Thinking like an Extremist
"Man built most nobly when limitations were at their greatest."— Frank Lloyd Wright (probably America's best known architect)
Creativity is the process of changing, combining and reapplying existing ideas, so that fresh solutions and perspectives can be achieved. Thus, a creative idea is intuitively recognised for its fresh quality. We also recognise it because it promises a solution despite the constraints which gave rise to the original problematic situation.
One approach to take in order to tap your creativity is to think like an extremist. No, we don't mean turning into a political or religious extremist! We mean THINK of EXTREMES, gain clarity of the problem by changing its scale. EXTREME thinking is represented by the following ways:
1. Change the scale of your resources to the EXTREME minimum
During our Creative Problem-solving workshops, we've noticed that our participants become more inventive and 'out-of-the-box' in their solutions to problems, when we reduce their resource pool to near-scarcity. These resources include time, materials and human. The opposite is true too - in plenty, our participants' behaviour reflects what goes on in most prosperous societies every minute: a false reliance on the quantity of resources, rather than the quality of our thinking. However, when pushed to an EXTREME, limited by resources, fresh approaches emerge.
2. Change the scale of the end-result to the EXTREME maximum
Creativity is the process of changing, combining and reapplying existing ideas, so that fresh solutions and perspectives can be achieved. Thus, a creative idea is intuitively recognised for its fresh quality. We also recognise it because it promises a solution despite the constraints which gave rise to the original problematic situation.
One approach to take in order to tap your creativity is to think like an extremist. No, we don't mean turning into a political or religious extremist! We mean THINK of EXTREMES, gain clarity of the problem by changing its scale. EXTREME thinking is represented by the following ways:
1. Change the scale of your resources to the EXTREME minimum
During our Creative Problem-solving workshops, we've noticed that our participants become more inventive and 'out-of-the-box' in their solutions to problems, when we reduce their resource pool to near-scarcity. These resources include time, materials and human. The opposite is true too - in plenty, our participants' behaviour reflects what goes on in most prosperous societies every minute: a false reliance on the quantity of resources, rather than the quality of our thinking. However, when pushed to an EXTREME, limited by resources, fresh approaches emerge.
2. Change the scale of the end-result to the EXTREME maximum
Think of an EXTREME scenario - be the world's largest 24-hr bookstore, develop sustainable life-essential resources for a country, build a fortification that could stand against the wildest of attackers. Well, the first of those situations led to Amazon and the second led to Singapore developing her own 4 'national taps' to ensure a sustainable water supply. As for the 3rd, the barbarians from the Asian steppe entered China by treachery rather than by direct breach of the Great Wall, which is incidentally the only Man-made structure visible from space orbit around Earth.
Common to all 3 examples is that they were achieved despite the perceived limitations of existing resources at point of inception, yet, each represents an inventive approach to developing a capability to overcome a challenge.
In our practice, we find that this mode of thinking is particularly useful for strategic planning, when members are gridlocked by a perception that resources are insufficient.
3. Frame the problem EXTREMELY
Because we get 'de-sensitised' by daily problems, EXTREME Thinking helps elevate a problem to a conscious level or a different level of consciousness We do this by framing the problem EXTREMELY - eg. 'our lack of creativity is a national shame'. If we want to remove the 'shame', our lack of creativity can be addressed by looking for success stories in creativity that could be described as national pride and by understanding what makes them work. Usually, this process leads us to other solutions, rather than giving us the final creative solution.
Be an Extremist today, try these methods out, and start solving problems creatively.
Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher
(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)
posted by Trailblazer Trainers @ 11:19 pm
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