Thinking creatively and changing mindsets: how to break boundaries and & come up with superhero solutions

The other week I attended an excellent creativity techniques workshop with the Ideas Centre Group, a UK based group bringing the power of creative thinking to organisations. I gained two things from this: a greater appreciation of creative thinking techniques and insight into why it’s sometimes difficult to convince others to invest time and resources in helping people learn to become more creative and develop a positive learning mindset. In this post I’ll share my experiences of the creative techniques, discuss why creativity is so important and consider how experiential knowledge is crucial to recognising the merit of mindset change and creativity. 

 “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” Edward de Bono

There were two stages to the workshop. First, someone proposed a problem which we would unpack and unravel using a boundary breaking method. Second, we would adopt a pattern smashing technique in order to solve the problem with novel and useful ideas. The two stages complement each other because one of the key reasons problems fail to be solved successfully is because they have been ill-defined to begin with. Also, the ideas we’re looking for are ones which take us over and beyond the problem, these cannot simply be novel, unusual, they must also be useful[1].

Why creative thinking?

Creative thinking is something which can make the difference between incremental and exponential change to the way we work and address problems. Our brains are incredibly effective at finding patterns, associations, and identifying discrepancies and errors[2]. But these processes depend on prior experience and knowledge. They can help us make incremental, step by step refinements, but time is against us if we hope to make rapid improvement. The philosopher of science Michael Polanyi discussed this in his seminal text, ‘Personal Knowledge’, by describing how Einstein did not arrive at his ground breaking theories through systemic empirical testing and re-testing but through deep thought about the problems and then working on hunches, tacit understandings and testing the perceptual insights he formed. As we all now know, what was purely theoretical, and speculative, turned out to be true.

I’ve heard people in education and business refer to the methods used by 2012 UK Olympic cycling team as the model to adopt. They were incredibly successful wining seven out of 10 track cycling gold medals in London. This success has been attributed to the concept “aggregation of marginal gains” for improvement. Their director of performance, Dave Brailsford, described this, "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together."[3] This method has been seen in comparison with Lean and Six Sigma approaches in business. In education, some have advocated greater data collection and analysis as a means to identify processes and techniques which can be improved. Even the idea of helping students move bit by bit up the assessment criteria bands has parallels with this approach. 

Beyond incrementalism

Yes, some gains can be made. But businesses, schools, universities, public organisations are all multifaceted and complex systems. Olympic cycling is not simple, there are many factors which come into play and actual race performance relies on the complex and positive synergy of these factors. However, what can and cannot be done with a bike, with a cyclist, what the goals are and how success will be measured are all carefully and meticulously regulated. Finding the pillow which provides the best sleep maybe a small detail but for each cyclist there will be one race at a time, one goal to cross the line quickest. In the world of business and education, law and regulation set broader boundaries and the core elements are largely free from fixed constraints: what and how a product or service is designed and created; where and when interactions between learners and teachers occur, or between clients and sellers. In fact, it is even in the hands of shareholders and stakeholders to define and change the criteria for success[4]. 

Students’ can also make incremental progress, refining their techniques to write explanatory paragraphs, adding more detail to answers, learning new formulas or vocabulary. But often the biggest leaps academically occur when students suddenly grasp the importance of threshold concepts[5], make deep level connections between their worlds and the content of the curriculum. In each case, a creative dynamic comes into play for real success which operates at a cognitive level beyond linear processes. 

There are many problems which can be fixed by small incremental improvements. Bad habits can be broken by little changes to behaviour resulting in increased health and well-being. But what if you’re trying to solve the wrong problem? What if there could be a totally different way around the problem which requires a different path altogether?

Recognising the power of imagination

When was the first digital camera invented? Yes, way back in 1975 by Kodak engineer Steven Sasson. It’s thanks to Steve you spent the 80s being able to take thousands of photos of friends and families which are all easily stored on your pc. Hang on, that’s all wrong. Wasn’t it the late 90s before we saw digital cameras commercially available? And where’s Kodak now? The company were leading the way in digital photography but shelved it all because they couldn’t see a problem with conventional film. Why would they, the company had made its name and money producing quality photography film? Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s they appeared a business devoid of a creative mindset. Now they are no more[6]. 

