| Second Chapter; Incubation Stage |
Dr. Langer also touches on the subject of creativity in her book called Mindfulness. Her experiment shows that uncertainty results in more creativity solutions than certainty. If people could learn about unfamiliar things in a truly conditional way, then they might see many different uses for the object.
From Dr. Hippel's research, the ability to use familiar objects in an unfamiliar way was tested by creating five problems that could only be solved by that means. As an example, one problem could be solved only if (young, children) subjects bent a paper clip provided them and used it as a hook. The hook was then used to pull a ring out of a vial. The (young children) subjects of experiment were only given a paper clip and a vial with the ring in it and were asked to pull the ring out of the vial using the paper clip.
Subjects were divided into two groups. One group of problem solvers saw the crucial object being used in a familiar way (e.g., the paper clip holding papers), the other did not (e.g., the paper clip was simply lying on a table unused). Being able to see familiar objects in an unfamiliar way is the key.
The secret to creativity is really in this skill. And this skill is mainly developed with observation skills, bare attention, concentration, insights, and mindfulness. For many children problem solving is purified. We, adults, modify tools around the house all the times. The best example is perhaps when we run home, grab a dry cleaner hanger, run back to the car and try to modify the hanger to open the car door when the key is left inside the car mindlessly.
For example the invention of snow chain .....barbed wire......the invention of walking tension springs (1945 Richard James).......sonar ......rubber band ..........remote control for television.........microwave oven..... perhaps the invention of Hula Hoops.......the discovery of Penicillin.....Viagra......Velcro.......
For a long time the research community believed that innovations are the creation of big businesses. However, we now know that this assumption is wrong. The fact is : most innovations originate from you, a person with heightened mind and consciousness, the everyday USERS. You are the source of innovation!
Research has shown that you, the USER of your passion, is actually the main source of innovation.
You, as a USER of your passion, innovate everyday all over your home, kitchen, garage, office, and shop. When you modify a tool (seeing familiar objects in unfamiliar ways), add an extra ingredient, or find a new way to perform an ordinary task more effectively, with heightened concentration and curiosity, you innovate. That's how, if you remember the one-time famous accounting program Lotus 123 now widely replaced by Excel from Microsoft, was developed. An extremely bright accountant in Jet Propulsion Laboratory (with strong attention, insights, concentration and purified goals) developed Lotus 123 and was using it in his own office (just for himself) three years before someone suggested that he should sell his software on the market. Notice the level of intrinsic motivations in this man; no money and just for the love of doing it and benefiting from it.
Many research studies examine who actually develops the new products introduced into the marketplace. The majority of these studies show that in most cases it is the USER who actually develops a novel and commercially successful product. Yes, the user is the actual source of innovation. Eric von Hippel in his excellent book called The Sources of Innovation says:
"We have now found three innovation categories in which it is typically the product user, not the product manufacturer, who recognizes the need, solves the problem through an invention, builds a prototype, and proves the prototype's value in use. If we apply this finding to "stages" of the technical innovation process, we find — somewhat counter intuitively— that the locus of almost the entire innovation process is centered on the user."
Typically the innovative user:
• Perceived that an advance in instrumentation was required.
• Invented the instrument.
• Built a prototype.
• Proved the prototype's value by applying it.
• Diffused detailed information on both the value of the invention and on how the prototype device could be replicated.
If to be successful as an innovator and entrepreneur, there is, however, a tremendous need for seeing things in a new way and being able to use familiar objects in unfamiliar ways or creating new experiences from old experiences. The same thing is true for ideas. Being able to use the old ideas that used in familiar ways in an unfamiliar way is the secret to success. Some people call this new use of ideas paradigm shift. A big part of this book is dedicated to observation, bare attention and observing things in new ways and achieving mindfulness. As you read below, try to remember all the tools we have discussed and taught you. Try to see if you can prove Dr. Hippel wrong now that you have achieved new skills. Are you limited, blocked, and/or constrained? Let's see how Dr. Hippel argues the lack of these skills in observation. Professor Hippel continues:
Users selected to provide input data to consumer and industrial market analysis have an important limitation: Their insights into new product (and process and service) needs and potential solutions are constrained by their real-world experience. Users steeped in the present are, thus, unlikely to generate novel product concepts that conflict with the familiar.
