RVO:Creativity Mental Block #10: I am not creative

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Whatever we think, happens !!!. That is the law of nature.

The world of self fulfilling prophesy is where thoughts and actions overlap.

It is often the case that if we think that we are not  creative, we are not creative.

Make sure to think that we are creative. Give oneself the license to play with our ideas, to fail and rise again, to change course, to play the fool, to ask 'what if' questions.

We should try and discover our creative styles. Identify 10 of our own creative tendencies. Find out when we are most creative and when we are least creative.

When are you most creative?

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #9: To err is wrong

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Our educational system teaches us that 'To err is wrong'. With this attitude we try to avoid mistakes by being too careful. However, this attitude can hurt us in  the imaginative phase of the creative process.

'The biggest job we have is to teach a new employee to fail intelligently' --- Charles Kettering

Learning from the 'Trial and Error' is a natural process that we learn when growing up As children we learn to walk by falling and trying again. The theory of 'Natural Selection' is a process of trial and error followed by the nature.

Errors tell us when to change direction. Negative feedback points to us where we are going wrong. We learn by trial and error, not trial and correct.

Most people do not change when they 'see the light' they change when they 'Feel the heat'. In the final section of the chapter author talks about three dangers of success

One, it tends to lock us into a pattern. 'It it is not broken, why fix it?'
Two, Success can create situations that undermine our original intentions
Three, it can lead us to our being over confident to the point of arrogance.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #8: Avoiding Ambiguity

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Ambiguous situations are both confusing and they could create communication problems. Due to this we are taught to 'avoid ambiguity'.

In the imaginative phase, ambiguity can help us by asking questions like 'what is going on here', 'what does this mean' and 'how else can this be interpreted'.

'If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you will be amazed at the result' ---George Patton

The author mentions the following sources of ambiguity.

One Paradoxes: Paradoxes are statements that appear contradictory but which on deeper thought, point to a truth. Paradoxes 'whack' us out of our narrow thoughts and forces us to question our assumptions. 'Seeing the paradox' is the crux of creative thinking since it is the ability to entertain two different , often contradictory ideas at the same time.
My favorite examples of paradoxes.
'When I came home, I expected a surprise, and there was no surprise for me, so I was surprised' --- Ludwig Wittgenstein
'Any company large enough to have a research lab, is too large to listen to it' --- Alan Kay
'The little I know, I owe it to my ignorance' -- Orville Mars
'I have such high regard for truth that I use it sparingly' --- Timothy Connor
'Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness' --- Cheng Tzu

One strategy to deal with ambiguity is to be our own Oracle. T/he purpose of Oracle is to delve more deeply into our intuition when dealing with a problem. To tap into your internal Oracle, you have to follow these steps.

Create a question to ask to Oracle. This question focus our thinking.
A way to generate random information. The random selection is important. A random piece of information, due to its unpredictability, forces us to look at the problem in a new way.

You should have an attitude that interprets the resulting random piece of information as answer to our question.

The author explains this approach in quite a detail.

Step one is to phrase our question clearly. To do that first we have to clear our mind, relax and focus our mind. Now form the question
Second step is to open our mind to things that have no connections to the idea that we are developing. Select something in the world at random.
Step three is to associate the random thing to your situation. Remember that there is a connection and it is our responsibility to find it. Be creative. Think out of the box. Be metaphorical

Yet another approach is to listen to our dreams. Dreams are sources of ambiguity. To unleash the power of dreams, the author uses the following technique. Before going to sleep, visualize the problem that he is working on without trying to solve it. Once he gets the idea in his dreams, he writes them down.

When we try to remember the dream, try to remember the following.

One, how did you feel in the dream?
Two, How d you feel about the dream?
Three, Who is in the dream
Four, Where does it take place?
Five, How do different people react?

Dreams are ways in which the subconscious mind is speaking to us.

'The way up and way down are one and the same' --- Heraclitus

Question: What is our source of ambiguity? Everyone should have their own sources of ambiguity. For author, it is the sayings of Heraclitus. We have to find ours.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #7: Don't be foolish

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Throughout history, we see that most of the successful kings had fools in their court. The 'Court Jesters' job was to look at a problem with different perspective and come up with wacky ideas and solutions for the problems being faced. Typically a fool does the following.

One, reverse the standard assumptions: If a man is sitting on a horse looking at the rear, who is backwards, man or horse?

