Creative behavior

Since creativity involves the coordination of things into new structures, every creative thought or action draws on synoptic thinking.

Creative behavior occurs in the process of becoming aware of problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, bringing together in new relationships available information; identifying the missing elements; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses. 
                                             - E Paul Torrance

Creativity is the marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition - Max Ernst


A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before - Jacob Bronowski

Buckminster Fuller summed up the essence of Synaptic when he said all things regardless of their dissimilarity can somehow be linked together, either in a physical, psychological or symbolic way.

Synaptic thinking is the process of discovering the links that unite seemingly disconnected elements. It is a way of mentally taking things apart and putting them together to furnish new insight for all types of problems.


William Gordon set forth three fundamental precepts of synoptic theory:

1.     Creative output increases when people become aware of the psychological processes that control their behavior

2.     the emotional component of creative behaviour is more important than the intellectual component; the irrational is more important than the intellectual component

3.     The emotional and irrational components must be understood and used as "precision: tools in order to increase creative output.

Ask "Why" Five Times

Ask "Why" a problem is occurring and then ask
 "Why" four more times.
For example...
1. Why has the machine stopped?
A fuse blew because of an overload

2. Why was there an overload?
there wasn't enough lubrication for the bearings

3. Why wasn't there enough lubrication?
The pump wasn't pumping enough

4. Why wasn't lubricant being pumped?
The pump shaft was vibrating as a result of abrasion

5. Why was there abrasion?
There was no filter, allowing chips of material into the pump


Installation of a filter solves the problem.

The Six Universal Questions

Idea Generators should be aware of a simple universal truth. There are only six questions that one human can ask another:

What? Where? When? How? Why? Who?

You may want to draw a mind map of the problem with these six words as nodes on the map.

                     What                    Where

                          \                 /                   

                            \              /                   

                              \           /       

            When -------------- Problem: --------------  How

                               /         \

                              /           \

                             /             \

                           Why             Who

Ask a Question

A good way to turn your mental attic of experiences into a treasure room is to use trigger concepts - words that will spark a fresh association of ideas in your mind. Like pebbles dropping in a pond, they stimulate other associations, some of which may help you find something new.

He writes in A Whack on the Side of the Head about various cultures having oracles. The ancient Greeks used the ambiguous predictions of the Delphic Oracle, the Chinese used the I Ching, the Egyptians consulted the Tarot, the Scandinavian people used Runes and the North American Indians used Medicine Wheels. The purpose of these oracles was not so much to foretell the future but to help the user delve deeper into their own minds.

You can create your own oracle by doing three things:

1.     Ask a question. This focuses your thinking. Perhaps you should write your question to focus attention.

2.     Generate a random piece of information. Random selection is important, as the unpredictability of this new input will force you to look at the problem in a new way.

3.     Interpret the resulting random piece of information as the answer to your question.

Mind Mapping

The human brain is very different from a computer. Whereas a computer works in a linear fashion, the brain works associatively as well as linearly - comparing, integrating and synthesizing as it goes.Association plays a dominant role in nearly every mental function, and words themselves are no exception. Every single word, and idea has numerous links attaching it to other ideas and concepts.
Mind Maps™, developed by Tony Buzan are an effective method of note-taking and useful for the generation of ideas by associations. To make a mind map, one starts in the center of the page with the main idea, and works outward in all directions, producing a growing and organized structure composed of key words and key images. Key features are:

• 1-Organization  
• 2-Key Words
•  3-Association 
• 4-Clustering
• Visual Memory - Print the key words, use color, symbols, icons, 3D-                     effects,arrows and outlining groups of words
• Outstanding ness - every Mind Map needs a unique center
• Conscious involvement

Mind Maps are beginning to take on the same structure as memory itself. Once a Mind Map is drawn, it seldom needs to be referred to again. Mind Maps help organize information.

Because of the large amount of association involved, they can be very creative, tending to generate new ideas and associations that have not been thought of before. Every item in a map is in effect, a center of another map.

The creative potential of a mind map is useful in brainstorming sessions. You only need to start with the basic problem as the center, and generate associations and ideas from it in order to arrive at a large number of different possible approaches. 

By presenting your thoughts and perceptions in a spatial manner and by using color and pictures, a better overview is gained and new connections can be made visible.

Mind maps are a way of representing associated thoughts with symbols rather than with extraneous words something like organic chemistry. The mind forms associations almost instantaneously, and "mapping" allows you to write your ideas quicker than expressing them using only words or phrases.

CREATIVITY

The process of CREATIVITY is more important then the DEFINITION of it. So we want to Focus on the Process .  We supply some method for you .

First is The Random-Word

The method is a powerful lateral-thinking technique that is very easy to use. It is by far the simplest of all creative techniques and is widely used by people who need to create new ideas (for example, for new products).

Chance events allow us to enter the existing patterns of our thinking at a different point. The associations of a word applied to the new out of context situation generate new connections in our mind, often producing an instant Eureka effect, insight or intuition.

It is said that Newton got the idea of gravity when he was hit on the head with an apple while sitting under an apple tree. It is not necessary to sit under trees and wait for an apple to fall - we can get up and shake the tree. We can produce our own chance events.

Random inputs can be words or images. Some techniques for getting random words (and the words should be nouns) are:

• Have a bag full of thousands of words written on small pieces of paper, cardboard, poker chips, etc. Close your eyes put in your hand and pull out a word.
• Open the dictionary (or newspaper) at a random page and choose a word.
• Use a computer program to give you a random word. I have a HyperCard program suitable for Apple Macintosh which uses this list of words (236 of them!)
• Make up your own list of 60 words. Look at your watch and take note of the seconds. Use this number to get the word.

It is important to use the first word you find.

Once you have chosen the word, list its attributions or associations with the word. Then apply each of the items on your list and see how it applies to the problem at hand.

How does it work?

Because the brain is a self-organizing system, and very good at making connections. Almost any random word will stimulate ideas on the subject. Follow the associations and functions of the stimulus word, as well as using aspects of the word as a metaphor.

You may want to mind-map the random word.

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Exercise.

1. You are tired of getting unsolicited email and you are searching for a solution. Your random word is BANANA.

2. You need to tell a story to your children at bedtime. Your random word is EGG.