Daniel Theyagu Unclog your Creative Potential.........
A general misconception is that there is nothing new under the sun and no more new opportunities to exploit.
Expressions such as: ‘good jobs have all been taken’; ‘I simply don’t have the calibre’; ‘I will get an idea as to what to
do eventually’. The reality is, these are just excuses and nothing more.
Success is your birth right, yet you have to initiate the process. There is no such thing as the right moment. You need
to unclog the creative potential that is inherent in you. This can occur if you apply certain mind tools that will unleash
your creativity. Here’s how:
Applied Imagination: The term was coined in the 1950's by Alex Osborn, who suggested that creativity stems from the
mind's ability to view a situation in innovative ways. Imagination is the seed of creativity. When you apply this to a
situation that is confronting you, ideas start to flow.
For instance, in 1810 canned food was discovered. However cans require a can opener. Subsequent inventors tried
making a better can opener. Ermal Cleon Fraze decided to do some applied imagination to the situation. What if an
opening tool was added to the can itself without the need for a can opener? This situation was resolved by pop-top
aluminium cans in 1959.
Convergent Thinking: Creativity is not necessarily about thinking out of the box. Sometimes creativity involves
convergent thinking that focuses on an existing problem by eliminating the unnecessary details and coming up with a
workable solution.
Chester Carlson invented the photocopier in 1938 and his company became known as Xerox. The early photocopiers
were expensive and unpopular. Using convergent thinking on how to get corporations to use the photocopier Xerox
came up with a brilliant idea to rent rather than sell photocopiers thus leaving the maintenance and servicing
contracts with Xerox.
Divergent thinking: Creativity is also about divergent thinking. This is when you are in a status quo position that isn't
really desirable and you want to move to a more ideal situation. Divergent thinking allows you to look at new ideas
and possible solutions to resolve recurrent issues.
Here you need to think out of the box and to achieve this you will have to know the direction in which you want to
proceed and work towards it an objective and constructive way. Creative divergent thinking involves gathering as
much data as possible and seeing how to use this data effectively to resolving the problem or finding an innovative
solution.
An example: when timber is cut there is lots of sawdust being produced which is treated both as being a health
hazard and waste. Can the sawdust be used for something else instead? With divergent creative thinking sawdust has
found many other uses such as cat litter, chipboard and as a fuel.
Bisociation: Arthur Koestler mentioned this in his 1964 book ‘The Act of Creation’ as the ability to relate things that
were previously unrelated.
For instance if you were to take a panther which is black and imagine it was pink you get the iconic pink panther.
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio. Although these two men never
met, today most of us carry a devise that combines these two inventions – the mobile phone.
During 2014, invest some time explore the inner realms of your wonderful brain to see how you can unclog your
creative potential to be a tremendous asset to your firm and most importantly, to yourself.
Daniel Theyagu has been in the training industry since 1989. A former air force pilot,
he has designed and conducted trainings for over 200 companies in Singapore,
SE Asia and internationally. He heads up Lateral Solutions Consultancy, is an adjunct
trainer with Nanyang Technological University, has authored five bestseller books
and hundreds of articles and white papers. Website: http://www.lateralsc.com/
or [email protected]