The Creative Process

Psychologists call this period of relaxing the mind incubation. It is widely recognized that incubation precedes the birth of a new idea— the illumination. Most of us at one time or another have experienced illumination, the sudden, spontaneous appearance of an answer to a problem during a time when the mind is seemingly engaged in other matters. 

The final phase of the creative process may involve experimentation to test promising solutions. It involves the evaluation and verification of the creative idea or product. 

To summarize, no single parameter can explain the creative process. In fact, the process often seems to an observer to be somewhat haphazard and without a definite pattern. Certain observable attributes are, however, frequently present  

The illumination, when the solution suddenly and spontaneously appears. 

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The work must also be the product of an author. That is, a human being has created the work, even if at the behest or for the ownership of a corporate entity and even if a machine or device, such as a camera or a computer program, was used as a tool in the creative process. 

The goal of this chapter is to provide semirealistic design and optimization exercises. Design is a creative endeavor that combines elements of art and science. It is hoped that the examples presented here will provide some appreciation of the creative process. 

But it is obstructive to be overly concerned about completing all the final touches on any phase before going forward to the next. It is a well-known demotivator, paralyzing the creative processes, and is often an excuse for people who don t know how to proceed. 

Since all is ultimately consciousness, mind (as Buddhist metaphysics terms consciousness) is the builder of all and the source of the illusion of separateness. It is by the skillful use of the image-building faculty of consciousness (imagination) that we fashion the tools for our liberation. The subjectivity of inner vision does not diminish its reality value. It is real on its own level. Such visions are not hallucinations, because their reality is that of the human psyche. They are symbols in which the highest knowledge and the noblest endeavor of the human mind are embodied. Visualization is the creative process of spiritual projection, through which inner experience is translated into visible form, comparable to the creative act of an artist whose subjective idea, emotion, or vision is transformed into an objective work of art which then takes on a reality of its own, independent of the creator. 

GEN. 185. I. Prigogine, Creativity in the Sciences and the Humanities. A study in the relation between the two cultures, in The Creative Process, L. Gustafsson, S. Howard, and L. Niklasson, eds., Swedish Ministry of Education, Stockholm, 1993. 

It is a mistake to think of the process of creating a project in linear terms first you have the idea, then you work out the idea in terms that can be actioned, then you plan the implementation stage, and so on. The creative process is usually a fairly jumbled one, with steps in the seeming logical sequence occurring simultaneously or In reverse order, and many iterations between steps. 

Identifying ideas or problems for action is so much part and parcel of any manager s job that it is easy to take the creative process for granted. Alternatively, when confronted with the need to develop more ambitious or complex ideas, one may fear that one is not up to being creative at this level. You think... 

Another angle on steering yourself through the creative process is to be aware of the different types of creativity. A classification by Alison Hardingham is presented in Box 4.2. It is Interesting to note that she disposes of so-called pure creativity as a fiction. 

Recognize and accept frustration as part of the creative process ... 

Open yourself to the mystery behind the creative process. 

Assembling is critical to the effectiveness of the creative process. We need information and past experience and... 

The final step in the sequence of originating an idea for action is to crystallize one s intentions into a concrete plan. Box 4.1, describing the creative process could be a useful guideline. It is often, however, worthwhile at this point to resort to those hackneyed questions Why What How and When Adding... 

These discussions of course can be an additional input to the creative process. This process does not stop with the generation of an original idea that is often the least of it. The major elements of creativity, in management as in other spheres, are in the realization of the idea in practice - in the actual change that is brought about. The process of implementation feeds back to the conception. 

Think of what you have to do in your work as a series of projects . Use the creative processes described in this chapter to enhance the way you go about these projects . 

At the beginning of the creative processes for finding possible solutions, it is important to be aware about how creative thinking happens. Simple exercises... 

Ghiselin, B. The Creative Process. New York New American Library, 1952. 

Students will apply the principles of good composition and the creative process to an original work. 

There are five common steps in the creative process, which are guidelines for creating your desired future. These guidelines are for use with the individual, but can then be developed to share visions within teams or even across whole organisations. 

The first problem that I discuss in this book was the major part of my PhD thesis. The problem, the synthesis of vinyl chloride, was chosen for me by the circumstance of war. It was of national importance. When the problem has been chosen, one has to think about it. The thought process is based on known literature, but the creative process is to imagine the solution to the problems in terms of the unknown. The creative thinking in the first chapter is about the interpretation of what... 

In 1954, Santa Monica, California psychiatrist Oscar Janiger, M.D., purified DMT with Perry Bivens, and the pair became the first to observe the effects of this compound in humans through self administration. Janiger is also remembered for his eight-year naturalistic study on the clinical effects of LSD and his classic investigations in the 50s and early 60s on the role of LSD in the creative process. This latter program is noted for having involved many of that era s most celebrated talents as volunteer experimental sub-... 

A final point about the creative process it does not seem to have too much to do with conventional LQ., as measured by existing tests. Frank Barron, while a Research Psychologist at the University of California Institute of Personality Assessment, compared more than 5,000 productive and creative individuals with others in their field who had similar I.Q. but limited productivity ... 

For me, the creative process, first of all, requires a good nine hours of sleep a night. Second, it must not be pushed by the need to produce practical... 

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