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The Art of Creative Thinkingby John Adair

Creativity is essential to human progress. In the following passage, John Adair offers insights and tips for practical creative thinkers.

The importance of creative thinking today needs no emphasis. In your profession or sphere of work you will have a competitive advantage if you develop your ability to come up with new ideas. In your personal life, too, creative thinking can lead you into new paths of creative activity. It can enrich your life—though not always in the way you expect.

Human Creativity Humans cannot make anything out of nothing. Once, a distinguished visitor to Henry Ford’s auto plants met him after an exhaustive tour of the factory. The visitor was lost in wonder and admiration. “It seems almost impossible, Mr Ford,” he told the industrialist, “that a man, starting 25 years ago with practically nothing, could accomplish all this.” Ford replied, “But that’s hardly correct. Every man starts with all there is. Everything is here—the essence and substance of all there is.” The potential materials—the elements, constituents or substances of which something can be made or composed—are all here in our universe.

You may have noticed that we tend to bestow the word “creative” on products that are very far removed from the original raw materials used. A masterpiece by Rubens was once a collection of blue, red, yellow and green worms of paint on the artist’s palette. Now the physical materials—paints and canvas for an artist, paper and pen for an author—are entirely secondary. Creation here is more in the mind. Perception, ideas and feelings are combined in a concept or vision. Of course, the artist, writer or composer needs skill and technique to form on canvas or paper what is conceived in the mind.

The same principle holds good in creative thinking as in creativity in general. Our creative imaginations must have something to work on. We do not form new ideas out of nothing. As Henry Ford said above, the raw materials are all there. The creative mind sees

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possibilities in them or connections that are invisible to less creative minds.That conclusion brings enormous relief. You do not have to conjure up new ideas

from the air. Your task as a creative thinker is to combine ideas or elements that already exist. If the result is an unlikely but valuable combination of ideas or things that hitherto were not thought to be linked, then you will be seen as a creative thinker. You will have added value to the synthesis, for a whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Use Analogy Put yourself into the shoes of an inventor. You have become dissatisfied with the solution to some existing problem or daily necessity. You are casting about in your mind for a new idea. Something occurs to you, possibly suggested by reading about other people’s attempts in the files of the patent office. You go home and sketch your invention, and then make a model of it.

The point is that the model you have reached may well have been suggested by an analogy from nature. Indeed you could look upon nature as a storehouse of models waiting to be used by inventors. Remember that what the natural model suggests is usually a principle that nature has evolved or employed to solve a particular problem or necessity in a given situation. That principle can be extracted like venom from a snake and applied to solve a human problem. Radar, for example, came from studying the uses of reflected sound waves from bats. The way a clam shell opens suggested the design for aircraft cargo doors.

The same fundamental principle—that models for the solution to our problems probably already exist, we do not have to create them from nothing—can be applied to all creative thinking, not just to inventing new products. Take human organization for example. Most of the principles involved can be found in nature: hierarchy (baboons1), division of labor (ants, bees), networks (spiders’ webs), and so on. If you are trying to create a new organization you will find plenty of ready-made models in human society, past or present. Remember, however, that these are only analogies. If you copy directly you are heading for trouble.

Widen your span of relevance Farming in his native Berkshire in the early eighteenth century, the British agriculturalist, Jethro Tull, developed a drill enabling seeds to be sown mechanically, and so spaced that cultivation between rows was possible in the growth period. Tull was an organist, and it was the principle of the organ that gave him his new idea. What he was doing, in effect, was to transfer the technical means of achieving a practical purpose from one field to another.

Tull’s case indicates that inventors may have knowledge in more than one field. They may even work in a quite different sphere from the one in which they make their names as discoverers or inventors. Look at the following list of inventions with the occupations of their inventors:

Invention Inventor’s main occupationBallpoint pen Sculptor

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Safety razor Traveling salesmanKodachrome films MusicianAutomatic telephone UndertakerParking meter JournalistPneumatic tyre 2 Veterinary surgeonLong-playing record Television engineer

The lack of expert or specialized knowledge in a given field is no bar to being able to make a creative contribution. Indeed, too much knowledge may be a disadvantage. As Disraeli said, we must “learn to unlearn.” Sir Barnes Wallis, the British aeronautical engineer who helped to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner and the swing-wing aircraft, failed his London matriculation examination at the age of 16. “I knew nothing,” he said in a television interview, “except how to think, how to grapple with a problem and then go on grappling with it until you had solved it.”

