Understanding Creativity

Creative thought is a mental process involving creative problem solving and the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.

Although intuitively a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex. It has been studied from the perspectives of behavioral psychology, social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, aesthetics, history, economics, design research, business, management, and communication, among others. The studies have covered everyday creativity, exceptional creativity, and even artificial creativity. Unlike many phenomena in science, there is no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. And unlike many phenomena in psychology, there is no standardized measurement technique.

Creative problem solving is the process of creating a solution to a problem. It is a special form of problem-solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance. Creative problem solving always involves creativity. However, creativity often does not involve creative problem solving, especially in fields such as music, poetry, and art. Creativity requires newness or novelty as a characteristic of what is created, but creativity does not necessarily imply that what is created has value or is appreciated by other people. To qualify as creative problem solving the solution must either have value, clearly solve the stated problem, or be appreciated by someone for whom the situation improves (Fobes, 1993).

Distinguishing Between Creativity and Innovation

It is often useful to explicitly distinguish between creativity and innovation. Creativity is typically used to refer to the act of producing new ideas, approaches, or actions, while innovation is the process of both generating and applying such creative ideas in some specific context.

In the context of an organization, therefore, the term innovation is often used to refer to the entire process by which an organization generates creative new ideas and converts them into novel, useful, and viable commercial products, services, and business practices, while the term creativity is reserved to apply specifically to the generation of novel ideas by individuals or groups, as a necessary step within the innovation process. For example, Amabile et al. (1996) suggest that while innovation “begins with creative ideas,”

“…creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the second.”

Although the two words are distinct, they go hand in hand. To be innovative, you have to be creative.

Engaging in Ideation

Entrepreneurial creativity and artistic creativity are not so different. You can find inspiration in your favorite books, songs, and paintings, and you also can take inspiration from existing products and services. You can find creative inspiration in nature, in conversations with other creative minds, and through formal ideation exercises, for example, brainstorming. Ideation is the purposeful process of opening up your mind to new trains of thought that branch out in all directions from a stated purpose or problem. Ideation aims to generate lots of ideas. Brainstorming, the generation of ideas in an environment free of judgment or dissension with the goal of creating solutions, is just one of dozens of methods for coming up with new ideas.

When you plan to engage in ideation, you can benefit from setting aside a sizeable chunk of time. Reserving time to let your mind roam freely as you think about an issue or problem from multiple directions is a necessary component of the process. Ideation takes time and a deliberate effort to move beyond your habitual thought patterns. If you consciously set aside time for creativity, you will broaden your mental horizons and allow yourself to change and grow.

In order to better understand how ideation fits in the process of entrepreneurship and problem solving, it’s important to acknowledge different ways of thinking. First, we can compare linear and lateral thinking. Linear thinking—sometimes called vertical thinking—involves a logical, step-by-step process. In contrast, creative thinking is more often lateral thinking, free and open thinking in which established patterns of logical thought are purposefully ignored or even challenged. When you ignore logic, anything becomes possible. Linear thinking is crucial in turning your idea into a business, but lateral thinking will allow you to use your creativity to solve problems. Figure 5.1 below summarizes linear and lateral thinking.

Figure 5.1 Linear vs. Lateral Thinking

We should also consider the different between divergent and convergent thinking – both of these types of thinking are critical in the ideation process, as they work together to help you come up with fresh solutions.

Divergent thinking is represented in brainstorming efforts to generate many options and ideas as possible. Whether working in a group or as a team of one, divergent thinking is a valuable activity to move beyond obvious solutions. You should aim to create both fluency (i.e., volume) and flexibility (i.e., variety) of ideas (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 Divergent Thinking for Volume and Variety

The ultimate goal of divergent thinking is to create new solutions for the problems you want to solve. The immediate goal is to multiply your insights and ideas. Insights become valuable when you can act on them as inspiring opportunities. To get there, turn your insights into questions, which can then serve as the springboard for your ideas. Brainstorming, one particular approach to divergent thinking, will be described further later in the chapter.

Once you have generated a substantial quantity of diverse ideas, you will need to rank, sort, combine, and select the best of those ideas for further development. This entails convergent thinking. Convergence is fundamentally about arriving at conclusions by making connections, or synthesizing data, ideas, and insights. Put differently, it’s about connecting the dots (see Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Convergent Thinking to Connect the Dots

Tim Brown, co-founder of IDEO (a consulting firm that specializes in human-centered design), describes the importance of convergent thinking as follows: “Synthesis, the act of extracting meaningful patterns from masses of raw information, is a fundamentally creative act… The data are just that—data—and the facts never speak for themselves.”

