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UCS 3212 Creativity and
Innovation
Lecture 03: Methods and Tools for Generating Ideas

One Important fact about the Creative Process
• The “Lone Genius” is rare or a myth
• Today, with an interconnected, borderless and fast-changing world, its
usually a TEAM EFFORT

Creative Thinking Process

Another Important Fact: Ideas Evolve

• Rare to have a sudden Flash of
Inspiration at the beginning,
more likely to happen after
working hard on germinating an
idea

Typical Creative Thinking Process Steps

But First……
• We must start acting and behaving like a creative person
• Go through the motions

Attitudes & Activities to Promote
Creative Thinking
• Grow Knowledge
•

Continually grow your knowledge base…
...

Remember that defining the problem is almost a complete
project in itself and you may benefit from going through
iterative stages of convergence and divergence
...
Find the points of agreement and then discuss the
differences

Problem Statement
• Stating the problem may seem obvious, yet many creative efforts fail
because the problem is either unclear or it is focused in the wrong place
...
Once
you have identified a good problem statement, sometimes the solution is so
obvious that you need little, if any, creative thought afterwards
...
You can challenge
many things, including:

•
•
•
•
•
•
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Concepts - and broad ideas
Assumptions - and beliefs that are not questioned
Boundaries - across which you do not yet cross
'Impossible' - things that are assumed cannot happen
'Can't be done' - things that are assumed cannot be done
'Essentials' - things that you assume cannot be disposed of
Sacred cows - that cannot be challenged

Challenge Method
• Use it to force yourself or other people out of a thinking rut
...

• Use it to challenge the problem or situation you are considering when
initially defining the problem
...
what does it bring to mind?
...
and?”,continuing like this
until you have exhausted the question, or until your mind is blank

• Effectiveness of the technique is due to the fact that we are not aware of
how our cognitive processes work, above all when they have expressive,
emotional or sentimental value

• Also known as involuntary memory

Methods and tools: Free Association
Techniques
1
...
Art streaming (rubber ducking, talk streaming, write streaming,
incubation, modeling, unfolding)

3
...
Attribute listing
5
...
How-how diagram (How to, Wishing
7
...
Visioning (storyboarding, guided imagery, rememberance )
10
...
SCAMPER
12
...

Use it when you want to do something that has not been done before
...
Absence Thinking compensates for
this by deliberately forcing us to do what we do not naturally do
...

When you are looking at something (or otherwise sensing), notice what is not there
...

In other words, deliberately and carefully think about what is absent
...
She watches them using tables and
notes that they leave the tables out when not using them
...


Art streaming: Keep creating until you get
through the blocks
• Use it when you are more introverted and stuck in constrained thinking
• Use it when you are trying to be artistically creative and are creatively
blocked
...
Worries
and ideas can all come out in the artwork

• Other similar techniques: rubber ducking, talk streaming, write streaming,
modeling, incubation, unfolding

Art Streaming
•
•
•
•
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Go hide somewhere
be alone for a good deal of time, comfortable, where you can write, paint or create sculptures
Create, non-stop
Do not worry about the quality of what you are doing
...
Just
see what appears
...
If you like what you have done, then put it
aside, by all means
...
Or you can just scrap it
...
I get home and head
for the garage and get out the wood and powertools
...
The result is a
strange set of what could be called sculptures
...


Quiz (5%)
1
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List (as many as you can) the non-possible uses of a paper clip

Assumption busting: Surfacing and
challenging unconscious assumptions
• In our everyday lives, we make an enormous number of assumptions about
how the world around us works
...


• Assumption-busting works by deliberately seeking out and addressing these
previously-unquestioned assumptions
...

Busting: We can learn
...

Assumption: Buying it in would be expensive
...
Get my teenage son to do it
...


Busting: Look at these sites he did
...

Assumption: It won't work
...


Attribute listing: Listing attributes of objects and
then challenging them
• Use Attribute Listing when you have a situation that can be decomposed
into attributes

• Particularly useful with physical objects
• Highly rational style
• Suitable for people who prefer analytic approaches
• Good for engineering-type situations

Attribute listing
•
•
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•
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List attributes, as many as you can
Consider value of attributes
For each attribute, ask 'what does this give'? Seek the real value of each
attribute
...
Thus
you can increase value, decrease negative value or create new value
...


Modify the attributes of the screwdriver handle to be 'comfortable grip' by adding a rubber
sleeve

Breakdown: Careful decomposition to explore
the whole system
•
•
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•
•

•

Use it to take apart a physical item being invented
...

Use it to explore individual parts and relationships
...

Many problem situations are hierarchical in nature, and will yield to breaking down into
component parts
...

Similar techniques: Chunking, Essence, Morphological analysis (artist), Rightbraining

Breakdown
•
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Bound the problem
Define the overall problem or item under investigation, to create a 'closed problem set'
...

Explore each part and its relationships
Understand it as a complete thing and explore the relationships that it has with its parent item and other peer
items
...

Build the hierarchy

Repeat the careful process until you end up with a better understanding of the whole
...
Look for places to
innovate, to replace, to combine and so on
...
He first looks at the whole
system from many angles and watches it work
...
In doing so, he notices how a rubber gaiter is stretched at
extreme ends of piston travel
...

Doing some experiments, he finds that the gaiter folds split after a while
...


How-how Diagram: Break down problem by
asking 'how'
• Use it when you are seeking to create a practical solution to a problem
...

• works by repeatedly asking the same question of a problem, breaking down
the solution into more and more explicit elements

• Similar techniques: How to, Wishing

How-how Diagram
• Uses cards that can be Post-it Notes, Index cards or boxes on a computer
application such as Powerpoint

• State your problem clearly and write it on one card
...

• Use it when you are having problems creating more ideas
...

• Use it to create seeds of ideas that can trigger further good ideas
...

Eight ideas fit neatly
...


Unfold the Lotus Blossom
•

•
•
•

•

Make a copy of each of the idea cards and place them radially further out from the cluster (the stamen and pistil of the
flower) that you created in the previous steps
...
This should result in ideas which are further removed from the original problem
...
You do not have to fill in every space - if ideas run out, you can move on
...

When you are working in a group of people, you can rotate them around the lotus
...
This creates a dance around the ideas, moving the
thinking on at each step
...


Unfold the Lotus Blossom

Individual Project Assignment (10%)
• Design UCTS Open Day Poster on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc
• Details to be Posted on Edmodo Today
• Submit your work in Edmodo

Thank you for your attention!



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