“Experience has shown,” wrote Edgar Allan Poe, “and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.” That is a great reason for traveling. For one seeing is worth 100 hearings. Go and look for yourself. You may discover technologies that are ripe for transfer.

Curiosity “The important thing is not to stop questioning,” said Einstein. “Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”

Such curiosity is—or should be—the appetite of the intellect. The novelist, William Trevor, for example, sees his role as an observer of human nature: “You’ve got to like human beings, and be very curious,” he says, otherwise he doesn’t think it is possible to write fiction.

Of course, curiosity in this sense must be distinguished from the sort of curiosity that proverbially kills the cat. The latter implies prying into other people’s minds in an objectionable or intrusive way, or meddling in their personal affairs. True curiosity is simply the eager desire to learn and know. Such disinterested intellectual curiosity can become habitual. Leonardo da Vinci’s motto was “I question.”

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice in Wonderland. Too often it is only something curious, rare or strange that arouses our curiosity. But what excites attention merely because it is strange or odd is often not worth any further investigation. We do have to be selective in our curiosity.

In creative thinking, curiosity about what will happen next is an important ingredient in motivation. It is not simply a case of being curious in order to gather information, the raw materials of creative thought. Rather, creative thinking is itself a way of learning something new.

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Chance favors only the prepared mind Before the development of the float process by a research team led by Sir Alastair Pilkington, glass-making was labor intensive and time-consuming, mainly because of the need for grinding and polishing surfaces to get a brilliant finish. Pilkington’s proprietary process eliminated this final manufacturing stage by floating the glass, after it is cast from a melting furnace, over a bath of molten tin about the size of a tennis court. The idea for “rinsing” glass over a molten tin bath came to Sir Alastair when he stood at his kitchen sink washing dishes. The float process gives a distortion-free glass of uniform quality with bright, fire-polished surfaces. Savings in costs are considerable. A float line needs only half the number of workers to produce three times as much glass as old production methods. Since the introduction of the process, it is estimated to have earned Pilkington over $2 billion in royalties.

It is interesting to reflect how many other inventions have been the result of such unexpected or chance occurrences. The classic example, of course, is the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming. The sweetening effect of saccharine3, another example, was accidentally discovered by a chemist who happened to eat his lunch in the laboratory without washing his hands after some experiments. Ira W Rufel observed the effects when a feeder failed to place a sheet of paper in a lithograph4 machine, and the work on the printing surface left its full impression upon the printing cylinder: it led him to invent the offset method of printing. The idea of the mirror galvanometer5 first occurred to William Thompson when he happened to notice a reflection of light from his monocle.

Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization6 of rubber in 1839 by similar observation of a chance event. He had been experimenting for many years to find a process of treating crude or synthetic rubber chemically to give it such useful properties as strength and stability, but without success. One day as he was mixing rubber with sulphur he spilt some of the mixture on to the top of a hot stove. The heat vulcanized it at once. Goodyear immediately saw the solution to the problem that had baffled him for years.

As Goodyear pointed out, however, chance was by no means the only factor in his useful discovery. He said: “I was for many years seeking to accomplish this object, and allowing nothing to escape my notice that related to it. While I admit that these discoveries of mine were not the result of scientific chemical investigation, I am not willing to admit that they are the result of what is commonly called accident. I claim them to be the result of the closest application and observation.”

Goodyear’s words highlight the importance of having a wide focus of attention and keen powers of observation. His message is admirably summed up in Pasteur’s famous words: “In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”

(1 805 words)

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Notes

1. baboon: 狒狒

2. pneumatic tyre: 气胎

3. saccharine: 糖精

4. lithograph: 石版印刷

5. galvanometer: 检流计

6. vulcanization: 橡胶的硬化,硫化

Exercises

A. Determining the main idea.Choose the best answer. The main purpose of the text is to show . a. how easy creation is b. why we should be creative c. what practical creative thinkers should do d. when chance favors the prepared mind

B. Comprehending the text.Choose the best answer.1. When Ford said “Every man starts with all there is,” he meant that when we create, . a. we create from nothing b. we make use of things available to us c. materials we have are secondary d. creation is actually in the mind2. Using analogy means . a. working for new ideas b. putting oneself into the shoes of an inventor c. reading others’ experiences d. making use of models in the world around us3. The examples of radar and aircraft cargo doors illustrate that . a. sometimes there are examples in nature for the creators to learn b. the principles of radar and aircraft cargo doors came to us easily c. principles of creation exist in nature waiting for us to find d. everything that is invented comes from nature