Defining the problem

 Eduardo de Bono understood that our first reaction to thinking or hearing about a problem is to find the quickest useful means to solve it. When faced with everyday problems, where to park, how to print a report, who to talk to about the drains, what to wear to the party, quick and useful solutions are what we need. But successfully solving demanding and multifaceted problems are resistant to quick and useful. Multiple factors are at play; the problem will reside within a complex system and any one solution will create a range of outputs not all of which will be satisfactory. The difficulty of keeping all this live in our minds as we ponder each option is stressful and there is a strong temptation to fall back on apparently ‘tried and tested’, what everyone else would do, the cheapest, simplest, least risky. Deep down we know this is unsatisfactory, we’re sure someone else is going to leap ahead of us sooner or later.

De Bono’s technique to address this inadequate tendency was the first technique we practiced in the workshop. It’s called Boundary Breaking and starts from the assumption that many good solutions are hard to find because the problem is ill defined. Unpacking the assumptions behind a stated problem, deconstructing it and redefining it is the first step towards novel and useful solutions.

In the creativity workshop I proposed we address this problem:

How can we measure the return on investment (ROI) of training?

This was accepted and the first task was to identify the key words forming the description of the problem: we, measure, ROI, training. Next we listed as many synonyms as we could think of related to each word. Which of these may better reflect what sat behind my initial problem? Is there a better way of approaching the problem? 

When the list of synonyms had been created, I was asked to identify any words which might better identify what I saw as the problem. We talked a good deal about ‘measure’. Did I really want a new measurement model? Can everything of value to an organisation’s success be effectively measured? This led to discussion about ‘training’. Was I interested in all kinds of training or a particular kind of staff development involving training? ROI itself was also explored. How was this metric used in businesses? Who is worried about this? These discussions led to the view that what I was really interested in was convincing the CEO or board that they should give the green light to the HR director to invest. In relation to resourcing mindset change, ROI may appear the right language to use but may actually be part of the problem.

 With these ideas and new words explored, the problem was re-formulated. This was both for clarification and to sharpen focus.

In what way might the HR Director guarantee the buy in of the CEO to implement mindset change within the business?         

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Problem solving superheroes

Seeing beyond problem blocks requires imagination and often a leap of faith. We find these hard to rely on when faced with a big problem angrily staring us in the face. Fight or flight take hold, or we simply hide under the blanket of received wisdom and hope for the best. But what we really need is to stay calm and draw deeply from our brain’s capacity for amazing invention, playfulness, intuition and complexity unravelling. Creativity techniques are tools we can use to help us rise above problems and see solutions where none appeared before. 

One technique we used in the workshop was called ‘Superheroes’. This involves picking a card from a stack, each containing a description of a superhero. You then have to solve the problem under focus using the powers and skills of your superhero[7]. The technique is similar to RoleStorming but you have the added advantage of incredible powers. Why are special powers necessary? It’s the amazing talents, strengths, and abilities of superheroes which helps us imagine what are called ‘intermediate impossibles’ – these are novel but useless solutions. These allow us to see beyond the blocks, they expose weaknesses in our perceptions of problems, and they generate innovative ideas. They avoid the trap of quick and easy solutions, pushing our thinking to the divergent. When these ideas are formulated we can assess them more rationally, convergently, to see whether they provide clues to novel and useful solutions.

I picked Batman and came up with the following solution to the problem:

Batman would set cunning traps for the senior management team, including CEO, to fall into. These would expose their weaknesses in such a way as to reveal the value of strong learning dispositions and positive mindsets. Shamed and embarrassed, the CEO will guarantee a new programme to ensure everyone receives mindset change training and interventions.

As ingenious as my solution appeared, the group I was in preferred the solution offered by Nova Kane:

Nova Kane would use her super strength to capture and tie up the company’s senior staff. She would then offer them the choice of perpetual captivity or the chance of seeing her and her friends (male and female) perform their most amazingly seductive dancing. All the top people had to do was to agree to give mindset training a chance during the next 6 months. Faced with the threat, on the one hand, and the promise of seeing Nova Kane’s dancing, on the other hand, the SMT would concede to the trial.

New insights to address complex problems

What came out of this was clearly not a straight forward plan to solve the problem. But the exercise did bring a realisation that some ROI have to be experienced to be appreciated. Not until there is real buy-in from above through experiential knowledge of the value of changed mindsets is there likely to be real progress in implementing this kind of training throughout an organisation. Nova Kane was supremely confident that no one could resist the chance to experience her dancing – I need to have the same poise concerning the appeal of mindset change training!

