Creative thinking

Creative thinking must go well beyond connecting nine dots without making any intersections or determining how many different ways a square can be divided to contain four equal parts. These are interesting exercises and demonstrate some principles but do not help in finding creative solutions for complex problems. So keep creativity training in perspective. Edward de Bono, a well-known researcher on creativity, claims that his concept of lateral thinking can generate almost an idea per minute in three hours. Such idea drops provide little benefit in most situations. Ideas from people who know little or nothing about the complexities of the topic under discussion can provide a great deal of noise, but not much substance. Such sessions seldom resolve an issue and especially when looking back at the consequences of the decision on the total system.

But don't discount de Bono. Edward de Bono differentiates creativity and lateral thinking. Creativity is a value judgment and may be viewed in many different ways. What may be creative to one person may be very ordinary to another. A creative person may be successful in expressing and communicating a special perception of an issue or event that allows others to view the issue or event from a new perspective. But that person may be locked into that special perception. So a person could be equally creative and rigid at the same time. This does not diminish the value of their creativity, but the rigidity could be counterproductive.

Lateral thinking involves the ability to change perception and to keep changing perception. Edward de Bono defines lateral thinking as pattern switching within a patterning system. It's the ability to look at things in different ways and continue the process. Obviously the number of iterations would depend on the scope of the issue or event. We tend to think along one track. We establish certain limitations and worship them as though they could not be changed. They served our purpose well in the past, so why not now? Very often it becomes necessary to move to another track. Give up track "A" with its restrictions and see what's available on track "B." It may be necessary to continue exploring new tracks until a solution can be found that meets the short- and long-term requirements.

Organizational success depends on the creativity that eventually leads to innovation. Innovation is not about ideas. Innovation involves taking an idea, developing it into a workable concept, putting the pieces together in an invention, and implementing the invention.

Innovation = Invention + Implementation/Commercialization

Invention does not necessarily mean acquiring a patent. It involves the unique combination of what is mostly known with research to fill in the missing pieces. But creativity begins with a particular mindset. We need to differentiate invention and imitation. Benchmarking an organization's success stories and attempting to duplicate them is not invention. It's imitation. It's thinking down the same track. Invention involves finding a better way—a way that provides superior benefits; a way that provides those added useful features that the completion lacks.