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4. Principles of human organization can also be found in nature. For instance, ants and bees are noted, according to the author, for making use of .

a. social hierarchy b. labor division c. networks d. efficient production5. Jethro Tull’s case illustrates that . a. an organist is better suited for the making of the drill sowing seeds b. the principle of a different field might be useful for creation c. to invent something practical, one should be practical d. spacing is important for cultivation between rows6. When Disraeli said that we must “learn to unlearn,” he meant that . a. the more we know, the better we create b. the less we know, the better we create c. lack of specialized knowledge in a given field is a bar to creation d. too much knowledge sometimes may be a disadvantage for creation7. True curiosity is marked by all of the following EXCEPT . a. simply an eager desire to learn and know b. a disinterested intellectual act c. a questioning spirit d. being curious indiscriminatingly 8. Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization of rubber . a. by repeated investigation b. by mere chance c. with a prepared mind d. with no previous experimentation

C. Discussing the following topics.

1 What are the tips offered by John Adair for practical creative thinkers?

2 Do you agree with Disraeli, who said that we must “learn to unlearn?” Give reasons for

your answer.

D. Understanding vocabulary.Choose the correct definition according to the context.1. The potential materials—the elements, constituents or substances of which something can be made

or composed—are all here in our universe. a. components b. exponents

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c. constitutions d. consistence2. Of course, the artist, writer or composer needs skill and technique to form on canvas or paper

what is conceived in the mind. a. received b. believed c. evaluated d. conceptualized3. You will have added value to the synthesis, for a whole is more than the sum of its parts. a. analytic thinking based on good reasoning b. deductive thinking from the general to the particular c. inductive thinking from the particular to the general d. making a complex whole by combining ideas 4. Remember that what the natural model suggests is usually a principle that nature has evolved or

employed to solve a particular problem or necessity in a given situation. a. developed b. resolved c. envolved d. volved 5. That principle can be extracted like venom from a snake and applied to solve a human problem. a. fluid b. ejection c. bite d. poison6. Sir Barnes Wallis, the British aeronautical engineer who helped to develop the Concorde

supersonic airliner and the swing-wing aircraft, failed his London matriculation examination at the age of 16.

a. judicial b. mathematics c. admission d. expertise7. Pilkington’s proprietary process eliminated this final manufacturing stage by floating the glass,

after it is cast from a melting furnace, over a bath of molten tin about the size of a tennis court. a. properly planned b. with priority c. ingeniously made d. with the exclusive legal right8. Goodyear’s words highlight the importance of having a wide focus of attention and keen powers

of observation. a. reveal

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b. emphasize c. play down d. indicate

2 Reading Skills

Newspapers and HeadlinesDo you have the habit of reading newspapers in English? What newspapers do you

like to read? The following is a list of the major newspapers in Britain and the United States.

◗ The major newspapers in Britain Dailies: Sundays: The Times News of the World The Guardian The Observer Financial Times The Sunday People The Daily Telegraph Sunday Mirror Daily Express The Sunday Telegraph Daily Mail The Sunday Times Daily Mirror◗ The major daily newspapers in the United States The New York Times USA Today The Washington Post The Chicago Tribune The Los Angeles Times The Detroit News The Wall Street Journal New York Daily News The Christian Science MonitorNewspapers, along with reporting the news, instruct, entertain, and give opinions.

A newspaper has separate sections: world news, national and local news, sports, business, entertainment, opinions, comics, classified ads, etc.

You can be a better reader if you know what to expect in a newspaper. For example, when you read a newspaper you usually look quickly at headlines first. Newspaper headlines have a language of their own and it is necessary to learn about it. Please read the following headlines:

Moscow official wounded by gunmenEarthquake rocks TurkeyHusband to sue wifeBoy on cliff rescued

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Young Sudanese refugees endured famine, separations from family

From above we can see two prominent features of English newspaper headlines:• Headlines are almost always in the present tense and even future events are put

in the present tense• Headlines generally omit unnecessary words, especially articles and the verb to

be. And is often replaced by a comma.

Newspaper headlines can be classified into several types:• Straight headlines give you the main topic of the story. They are the most

common type of headline and are the easiest to understand. Snow has chilling effects on South Clinton offers Bush advice• Headlines that ask a question, report a future possibility or offer some doubt

about the truth or accuracy of the story. Can technology fix ballot woes? Do market analysts have bad aim or bad intentions?• Headlines that contain a quotation which is important or which shows that a

statement is not proven. Mother: Let my baby go “We won’t quit”• Double headlines are two-part headlines for the same story and are often used

for major events. How Express broke diplomatic silence HUSH-UP ON “SPY” ENVOYS• Feature headlines are used for stories that are either highly unusual or

amusing. Headlines for such stories try to be as clever as possible to catch the reader’s interest.

