Visual Problems

When we do a jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces lay before us, our eye wanders over them, noting features, looking for similarities. It is a fantastic feat; we go over them again and again, creating a myriad of imagined connections between the pieces. We move pieces around to create new patterns and connections, gradually our ideas coalesce, from simple similarities we build more complex patterns and the picture emerges. It is not a logical process, it is an emergent one, we work on the whole of the problem at once, pieces become joined here and there. Suddenly we see how the small parts go together, logic plays no part whatever, it is all about processing images and ideas. The result is a perfectly ordered solution that has been created from total and complete chaos.

And nobody needs to learn how to do a jigsaw puzzle, it is obvious- you never get any instructions on the box.

What does this tell us? We do not need to learn how to be creative, it is natural, not only that, it is compelling – we are creatures of creativity, we are born to make sense of the world through our creativity. Our logic is learned but our creativity is inherent, but it becomes hampered by our habits of logic, rules and assumptions. Creativity is subtle, elusive, intangible and uncertain. It is this uncertainty that causes us to doubt its merit, we have come to prefer the certainty of logic and mathematics.

But as we have seen, some problems do not yield to logic.

linux hosting

Solution Mapping II, The Purpose of Nonsense

I once took part in a brain storming session in which I felt particularly uncomfortable. On the one hand, I was an experienced manager, I was responsible for significant revenue, had a number of capable people reporting to me, and I was someone who was expected to deal with problems responsibly and effectively – and I felt I had something useful to contribute.

On the other hand, I was sitting there being expected to come up with wildly improbable solutions to problems and it didn’t really sit well with me as it just felt silly, and I didn’t engage with the process.

This does not seem to me to be an isolated example, I am sure that this happens to any number of participants in a similar position. However, this is a serious obstacle to finding creative solutions to problems. So how should we deal with it?

The problem is that ‘silly’ suggestions have no obvious practical purpose, they have no value.

However, if you use the ‘solution mapping matrix’, then even the most wildly improbable suggestions play a part – they acquire a value.

In Part I of this blog, I showed that you will not get ‘breakthrough’ solutions from possible/desirable ideas. These come from the impossible/undesirable segments, therefore, you need improbable ideas.

If each segment of your map is equally populated then the process is working well, if not, people may still be operating within their comfort zone and you need to stretch them further.

You can do this by asking for more impossible/undesirable solutions and give a purpose to nonsense ideas.