This makes more sense than in might appear at first sight. The reality is that when we progress pass Level 2 in Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model, increasing numbers of factors begin to complicate the easy measurement of training impact. Furthermore, if we move beyond practical, procedural, compliancy training and move into training designed to change mindsets and cultures, habits of working practices, then evaluating effects are even more complex because the resulting benefits may be aspects of performance no one thought would be changed. The use of big data can be helpful in these situations but very few companies are set up to collect – real-time, big data and have the tools to analyse this purposefully[8]. Consequently, the problem cannot be solved by focusing on regular ROI metrics, taste and see the transformation is what’s needed[9].

The dance of convergent and divergent thought 

The effectiveness of the techniques lies in the movement between convergent and divergent thinking, exploring both problems and possible solutions in a dance between the logical, rational paths of thinking and the imaginative and divergent. The problem owner, aided by others, has to be one looking for a solution. I came to the workshop with concerns and challenges in my mind, the techniques helped me think about these differently. The solutions in this case were less hands-on and more theoretical, but these techniques have been used to solve very practical problems too. 

• Never underestimate the value of developing your thinking capabilities.
• Recognise the limitations of linear, incremental, approaches to problem solving.
• Treasure the unusual and curious potential of human imagination to leap beyond the known.
• Learn about creative and divergent thinking techniques and try them out.

Pathways to improvement 

Here are some final thoughts on what I’d like to see happen. First, we need to understand what creativity and divergent thinking is and is not. I'm still amazed that some people continue to think creativity solely means being artistic! Second, creativity needs to be seen as learnable, something we can all become better at. Third, creativity is deeply related to other learning dimensions (especially critical curiosity and meaning making - see research on the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory, University of Bristol). Fourth, organisations need to recognise the limitations of providing one-off training days packed with techniques to think divergently. These may be engaging but people need help integrating creative thinking dispositions into their daily working practices. This requires longer-term support, mentoring, a culture where risk-taking can occur safely, and a vision for what can be achieved when people's talents are allowed to flourish.

Achieving these goals requires the learning paradigm shift - an organisational cultural recognition that learning & development cannot just be about compliance or process training but has to embrace a holistic approach to realising personal potential through learning to learn empowerment.

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Thanks for reading. If you’ve appreciated the post please ‘like’ and share with your network. More posts can be found at https://www.dhirubhai.net/today/author/nigel-newton-76992624 

Nigel Newton is a consultant, speaker and educational researcher working to help organisations and individuals realise their potential. 

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References

[1] There may be a place for novel but useless ideas in the world, where the random or absurd may bring pleasure and challenge perceptions, but even here there is a purpose – a utility.

[2] There is research on ‘Patternicity’ which is interesting. It’s also worth making the point that divergent and creative thinking are different but highly complementary. Divergent thinking is often thought of as an essential component to much creative thinking. Consequently, teaching divergent thinking techniques is sometimes seen as a helpful step towards helping people become more creative.

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/19174302 

[4] There are also strong links between creative thinking and “integrative thinking”. This was a concept developed by Roger Martin at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto back in the 1980s. It’s described as "...the ability to constructively face the tensions of opposing models, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model that contains elements of the individual models, but is superior to each." Crucially, one argument made by advocates of this approach is that attempts to look for simple models of causation in business to solve problems doesn’t work. A recent article to read is “How successful leaders think”.

[5] The idea of “threshold concepts” derives from research by Jan Meyer and Ray Land on undergraduate learning in the UK. There is much debate about their ideas, particularly “liminal space”. But the holistic qualities of this approach are well worth exploring. I’d recommend reading: Barradell, S., & Kennedy-Jones, M. (2015). Threshold concepts, student learning and curriculum: making connections between theory and practice. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 52(5), 536-545.

[6] https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/kodaks-first-digital-moment

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgwkt_ldFlI

[8] The focus of the problem related to workplace training. But I see similarities to the challenge of convincing teachers to spend time teaching students to learn to learn, or engage in metacognitive training. Some teachers feel this is not a priority, it’s lost time, all focus should be the curriculum content. It seems to these teachers that this is measurable - students study the course content, they will pass the exams. But this ignores the fact that many students are making the progress they should because they are weak, dependent learners. Some may spend time studying but do so ineffectually because their approach to study is inadequate. Time spent on learning to learn is never time wasted.

[9] An interesting comparison can be drawn between this conclusion and research about the need for teachers to become more creative, if they are going to help students become more creative. https://theconversation.com/how-to-promote-creativity-in-the-classroom-51838