Teletubbies maker seeks funds for expansion Dead student fell under the crush during clashes

PracticeAdd the missing words to the following headlines.1. Council leader raps school decision2. Bush, leaders meet in D.C.3. Fed policy may start to focus on risk of slowing economy4. Last call on the horizon

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5. Regulators approve $72B drug merger6. Bad weather knocks retailer for loop7. United admits mistakes with passenger8. Women elected to corporate boards9. Gillette to cut 2 700 jobs, close 8 factories

10. Influenza season gets off to slow start

3 Testing Your Reading Comprehension and Speed

Directions: Read the following passages and do the multiple-choice exercises. Record the time you have used and the number of correct answers you have got.

Fast Reading

1 The root word of creativity is “create.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes that the term “creativity” originally meant to bring into existence something genuinely new that is valued enough to be added to the culture. Amit Goswarmi offers his definition of creativity as the creation of something new in an entirely new context; newness of the context is the key. Carl Rogers adds another layer to this view by defining the creative process as the emergence in action of a novel relational product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual on the one hand, and the materials, events, people, or circumstances of his life on the other.

This challenge of defining creativity has led academic researchers to distinguish “Big C” creativity from “little c” creativity. The criteria for Creativity generally includes a mix of originality, utility, a final “product,” and recognition by the community. Creativity (with a capital “C”) is reserved for those rare souls who society—especially colleagues—have labeled creative geniuses, such as Nobel prize winners, groundbreaking pioneers and inventors, master poets, artists, and composers. Creative geniuses also have an audience that admires their genius—think William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, William Blake, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Creativity (with a little “c”), then, is used to denote everyday creative acts outside the world’s limelight, like finding a new way to explain something, brainstorming a new business strategy, or creating a new recipe for lasagna (扁形面条).

While this somewhat arbitrary delineation might be helpful for studying creativity in an academic setting, it inhibits our ability to understand the essence of the creative impulse. The essence of “creativity” is present in any creative act—regardless of how big or small it may seem

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from society’s viewpoint. Maslow challenged the limiting notion of “Big C” creativity, saying, “When a little boy discovers the decimal system for himself, this can be a high moment of inspiration, and a high creative moment, and should not be waived aside because of some a priori definition which says creativeness ought to be socially useful or it ought to be novel, or nobody should have thought of it before, etc.” Our current culture doesn’t celebrate our individual discoveries sufficiently. As children, many of us rarely had our inner discoveries recognized and celebrated by adults, which can lead us to grow up with low self-esteem and self-worth.

(393 words)

1. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the term “creativity” originally referred to the making of something .

a. genuinely useful to the society b. highly valued by the society c. both useful and valuable d. truly new and valuable to the culture2. When Carl Rogers defines creativity, he emphasizes . a. newness of the context b. both the creator and the society c. the material world the creator lives in d. the uniqueness of the individual3. Creativity (with a little “c”) is used to denote creative acts which are . a. highly praised by the society b. very original c. influential on a large scale d. small and could be seen everyday4. The example of a little boy discovering the decimal system is used by Maslow to show that

. a. creativity should be highly creative b. creativity should be socially useful c. creativity should be novel d. our impulse for creativity is often unrecognized5. The distinction between Creativity and creativity, according to the author of the above passage,

is . a. misleading b. useful c. reasonable d. scientific

Time

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2 Festo has added to its robotic menagerie (动物展览) with the creation of a robotic seagull that weighs just 450 g (15.87 oz) and boasts a wingspan of 1.96 m (6.4 ft). Dubbed the SmartBird, the ultralight flying robot was inspired by the herring gull and can take off, fly and land autonomously, without the help of any additional drive systems.

In creating the SmartBird, Festo says it has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds. The robot’s wings not only beat up and down, with a lever mechanism increasing the degree of deflection (偏斜) to increase from the torso to the wing tip, but also twist at specific angles along their length in the same way that a real bird’s do so that the leading edge is directed upwards during the upward stroke.

Directional control is achieved through the opposing movement of the robot’s head and torso sections, which is synchronized by means of two electric motors and cables. This enables it to bend aerodynamically, with simultaneous weight displacement, and is responsible for the SmartBird’s agility and maneuverability.

