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Breaking Creative & Innovative Thinking Out of Their Boxes Through Creative Problem-Solving

Happy Leap Day, all! May we all make great use of this "extra day" we get every four years on the 29th of February! EnJoy!

The new combined Kowabunga! & Riding the Wave Training & Development website is still in the final stages of getting its bugs worked out, but will be returning soon with new musings and resources. In the meantime, inspired by a recent conversation and having missed being in touch, I wanted to say "Aloha!" and share a few thoughts from my Sabbatical perch (Oh, that it were from the beach…).

Creative Thinking as Solution Finding:

In August 2011, I wrote a post on the different forms of innovation, “What Does Innovation Mean? Many Things.” http://ridingthewave.net/2011/08/.

In brief, creative, divergent, or “out of the box” thinking, as it is so often called, has been relegated in the minds of many as "what marketing/ advertising, or maybe some R&D folks do," versus what it actually is, which is:

The partner of critical thinking.
The gears for creative problem-solving.
The foundation of continuous improvement.
It also is a key component forthe scenario planning that all organizations should be practicing as precursors to their strategic planning processes.
And yes, of course, creative thinking also results in more obvious innovations in product, service, and market development.
Creative thinking is also inextricably linked with cultivating an engaged workforce. In a September 2011 post, “A Creative Look at Employee Engagement by Explania,” http://ridingthewave.net/2011/09/ *

This last point is one that remains especially difficult for many in leadership and management roles to see. It is highly improbable that one will find employees willing to give 110% unless they feel they have a voice and input into the creative problem solving, solutions, and continuous improvement processes.

Why would this be? Simply put, when management doesn’t demonstrate genuine interest in the input and ideas of employees by creating mechanisms to capture, vet, and implement the viable ones, staff:

a) do not feel respected, and

Whiteboard drawing of happy employees climbing success mountain toward shared vision. b) feel frustrated when they see ways that processes and services could be improved and feel unable to make a difference.

Having no ownership in the process, they do not feel inspired to proactively go above and beyond in their duties and may simply be biding their time until they can work elsewhere. Most of us have either witnessed the dynamics of an apathetic workforce or know this from personal experience having worked in companies where we were told, either directly, or indirectly, that we were “not being paid to think beyond our pay grades.”

And everyone loses out, from customers to shareholders, from benefiting from their frontline problem-solving and continuous process improvement ideas, even before they make their exits from their respective organizations.

So, the next time someone says, “We don’t have time for creative and innovative thinking" — try to help him or her to think beyond the box s/he may have placed around those forms of cognition. Insert terms like: “creative problem solving,” “continuous process improvement,” “comprehensive, lasting solutions,” and “engaged workforce,”… — And then ask them whether there is time for that. ???

I look forward to further exploration with you on the links between creative thinking, innovation, best management practices, and organizational success when Kowabunga! returns soon on a regular basis. And in the meantime, "Aloha!"

*Check out the great short educational video on that post: http://www.explania.com/en/animations/detail/how-to-use-employee-engagement-to-boost-your-business.

You can also catch the delightful one-minute video depicted in these photos on "Thinking Outside the Box" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_7gUP42Bk&feature=related.

Other short, brilliant videos on creative and innovative thinking can be viewed on Kowabunga's post from February 24, 2011: http://ridingthewave.net/2011/02/.

Asterik figure dring race car it made out of the box.

Einstein…the Failure?

Before you get the list of Einstein’s learning habits, consider some interesting facts about his early life. These things set the stage for appreciating his educational philosophy a little more.

Although he worked in engineering, Einstein’s father failed at several business ventures and had to depend on relatives for support.
When Einstein’s father asked his son’s headmaster what profession the boy should adopt, he said, “It doesn’t matter; he’ll never make a success of anything.”
He failed his first admissions examination to the Swiss scientific school he wanted to attend.
Some family friends told Einstein’s parents, “That young man will never amount to anything because he can’t remember anything.”
After graduating from the university, Einstein was denied a low-level teaching position there. (Other friends in his graduating class did get teaching positions.)
Many scientists and professors stonewalled his requests to work for them.
Einstein struggled for a few years to even find decent employment and finally got work as a third-class government patent examiner.

These things represent just a taste of the irony about his early life. Looking back – in light of his eventually recognized genius – these facts even seem humorous.

10 Things Einstein Did to Get So Smart

From what I can find, no one has compiled details about how Einstein actually studied. I doubt that his true genius was even observable to the eye anyhow. The real accomplishments went on inside his mind. I suspect his brain looked no different than ours; and genetically, nothing seemed remarkable. So, to benefit from his example, we need to look as much at his character and philosophy about learning.

1) He daydreamed and contemplated
Who has the right to say what is absentmindedness and what is pure genius? What others labeled as forgetful or even spacey, Einstein knew to be some of his most insightful, creative brainstorming sessions.

2) He Rubbed Shoulders with the Best and Brightest
Especially after his reputation became known, Einstein sought out the instruction and mentorship of the smartest people in his field, like Max Planck. If he didn’t get to know these people personally, he studied their writing and research.

3) Einstein Cross-Trained
He learned to play the violin well and loved the mathematical structure of music. He used music as a “psychological safety valve” throughout his life.

4) He Trusted His Own Curiosity
One legendary story says that his father gave him a compass when he was five years old. After lengthy observation, Einstein figured out that some outside force was acting on the needle to keep it pointed in the same direction.

5) He Maintained a Deep Suspicion of Educational Authority
Too many teachers, even in our day, feel you should believe what they say because, “I said so.” While they claim that “thinking for yourself” is part of the curriculum, their own biases and the school system’s structure discourage independent thought.

6) Einstein Nourished a “Radical Inquiring Attitude”
A Chinese proverb reads, “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” True learning requires exploring assumptions and other facts that many take for granted.

