The shape of ideation | Stefan Mumaw | TEDxLawrence
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful talk, the speaker addresses the surprisingly low number of people who identify as creative, as revealed by a 2012 Adobe study. Through extensive research, the speaker discovers two key misconceptions about creativity: its association with artistry and the belief that it's an innate talent. The speaker argues that creativity is fundamentally problem-solving, requiring both relevance and novelty. They challenge the audience to rethink creativity as a skill that can be honed through practice, using a fun, interactive exercise to demonstrate how even a short amount of time can yield a wealth of creative ideas.
Takeaways
- đ€ Only 39% of adults in a global study by Adobe in 2012 identified themselves as creative, raising the question of why the number is so low.
- đš The first misconception about creativity is that it is solely linked to Artistry, leading many to believe they lack creativity if they cannot draw, paint, or write.
- đĄ Creativity is more accurately defined as problem-solving with relevance and novelty, rather than just a talent or innate ability.
- đ¶ Children excel at novelty but struggle with relevance, while adults are the opposite, being good at solving problems but often lacking in novel solutions.
- đ Creativity can be improved as a skill with practice, contrary to the common belief that it is a fixed talent.
- đ€ A creative exercise involving generating ideas for prizes in old west-themed breakfast cereal boxes demonstrated how groups can brainstorm effectively.
- â° The exercise showed that time is not the limiting factor in creativity; motivation and the willingness to engage in the process are more critical.
- đ The ideation process can be graphed, with quantity and quality of ideas on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal, illustrating a typical pattern of idea generation.
- đ The creative process involves moving from expected ideas to more novel ones, often sparked by an 'absurd' idea that opens the door to greater innovation.
- đ Embracing 'stupid' ideas is part of the creative process, as they can lead to breakthroughs and should not be dismissed in professional settings.
Q & A
What percentage of adults in the 2012 Adobe study identified themselves as creative?
-In the 2012 Adobe study, only 39% of the 5,000 adults surveyed identified themselves as creative.
What is the first misconception about creativity mentioned in the script?
-The first misconception about creativity mentioned is that it is attached to Artistry, leading people to believe they are not creative if they cannot draw, paint, or write.
What does the speaker propose as the core definition of creativity?
-The speaker proposes that at its core, creativity is problem solving.
What are the two characteristics that the speaker adds to the definition of creativity?
-The two characteristics added to the definition of creativity are relevance and novelty.
Why does the speaker believe that creativity is not just a talent but also a skill?
-The speaker believes that creativity is not just a talent but also a skill because if creativity is problem solving, it implies that it can be improved with practice, like any other skill.
What is the main goal of the creative exercise involving breakfast cereal and the Wild West?
-The main goal of the creative exercise is to demonstrate that creativity is a process of generating ideas with relevance and novelty, and to show that everyone can engage in the creative process.
How long were the participants given to come up with ideas for the creative exercise?
-The participants were given three minutes to come up with ideas for the creative exercise.
What does the speaker suggest is the usual excuse for not generating more ideas?
-The speaker suggests that the usual excuse for not generating more ideas is a lack of time.
What does the speaker identify as the shape of the ideation process?
-The speaker identifies the shape of the ideation process as a graph with a vertical axis representing the quantity or quality of ideas and a horizontal axis representing time.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of 'stupid' or absurd ideas in the creative process?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of 'stupid' or absurd ideas because they often spark more creativity and can lead to more novel and innovative solutions.
How does the speaker suggest we can improve our creativity?
-The speaker suggests that we can improve our creativity by practicing problem-solving with relevance and novelty, and by understanding and utilizing the creative process.
Outlines
đ€ The Misconceptions of Creativity
The speaker begins by questioning the low percentage of adults who identify as creative, as revealed by a 2012 Adobe study. They delve into the reasons behind this perception, starting with a survey of people in creative professions and expanding to those in various other roles. The speaker identifies two main misconceptions about creativity: the association with Artistry, which leads many to believe they lack creativity if they cannot draw or paint, and the belief that creativity is an innate talent rather than a skill. To challenge these notions, the speaker proposes a definition of creativity as problem-solving with relevance and novelty, suggesting that creativity is a skill that can be improved with practice.
đ A Creative Exercise in Relevance and Novelty
The speaker introduces a creative exercise to demonstrate the process of generating ideas with relevance and novelty. Volunteers from the audience are invited on stage to participate. They are tasked with brainstorming ideas for what could have been included as prizes in breakfast cereal boxes during the American Wild West era. The exercise is timed for three minutes, emphasizing the importance of volume in idea generation. The speaker encourages the participants to write down as many ideas as possible, promoting a collaborative effort and the exploration of unique solutions. The exercise serves to illustrate the dynamic of idea generation and the potential for creativity in everyday problem-solving.