As with a real bird, the SmartBird’s tail isn’t just for show either. It produces lift and functions as both a pitch elevator and yaw rudder (方向舵). In addition to stabilizing the robot in a similar way to an aircraft’s conventional vertical stabilizer, the tail also tilts to initiate left and right turns and rotates about the longitudinal axis to produce yaw.

Packed inside the SmartBird’s torso are the battery, engine and transmission, the crank transmission and control and regulation electronics. Wing position and torsion can be monitored via two-way ZigBee protocol radio communication and can be adjusted and optimized in real time during flight.

Festo says developing the SmartBird has provided insights that will help it in a variety of areas. The robot’s minimal use of materials and lightweight construction will help increase efficiencies in resource and energy consumption, while the functional integration of its coupled drive units have provided ideas the company says it can transfer to the development of hybrid drive technology. Additionally, analysis of its flow characteristics during development has provided insights into ways to optimize future designs. Another plus is that it won’t try and steal your chips at the beach.

(371 words)

6. The SmartBird, which can take off, fly and land autonomously, . a. does not need additional drive systems b. beats its wings up and down without increasing deflection degree c. uses its wings not exactly as a bird does d. extends its wings at full length while flying upwards7. “Agility” at the close of the third paragraph means . a. gawkiness b. nimbleness c. heaviness d. efficiency

Time

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8. The function of the SmartBird’s tail includes all the following EXCEPT . a. giving signals b. lifting c. stabilizing d. tilting and rotating9. Within the body of the SmartBird we find all the following EXCEPT . a. the yaw rudder b. the battery c. the engine d. the transmission set

10. Which of the following is NOT true? a. The robot does not waste materials. b. The robot is energy-efficient. c. The robot can contribute to hybrid drive technology. d. The robot sometimes steals chips at the beach.

3 In exact parallel with a preference for the rewards of using one’s skills, creative personalities appear to have a greater than usual propensity to seek out novelty. By this I do not simply mean the twentieth-century preference for an avant-garde position; novelty does not necessarily imply an effort to supersede traditional forms. Picasso was one of the artistic giants of our world not only because he was the originator or co-inventor of an unusual number of formal innovations (such as the cubist style, collage, or welded metal sculpture) but also because he was able to work within established traditions (for example, that of neoclassical draftsmanship) to achieve novel expressive possibilities.

Within every discipline there is never-ceasing tension between the pull of traditions and the need for renewal through innovation. Although traditionalism is quite consonant with creativity, without concurrent change every tradition eventually becomes exhausted, lapsing into some form of tired academicism. This sequence is just as applicable in the sciences as it is in the arts and humanities: no field better illustrates the point than does psychoanalysis. The most creative of psychoanalysts, Sigmund Freud, was a tireless innovator; in his old age he confessed with malicious pleasure that he thought his disciples needed to be shaken in their complacent acceptance of the conventional wisdom! Yet the vast majority of analysts react to proposed innovations with pronounced skepticism, not to say aversion. I believe that this conservative bent extends to their own scientific position almost as much as to those of colleagues: most analysts (most people!) react to new ideas as the start of a slippery slope into the unknown—even into perdition (灭亡).

There can be no question that one of the most important features of a congenial environment is a rate of change slow enough to permit comfortable accommodation, but of sufficient degree to avoid boredom. For most people it is difficult enough to adjust to the changes wrought by others; hence they do not spontaneously seek novelty on their own. Creative activity of any sort therefore poses an unwelcome challenge for all but a minority of persons—it

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is comparable to the experience of visiting a foreign country for the first time. Most of us adapt to the overwhelming strangeness of such an adventure by seeking out experiences that are as familiar as possible: Japanese tourists abroad prefer Japanese restaurants, Americans gravitate to MacDonald’s! Creative work is comparable to forging constantly ahead, into terra incognita.

Those persons who are ever eager for such a challenge are probably the products of relatively unusual formative experiences or special constitutional endowments, or both. We know very little about the transactions in early childhood that may tip the balance in either direction, but it is clear that by the third or fourth year of life some children are more adventuresome than most in exploring the unknown—others are more reluctant to expose themselves to anything unfamiliar.

(480 words)

11. The example of Picasso is used to indicate that . a. creative people tend to seek new forms b. creative people prefer an avant-garde position c. creative people also work within traditions for new possibilities d. novelty means breaking away with traditional forms

12. Which of the following is NOT true? a. In every discipline there are conflicts between tradition and innovation. b. Traditionalism is opposed to creativity. c. Tradition also needs change. d. Tradition exhausted is no better than tired academicism.

