Thomas Edison did it. Orville and Wilbur Wright did it. The birds and bees—no wait, that is another subject for another time. When Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, and the Wright brothers invented and built the first successful airplane in 1903, they were unleashing their creative thinking and forever changed civilization as we know it.

For many of us, this is our creativity paradigm, i.e., we need to be able to think of something in this order of magnitude in order for it to qualify as "creative." Excuse my language, but that is hogwash! After all, advertising Kermit the Frog in Calvin Klein jeans and Miss Piggy in Victoria's Secret lingerie is certainly creative but probably will not have a lasting impact on society as we know it (sorry, Muppets fans)!

The Creative Thinking Process

The good news is ideas come from our experiences, some­thing we all have. So, everybody has the capacity to be creative. Our experiences (E) get "put away" into our conscious and unconscious memories (M2).

Our conscious memory allows relatively easy recognition recall. When we first start thinking about solving some­thing ("Round 1"), this recognition recall tends to lead to obvious solutions. For example, if you were asked how to turn the Roman numeral IX into a six by only adding one line what would you do? Most of us would add a "S" to create "SIX". Now, think about another, less obvious solution. Give up? You could a add a "6" to create 1X6, which when multiplied equals six.

In order to get beyond the obvious, we need to unleash (U) our creative thinking by accessing our unconscious memory. This is necessary because we cannot remember everything we know. That is why multiple-choice tests are easier than essay tests. In addition, research into the nature of creative thinking shows that the most innovative, novel, and fresh solutions tend to be found among the last 50 percent of all the solutions generated on a topic.

In order for this unleashing to take place, we need to trigger(T) our unconscious memory. Once triggered, additionalthinking about solving something ("Rounds 2+") tends to lead to unusual (U) solutions. This generates multipleideas (I). (E - M2) + (U X T) = ln

Triggering Our Unconscious Memory

The process of triggering our unconscious memory has also been referred to as "getting whacked" by Roger von Oech in his book, A Whack on the Side of the Head. "Whacks" come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and include things like a problem or failure, a joke or paradox, and surprises and unexpected situations.

While some triggers or whacks will "just happen," you do not always have the luxury of being struck by lightening. So, you often need to facilitate the triggering process. Ideally, this will be done in a group or team session; creative thinking research shows that the more ideas you can generate, the more likely you are to produce an excel­lent idea. Ways to facilitate the triggering process include changing the question you use to probe a problem, utilizing different words to describe the situation or opportunity, thinking metaphorically, breaking the patterns of our thinking by challenging the rules of the game and sacred cows, dreaming and imagining, asking "what if" questions, utilizing idea associations, utilizing humor, exploring for ideas, and illustrating ideas and mind mapping.

Changing the Question

Changing the question you use to probe a problem can trigger people to think about the problem differently, resulting in additional ideas. For example, asking how to count from 1 to 10 in alien will elicit a different response than asking how to count from 1 to 10.

Different Words

Utilizing different words to describe a situation or oppor­tunity will bring in different assumptions and also lead your thinking in different directions. For example, the word "red" may cause you to think about fires and sunsets. When thinking about the word "red" in relation to "fire", it may elicit images of danger, fear, and emergency, as opposed to the word "red" in relation to "sunset," which may elicit images of beauty, romance, and tranquility.

Thinking Metaphorically

The key to metaphorical thinking is similarity. To make a metaphor for a problem you are currently dealing with, simply compare your concept to something else and then see what similarities you can find between the two ideas. Your concept and the "something else" may not be readily apparent; work at stretching your mind and disciplining yourself to come up with some similarities. A metaphorical example from Roger von Oech's book regarding the mean­ing of life is "Life is like riding an elevator. It has a lot of ups and downs and someone is always pushing your but­tons. Sometimes you get the shaft, but what really bothers you are the jerks." What do you think life is like?

To Be Continued