Archiv der Kategorie: Creativity

Creativity covers the area from idea generation to concept development.

The Way out of unimaginativeness

It is wrong to believe that everybody must find new things. Ideas alone are not sufficient. They must also be designed, applied and continuously shared. This requires designers, application specialists and communicators. However, without the idea generator there is nothing to convert. Nevertheless many people believe that they should be part of the idea finding. But for some people the white sheet of paper, which has to be filled with the idea, is an insurmountable hurdle. The Way helps out of the unimaginativeness.

Ideenlosigkeit

If you have no idea and you start copying results without thinking, you cannot choose an idea or you complain about not having time to think, then you need a way out of unimaginativeness. For this purpose the next three steps may help.

  • Thinking
    Above anything else it is important that you take time for thinking. You can choose how this works best for you. Some people walk around the block and find thereby their solution. Others browse through books or magazines and pick up a thread. Still others need a sheet of paper, which they fill with sketches and scraps of words that result after several iterations in a consistent structure. No matter how, you have to invest time. Without time nothing else remains for you, than leave yourself to the fate of the unimaginativeness.
  • Developing
    After the idea is there, the real work begins. The individual aspects must now be prepared and reconciled. This step follows seamlessly the first one. Now it is important to research and collect facts and eventually to describe a consistent paper that fits into the desired context. This requires more time than first one. For this reason it is suggested to accomplish these elaborations in a team. Based on the first step, you have sufficient material, in order to distribute the work across several shoulders. In addition you receive additional perspectives that lift the concept over the first hurdles of critics. Also in this step you must accept that you have to invest time.
  • Internalizing
    After the paper is ready, it has to fit into reality. This can only be done, after you internalized it. For this purpose, you read the results and consider how you can apply them. Now, you can go into the first application and identify and adapt the last flaws. If you launch too early in the target areas, the flaws grow exponentially and the draft does not have a fair chance to survive. Also the internalization needs sufficient time, in order to achieve their targets.

If you do not start to follow the path, then you already arrived at the goal – or in other words, no sweet without sweat. Exactly the same happens with the unimaginativeness. If you do not take time, in order to think about the circumstances, to develop and to internalize the concept, you remain without ideas. In this case other capabilities do not help.

Bottom line: Ideas do not fall from the sky, but they are the result of arduous and continuous thinking work. It follows the steps of thinking, developing and internalizing. This way out of the unimaginativeness requires effort and time. Not everybody has to walk through each phase. For you it is only important to find out, which part of the way fits best to you.

What actually disturbs solving a problem?

An enemy of problem solving is the problem blindness. Problems exist, where the targets are not reached. This happens in simple activities exactly like in complex, long-term activities and projects. Even established solutions fail because of the perception of the acting people. What actually disturbs solving a problem?

Problem

The following aspects disturb solving a problem.

  • There is no problem
    Sometimes we recognize problems, where actually are none. It can be a task that is yet finished, which simply take a certain time. In other cases the problems are so big that we do not recognize them, e.g. today’s economic crises or the social shifts. Accordingly problems can be so small that we overlook them. This includes the damages that we expect in our body, by the intake of certain medicines or the drinking of water that is polluted below safety level. Already looking in another direction prevents the timely recognition of a problem. Everybody, who paid attention to the right hand traffic at a crossing and was hit from the left side, knows this. Eventually it also could be that maybe there is simply no problem.
  • The problem is not sufficiently specified
    Sometimes it is a certain cause that is missing. Who did not ever switch the PC on and the monitor remained black? If something is missing on the checklist in your head, the screen will remain dark. The way to solving the problem can be also obstructed by an insufficient description of the effects. We take our PC that is running in the meantime. Unfortunately the familiar Windows user interface does not appear. As long as your hotline does not get the message “Please do not power off or unplug your machine …”, the specialist pokes around in the dark. It becomes also very difficult, if too much information is presupposed. Thus, copying a text will become a problem for a computer beginner, if he does not know the available functions for the operation of a mouse: Clicks, double clicks, pressed mouse button, etc.
  • The problem gets stuck in unconscious assumptions
    Sometimes simply the words are missing, in order to seize the problem. Technicians often wonder that their perfect solutions do not get the expected acceptance by the customer. They overlook that customers do not consider the technical, but also the emotional aspects of the design, the usability and the haptics. Frequently the solution hides itself behind logical conclusions that are imposed by our experience. We remember the Fosbury Flop, i.e. the technology of high jump that reached new heights by the “back first” technique over the bar. Previously, everybody implied that one would have to jump forward over the bar. But it is only a matter to jump across a bar as high as possible without any means.
  • The solution is stuck in a dead end
    Sometimes, you are simply too late, because somebody else already solved the problem. If for example a colleague already put the plug of the supply cord back into the socket (see above). The solutions that we do not want are uncomfortable, because we don’t like them. Imagine that you have two important appointments at the same time in the calendar. You would not like to leave one to a colleague. But many difficulties cannot be solved alone. Then, you need the help of somebody. Some problem solutions fall into stagnation, because nobody needs them at exactly this moment. Eventually it exists always the possibility that there is no solution at all. The earlier you understand it, the better.

Bottom line: A clear problem awareness is the key to the solution.