13. Which of the following is true? a. Sigmund Freud was sad to find that his students were not wise. b. Sigmund Freud thought that conventional wisdom was questionable. c. Sigmund was malicious and found pleasure in his students’ complacency. d. Most analysts were clearly skeptical about, though not quite averse to, Freud’s innovations.

14. According to the author, a congenial environment . a. enables people to adapt to change quickly and comfortably b. is a place that encourages change c. is often boring because of slow change d. is easy and comfortable for most people

15. The examples of Japanese and American tourists abroad are used to show .

a. that as tourists people like adventure b. that people prefer their own cultures c. that most people have difficulties adjusting to new things d. that creative people need to forge ahead

Time

Total Time

Score

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4 Home Reading

Mapping Creativityby J. DeGraff and K. A. Lawrence

It has become a truism that organizations today are facing a wider array of competitive pressures than ever before. What allows a company to respond proactively7 to diverse pressures is the development of creativity as a core competence. We define creativity here as a purposeful activity (or set of activities) that produces valuable products, services, processes, or ideas that are better or new. And different forms of creativity are appropriate for different purposes. To be specific, our research identifies four main types of creativity, which we have conceptualized as creativity profiles.

The Imagine ProfileThe Imagine profile is one of radical breaks with the past and breakthrough ideas that can

change the marketplace. Individuals with the Imagine profile tend to be generalists or artistic types who enjoy exploring and easily change direction when solving a problem. The culture that supports their work is characterized by experimentation and speculation; the focus is on generating ideas.

Imagine companies seek to create something new that has been thought impossible. Typical purposes are innovation or growth. They strive to orient their products, services, and ideas to the future. Leaders build the organization by developing a compelling vision and emphasizing new ideas and technologies, flexibility, and adaptability. The Imagine profile taken to an extreme becomes chaotic.

Disney’s Grand Experiment. Walt Disney saw the future first. The man who drew Mickey Mouse also created the first full-length animated film, the theme park, and the modern multimedia company. His name has become synonymous with leading-edge ventures, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the Epcot Center. Disney created such optimistic, intimate experiences inside a futuristic utopia that children and adults eagerly await each Disney product.

Disney’s gift was his ability to recognize a good opportunity on the horizon. Confident in his vision, he took on enormous risk to undertake his ventures. In contrast to his public persona, Disney was a complex and controlling leader whose vision carried him from childhood poverty to commercial artist to entrepreneur to media mogul. Disney was one of the first to try new entertainment technologies: quality sound, Technicolor, advanced animation techniques, and robotics. The result has been an organization that could embrace a trend before it happened,

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growing from film to television to amusement parks. Perhaps his greatest triumph was his last. Disney World and the Epcot Center were considered modern miracles of “imagineering” and urban planning when they were built. In the process, he turned the mosquito-infested swamps of central Florida into one of the top tourist destinations in the world. Today, his characters and emblems are some of the most readily recognized brands.

The Invest ProfileThe Invest profile encompasses the kinds of people and practices that many people associate

with Wall Street. This is a profile that shows the intensity of competition and achievement—everyone is either a winner or a loser.

Individuals with the Invest profile are focused on performance and goals. Their culture emphasizes these results and the discipline necessary to create them. This group typically includes members of the finance department and marketing. People with the Invest profile are competitive and love a good challenge, which motivates them toward a speedy and profitable outcome.

Invest companies seek to create quickly before competitors can. Typical purposes focus on profits through market share, revenues, and brand equity, or through speed of response. Leaders build the organization by clarifying objectives and improving the firm’s competitive position through hard work and productivity. These companies seek to deliver results to stakeholders as quickly as possible. Beating the competition is not only a matter of strategy but also a matter of pride. The Invest profile taken to an extreme becomes a sweatshop.

Watson’s Challenge. In the early years of computing, Thomas Watson Jr.’s IBM ruled the technology universe through aggressive strategy and relentless marketing. Leading through ambition and challenge, Watson was a master of competition. At Watson’s IBM, if you weren’t first, you weren’t much. He promoted “winners” and expected them to perform by meeting each new backbreaking deadline. His famous corporate mantra “Think” was more than just something to aspire to; it was an admonition to anyone who did not develop the world-class competencies to leap over all obstacles.

Watson’s father had founded IBM. Thomas Jr. was anything but ambitious in his youth, moving from school to school before graduating from Brown University. After a brief stint as a sales manager at IBM, he enlisted in the armed services, serving as a pilot. There he developed his celebrated courage while flying missions throughout the Pacific. He returned to IBM a motivated leader who would never again retreat.