Let’s now consider some of the creativity techniques that promote original thoughts by facilitating divergent and/or convergent thinking.

Creativity Techniques

Creativity techniques are a collection of tools and methods that support the creation of effectives solution to a problem. Creative-problem-solving techniques can be categorized as follows:

• Creativity techniques designed to shift a person’s mental state into one that fosters creativity. One such popular technique is to take a break and relax, go for a walk, or sleep after intensively trying to think of a solution.
• Creativity techniques designed to reframe the problem. For example, reconsidering one’s goals by asking “What am I really trying to accomplish?” can lead to useful insights.
• Creative problem-solving techniques designed to efficiently lead to a fresh perspective that causes a solution to become obvious. This category is useful for solving especially challenging problems (Fobes, 1993). Some of these techniques involve identifying independent dimensions that differentiate (or separate) closely associated concepts (Fobes, 1993). Such techniques can overcome the mind’s instinctive tendency to use “oversimplified associative thinking” in which two related concepts are so closely associated that their differences, and independence from one another, are overlooked (Fobes, 1993).
• Creativity techniques designed to increase the quantity of fresh ideas. This approach reflects the belief that a larger number of ideas increases the chances that one of them has value. Some of these techniques involve randomly selecting an idea (such as choosing a word from a list), thinking about similarities with the undesired situation, and hopefully inspiring a related idea that leads to a solution. Brainstorming is one such technique.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a commonly used creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem. In 1953 the method was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming.

Brainstorming encourages you to think expansively and without constraints. It’s often the wild ideas that spark visionary thoughts. Brainstorming may often be thought of as wild and unstructured, but it in fact is a focused activity that involves a lot of discipline. With careful preparation and a clear set of rules, a brainstorm session can yield hundreds of fresh ideas.

Here are some tips to kickstart your brainstorming work:

1. Start with a well-defined topic. Think about what you want to get out of the session and stay focused on your topic.
2. Aim for quantity to reach quality. More ideas means more opportunities for a great solution to emerge. Set an outrageous goal for the number of ideas you want to generate—then surpass it. The best way to find one good idea is to come up with lots of ideas.

3. Choose brainstorm questions. Select three to five questions for your brainstorm session. Trust your gut feeling: choose those questions that feel exciting and help you think of ideas right away. Also, select the questions that are most important to address, even if they feel difficult to solve for.

4. Defer judgement. There are NO bad ideas at this point. There will be plenty of time to narrow them down later, during the convergence phase.

5. Generate unusual, even “wild” ideas. When brainstorming, analogous inspiration is your best friend. Bring in random influences to help spark new thinking. Even if some of your ideas seem silly or impossible, this is the time when you can use your imagination.

6. Be visual and “sketch to think”. Sketching even a simple representation of an idea makes you think through a lot of details. Stick figures, mind maps, and simple sketches can say more than many words. Brainstorm ways to bring your concept to life early to figure out how you might take an idea further. Draw your ideas, as opposed to just writing them down.

7. Develop “how might we” questions. Evolve your ideas by asking “How might we…?” or “What if…?” questions about each of them. This will encourage you to imagine avenues for further exploration, and to come up with plans to work around constraints you might be facing.

Variations of Brainstorming

There are many variations of brainstorming that people in search of ideas may find useful, including (1) nominal group technique, (2) group passing technique, (3) team idea mapping method, (4) electronic brainstorming, (5) directed brainstorming, and (6) question brainstorming.

Nominal group technique

The nominal group technique is a type of brainstorming that encourages all participants to have an equal say in the process. It is also used to generate a ranked list of ideas.

Participants are asked to first write down their ideas. Then they each share their ideas orally or the moderator collects the ideas and each is voted on by the group. The vote can be as simple as a show of hands in favor of a given idea. This process is called distillation. After distillation, the top-ranked ideas may be sent back to the group or subgroups for further brainstorming. For example, one group may work on the color required in a product. Another group may work on the size, and so forth. Each group will come back to the whole group for ranking the listed ideas. Sometimes ideas that were previously dropped may be brought forward again once the group has re-evaluated the ideas. Like all team efforts, it may take a few practice sessions to train the team in the method before tackling the important ideas.