âł Overcoming Excuses and Understanding the Creative Process
Following the creative exercise, the speaker reflects on common excuses that hinder idea generation, particularly the belief that there is not enough time. The speaker counters this by pointing out that in just three minutes, participants were able to generate numerous ideas, suggesting that motivation, not time, is the limiting factor. They emphasize that creativity is a process, not a moment of inspiration, and that it involves moving from expected solutions to more novel ones. The speaker introduces a graph to illustrate the ideation process, showing how the quantity of ideas generated typically starts high, decreases as the obvious solutions are exhausted, and then increases again as participants push for more innovative ideas. The speaker highlights the importance of embracing 'stupid' or absurd ideas as a catalyst for sparking creativity and innovation.
đ Embracing Absurdity for Creative Brilliance
In the final paragraph, the speaker reinforces the idea that absurdity or 'stupidity' is a crucial part of the creative process, often leading to brilliant solutions. They argue against the tendency in corporate environments to dismiss such ideas as unprofessional or childish. The speaker suggests that by allowing for and even encouraging absurd ideas, we can reach a level of novelty that is essential for true innovation. They conclude by emphasizing that creativity is problem-solving with relevance and novelty, and that with practice, anyone can improve their creative skills, thus expanding the definition of creativity to include a broader range of individuals and professions.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄCreativity
đĄArtistry
đĄProblem Solving
đĄRelevance
đĄNovelty
đĄMisconceptions
đĄSkill
đĄIdeation
đĄMotivation
đĄProcess
đĄAbsurdity
Highlights
Only 39% of 5,000 adults in a global Adobe study identified themselves as creative.
The speaker conducted an extensive study to understand why the perception of creativity is so low.
Creativity is often mistakenly associated with Artistry, leading many to believe they lack creativity if they can't draw or paint.
Creativity is defined as problem-solving with relevance and novelty, not just Artistry.
Adults tend to be good at solving problems with relevance but struggle with novelty.
Children excel at novelty but often lack relevance in their problem-solving.
Creativity is not an innate talent but a skill that can be improved with practice.
The speaker introduces a creative exercise to demonstrate the process of generating ideas.
The exercise involves imagining what could have been prizes in breakfast cereal boxes during the Wild West era.
Participants are challenged to generate a list of ideas within a three-minute time limit.
The exercise reveals that the common excuse of 'not having time' to be creative is often a lack of motivation.
Creativity is a process, not a moment of inspiration, and it involves generating a range of ideas.
The speaker explains the ideation graph, illustrating the quantity and quality of ideas over time.
Absurd or 'stupid' ideas are crucial for sparking more creative thinking and should not be dismissed.
Innovation often comes from pushing the boundaries of what is considered 'stupid' or absurd.
The speaker emphasizes that everyone can be creative by solving problems with relevance and novelty.
Practicing creativity involves engaging in the process of idea generation to improve both relevance and novelty.
Transcripts
thank
you thank
you so how many of you would say you are
creative raise your
hands okay good you know in 2012 Adobe
did a study and they asked a very simple
question it was a global study and they
asked how many of you think you're
creative and they they asked 5,000
adults and only
39% said that they were creative and the
question I have is why is that number so
low so I started to study it and I did
very extensive study I asked people but
I started with my circle people who have
creative in their title designers and
writers and photographers and asked them
if they were creative
and what creativity meant and then I
expanded that to engineers and
developers people who are one step away
from having creative in their title and
then I started getting farther and
farther away from that designation
started asking retail workers and office
workers construction guys stay-at-home
moms people that are doing the real work
right started asking them are you
creative and that number that 39% number
was actually fairly accurate to what I
was Finding but but it wasn't accurate
to what I was seeing in them and that
that number sort of haunted me a little
bit why is that number so low and what I
found was that there were really two
great misconceptions about what
creativity is and the first one is that
we have somehow attached it to
Artistry that people think that they're
not creative because they can't draw or
paint or write and that attachment to
Artistry is keeping people from
believing that they have any creativity
whatsoever we hear it all the time don't
we I I don't have a creative bone in my
body which just simply isn't true
creativity and Artistry are not
connected you can use art to be creative
but they're not mutually
exclusive I think it comes with the
definition we have for
creativity see if I asked all of you
what the definition of creativity is
you'd all give me a different answer
what a strange thing in our environment
for someone to have completely different
answers to the definition of something
and so I started putting together a
definition that I felt was a little bit
more
absolute at its core creativity is
problem solving but that definition
alone isn't enough is it because we've
been able to see people's Solutions and
go well that one's better than that one
and if it's just problem solving that
means that it's completely absolute and
we know that there's a certain amount of
subjec it inside of
creativity it's because that that