IBM did not invent the computer; others started that revolution. But under Watson, IBM set the pace for technological advancement and learned to keep an enormous enterprise changing constantly. Watson spent three times IBM’s annual revenues to create a new line of computers; effectively changing the industry. He brought projects in on time, and even ousted his younger brother Dick as head of engineering and manufacturing when a key project was off schedule.

Competence and motivation led to performance at Watson’s IBM in the 1950s and 1960s, and performance typically led to success and promotion. By the time Watson stepped down

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at IBM, it had destroyed its core business in favor of a new one, and set the quick pace for all technology companies that would follow in its footsteps.

The Improve ProfileThe Improve profile represents incremental creativity—taking something that exists and

modifying it to make it better. This is the profile of large, complex organizations that create products and services that must not fail.

People in the Improve profile are systematic, careful, and practical. Their culture focuses on planning, creating systems and processes, and enforcing compliance. Improve people are typically found in engineering departments or in operational groups that must maintain complex systems and reduce errors. They seek to keep things running and efficient.

Improve companies seek to create something better so as to build on the present. Typical purposes are quality or optimization, sometimes expressed as predictability or productivity. Leaders build the organization by optimizing processes, cutting costs, and establishing rules and procedures. Role definition is important here. These companies tend to elaborate or extend existing products with minor variations. The Improve profile taken to an extreme becomes an immobile bureaucracy.

Kroc’s Hamburger System. No matter where you may be in the world, two things are certain: one, there is a McDonald’s hamburger restaurant around the corner; and two, the burgers taste exactly the same as they do every other place you’ve eaten one. Ray Kroc, who grew the McDonald’s restaurant chain, helped transform American dining from a personalized sit-down experience into standardized fast food for a generation on the go. Instead of having chefs prepare food as an art, Kroc turned cooking on its head and made food service an engineering science. A former piano player, ambulance driver, and paper-cup salesman, Kroc obtained exclusive marketing rights for a high-speed multimixer machine and sold it across America for seventeen years. In 1954 in San Bernardino, California, he sold eight mixers to a restaurant owned by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. The restaurant, McDonald’s, had a limited menu, focusing on a few items: burgers, French fries, soft drinks, and milk shakes. Kroc saw a system that could easily be replicated. After buying out the McDonald brothers in 1961 for $2.7 million, Kroc set to the task of refining the system. Kroc laid out the goof-proof8 McDonald’s Way, including restaurant design, marketing, procurement9, and training at Hamburger University, a requirement for all franchisees10 before running a restaurant. One size fits all.

The first McDonald’s had no tables or silverware. There were drive-up stands where you could get a decent meal for less than a dollar. Dine-in and drive-through options were added later, but quality and service remained the cornerstones of Kroc’s company. Kroc’s process of getting it done right made McDonald’s the largest food service company in the world.

Kroc didn’t invent fast food—White Castle, Howard Johnson’s, and other chains had been around long before McDonald’s. Kroc had an ability to understand the complexities of

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the system, both in terms of food preparation and restaurant development. He could improve processes at every turn so that a person could learn the science of making food quickly, with few errors. The result of his process improvement and systems is a consistent product and experience. Like Henry Ford, who used the assembly line to transform automobile manufacturing, Kroc achieved peak performance through his understanding of process.

The Incubate11 ProfileThe Incubate profile encompasses the kinds of people who believe in something greater than

the business itself and run their business to reflect those values. This is the profile associated with having a great place to work and learn.

People in the Incubate profile are committed to their community, focusing on shared values and communication. Their culture strives to learn over time, and once these competencies are established, the amount of time required to understand a situation and act appropriately is shortened. They are likely to feel that creativity should be timeless. This group is often in human resources, training, or organizational development functions.

Incubate companies seek to create something sound that is appreciated by the community. Typical purposes are community and knowledge, achieved by drawing on communication, cooperation, and learning-oriented partnerships. Leaders build the organization by encouraging trust, commitment, and relationships, and by nurturing a community of empowered individuals. Their unified behavior produces a strong organizational image in the marketplace. Customers may be considered partners in an extended community. The Incubate profile taken to an extreme becomes a pleasure cruise that goes nowhere.

Bill W.’s Community. Bill Wilson may have saved more lives around the world than the leader of any state or enterprise in the twentieth century. Known as “Bill W.” to members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization he co-founded with Dr. Robert Smith, Bill Wilson proved to be a healer on an incredible social and cultural scale. What made Wilson so extraordinary is not that he learned how to stop his own raging alcoholism but that he formed an organization with the sole purpose of teaching others how to overcome their addictions and supporting them in their efforts. In the process, he overcame his own drinking problem. Today, twelve-step programs are applied to all kinds of fixations including gambling, eating disorders, drug abuse, and sex addictions.

