Creative Problem Solving Week 1 A

Creative Problem Solving by Brad Hokanson
Started this course in Sept 2014

Ist reading: https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/cps%2F1.2_Methods_Muscle_Divergent.pdf

Course methods: creativity skill development, muscle, converge vs. diverge

How does one get to be creative? Is it tied to how intelligent you are? Are you born

creative? Can you change how creative…or how intelligent you are? These are good

questions and in answering them we can see the basis for this course.

First of all, our creativity is in some part based on our native intelligence. And, like

intelligence, we can change and improve what we naturally have. We can learn, through

schooling and through experience, and become smarter. And research has proved that we

can also develop our creativity through exercise and effort. In previous versions of this

class, measured creativity, on average, has improved from the 52nd percentile to the 93rd

percentile.

Creativity is a trait of your personality and it can be focused and improved through work

and effort. Luckily for all of us, the development of creativity, the actual work is fun,

enjoyable, and can be done anywhere. You won't have to go to the creativity gym to work

on your creativity muscles…unless you think of this class as your creativity workout space.

Well, like in a gym, one way to think about creativity is like a muscle. If we use it, it will get

stronger. And if we don't use it, we'll get flabby and fall back on our old habits. The more

you work on your creativity, the more creative you will become. And after awhile, like going

to the gym, people will notice and begin to comment on your creativity muscles. They may

say "He's so creative, lets ask him for help." Or "She always has good ideas, we should

see what she thinks would work." Their expectations will also help keep you creative.

So specifically, how does one improve their creativity and how will this fit into the class?

The best way to have anyone learn something is to have them actively work on what they

need to learn. So this class is about doing stuff and it isn't going to be about lectures on

very creative people. It's about all our creativity that each of us has. That is, by the way,

the difference between big C creativity [the experts] and little "c" creativity, [creativity for

the rest of us where it will do the most good.]

Within class we'll have a number of exercises that help you develop your creativity; you'll

be able to do them online to challenge yourself to generate more ideas. And we'll have

larger projects, called Do Something Differents, that have you create projects that are

inventive, different, odd, unusual and fun. And you'll talk to people about their own

creativity.

One think that most people experience when developing their creativity is that other people

look at them and think it's a little bit odd or weird. This is usually the case in this class. You

might get embarrassed and your friends, relatives, or others might ask you what you're

doing. Be brave and persevere; you are becoming more creative even if you are slightly

embarrassed, and next time, with the experience behind you, you will be able to go even

farther. Creativity is often a public act, and one which others will think is odd; think about

new fashions, about unique inventions, or ground breaking work; all broke convention and

led to the future

One additional thing to remember is that in this course, you have one great tool that you

can use when people question you about your creativity exercises. You can tell them "It's

for class." Plain and simple, most people will then step back and let you do what you're

doing. They might ask about the class, and that's fine too, but this is one of the great

excuses for acting unusual in public. They may say something like: "Are you crazy?" and

you get to say "It's for class." Or they could say "Are you drunk?" and again, you can say,

"It's for class." Or they might say "Why do you want to eat an Egg McMuffin in the back of

a police car?" "It's for class." [It's a true story; see the picture.]

So that you can remember these magic words, I'd ask that you repeat them after me: "It's

for class." Can't hear you, try speaking into the computer… "It's for class." Better.

Divergent Thinking / Convergent Thinking

In the field of creativity, we often speak about two different types of thinking, convergent

thinking and divergent thinking. Both are needed in normal problem solving, but most of

our work in creativity will address divergent thinking. Sir Ken Robinson [see video] said

divergent thinking is how to see lots of possible answers to a question, to use lots of ways

to interpret a question, how to think non-linearly, and to see multiple answers, not one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Divergent thinking is thinking that seeks multiple and unusual answers and ideas for any

given problem. Wikipedia says that divergent thinking is "…a thought process or method

used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions." The key here is in

creating or generating multiple ideas.

Convergent thinking, in contrast, is the process of focusing in and developing one solution,

often through a logical process. It does focus on a single answer and makes that answer

better through critique, additional creative ideas, or hard work. It often leads to the same

answer as before, and hence is less the focus of our creativity work.

One of the main goals of the course is to develop your skill in developing multiple ideas

and that the only wrong answer is … one answer. We all need to be able to come up with

more than one, and preferably many, answers to any given problem. And that is the main

lead as to why we focus on divergent thinking.

Remembering which type of thinking is which can be derived from the regular use of the

words, divergent and convergent. If you are following a path, and the path splits into three

directions, it is said to diverge. If you come to a meeting place where all the paths come

together, they are said to converge. If you follow the same path, you will get to the same

location; taking a different path in the words or in life will lead to different and creative

answers.

One example of real life may help; in dating, people often go out with a lot of different

people; this is like divergent thinking, trying out multiple ideas. Many times people find

someone special and build a long term relationship with them; this is like convergent

thinking, building and developing one single idea. In this creative problem solving class,

we're getting people to "date" a large number of ideas as this is the essence of being

creative.

Developing your divergent thinking is the core to developing your creativity; it is about

doing something different, about breaking through your habits, and about challenging your

assumptions. These are the first steps to being more creative.