| Thinking
Creatively Within The Box
By Daniel Theyagu
Mention creativity or creative thinking and inevitably
someone says it’s all about
“thinking outside the box”. This
is true to a certain degree. Creativity encompasses
the ability to look beyond our perspective and shift
away from existing paradigm.
However in reality this is harder than we think. It
is not always that we have the
capability or the capacity to think outside the box.
Sometimes we need the ‘box’.
The question we need to ask is what does this ‘box’
represent?
The “box” may represent many things such
as the values that we uphold, the vision
that we have and the principles that we live by. Thinking
beyond this ‘box’ might not
be a good option if we have to operate within a certain
code of practice. This is where
we need to see how we can be creative when we have to
work within the ambits of the
‘box.’
The ‘box’ that you are in might provide
you with ample opportunities to become
creative whereby you could tap into the resources that
are available within and come
up with new ideas and solutions to existing problems
without having to go beyond the
boundaries of the ‘box’.
Learn to use existing information to come up with
new ideas. As George J. Seidel
puts in: “The ability to relate and to connect,
sometimes in an odd and yet in striking
fashion, lies at the very heart of any creative use
of the mind, no matter in what field
or discipline.”
Here are some tips to Think Creatively Within the
Box.
Combine and Synthesis Existing Information
Dr Myron S. Allen said: “COMBINATION –
the essence of creative imagination.”
When you learn to combine information or things you
might come up with new
solutions and ideas. Alex Osborn said: “Creativity
is the production of meaning by
synthesis.”
There are many combinations of unrelated products
and services that have created
new and effective ideas. The radio was invented by an
Italian Guglielmo Marconi
and the telephone by an American Alexander Graham Bell.
When you combine the
radio and the telephone what do you get? Answer: A mobile
phone!
Another example: Gregor Mendel combined the concepts
of mathematics with
biology to come up with a new field of science –
Genetics. Benjamin Franklin was
put off by having to change his glasses – one
for reading and one for looking the
distance. Why not combine the two types of lenses? Now
we have the bifocal
glasses.
In your workplace you can think of combining existing
things or ideas to come up
with something useful that might make you more productive.
How about combining
two different routines to see whether it shortens the
time to complete the task? Keep
thinking.
Manipulation of existing ideas
Sun Tzu said: “Manipulation is the brother
of Creativity”. Sometimes instead of
thinking outside the box and coming up with something
completely different, you can
manipulate with existing ideas to make what you have
more efficient. There is a story
of a barber in America who though on how to improve
the laborious process of
cutting hair with a shears which was slow and cramped
his fingers. With a little
manipulation of the existing ideas of the scissors and
pliers he invented the hair
clipper which barbers world over use today.
In your office take a different look at the way you
are doing things. Can you
manipulate any of these things to make them more efficient?
Disrupt your routine behaviour occasionally
We are all culprits of routine behaviour. When we
start doing things in a certain way
we become entrenched in it and enter into what is called
the comfort zone. There is
nothing wrong being in the comfort zone. After all why
change when everything is
working fine – Right? The only problem is that
we can’t guarantee that it will always
be this fine. What we could do however is to see whether
we can disrupt our routine
behaviour occasionally to see life from a different
perspective.
Try doing something different everyday. It does not
have to be a drastic change. A
little one will suffice. Like go to a different eatery
and try a new meal. Or instead of
taking the train try taking the bus. Bring one of your
colleagues from another
department in your organization for lunch and find out
what his/her job is all about.
When you do routine things differently once in a while
your Mind takes notice and
you will start to look at your life from different perspective.
Thus you won’t get
trapped in the “Obvious” though process.
The ‘Obvious” though process is one where
you think that what you are doing is the most logical
way and there is nothing else to
it. Such a though process stifles creativity. Henry
Eyring said: “A keen observer once
said of Einstein that part of his genius was his inability
to understand the obvious.”
Perhaps this is what you should do if you want to think
creatively within the box.
Learn to disrupt the ‘Obvious’ though process.
You can achieve this by paying
attention to the small and insignificant things that
surrounds you by improving your
observation skills. That way you will realize that there
is more to creativity than
meets the eye within the ‘box’ itself.
About the author:
Daniel Theyagu is a keynote speaker and seminar leader
for conferences and training
programmes. He runs Lateral Solutions Consultancy which
designs and conducts
competency-based training for organizations He is also
an adjunct lecturer with
Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)
.
For seminars and workshop enquiries:
E-mail: dtheyagu@singnet.com.sg; website: www.thinklaterally.com.
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