Wilson had come from a family with a history of alcoholism. When he was a boy, his father and mother abandoned him and left him with his grandparents. First as a soldier, then as a businessman, Wilson drank to ease his depression and to celebrate his success. This dependence on alcohol soon made him unemployable, and he turned to panhandling and living off relatives. One day in 1934, while staying at a hospital in Manhattan, Wilson had a spiritual awakening that led to the development of the twelve-step remedy for alcoholism. After years of intoxication, Wilson had been “dry” for five months when he went to Akron, Ohio, on business.

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The deal he was pursuing fell through, and he wanted to have a drink. In his panic, Wilson had a revelation that he could save himself only by helping another alcoholic, because that person would understand his suffering. He tracked down Dr. Robert Smith, both a physician and an alcoholic, and together they endured without a drink. Soon Wilson and Smith were meeting with other alcoholics in Akron, and they began to codify and share the principles that lead to sobriety. After years of revision, a book called Alcoholics Anonymous was successfully published, and the organization from which it took its name received limited support from John D. Rockefeller and national attention from magazine articles in the popular press. To the end, Wilson took no money for his coaching or good counsel.

Today Alcoholics Anonymous has more than two million members in 150 countries. Members share stories about the most intimate details of their lives. Wilson, too, preferred to remain anonymous and always referred to himself as a student, never a teacher. Wilson showed his vulnerabilities and shared his pain with others so that they could also bring their demons out of the shadows. Bill Wilson’s leadership style was to welcome involvement and openness, encouraging a culture that invested in education through common experience, leading to increased knowledge and healing.

As these four stories illustrate, not all creativity is the “breakthrough” type associated with the Imagine profile. Other kinds of creativity are equally valid and equally important, depending on the circumstances. Walt Disney may have reflected the “Imagine” profile, but his company’s success results in part from the fact that this was the type of creativity that suited his business challenge. By the same token, Ray Kroc didn’t need breakthrough creativity so much as he needed the kind of creativity that takes an existing idea, improves on it, and results in a superbly efficient and dependable system. Indeed, Kroc might have failed in the fast-food business had he brought to it a Disney style of creativity.

Being able to identify and value different kinds of creativity is a first step toward better creativity management. Once you recognize the basic forms of creativity, you can begin to think much more clearly about how to make appropriate creativity happen in your firm or your work group. At any given time, you can diagnose the type of creativity you need, the right people for the job, and the specific practices to try.

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Notes

7. proactively: acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes

8. goof-proof: protected against mistakes

9. procurement: buying

10. franchisee: 总经销商, 有代销权的人或团体

11. incubate: 孵化, 培养

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Follow-up Exercises

A. Comprehending the text.Choose the best answer.1. The Imagine profile tends to be all of the following EXCEPT . a. experimentative b. speculative c. explorative d. traditional2. Which of the following best fits Walt Disney? a. Ability to see new visions. b. Love of things for children. c. Better city planning. d. Spirit of entertaining.3. Investment companies love competition and challenge and the danger for the extreme Invest

profile is to become . a. a battlefield b. a failure c. a sweatshop d. an example of strategy4. Which of the following is true? a. Watson’s father founded IBM, which invented the computer. b. Thomas Watson, Jr. was ambitious in his youth before graduating from Brown University. c. Returning to IBM, Watson paid great attention to the amount of computers produced. d. Competence, motivation and first-rate performance were highly stressed at Watson’s IBM.5. People in the Improve profile are first of all . a. highly artistic b. very experimental c. imaginative d. scientific6. Kroc’s Hamburger System is marked by all the following EXCEPT . a. variety of food b. exact duplication c. standardization d. understanding of process7. The Incubate profile stresses all the following EXCEPT . a. commercial products of the business b. the spirit the business embodies c. community of empowered individuals

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d. shared values and communication8. What made Bill Wilson so extraordinary is that . a. he learned how to stop his own raging alcoholism b. he proved to be a healer on an incredible social and cultural scale c. he succeeded in forming an organization with the sole purpose of teaching others how to

overcome their addictions d. he established himself as a convincing teacher

B. Discussing the following topics.

1 What are the characteristics for each of the four types of creativity? Please give more

examples to illustrate.

2 What can you learn from the people representing the four creativity profiles?

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