects left the hospital faster after surgery and took fewer painkillers than the other 23 patients, whose windows overlooked the walls of neighboring buildings.
6. There are many situations in life in which the imposition of severe restrictions leads to creative release.
Constraints sharpen the imagination and increase innovation potential. Even when you don’t have a shortage of resources, it’s valuable to consider how you would solve the same problems without them.
Ernest Hemingway was once asked if he could write a six-word biography. In response, he wrote this short story: “Children's shoes for sale. New. " This idea was used by SMITH magazine, inviting everyone to leave such stories on their website, and later they became a bestseller. It's amazing how creative and flamboyant six words can be. Here are some examples from the site:
- I was engaged one day.
- Stuck on replay. Stuck on replay.
“I am the careful daughter of a careless man.
- I am disabled, but not helpless.
- I found a table, an apartment, a groom on CraigsList.
- A hobby has become a job. I am looking for a new hobby.
- I'm not lazy. I go.
7. If you want to increase your own creativity and unleash the creativity of others, you need to come up with rules and incentives that stimulate innovation.
For example, has a website called Written recently launched? Kitten! Its task is to motivate authors to write texts. You set a goal for yourself, let's say write 3000 or 5000 words, and as soon as you fulfill the norm, a picture with a kitten is shown. For cat lovers, this is a good incentive.
Another fun example is that Proteus Biomedical has created an interesting game. When one of its employees applies for a patent for an invention, they are given a toy rubber brain. The employee puts this brain in a large jar on the shelf at the entrance to the company, next to the same banks of his colleagues. The more brains an employee has in the bank, the higher their status in the company.
8. Make the most of the innovation generator.
The three parts inside the generator are knowledge, imagination and attitude.
Knowledge provides fuel for your imagination.
- Imagination is a catalyst for transforming knowledge into new ideas.
- Attitude is the spark that drives your innovation generator.
The three parts outside the generator are resources, habitat, and culture.
- Resources - all the assets of your community.
- Habitat - the environment - at home, at school or in the office.
- Culture - collective beliefs, values and rules of conduct in your community.