definition alone has two
characteristics relevance and
Novelty creativity is problem solving
with relevance and
Novelty relevance is how well we've
solved the problem because a problem has
to be present for us to be creative and
Novelty is the degree of uniqueness or
originality that solution
possesses to be creative we have to have
both see we as adults we are serial
problem solvers we have relevance down
right when we're when we're when we're
confronted with a problem we solve it
immediately it's novelty that we
struggle with and what's interesting
kids the exact opposite great at novelty
terrible at relevance right we all have
that experience so from an adult
standpoint if we want to be more
creative
we have to solve problems with both
relevance and Novelty and it's novelty
that we struggle with see that leads us
to that second misconception about
creativity and that it's a talent we've
come to believe that creativity is
simply a talent that some people have
and others don't and that's not true
either creativity isn't a
talent if it's problem solving that
means it's a skill and that has a huge
ramification it means that we can get
better at it
it few of us have ever really thought
about creativity as something that we
can improve at we believe it's just
something that is this innate Force this
mystical thing that sometimes comes and
greets us usually when we're not
expecting it but it's not it's a skill
we can generate ideas in Greater
quantity and quality if we practice but
how do you practice creativity isn't
that the great question you solve
problems with relevance and Novelty and
you'll get better at it and I'm going to
prove that here today with a little
silly stupid creative exercise that
you're all going to do as a matter of
fact I'm going to bring up a couple of
volunteers who are going to do it on
stage with me where are my volunteers
here we go give them a round of applause
come on up
guys you guys are going to be right here
okay you guys you have uh you have
little pads of paper in front of you
okay here's what I want you to do I want
you to get a partner okay I want you to
get a partner hey you got a partner all
right so I want you to get a partner so
you're doing this together okay I'm
going to give you a little creative
exercise here in the morning we're all
aware of the real value of breakfast
cereal right the prize in the bottom
that's right so I mean we'll dig through
that cereal to get the prize right all
the cereal is flying out we just want
the prize now imagine if boxes of
breakfast cereal were around during the
nostalgic era of the American Wild Wild
West What could could have been in those
boxes as prizes so here's what you're
going to do you guys as a pair as a team
I want you to come up with a list of
ideas things that could have been in
boxes of breakfast cereal if they were
around during the the wild west so the
two of you are going to come up with one
list but I'm only going to give you
three minutes to do it okay I'm only
going to give you three minutes to do it
you guys I want you to do it right here
on the board so talk through it and just
start writing out your list ready go
so just write them out as many as you
can this is a volume exercise as many as
you can just keep generating
ideas right as many out as you
can yeah keep them going work through it
together generate ideas together rate
one
list all right you're 30 seconds in
you're 30 seconds in keep going
good keep going as many as you
can take big ideas and break them down
into small
ideas keep
going you're one minute in one minute in
you got two minutes left keep it
going these are
good keep going
as many as you can volume just keep
talking through
it you don't need to draw them out these
aren't
pictures all you designers trying to
draw things out write them
out keep going keep
going you're about
halfway about
halfway keep going
you put a question mark I did it's an
idea just throw it down there it's okay
keep
going keep going as many as you
can don't steal any of theirs don't look
up here and steal
any eyes on your own paper you got one
minute left one minute left
keep it going keep it
going on the home
stretch keep
going you got about 30 seconds left keep
it
moving 30 seconds
left those are good keep
going keep it
moving as many as you can you got about
10 seconds left 10 seconds you got a
couple more in you let's
go good
time all right
really good job guys give it up for them
give them a hand thanks guys really
appreciate it thank you you're good y
you're
good
so stop
laughing so what did we learn all right
so first and foremost what you just did
was you just entered into the creative
process whether you know it or not I
gave you a problem to solve and you had
the opportunity to solve it with
relevance and Novelty right here in
there and we learned three things about
our own creative process in this
exercise see the first thing that we
learn is the excuse that we give
ourselves for why we can't generate more
ideas the number one excuse we give
ourselves is that we don't have time I
don't have time to generate more ideas I
have to solve this problem and move on
I've got a whole stack of other problems
I have to keep going on to I have to get
started making something and so we solve
it in one or two in one or two responses
and then we move on but it's really not
time is it because in just three minutes
they generated one two three four five
six seven8 nine 10 11 12 13 ideas some
of you generated more than 20 ideas
there'll be a few of you that generated
more than 30 ideas in just three minutes
so it's not time it's
motivation which is awesome that's great
news because you guys are an infinite
well of ideas if you'll choose to be
motivated see motivation we can turn on
and off like a switch
time on the other hand we can't do
anything about but you can choose to be
motivated at any moment and I motivated
you with this exercise because it's a
stupid exercise and because you're