Two, He is irreverent: He forces us to look at the sanctity of our 'sacred cow' ideas.

Three, he might deny that the problem exists, thereby re-framing the situation

Four, he can be absurd: Author mentions the story of a man who lost his donkey. He sits on the road and starts thanking god. A passerby sees him thanking god and asks, "Didn't you lose your donkey just now? Why are you thanking god for that?", the man replies, "I am thanking god that I was not sitting on the donkey. If I were, I would be lost too.". If we look back, we can see many losses in our lives, which later on turned out to be opportunities to do different things.

Five, he notices things that others overlook. He might ask question like, ' why is it that many people look down when walking?. Why they do not look up and walk?'

Six, a fool uses metaphor to explain ideas.

Seven, he will apply the rules of one area to ta different area. 

Eight, he can be cryptic.

A fool provides provides an alternative way of looking at the situation. The author encourages us to think like a fool. Being a fool is to be on our mental reverse gear. When we are stuck in a rut, playing the fool can provide us with a different idea, which can propel us in a different direction.

One strategy which author advises is to laugh at our problems. A humorous frame of mind can enhance our creativity by stretching your thinking, by allowing us to take things less seriously and by forcing us to combine unrelated ideas.

Yet another strategy is to reverse the viewpoint. Thinking about and doing things opposite from our customary way allows us to discover things that we typically overlook. One way to do this is to try switching our objective and going in the opposite direction. For example, a teacher can ask 'How can I be less effective?'. This will provide the teacher with all the approaches of being less effective, helping her to avoid those approaches. Reversing our viewpoint is a great way to sharpen our thinking.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #6: That is not my area

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Specialization is the art of knowing more and more about less and less. By restricting our knowledge area, specialization, tend to curtail our creative thinking. Specialization can lead to the attitude, 'that is not my area'

'Cross-Fertilization' of ideas between different specializations areas is a method to generate creative ideas.

The author (Mr.Von Oech) asks us to become explorers of ideas. To actively seek out ideas. The wider one explores the higher is the chance of landing good ideas. The author mentions a number of such examples in this book.

Another approach is to be willing to be led astray. The quote 'Expect the unexpected, or you won't find it' from Heraclitus of Greece is the perfect example of this point.

Yet another approach is to 'see the obvious'. Sometimes the best solutions are right in front of us. The obvious strategy to find them is to step back and ask the question 'what are the most obvious things that I can say about this?', 'What obvious resources are right in front of me?'

Another technique is to explain your problem to someone who knows nothing about it.

And finally, sometimes the most obvious things are the ones that are NOT in front of us. The story of Sherlock Holmes, Watson and the missing tent explains this.

Finally, a limerick (which shows that sometimes best solutions are right in front of us)

The king sent for wise men all,

To find a rhyme for 'W'

When they had thought for a good long time,

But could not think of a single rhyme,

'I am sorry', said he, 'to trouble you'.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #5: Play is frivolous

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The attitude of many people is 'Stop playing / fooling around and get down to business'. However, a playful attitude is fundamental to creative thinking.

One way of playing with a problem is to add a few constraints. Constraints force us to think beyond conventional solutions and find answers that otherwise might not have been discovered.

Another approach is to pause a bit. By pausing, three beneficial things happen. One, you put the problem in perspective. Second benefit is that by pausing we are allowing our sub-conscious to work on the problem. And finally, when we approach the problem after a pause, we approach the problem with a different set of assumptions.

Another advantage of pausing a bit is that sometimes delaying actions will give you more information. The author (Mr.Von Oech) mentions the story of an architect who created a cluster of buildings without laying the pathways that connected the buildings. After about four months, the new lawn was laces with pathways of trodden grass, connecting building to building. The path thus formed the most efficient line between points of connections and turned in easy curves rather than right angles and were sized according to traffic flow. Thus by waiting the architect got the most optimum pathways between the buildings.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #4: Be Practical

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Human beings are the only animals with an ability to symbolize experience. This helps us in two ways. First, it enables us to anticipate the future, which helps us in planning for the future. Second, this helps us to generate ideas that has no correlates in the world of experience.

One of the ways to simulate our imaginations is to ask 'what if' questions. This helps us to simulate our imaginative capability.

The author discusses two specific 'what if' strategies.

One, imagine how others would do it. how would a famous person handle this problem? What assumptions would he bring in? How will they go about? What constraints would they ignore? What expertise would they add? What innovative changes would they make?