The notion that familiarity with existing product attributes and uses interferes with an individual's ability to conceive of novel attributes and uses is strongly supported by research into problem solving. We see that experimental subjects familiar with a complicated problem-solving strategy are unlikely to devise a simpler one when this is appropriate. Also, and germane to our present discussion, we see that subjects who use an object or see it used in a familiar way are strongly blocked from using that object in a novel way. Furthermore, the more recently objects or problem-solving strategies have been used in a familiar way, the more difficult subjects find it to employ them in a novel way. Finally, we see that the same effect is displayed in the real world, where the success of a research group in solving a new problem is shown to depend on whether solutions it has used in the past will fit that new problem. These studies thus suggest that typical users of existing products—the type of user-evaluators customarily chosen in market research—are poorly situated with regard to the difficult problem-solving tasks associated with assessing unfamiliar product and process needs.
With the skills we defined and provided you, are you poorly situated? Having developed skills in mindfulness, observation, bare attention, and doing with passion, do you fit in with the description of Dr. Hippel?
Dr. Hippel continues:
As illustration consider the difficult problem-solving steps potential users must go through when asked to evaluate their need for a proposed new product. Since individual industrial and consumer products are only components in larger usage patterns that may involve many products and since a change in one component can change perceptions of, and needs for, some or all other products in that pattern, users must first identify their existing multiproduct usage patterns in which the new product might play a role. Then, they must evaluate the new product's potential contribution to these. (E.g., a change in the operating characteristics of a computer may allow users to solve new problem types if they also make changes in software and perhaps in other, related products and practices.) Next, users must invent or select the new (to them) usage patterns that the proposed new product makes possible for the first time and then evaluate the utility of the product in these patterns. Finally, since substitutes exist for many multiproduct usage patterns (e.g., many forms of problem analysis are available in addition to the novel ones made possible by a new computer), the user must estimate how the new possibilities presented by the proposed new product will compete (or fail to compete) with existing options. This problem-solving task is clearly a very difficult one, particularly for typical users of existing products whose familiarity with existing products and uses interferes with their ability to conceive of novel products and uses when invited to do so.
Is the paragraph above a description of you? After reading this book, are you a typical user or a mindful user? After reading professor Von Hippel's argument, it is now easy to realize why mindfulness and/or bare attention, observation skills, as techniques or even qualities are so valuable in the creative process.
Bare attention, Mindfulness, and skills in observations are the aims of this book. They are there to help you see familiar objects or subjects in unfamiliar ways to be more creative and innovative; even achieving breakthroughs.
How about ARTS? For me this observation is a bit risky. I am not trying to be humorous. Daring is the key. However, there might be some criticism into my own observation next:
It is well known that Picasso did not let one woman to pass unnoticed by himmmm.....In his masterpiece below, does Picasso see familiar subjects (prostitutes) in an unfamiliar way? You be the judge.
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| Les demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), oil on canvas (96 x 92). Picasso's early creative breakthrough. |
Practicing yoga can lessen anxiety, heighten concentration and improve motivation in as little as eight weeks, according to research presented in New Orleans at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Researchers sought to quantify benefits that go beyond the strength and flexibility typically associated with yoga in the western world.
ACSM members Traci A. Statler, Ph.D., and Amy Wheeler, Ph.D., tested 84 students during the second and eighth weeks of four, 10-week Hatha yoga classes at California State University San Bernardino. Most participants were female (93 percent); 45 percent were Hispanic, 35 percent Caucasian, seven percent African-American, and two percent Asian. The students averaged 24 years of age; most had at least three months of consistent yoga experience prior to the class.
Two weeks and again nine weeks into the class, participants completed three standard assessments to measure their concentration, motivation and anxiety level. The results were dramatic. "We were surprised by the degree of difference in just eight weeks of practice," Statler said. "We measured significant increases in all three areas. We've noted empirical evidence that yoga carries affective benefits, but now we've been able to objectively measure the results."
Statler, a sports psychology consultant, teamed with Wheeler, a yoga expert, to gauge the commonalities between sports and yoga. "Both require focus and confidence," Wheeler said. "While westerners tend to regard yoga primarily as a physical discipline, in the East it is pursued as a mindful discipline, helping people live their lives with clarity and a positive outlook."
Further research, said Statler, may address how best to translate yoga benefits into improvements in sports performance. "We'd like to study a broader sample, including more male students and more athletes," she said.
The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 20,000 international, national, and regional members are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.
http://www.acsm.org
Third Chapter, After Incubation; Staying motivated