Mastering the Five Levels of Creativity (Part 2)
Bisociative Creativity: Bisociative is a term coined by the controversial novelist Arthur Koestler in his celebrated book The Act of Creation to describe how our conscious mind, when relaxed, can connect rational with intuitive thoughts to produce eureka moments. In the Zen tradition this act of communion is called satori, meaning sudden enlightenment. Bisociative creativity occurs when a familiar idea is connected to an unfamiliar one to produce a novel hybrid. Though connecting ideas is often done through more contemplative means, it can also be stimulated by bombarding the mind with a barrage of random thoughts to see what catches. The general description for this type of activity is called brainstorming. For example, in 1994, while coming out of a near bankruptcy experience and working on Toy Story their first feature film, four of the original Pixar directors had lunch at a diner and brainstormed ideas about movies they wanted make. Building on each other’s concepts, from this one informal meeting came A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and WALL-E. The motion picture industry was changed in an afternoon by Hollywood outsiders throwing ideas together.
Bisociative creativity builds on the electrifying dynamics of the 3F’s:
- Fluency – It is more productive to have lots of unpolished ideas than a few “good” ones because the greater the diversity of ideas the wider the range of possible solutions
- Flexibility – Often we have the “right” idea but we’ve put in the “wrong” place so we have to move them around to see where they best fit to meet our challenges
- Flow – We aren’t creative on demand. We need to be both simulated and relaxed to draw out the energy required to create. Ideas pour out smoothly when we get into a groove
Bisociative creativity can be a solitary and tranquil endeavor but more often in America is a chatty, humorous and free flowing group experience. Brainstorming sessions often look like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during trading hours – noisy, chaotic and animated. Stimulating, interacting and capturing ideas as they pour out requires some means of energizing and documenting the workflow – play toys, music, white boards, sticky-notes and the like. The key is to create momentum to activate bisociative thinking while keeping the group on task.
How to Improve Your Bisociative Creativity:
- Random Words – Pick up a dictionary or any book for that matter and open it up and point to a random word. Connect your challenge to that word. For example, let’s say you are trying to find funding for a new restaurant and you finger lands on the word “bicycle”. You might get the idea to put your restaurant on wheels or provide delivery service only. Both ideas would lower the amount of money needed to start the business. Several companies sell idea checklists and phone apps to make this process a little more structured.
- SCAMPER – Adverting executive extraordinaire Alex Osborne is largely credited with coining the term brainstorming in his 1942 book How to Think Up. Osborn posed six questions that were later turned into the acronym SCAMPER: What can we…Substitute? Combine? Adapt? Magnify? Put to other uses? Eliminate? Reverse? By asking these simple questions you connect ideas and actions in new ways to easily produce useful variations.
- Thinking Hats – Physician Edward de Bono developed a method for indirect creative reasoning he calls lateral thinking. The basic idea is to think around a problem instead of trying to solve it directly. This allows individuals and groups to have a wider range of creative approaches to a challenge and to identify their blind spots. The six thinking hats represent different types of thinking and roles played by group members: Blue- Objectives, White- Information, Red- Emotions, Black- Judgment, Yellow- Optimism, and Green- Creativity. This technique is often used when you want to get a new angle on a problem.
Here are some resources to help you jumpstart your creativity:
How to…
- Random Words – A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech. There is also an app: Creative Whack Pack by Creative Think.
- SCAMPER – Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking by Michael Michalko
- Thinking Hats – Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono
What bisociative creativity methods and resources do you find most useful?
To learn more about how bisociative creativity works you might want to read The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler.
It’s time to start connecting some dots to see what great ideas emerge. Remember, a creative life means you make it up as you go along.
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Global Business Consultant
8yThe source of real professional growth and innovation is tapping into your own personal unique value and creativity.
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10ygood morning
Integrated Digital Creative
10yAside from the paradox of trying to define a process for creativity, I wanted to flag something that I believe fundamentally stands in the way of the possibility for most 'normal' people to be truly creative. In order to start making the kinds of lateral associations between seemingly unrelated or opposing things which, as a 'process', forms much of that which is considered to be an act of creativity - one must be willing to challenge even their most fundamental assumptions about practically everything, in order to ensure that those assumptions are not obscuring your view of the actual truth of something. I believe this kind of genuine objectivity to be very difficult for most people to achieve, especially those who have experienced a corporate culture based upon conformity to an entire set of cultural assumptions as well as really just anyone who has grown up surrounded by a ceaseless onslaught of tabloid trash media, with it's undertone of instilling fear-based prejudices. One completely random example: the prolifically creative Pharrell - a man who writes, produces and often performs major hit after major hit song, seemingly at will. This man can get away with wearing a Canadian Mountie hat on stage at the Oscars - a Canadian mountie hat ! How does he pull that off ?? Now, am I saying that if you want to be truly creative that you should wear a Canadian Mountie hat ? NO. I'm saying that if you spontaneously decided that you wanted to wear a Canadian Mountie hat, there should be no assumptions residing in your mind as to why you can not do that. Why can't you wear a Canadian Mountie hat ? In western culture we are constantly battling different forms of more or less 'that's not the way we do it round here' or 'we've always done it this way', 'that's a dumb idea' or 'just try to fit in'. If you are able to set your mind free to flow without such inhibitions, you will be well placed to make those lateral connections between things and achieve genuine acts of creativity.
Joint Manager- Customer Service & Market Development at GREENSTAR FERTILIZERS Ltd.
10yNice write up! Thank you for sharing!
Copywriter, 30-year plus senior marketing executive, email marketing specialist and owner of Lytle Farms B&B
10yI've always held that we have the only profession where a shot of tequila is considered professional development. Seriously, in order to be creative we must be essentially happy SO THAT the creative juices flow. Stifled linear thinking just doesn't work. I'm feeling much better about our staff meetings now too! Peace.