Two Quick Observations on Creativity
Observation 1:
Great ideas do not come from a logical-reductionistic process. Our brains’ creativistic processes are still not understood. Do our brains have certain preexisting creative juices?
Or, are these creative juices themselves a co-product of the creative outcomes they produce?
More recent research examining the roots of creativity, particularly research on effectual logic, seems to indicate that the brain produces both the creative ideas and the seeds of those ideas, simultaneously. This later allows the creative mind to rationally, although painstakingly, explain how that idea has been arrived – from its roots to its outcome. From a practical standpoint, this means, resist the lure of seeking reasons, until the brain produces the inputs and outputs of creativity. There is a method to madness but let your brains to produce it in an organic manner. If you are a leader and if your subordinates come with a creative idea, do not reject them just because they cannot articulate it rationally. It takes time – you may provide a set of ambient conditions to your subordinates such that it takes place more effectively.
Observation 2:
How you are going to tackle a problem depends upon what happens in the back burner of your brain while that problem is presented.
For instance, you may be less effective in solving a crossword puzzle if that puzzle is presented to you while you are working out a mathematical problem in a static-rule-bound way (e.g. multiplying 583 with 837 using pen and paper). What does this imply for practice? Setting up antecedents for creative processes is important. This is in fact known to artists and writers for so long: some of them go to isolated sea sides and mountain tops so their creative juices could brew and flow more fluently. Businesses these days encourage conferences and meetings, not in business hotels but in landscapes that induce creative processes. Different individuals may have preferences for different kinds of settings that induce their creative thinking.
