Synectics

Assuming that these findings are eventually substantiated by additional research, they find their most obvious application to problem solving in industry, professional practice, and research. Here the procedure could play a role similar to that played by consultants, brainstorming, synectics, and other attempts to augment and "unstick" the problem solver s unsuccessful efforts. A quote from one of our subjects illustrates the possibilities ... 

There are three fundamental precepts of synectics theory [C-17]. 

A method closely related to synectics is one called Metaphorical analogy. As its name implies it uses one problem and its solution as a metaphor for a problem in a completely different area, which has not yet got a solution. It is simpler to use than synectics and is possibly better when dealing with a specific problem. 

Methods of creative confrontation Simulation of solution finding by confrontation with meaning contents that apparently have no correction to the problem Synectics BBB methods Semantic intuition... 

Figure 4 High-Performing vs. Low-Performing Team Characteristics. (Source Synectics, Inc.)...

Synectics, an innovation firm, has captured the above list in a slightly different way. Figure 4 contrasts the spirit of innovation in high-performing vs. low performing organizations. 

At the time his groundbreaking book on Synectics was published (Gordon 1961), he was the president of the Invention Research Group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was also lecturing at Harvard. In the same year, Gordon established, with three friends and associates from ADL, a company called Synectics Inc. Its mission was to continue and expand their research on the inventive process. After several years, Gordon left Synectics Inc. to focus on the potential applications of the method of Synectics in education and founded the company Synectics Education Systems. His new company was focused on creativity and education and on the promotion of... 

Learning the history of Synectics is particularly meaningful because it shows the complex process behind its gradual emergence. It also explains how this sophisticated method has been gradually developed from several simple, nearly casual observations with the proper use of experimentation. 

Synectics is a heuristic method for the development of creative solutions in art and engineering. 

A Synectics group can compress into a few hours the kind of semiconscious activity that might take months of incubation for a single person. 

All five psychological states in the process of human creativity can be described as states in which the human brain uses mostly its right hemisphere that is, thinking is creative, the dominant reasoning is abduction, and emotions play the dominant role. Obviously, not all five states take place at the same time, but during a synectics session all states could occur and therefore should be understood to become operational. 

One of the most important assumptions of Synectics is assumption No. 4 (see Section 8.3). It says that the creative process is about joining... 

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