Part 1. A bit of theory
If you believe the dictionaries - and if not them, who does believe in this country at all? - the word "creativity" means the ability of consciousness to create:
a) something new
b) possessing value.
The second part of the definition is very important. Because it is clear that almost any person can come up with a vinyl teardrop - but these new products will not be needed by anyone. Today, there are many theories explaining why some wise people can write jokes, songs and nano-robots, and others do not.
1. The human mind can be compared to a sandbox. If you pour water on the sand, it first spreads over a small area, and then begins to deepen the hole and collect there. It's the same with the head. Problems (and generally data) are water that leaves traces. Pit is a thought pattern.
2. Templates help to recognize the situation and respond quickly to it. It is enough to prick once about a cactus to stop buying them.
3. Having gathered together, the patterns form vertical thinking ("trial and error field"). It helps in solving everyday routine tasks. Getting into the pit-pattern, the information flows down, deepening it.
4. Vertical thinking kills creativity. A person who thinks with patterns can not think of anything new. Because for this you need to go beyond the usual interpretation, to break the template, to learn new horizons of data. All of the above researchers have developed their own methods for developing non-standard, creative thought. De Bono taught to let "water" sideways, hence the name of his method: lateral thinking (from the Latin word "lateral"). Altshuller created 76 protocols in order to bring the idea beyond the usual. Osborne relied on the collective mind, believing that a group of people shouting different nonsense, as a result, is smarter than each of its members, seriously reflecting on the problem. But enough of that. Prepare the brain, let's brake it.
Part 2. Many practices
And here are the promised exercises. Each of them is aimed at the development of a certain aspect of thinking. If you read and draw a pencil not only the article, but also the books mentioned in it, you can become smarter and even, in particular, learn how to draw. Except for jokes.
Aspect! Absence of self-criticism
De Bono believed that people become stupider with age. This is because adults are beginning to impose restrictions on thought. Many solutions to the problem are dismissed as "stupid" or "childish". Here, for example, the famous test with a figure. When Edward showed it to the children and asked to say what it is, - any schoolboy named about forty options: a house without a pipe, a blank for a paper airplane, a bitten chocolate bar. Adults called the maximum of ten options. They, as a rule, drove themselves into a pattern of geometry and described the figure as a square with a triangle at the top or a truncated rectangle. Can you imagine? A person is able to cut three-quarters of options for solving a problem (and any image is already a task, a material for interpretation) simply because they are not serious and are supposedly unworthy of a thinking person! Adults do not even utter these options, cautiously looking around and waiting for a stapler to hit. People criticize themselves, in advance! De Bono said that this complex should be disposed of first.
Exercise 1
Try to connect nine points with four segments. You can not tear off a pencil from paper. In this case, the line can pass through each of the points only once.
Aspect 2. Shift of the entry point
Another test of de Bono looks like this: the participants are invited to draw a figure that can be cut into four equal parts in one movement. 35% of participants immediately give up, 50% put forward the idea of a cross, very narrow in the central part, about 3% give a unique result (Edward collects them). On average, 12% of the remaining solve the problem is not extremely creative, but still an interesting way - because they approach the solution from the end. That is, first cut out of the paper four identical pieces, and then try to combine them in the figure. This is the shift of the entry point. Who said that the problem should be solved consistently? And what if you immediately imagine the result? Or try to connect it with a random word? Or a picture?
Aspect 3. Infinite questions
Another skill of creative thinking, which children have better than adults, is the overthrow of the foundations. Why does thunder roar? - Because the clouds collide with each other. - And why do they face? Because the wind blows above. And why they can not part? The task of the child is not so much to tire you (he may not understand what a pleasure the mockery of an adult is), how many to get to the template. Children can not bear the answers like "it always was" or "it is necessary". "Who needs it?" - they continue their interrogation. This allows them to give out a hundred abstract and paradoxical judgments a day, such as "Mom came drunk, because she is afraid to ride in the elevator." You too can.
Exercise 2
The problem for those who know how to play chess - well, or at least knows how the figures go and that the pawn turns into any figure, reaching the last line. Condition: Black begins and in one turn puts mat to the white king. Vertical search of moves does not help.
Exercise 3
You probably know this game: the host tells the situation. For example, a person comes to a bar and asks for a glass of water. The barman instructs him on the gun. The man says thank you and leaves. Or: the husband and his wife stop on the deserted road, the husband goes for gasoline, the wife is locked. When the husband returns, she is dead, next to her in the car is a stranger, the doors are closed from the inside. Asking unambiguous questions (on "yes" and "no"), the participants of the game should restore the picture of the events. These tasks are full on the Internet - they are called "danets". They learn to ask questions until the last, without giving up. If the computer game does not entrain-train on live people, until the last discussing the problem with colleagues or relatives. Refuse to accept as answers "it is impossible" and "so it is accepted".
Aspect 4. Right hemisphere thinking
This article would be even more incomplete if we did not mention that some experts associate creativity with the right hemisphere of the brain. Until the 1950s, it was unclear why a person should wear a walnut in his head - and why the brain should not be an ideal ball or cube. The first answers were received by R. Sperry from the California Institute of Technology. As a result of experiments on animals, he found out that the hemispheres work independently of each other.