6

What is creativity?

By this stage, you should be convinced of the importance of creativity. You would now probably do better in the introductory test of your potential as a successful business innovator, because you have increased your motivation to think in novel and different ways (questions 4–6). But let us wait before retaking the test as there are so many other tests we have to take before reaching our goal. The next is the classic dots test shown in Figure 6.1. Take a few minutes to try to solve the following problem: Connect all the dots by four straight lines – without lifting your pen from the paper.

Did you succeed? Probably not. But don't worry about it. Most people who try to solve the problem fail the first time. Of course, it is quite likely that you have seen the problem before, because it is, as I said, a real classic among creativity exercises. But, as a rule, that is not much help. The bizarre thing is that most of us forget exactly how to do it and then spend more time and trouble trying to remember the solution than using our energy to think creatively and in a problem-oriented way.

Figure 6.1

The correct solution is probably so difficult to remember because it is so simple and obvious once you see it. In the field of memory research, this is known as the Zeigarnik effect, named after its discoverer who found that people find it more difficult to remember complete and easily recognizable pictures because the brain does not have to work at creating new memory paths. For example, in one memory experiment the test subjects found it easier to remember the motifs of puzzles that were incomplete than finished puzzles, because they were forced to complete the puzzles in their heads.

Why are we having this digression on the Zeigarnik effect and the workings of the brain? It is not just to keep you on tenterhooks about the solution to the dot problem! It also provides a clue that creativity is stimulated if we do not give ourselves problems that are too easy. Otherwise the brain sees no reason to get to work, but instead chooses a stored ready-made standard solution. We will discuss this later, but for the moment lets us look at the solution to the dot problem (Figure 6.2).

The solution looks like an arrow, and is so simple that one does not have to think about it to understand it (and is therefore sloppy about memory storage). The creative part of the solution, which is where most people fall down, is to move in the area outside the dots. The term gestalt psychology is used to describe the fact that we humans need to see patterns and create wholes out of the different impressions with which we come into contact. The brain wants order; therefore, typically, the nine dots form an enclosed area, frame or box in our heads. Although we may not be aware of it, the walls of the box are so strong that we have the greatest difficulty in getting past them, which prevents us from solving the problem.

Figure 6.2

The solution then lies in breaking through the walls of the box and thinking outside the frame. This also explains why this exercise is such a classic. Many regard it as the perfect metaphor for creativity: Thinking outside the box.

But this solution brings its own problems. In the first place, it is only one solution. Creativity is about generating lots of solutions. Secondly, it obstructs creativity by blocking other solutions, partly by causing people to think that it is the ‘right’ solution (in spite of there being other solutions that are considerably more attractive and more creative) and partly because people become too occupied with trying to remember the solution instead of thinking for themselves. Thirdly, the metaphor is inappropriate: creativity is in fact not about thinking outside the box.

By taking these three objections into consideration, we can make some serious progress in the direction of increased creativity – which is exactly what we are about to do. When you have read the next section of the book, you will be able to join the dots with a minimum number of lines in a maximum number of ways. When you have read the whole book you will, hopefully, be able to do the same thing with all the ‘dots’ you encounter in your business context.

Creativity defined

Creativity has been a popular phenomenon for more than half a millennium, since Leonardo da Vinci and other famous Renaissance men produced an explosion of discovery and art. In fact, da Vinci is the model for several different definitions of creativity, as the archetype of creative man.

As far as research is concerned, interest in creativity was aroused around the turn of the last century when attempts were made to understand the genesis of such earth-shattering discoveries and inventions as penicillin, the telephone and the Zeppelin. Then research gathered speed in the race between the superpowers during World War II, when a certain Albert Einstein, to his horror, found that he had played a decisive role in the fast-approaching and ultimately devastating arms race.

Over the years, this research has diversified into completely separate disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, biology and economics, and enormous amounts of written material about creativity have been produced from every imaginable angle. If we confine ourselves to economics and business creativity, we can see that during the last 20 years, according to a search of the scientific database Proquest, 1481 scientific articles have been published with the word creativity in the title. If we then include all the scientific articles since the 1960s that deal with creativity but do not have the word in the title, the total is a massive 5724 articles. Furthermore, the bookselling behemoth Amazon.com lists in its catalogue a total of 19609 books with creativity in the title. At this point, you can certainly hazard a guess that there is no lack of definitions of creativity, and it comes as no surprise that the field of creativity has given rise to many creative definitions. But this is not a book about how to define creativity, and we won't therefore get bogged down in long analyses of concepts and wordings. Instead we will become acquainted with three main aspects of creativity: the result, the process and the person. This will also give us the opportunity to kill off some deep-rooted myths.

Myths about creativity

Myths about creativity form one of the important reasons for the failure of so many product launches. They also explain why so few companies work systematically with creativity and why the concept itself is not more strongly coupled to business creation. They probably also explain why you did not get higher marks on the introductory test of your own potential as a successful creator of business.

The five most pervasive myths that we will attempt to disprove are:

Myth 1: Creative business activity is dependent on lead users or innovators.

Myth 2: Creativity cannot be controlled.

Myth 3: Creativity is random.

Myth 4: Creative business innovators come from the outside.

Myth 5: Creative business innovators are untraditional.