Two, imagine you are the idea. Suppose you are trying to improve the design of a washing machine. Imagine you are the machine. How will you feel when cloths are inserted in you? How will you feel when water is poured? when you tumble? when you spin?

Another way to simulate the imagination is to use 'stepping stones'. These are ideas that provoke us to think about other ideas. The author provides example of mixing gunpowder in paint, of adding seeds and fluorescent material in animal food, of trash cans paying money / telling jokes etc.

Given the benefit of using 'what if' thinking, the author provides three reasons why we do not use these more often.

One, when people look at a new idea, they focus on what is out of whack / logic. They tend to use negative words to describe the idea. As a tip author recommends that when we look at new ideas, we should look at their positive, interesting and potentially useful features. This will help you to generate 'stepping stone' ideas.

Two, the 'what if' approach is low-probability in character. It is unlikely that this tool will produce a practical, creative idea. It needs us to ask many 'what if'' questions before a practical idea can be generated. This makes people to skip 'what if' and focus on 'what is'.

The third reason for us not using 'what if' method is that we have not been taught to do that

While 'Be Practical' thinking is very important in the execution phase of an idea, 'what if' questions are the ones that generate the idea in the first place

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #3: Follow the rules

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"Every act of creation is first an act of destruction." ----- Picasso

Pattern thinking is the first example of our rule based thinking. Patterns help us to understand the new information based on our past experiences. Patterns can be sequences (buds turn to flowers), cycles (monsoon appear every year from June to September), shapes, similarities and probabilities. The problem with pattern thinking is that they affect the way in which we think.

People follow three strategies to solve problems.

• Backtracking: Start with one plan of action. If it fails, come back and start again with a new plan.
• Working Backwards: First identify the end objective and plan backwards.
• Break the rules: There are many examples of this in history. Alexander cutting the Gordon Knot, Einstein equating mass and energy, Catholic priests inserting spaces between written words thus changing 'reading by the ear' to 'reading with the eye'. The list is endless

While following the rules have their benefits, it can become a mental block if it means 'Think about things only as they are'.

There are two reasons why rules should be challenged. One is that they make us get locked on to one approach or strategy. The other is that the basic reason for having that rule in the first place would have undergone changes.

Von Oech recommends the following two approaches. one, 'do not fall in love with your ideas' and two, go after 'your sacred cows'. Sacred cows are those rules and ideas and beliefs that everyone take for granted.

In conclusion, the author talks about the 'Thuban phenomenon'. It woks as follows.

• You have a guiding star. It could be an idea, a belief or philosophy that guides your thoughts and actions
• You change. you develop new interests, meet new people. You find new guiding stars
• Things continue to change in a cyclical way. The former 'Guiding Star' takes a dominant position in our mind and thinking.

The implications for creating thinking is that sometimes one has to look at past ideas, rules, solutions and inspiration to resolve current problems

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #2: Searching for logical answer

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Von Oech starts off this chapter by discussing the two types of thinking. The soft thinking is metaphorical, approximate, humorous, playful and capable of dealing with contradiction. Hard thinking tends to be logical, precise, exact, specific and consistent.

Hard thinking is like a spotlight. It is bright, clear and intense, but with a narrow focus. Soft thinking is like flood light, it is diffuse, but covers a larger area.

How are these modes of thinking related to creative thinking?

The creative thinking has two phases. In the imaginative phase, one has to think differently, meaning one has to use soft thinking. In the practical phase, one has to get things done and here hard thinking comes useful.

The key issue with 'That is not logical' thinking is that it bypasses the power of intuition. Intuitive hunches are the answers that our mind provides to our current problems by assimilating our past experiences.

The last part of this chapter deals with the use of metaphors, which Von Oech says are the tools that you can use to bring logic to the current problem at hand. Metaphor links the familiar to the unfamiliar thereby bringing clarity to the unfamiliar. Von Oech recommends the use of 'Action Metaphors'. Some examples of action metaphors include 'Running for office', 'Fishing in troubled waters', 'Prospecting for gold' etc. The problem with metaphors is that they have the power to limit our thinking if we habitually used.

RVO:Creativity Mental Block #1: Searching for the one right answer

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"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea if that is the only one we have".....Emile Chartier

Our education system teaches us to look for one right answer. However, in reality, depending on different perspectives and contexts, you could get multiple answers for the same problem. Most of the time, the alternative solutions may be far superior.

