We often do what we have always done and there is therefore a lot of room for improvement by questioning and changing perspectives.
Different people can have completely different experiences when confronted with the same stimulus. A certain piece of music can be perceived by one person as something happy and positive while another person associates the same music with a broken heart. The same music can therefore give rise to both elated joy and deep sadness.
Continue reading “Seeing things from different perspectives”
Here is another set of riddles that are designed to test your ability to think differently.
Here are ten insight riddles that require a somewhat different “lateral” thinking to solve, i.e. breaking out of the normal thought barriers.
Continue reading “Can you solve these outside-the-box riddles?”
With the brain in autopilot mode, we can perform many everyday tasks without any conscious effort. But as for anything else in the world, we pay a price for this ability to filter out the impulses that reach us.
With the autopilot turned on and the filters at the max mode, we simultaneously deprive ourselves from many experiences that both could enrich our daily lives and increase our creativity. Instead, this void is filled up by an endless monkey noise of thoughts that control us as much as we control them. Sometimes this may be good for creativity, but as often it is unwelcome thoughts focussing on problems and negative things.
Sometimes bizarre jokes and other unexpected and unrelated input could act as stimuli to come up with new and simple solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.
The concept of lateral thinking was introduced in the 1960s by the Maltese physician and creativity educator Edward de Bono, who has written more than 50 books on thinking and creativity. The concept of lateral thinking is based on finding as many answers as possible (divergent thinking). This is done by considering as many different choices as possible, some of which may be incorrect. The thinking is provocative and the solutions should be completely unexpected.
Continue reading “Outside the box solution: Cutting off the legs of the employees”
An acctive listening is the basis for true understanding.
All human progress starts with communication. Without learning from others, understanding challenges and problems, receiving constructive input and feedback that make us grow, and getting our points across, we can never reach our full potential as creative human beings.
Yet, we are often bad at communication, and what we may perceive as a meaningful dialogue, is too often parallel monologues where two persons are talking, and no one is listening.
To make the whole society more creative, a revolution is needed, which collectively demands our creative birth right.
Creativity is to come up with new ideas or expressions regardless of what aspect of life it concerns. Creativity is about the creative process – how to dig into a problem and about the result – the idea, the invention, the artwork, the feeling, the laughter. Creativity can range from everyday life’s simple problem solving to artistic expression, research, business development, politics, how we live our lives and how we become happy.
Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery that could lead to great innovation. But it requires an open mind.
When enough people in different ways seek solutions to different problems, it becomes inevitable that chance does not only pose problems, but also helps to find new innovative solutions – a phenomenon known as serendipity. The history of science is filled with such stories and some of the most spectacular discoveries can be attributed to a combination of happy coincidence and scientists with the ability to see and take advantage of the opportunities.
When asking questions, it is important not only to settle with the answers given to us, but to constantly expand our understanding by posing the simple but critical follow-up questions: “Who?“, “What?“, “When?“, “Where?“, “How?” And perhaps most importantly, “Why?” The answers to these questions mean that we do not miss contexts that may not be obvious at first glance. The answers will also open up doors for new questions that give us an even deeper understanding. This understanding, stemming from our curiosity, gives us the ability to see patterns and contexts much earlier than others.
Getting into the wonderful state of flow
Play is a vital part of our lives. As young children, it is through play that we gradually learn to master a complex world. In play, the child can mimic the adults, test boundaries and learn how to act and behave in their own environment and react in different situations. But play is not only for children; it also has a number of benefits for adults. In play and playful activities, we can be absorbed and end up in the state of total presence and the feeling of being one with an activity we sometimes call “flow“.
Of all our various creative abilities, curiosity is perhaps the most important. It’s hard to imagine any creativity or human development without curiosity; This amazing ability makes us not only interested in our environment but also in ourselves. Curiosity makes us read books. Curiosity makes us ask the question “Why?“. Curiosity is the fuel that drives us forward. It is also through our curiosity that we find the inspiration to change the world. And it is curiosity, not money, which is the biggest driver in research.
Creativity boost 