competing against everybody else at your
table right and you were motivated to do
so you can choose to turn it on and off
anytime that you want the second thing
that we learn about Crea about our
creative process is that we remember
that it really is a process we have this
Vision that creativity is this moment
that somehow we're in the shower and
boom we're struck with lightning I don't
know what all of you are doing in the
shower but creativity isn't a moment
that moment isn't what creativity is
that's the result of creativity see
creativity is a process and it has to
play out see you you went through your
lists okay the first couple of items on
your list if you shouted them out you
would see that they're on everyone
else's list too aren't they if we look
at some of the first things on here
bullets rattlesnake venom antibiotics a
pistol a belt buckle these are all
things that you'll probably find on your
lists too and that's what we end up
doing don't we as adults we solve the
problem and then we move on but
unfortunately we start making the things
that we've that we've solved and we put
them out in the world and we find out
they look just like everybody else's
because everyone else did the exact same
thing now if you start looking at the
last few items on your list you'll start
seeing some very interesting things
won't you some things that aren't
exactly Norm noral responses you can see
a few here a
halter
whiskey that's a Bo that's a box of
cereal I want right in order for us to
get to those ideas we have to get the
expected out and that's part of the
process and unfortunately inside of our
Lives we're so time crunched that we try
to take this entire creative process and
bring it down into 15 minutes let's go
into this room for 15 minutes and solve
this problem but it doesn't work that
way all you're going to get are expected
ideas we have to go through the process
to find that
novelty and the last thing that we learn
about the creative process that this
exercise has has shown us is that if
creativity really is problem solving
then we should be able to graph it and
we can I'm going to give
you the shape of
ideation this is the graph of what you
guys just went through in your creative
exercise let's graph this okay any good
graph's got a vertical and a horizontal
okay our vertical we're going to call Q
the quantity or quality of ideas that
you generated and our horizontal is time
all ideation happens over the course of
time in this particular instance it was
three minutes sometimes it's 20 minutes
on your way home sometimes it's an hour
and a half in the brainstorm session so
as soon as I gave you the problem
because you're an adult you started
solving it in your head that's what
grown-ups do and so when I said go you
had two or three ideas already and so
did your partner and so you spouted out
those ideas and then you reacted to each
other's ideas but then this started to
happen didn't it it started to come down
and you started looking back up here and
you started listening to the people
around you right you're like what else
can we do you started looking to see if
there are any answers up here but then
something happened and it turned and you
generated a whole bunch more ideas
before this bottomed out right now this
bottoming out happens either either
mechanically or organically mechanically
is me calling time organically is you
really are out of ideas so you just stop
right I've always been interested in
this shape in what happened right there
what happened at that turn it's usually
when someone said something
stupid if you go back on your lists
about halfway down there's an idea
that's stupid and it's sparked all a
whole bunch more ideas to where you were
like oh okay if that's where we're
playing okay then now we can say this
and this and this and this and this
right now I use this term stupid in the
most loving way possible the reality is
it these are absurd ideas something
sparked more this absurdity happened and
that's and that's drastically important
stupidity absurdity is part of the
creative process and inside of our
corporate environments we try to we try
to rip it out we try to pull it out
because it doesn't feel professional it
feels childlike but inside of this
inside of that moment is Brilliance
here's the other thing that happens we
talk about solving problems with
relevance and Novelty in general these
ideas have a tendency to be more
relevant those ideas have a tendency to
be more novel so if you look at your
lists the ideas that you came up with
first they fit in the Box they they're
small items they existed at that time
but then after stent
stupid you get into some more novel
ideas see from an ideation standpoint
most of the ideas we generate have to be
pushed forward to be interesting they
have to be pushed forward because we're
usually in in a society we're usually a
society of attachers and improvers and
Innovation comes through
stupidity right we we want to be able to
start with novel and pull them back into
relevance because Innovation happens
there creativity happens there and if we
struggle from from a novel standpoint we
need to get to stupid
faster if there's anything that we learn
about this it's two things one this
process plays out every single time
every time you generate ideas this is
what the graph looks like and if it if
that's true then you can plan for it you
can bring what you need to bring to get
to stupid
faster problem solving with relevance
and Novelty that's what creativity is
and as such that definition now brings
in more people into the creative fold it
brings in the engineer Who develops a
part for a machine to make it work it
brings in this the mom who finds a way
to make five meals out of the three
ingredients in her pantry and it brings
in you because every single day you
solve problems with relevance and
Novelty and you can do with a greater
degree if you'll practice thank you
[Applause]
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