Von Oech asks us to look for 'Second best answer' to all the problems. He suggests the following steps to identify the alternative solution.

1. Ask 'What if' questions
2. Reverse the problem
3. Modify the question. For example, instead of asking 'What is the solution', ask 'What are the solutions'
4. Ask questions that whack people's thinking
5. Rephrase the question

One of the quotes by Heraclitus says 'When there is no sun, we can see evening stars'. One has to identify the 'Sun', the dominant feature of the problem. and defocus on it to get creative ideas.

Von Oech says that in problem solving, forgetting what you know is as important as knowing. He mentions the story of a pot filled with water. No more water can flow into it. For it to be filled with new, fresh water, it is necessary to throw out the old water.

Book Review: A whack on the side of the Head: Author: Roger Von Oech

The full title of the book is 'A whack on the side of the head - How you can be more creative'. Author: Roger Von Oech.

The first sentence in the book is 'The sun is new every day', spoken by the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus of Ephisus. (the author borrows extensively from the Greek Philosopher). In a world that  is continually changing, the ability to think creatively can mean the difference between success and failure. The first sentence in the book says that even when the same problem looks similar today as it did yesterday, the problem is not the same. One need to look at it with a different perspective.

The book starts off with an introductory chapter titled 'A whack on the side of the head' and concludes with chapter titled 'A whack on the other side of the head'. The book identifies and focuses on 10 mental blocks that can impact creativity. Each of the 10 chapters between the first and the concluding ones discuss one mental block.

The author identifies the following mental blocks to creative thinking.

1. Looking for the right answer
2. Looking for the logical answer
3. Follow the rules
4. Be practical
5. Play is frivolous - be serious
6. That is not my area
7. Don't be foolish
8. Avoid ambiguity
9. To err is wrong
10. I am not creative.

Basic prerequisite to creative thinking is knowledge. To be a creative person, one need advanced level of knowledge. In other words, the more you know, the more you can be creative. Whether or not you 'will be' creative will depend on what we do with our knowledge.

Any idea, concept or thing takes it meaning from the context in which we put it. For example, when you transform the concept of 'Just in Time' production from 'Toyota Production Line' context to 'Burger Production' context, you get the MacDonald's 'Burger Line Operations'. This means that changing context is a way to discover the possibilities of your resource.

There are four stages of creative thinking. At each stage, the individual plays a different role. The four roles are Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior

Explorer: In this role we look for materials we will use to build the idea. The materials include facts, concepts, experiences, knowledge, feelings and whatever we can find. In this role we are searching. We will poke around in unknown areas, pay attention to unusual patterns, use different senses, seek out a variety of different types of information

Artist: In this role, we play around with the information, experiment with different approaches, ask 'what if' question and look for hidden analogies. The artist, in the end, comes up with a new idea.

Judge: This is the analytical role. In the role we evaluate the idea based on a few parameters. Is the idea good? Will it give us the expected RoI?  Do we have enough resources to make it happen? We run risk analyses, question our assumptions and ultimately make a decision. 

Warrior: This is the role played in the execution phase. We compete with other ideas, fight it out in the trenches, overcome idea killers, temporary setbacks etc. In this role we plan the work and work the plan.

There are two reasons for low creative performance.

• Weak roles
• Bad timing

If any of the four roles in our team is weak, our ideas will not get off the ground.
Equally using a role at the wrong time is counter productive. Some people tend to get stuck in a single role.

The prescription for high performance is to develop the creative roles and use them appropriately.

Finally, follow these tips to become a good warrior.

1. Take a whack at it: Make the idea happen. Identify the three things that can help us reach our goal.
2. Put a lion in our heart: To fight a bull when you are scared in something. What give us courage to act on our ideas? Have we got a well thought out plan? Do we have faith in our idea?
3. Get support by creating a support system
4. Identify and get rid of excuses:
5. Flex our risk muscle: Take risks. make it a point to take at least one risk per week.
6. Have something at stake: It can be money, reputation, self esteem, survival - It should be anything that is important for us.
7. Be dissatisfied
8. Use our shield: Be prepared for a negative reaction and do not let it prevent us from acting on our idea
9. Sell, sell, sell: What benefits does your idea provide? Why should other be interested in your idea? What does it promise? How can we make our idea attractive to others?
10. Set a deadline
11. Be persistent

After we implement our idea, we must give ourselves a pat on the back. After that go out and earn another one.