20 Explore problems thoroughly
The first step in the creative process is to explore the problem or challenge and identify available resources that could be utilized in a solution. It helps if you are really good at paying attention to details that are relevant, looking for opportunities that can be capitalized on. This takes practice.
Watch the following presentation about paying attention.
Crash Course on Creativity — Paying Attention https://youtu.be/ZYUFl9wp3Qg
How are you with optical illusions? Can your perception of reality be mistaken? Watch this presentation and take the challenge.
Not only does paying attention help but it also helps to examine challenges and problems from different points of view. Click here to check out this humorous representation of two classically opposing points of view of a similar situation.
Your point of view can significantly influence your perception of a problem. Can you recall an experience where your perception of a problem was different from someone else’s?
Edward de Bono introduced an interesting strategy for examining problems using six different points of view. The idea is to use these six coloured thinking hats to help you remember these points of view and specific questions that align with them so that you can identify all aspects of the problem being examined. You can read more about this model at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats
Watch this brief video introducing de Bono’s six thinking hats.
How well do you explore problems? Do you take enough time to examine the problem from multiple points of view? Would using de Bono’s model help you?
The key purpose of exploring problems and challenges is to identify all of the aspects of the problem or challenge that will help you lead to a brilliant, creative and effective solution. It will also help you identify available resources that can be utilized in the solution. But when do you know when you have reached the point in your exploration that you have identified all of the aspects, details, and resources that are useful?
Creativity is often defined as the ability to look at something everyone else is looking at but seeing something that no one has seen before. This takes a very healthy imagination. How do you think the first person who looked at an oyster in its shell, figured out that it was food? How can you develop your abilities to do this?
You probably know people who don’t take the time to examine problems much beyond the surface that is presented. Are they successful problem solvers? What hazards exist when problems are not explored thoroughly?
What prevents you from examining problems and challenges thoroughly? How do you know when you have explored a problem thoroughly enough?
Challenge:
Consider one challenge or problem that you have recently solved or attempted to solve. Could you have been more successful with that problem if you would have taken more time to explore it thoroughly, from different points of view?
How will you explore challenges or problems differently in the future? Capture your ideas and share them with a friend.
How to be an explorer of the world.
Always be looking. (Notice the ground beneath your feet.)
Consider everything alive & animate.
Everything is interesting. Look closer.
Alter your course often.
Observe for long durations. (And short ones)
Notice the stories going on around you.
Notice patterns. Make connections.
Document your findings (field notes) in a variety of ways.
Incorporate indeterminacy.
Observe movement.
Create a personal dialogue with your environment. Talk to it.
Trace things back to their origins.
Use all of the sense in your investigations.
Keri Smith
