Picture credit - The Hindu
Day 23 - Creative Thinking Skill
2 May 2020
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sirurp@gmail.com
What is Creative Thinking Skill?
Creative thinking is the ability to look at things differently, and find new ways of solving problems
My learning for the day
Nearly all great ideas follow a similar creative process and this article explains how this process works.
James Clear writes about James Webb Young’s 5 step technique for producing Ideas and shares a story of someone who put the technique into practice.
James Webb Young’s 5 step technique
1. Gather new material (research) - At first, you learn. During this stage you focus on a) learning specific things directly related to your task and b) learning general things about a wide range of concepts
2. Thoroughly work over the materials in your mind (immerse) - During this stage, you examine what you have learned by looking at the facts from different angles and experimenting with fitting various ideas together.
3. Step away from the problem (get away) - Next, you put the problem completely out of your mind and go do something else that excites you and energizes you.
4. Let your idea return to you (insight) - At some point, but only after you have stopped thinking about it, your idea will come back to you with a flash of insight and renewed energy.
5. Shape and develop your idea based on feedback (from blur to concrete) - For any idea to succeed, you must release it out into the world, submit it to criticism, and adapt it as needed
Young’s idea in practice
This is Frederic Eugene Ives’ story. The creative process used by Frederic Eugene Ives is a perfect example of these five steps in action.
Ives was from an era of the printing world where, in the 1870s, photography was a new and exciting medium. Readers wanted to see more pictures, but nobody could figure out how to print images quickly and cheaply.
The Ives Process, as it came to be known, reduced the cost of printing images by 15x. This process remained as the standard printing technique for the next 80 years
1. First, Ives learnt and gathered new material - He spent two years working as a printer's apprentice and then four years running the photographic laboratory at Cornell University. These experiences gave him a lot of material to draw upon and make associations between photography and printing
2. Then Ives began to mentally work over everything he learned spending nearly all of his time experimenting with new techniques, putting ideas together
3. Third, Ives stepped away from the problem. In this case, he went to sleep for a few hours before his flash of insight. Letting creative challenges sit for longer periods of time can work as well. Regardless of how long you step away, you need to do something that interests you and takes your mind off of the problem
4. Fourth, his idea returned to him as a flash of insight when he was sleeping. Ives awoke with the solution to his problem laid out before him
5. Finally, Ives continued to revise his idea for years. In fact, he improved so many aspects of the process he filed a second patent.
Being creative isn't about being the first (or only) person to think of an idea. More often, creativity is about connecting ideas.
I dedicate this piece to Mansukhbhai Jagani, the innovative farmer who converts motorbikes into low cost tractors and sprayers.
Stories about creativity
While there are umpteen number of stories about creativity right from the Eureka moment of Archimedes, to Newton and the apple falling on his head, to James Watson’s dream seeing two intertwined serpents that led him to discover three-dimensional double helix in DNA molecule, here are the two that are from two diverse businesses.
Mansukhbhai Jagani’s story
Jagani developed a motorcycle-based tractor (He calls it Bullet Santi) for India's poor farmers, which is both cost effective - costing roughly USD 318, and fuel efficient (it can plow an acre of land in 30 minutes with two liters of fuel). I have had the fortune of meeting him and seeing him in action in 2013 when I visited his village
Peter Ueberroth’s story
Early in the modern history of the Olympic Games, countries used public funds to organise the games. This model of funding proved unsustainable and ended in 1976 with the Montreal Summer Games that incurred huge losses (~$700Mn).
In 1984, Los Angeles did something unusual - it hosted the Summer Olympics and turned a profit (more than $200 million).
Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, made a success out of a seemingly loss making proposition by attracting corporate sponsorship and Television rights.
Hope you can try out James Webb Young’s 5 step technique and get great insights.
How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of creative thinking.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of creative thinking.
- Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of creative thinking
- Apply -
- Identify a model suitable to you
- Create a template to document the flow of the process
- Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
- Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did to with respect to creative thinking
- Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
- Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
- Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
