Perception
Business Heads think Fast, Creativity Heads think Slow
Perception is about making sense of what’s out there. But our perceptual system goes beyond the information given; it has to ‘invent’ things. The 19th century German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz called these automated "unconscious inferences". They are the reason why we are fooled by optical illusions. However those same rules also interfere with the way we think about problems.
Business Heads believe in the speedy assessment of issues with a dash for immediate solutions. Business Heads don’t realise the tricks their perceptive system can play on their understanding of an issue. Unconsciously we make things up and miss things out. If the issue is incorrectly stated then all the solutions will solve the wrong problem
Creativity Head proceed more slowly. They spent time rephrasing the issue. Simply flipping the words of the problem statement around and changing them helps to overcome the limitations of perception.
Perception is also bundled up in Frames – a sort of mental structure that shapes the way we sense problems. Changing the words of a problem statement alters the Frame of the problem. Instead of saying “How can we reduce staff turnover”, say “how can we employ staff who don’t want to leave” which creates a new perspective for different solutions.
Complexity
Business Heads Complicate, Creativity Heads Simplify
Business Heads love complicated language and concepts. Professor Alex Bavelas found in a study, that "wrong" complex explanations were rated more convincing than simpler "correct" ones. It seems that "smart talk", (Professors Sutton and Pfeffer - Stanford University) is more favoured than simplicity.
The problem is that our Business Head can't generally cope with the complexity that it creates, often using layers of metaphors piled high on one another.
"The organisations culture is like a can of worms" is not a good starting statement for solving organisational issues. When issues are "big" and messy, the Business Head freezes up and it can go around in circles never finding the myriad of problems within.
Creativity Heads untangle complex issues into their separate parts before looking for solutions.
They systematically break challenges down into a hierarchy of interrelated issues. Asking the two simple questions, "Why?" identifies higher challenges and "What's stopping us?” lower smaller challenges. The latter are much easier to solve and the mental freeze is thawed.
Article kindly provided by David Weeks at www.m1creativity.co.uk
Jan 4, 2008
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