A variation of nominal technique called affinity technique involves using Post-it notes to first generate ideas and then work together to categorize the Post-it notes (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4 Affinity Technique in Action

Group passing technique

In the group passing technique, each person in a circular group writes down one idea and then passes the piece of paper to the next person in a clockwise direction, who adds some thoughts. This continues until everybody gets his or her original piece of paper back. By this time, it is likely that the group will have extensively elaborated on each idea.

The group may also create an “Idea Book” and post a distribution list or routing slip to the front of the book. On the first page is a description of the problem. The first person to receive the book lists his or her ideas and then routes the book to the next person on the distribution list. The second person can log new ideas or add to the ideas of the previous person. This continues until the distribution list is exhausted. A follow-up “read out” meeting is then held to discuss the ideas logged in the book. This technique takes longer, but it allows individuals time to think deeply about the problem.

Idea mapping method

The idea mapping method of brainstorming works by the method of association. It may improve collaboration and increase the quantity of ideas, and is designed so that all attendees participate and no ideas are rejected.

The process begins with a well-defined topic. Each participant brainstorms individually, then all the ideas are merged onto one large idea map. During this consolidation phase, participants may discover a common understanding of the issues as they share the meanings behind their ideas. During this sharing, new ideas may arise by the association, and they are added to the map as well. Once all the ideas are captured, the group can prioritize and/or take action.

Electronic brainstorming

Electronic brainstorming is a version of the manual brainstorming technique that relies on digital tools like video conference calls, collaborative documents, chat tools, or even email. Participants share a list of ideas, which are entered independently. In synchronous electronic brainstorming, contributions become immediately visible to all and are typically anonymized to encourage openness and reduce personal prejudice. Some digital tools may allow for asynchronous brainstorming sessions over extended periods of time as well as typical follow-up activities in the creative problem-solving process such as categorization of ideas, elimination of duplicates, assessment, and discussion of prioritized or controversial ideas.

Electronic brainstorming eliminates many of the problems of standard brainstorming, such as production blocking and evaluation apprehension. An additional advantage of this method is that all ideas can be archived electronically in their original form, and then retrieved later for further thought and discussion. Electronic brainstorming also enables much larger groups to brainstorm on a topic than would normally be productive in a traditional brainstorming session (Gallupe et al., 1992).

Some web-based brainstorming techniques allow contributors to post their comments anonymously. This technique also allows users to log on over an extended time period, typically one or two weeks, to allow participants some “soak time” before posting their ideas and feedback.

Directed brainstorming

Directed brainstorming is a variation of electronic brainstorming. It can be done manually or with computers. Directed brainstorming works when the solution space (that is, the criteria for evaluating a good idea) is known before the session. If known, that criteria can be used to intentionally constrain the ideation process.

In directed brainstorming, each participant is given one sheet of paper (or electronic form) and told the brainstorming question. They are asked to produce one response and stop, then all of the papers (or forms) are randomly swapped among the participants. Similar to the group passing technique described above, participants are asked to look at the idea they received and to create a new idea that improves on that idea based on the initial criteria. The forms are then swapped again and respondents are asked to improve upon the ideas, and the process is repeated for three or more rounds. In the laboratory, directed brainstorming has been found to almost triple the productivity of groups over electronic brainstorming (Santanen et al.,  2004).

Question Brainstorming

Question brainstorming process involves generating questions, rather than trying to come up with immediate answers and short-term solutions. This technique stimulates creativity and promotes everyone’s participation because no one has to come up with answers. The answers to the questions form the framework for constructing future action plans. Once the list of questions is set, it may be necessary to prioritize them to reach the best solution in an orderly way (Ludy, 2000). Another of the problems for brainstorming can be to find the best evaluation methods for a problem. Brainstorming all the questions has also been called questorming (Roland, 1985).

Evaluating Ideas

Once you have generated a substantial list of ideas through divergent thinking, it becomes necessary to focus in on the ideas that have the highest potential. This brings us to the phase of the ideation process that relies on convergent thinking. To practice convergent thinking, here are some steps to follow:

1. Pattern quest. Cluster related ideas. Spend a few minutes immediately after a brainstorming session grouping together similar ideas into categories or buckets. Step back and identify important patterns that have emerged in your data. Try to find overlaps, themes, contradictions and tensions as they relate to each other.
2. Grow an idea. Mix and match elements of ideas to create even better ones. By remixing and combining ideas, whether good or bad, feasible or infeasible, you will generate new ones.
3. Narrow the set. When engaging in divergent thinking, you are developing ideas without giving much thought to the constraints you may face while attempting to realize it. With a shift to convergent thinking, it makes sense to now do a reality check: look at what’s most important about your idea and find ways to evolve and develop it further. Now is the time for evaluation. Decide what makes some of your ideas more feasible and viable than others. Look at all of the ideas you have generated, then decide which you want to try to build and test first.
4. List constraints. Make a list of all the challenges and barriers you are facing with your idea. What are you missing? Who would oppose the idea? What will be most difficult to overcome? You can engage in additional brainstorming to consider how you might address some of these challenges.
5. Archive ideas. Let go of ideas that feel too difficult to create, or that you are not excited about. But keep your Post-its and notes so you can revisit them later!

