How are great ideas generated?
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Graham Wallas,
social psychologist
and co-founder of
the London School
of Economics,
argued that great
ideas evolve in 4
stages
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Verification
Art of Thought –The Model of Creativity
(1926)
Stage 1: PreparationResearch, gather knowledge, profoundly understand your subject
Chance favors the prepared mindLouis Pasteur
It takes a lot of time to be a genius,
you have to sit around so much doing nothing,
really doing nothing. Gertrude Stein
Stage 2: IncubationSet the subject aside from all deliberate work, let it remain only in the unconscious mind.
Stage 3: IlluminationAssociations & combinations, dreams & fantasies conspire to offer an “aha!” moment of discovery!
Eureka! Eureka!Archimedes
Eureka! GravityNewton sees an apple falling and the moon suspended out there and wonders if it’s the same force
RelativityEinstein imagines he is travelling on a beam of light
Richard Feynman’s
breakthrough ideas came when he was playing
Picasso’s
creativity always began with an act of destruction
Eureka! Arthur Koestler
argued in 1964 that breakthroughs come with bisociation – association of unrelated frames of reference
Great ideas
are not driven by logic, but by seeing things from new points of view
Stage 4: VerificationProve your idea works
All good ideas are logical a posteriori,
though they may not be so a priori.
Scientists (as opposed to pseudo-scientists) must test and validate their claims.
Practical lessons from Wallas and Koestler
Creativity needs
Groundwork
Tranquillity
Stimuli
Proof
Contemporary creativity practise builds on the thinking of Wallas and Koestler
Using
methods to make creativity
deliberate & efficient
techniques for idea generation
and evaluation
rapid prototypes for fast
verification
Contemporary creativity practise also
Emphasizes
teamwork and collaboration
structure for purposeful idea
management
culture to create the context
that supports innovation
Innovation pulses 12 slides
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EUREKA! How are great ideas generated?