7) Einstein Designed His Own Curriculum
He had friends at the university take notes in class for him while he was away reading his preferred “extracurricular” books or journals on physics and mathematics.

8) He Relied on Faith to Learn
Einstein’s faith was that by inquiry and discipline you could learn things about invisible objects or phenomena. His “God” was not arbitrary and conformed to natural, discoverable laws.

9) He Avoided Preoccupation with Trivial Things in Life
How much time would Einstein spend on YouTube or Facebook if he were around today? His mind reverted consistently to “exploring and understanding the physical world.” What do you think about when you have nothing else to think about? Einstein’s discoveries didn’t come easily; they came from discipline!

10) Einstein Was an Autodicact.
As one biographer (Ronald W. Clark) wrote, he “found his real education elsewhere, in his own time.” Schooling provided the basic building blocks of language and concepts, but Einstein’s initiative took his learning far beyond the limits of academics.

Get this high resolution graphic (pdf) on Einstein’s Learning Hacks – for free!

Read more: http://www.betterlearningbetterearning.com/posts/success-stories/84-einstein-learning-hacks.html#ixzz1UgyQkAwp

cre·a·tiv·i·ty / krēāˈtivədē/ noun:

"The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness." – oxforddictionaries.com

"The process of having original ideas that have value." – Sir Ken Robinson

______________________________________________________________________

In a LinkedIn discussion group a while ago, a question was posed, “Which is more important: critical thinking or creative thinking?”

I was a bit taken aback by the question, since I can't really imagine one without the other. In my world-view, they should inform one another. In fact, I believe that even construing these as two independent and unrelated types of thinking is a false dichotomy. Unfortunately, it is a widely prevalent one that has been the basis of some of the limited and short-term thinking behind many of our organizational, economic, social, and environmental crises today.

Our world needs organizations filled with creative thinkers with strong skills in critical analysis, as well as analytical thinkers adept in creative ideation. And we can achieve this. We all have both sets of capabilities. They are two sides of the same coin.

Thinking with our Whole Brains

We humans are born with brains with two hemispheres for good reason:

Among its other functions, the “left brain” helps us with logical and sequential reasoning, vocabulary and grammar, mathematical calculations, planning, and detail.
While the right hemisphere helps with spatial, contextual, empathetic, kinesthetic, artistic, and creative thinking, and synthesis. It looks for patterns and connections, even those that may not be readily apparent.

Many of us may lean towards one type of thinking, but it’s a matter of choice (including the choice to resist peer pressure) as to whether we primarily exercise one hemisphere, or use our entire [and for believers among you, “God-given”] brain and apply what some refer to as "whole brain thinking." (Hermann Solutions and author Dan Pink's talks on A Whole New Mind.)

From a recent Psychology Today article, "The highest levels of creativity require both divergent thinking" (the ability to generate multiple ideas and possible solutions) "and convergent thinking" (the ability to deduce a single correct factual answer) "[which has] long been known in creativity research. [In the] Geneplore model, creativity involves a cyclical process of generating ideas and then systematically working out which ideas are most fruitful and implementing them."

How our collective creative imaginations became buried alive

The northern European-dominated U.S. culture and its current public education system strongly favors “left-brain” linear thinking. To explore the effects of this approach to education on the innate creative imaginations of children, in the 1960s Dr. George Land led a multi-year NASA-funded study. 1,600 children in a Head Start program were tested on their divergent or “out of the box” thinking abilities.

Of children 4-5 years old, 98% tested at the “genius” level for divergent thinking.
But by ages 14-15, the numbers had gone down to 12%! These youngsters had not lost their capacities for divergent thinking, but peer pressure to conform in order to a) “fit in” and not seem “weird*” to other kids, and/or to b) give “the one right answer” in school (convergent thinking) had already trained these adolescents to suppress their own creative imaginations.
By age 25, only 2% of 280,000 adults tested in the genius range. –Woe is us! (George Land's TED Talk.)

Land wrote, "What we have concluded is that non-creative behavior is learned."

According to Human Resource expert John Putzier in his highly engaging book, Get Weird: 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work, the 2% of adults who do manage to hold onto their divergent thinking abilities are often considered “too weird”* to be hired by many employers as they don't fit the expected molds. Or when they do find employment, they often learn to keep their heads down and their ideas to themselves.

*(Putzier says the word “weird” is intended as a pejorative often used as shorthand for anything considered to be “different.”)

The case for Both/And….

Unlike merely “imaginative” musings, (as with the definitions at the top of this article) some define creativity as a form of thinking that presents "the right solutions at the right time." Given the opportunity, these can then result in innovation.

Solid analysis is a prerequisite for creative solutions:

Recognizing the internal and external dimensions and factors of a problem
Exploring the components of possible solutions
The art of successfully inspiring and persuading others

The most brilliant thinkers and innovators have built their imaginative creations on foundations of significant amounts of critical thinking. Truly creative thinking results from an intersection of analysis, imagination, and synthesis. And when given the requisite support, innovation can be the result.

It is no surprise that the standout leaders in the 2010 IBM CEO study (see summary in previous post) who fostered creative thinking throughout their organizations also found that increased efficiency and profitability resulted. The two equal and complementary hemispheres of our brain exist together to be used together. Either half used in isolation, is limited and far less effective:

Ungrounded imaginative musings that don’t reflect interrelationships and what is truly possible go nowhere.
Analytical scrutiny bereft of exploring creative possibilities and alternatives to what it views as “current reality” often overlook the larger picture and more comprehensive solutions.

The most effective problem solving requires creative thinking grounded in critical analysis — a brilliant, inspiring, (and perhaps inspired) union.

— Creative thinking is often the smartest thinking!

Originally written February 2011. Revised January 2018.

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