Here are some other idea evaluation techniques to help you explore ideas in more depth. In most cases it is useful to remember that your options aren’t necessarily limited to the ones that are currently on the table. If you can’t decide between two ideas, you can try to find a new option that combines the benefits of both, and addresses key concerns. These tools also help you to get a better understanding of your priorities, even if you don’t end up proceeding with any of the options exactly as they are.

Pros & Cons

This tool can be used to decide between different options and to identify different needs and priorities around an issue. For each idea, list the benefits (pros) and drawbacks (cons) and compare the results. Most groups will benefit from a third category of ‘other’ or ‘interesting’ to capture any points that aren’t obviously a pro or a con. You could do this in the form of a table or a mind map.

In groups, this process can be completed as a full group or in pairs. You could also task sub-groups to work on either the pros or the cons of a different idea each and then report back to the whole group. Sometimes groups find it helpful to score the pros and cons according to how significant of an advantage/disadvantage they are. For example, if a shared household was choosing a new kitchen table, ‘We can’t afford it’ might be ranked as 9/10, and ‘We don’t like the color’ might only rank 2/10, because it could be re-painted.

There are a few things to be aware of when considering pros and cons in a group. First, you may find that you don’t all agree on what is a pro and what is a con. Alternately, you might have different views on which pros and cons are most significant. This can be a great starting point for discussion about your differences. However, it helps to think in advance how you will take differences into account when taking note of people’s answers. For example, record the same point in both the pros and cons column if people don’t agree. Or, instead of trying to find a definitive whole-group score to measure how significant each point is, use a tool that allows each person to give their own answer.

Urgent/Important Grid

This is a classic time-management tool that can be applied to prioritizing ideas! First, map the ideas according to their urgency and importance. Urgency refers to the timeliness of an idea – things that are urgent must be addressed immediately. Importance, on the other hand, refers to how central an idea is to our key objectives. For example, as an entrepreneur, responding to an email from a supplier about a shipment may be urgent. In contrast, cultivating new customer relationships is a critically important task that doesn’t have a clear timeline, which can lead an entrepreneur to feel less urgency about it.

You can use this tool on a whiteboard, paper, or even the floor. If you are using the floor, it is best to mark the lines using string or masking tape, so that it is easy to see the whole grid. Add labels at the end of the lines to remind people what they mean (see Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5 Urgent/Important Grid

Ranking Ideas

This is a great technique for using in small groups. Write each idea on a card or post-it note, and give each group a full set of cards/notes. Set a time limit and ask the groups to rank the options, or to reduce the options to the top three options. It’s helpful to set out clear criteria for ranking at the start. For example, “You’ve got 15 minutes. We’re looking for ideas that need to be done most urgently, are most important, and yet realistic with the resources available. Also we’ve only got a month to make it happen, so please think about what we can realistically achieve in the time available.”

The Difference Between Ideas and Opportunities

Aspiring entrepreneurs can come up with ideas all day long. During the ideation phase, we stress that there are no such things as bad ideas in the spirit of being generative. But realistically, at the end of the day, not every idea is necessarily a good idea. In the field of entrepreneurship, specific criteria distinguish an idea from an opportunity. In other words, we must determine whether an idea meets the criteria by which is can be translated into an entrepreneurial opportunity. Entrepreneurial opportunity is the point at which identifiable consumer demand (i.e., is there a market) meets the entrepreneur’s ability to (profitably) deliver the requested product or service (i.e., do we have the resources and skills needed). This aligns with the three design thinking criteria that were previously highlighted: desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Once you have determined – through as many iterative rounds of divergent and convergent thinking as needed – that your idea has potential, you can begin to validate whether or not it represents an entrepreneurial opportunity. This requires additional market analysis, developing a business model, and testing and experimenting to refine your solution. These processes will be discussed further in future chapters.

Attributions: Material from the following open source texts was adapted and integrated into this chapter.

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