A number of months ago I listened to an online lecture that talked about what can help in creativity. It was a wonderful presentation. Here are some of my notes.
– Innovators combine elements of various ideas and practices that other people don’t put together.
– They draw connections that cross boundaries, linking concepts from one discipline or culture with those from another.
– Albert Einstein called this process “combinatorial play” and saw it as foundational for when you are observing, closely watch how people perform a task to see if you could improve the process.
– Any job has “a functional, a social and an emotional dimension,” but the role of each aspect varies from job to job.
– Notice how different people do the same job in different contexts.
– Try to spot individuals who have developed creative “workarounds” to solve problems.
– A workaround is often an innovative way to resolve a particular frustration. Also, pay close attention to the way people buy your product.
– Note what frustrates your customers about purchasing or using a product.
– Notice the areas where they need help and what makes them abandon it in favor of a competing product.
– Heighten your powers of observation by changing your environment.
– Shift your focus: Watch workers, then customers, then entire organizations.
– Enhance your observational skills by documenting the how and why of failed innovations.
– Make a point of meeting people whose lives and training provide new and different perspectives.
– This is one way to “build a bridge into a different area of knowledge.”
– Innovators look at different disciplines that solved similar problems and borrow from their ideas.
– Attend a conference outside your field, or join a networking group for innovation.
– Eat lunch with new people, or invite outsiders to join your group to add new perspectives.
– They can seek new experiences, like taking a class on an unfamiliar topic; product.
– To improve experimentation, cross the usual borders, both literally – through travel – and metaphorically – by exploring a new discipline or topic.
– Learn new skills. Build models and try simulations.
– Blend experimentation with observation by trying to spot new trends. This led Land to wonder if developing photographs instantly was possible. This question that led to the invention of the Polaroid camera.
– Innovators ask hypothetical questions: What if X were true? Or they impose hypothetical constraints: –
– What if we could not do Y? Such constraints drive creative solutions.
– Encourage team members to embark on a round of open-ended “QuestionStorming,”.
– Ask what-if questions such as, is “T-shaped” – deep in one area and extending across a broad range
Do you have any ideas of what can help in creatively or invention? Please share it in the comment section of this blog.
