The Presentation Script for Creative Thinking: Matter Hi, I’m--------------------------------
Manner [Teacher introduces himself] [The teacher used appropriate accent, intonation and gestures in order to convince his message forcefully or convincingly.]
That might appear a crazy thinking. But [Teacher introduces the topic] there is something new in the thought or • Have you ever thought of private flying space- cars? If no, why? somebody might take it an absurd idea. But there is something new in that. Such crazy ideas give birth to amazing things whose creation by a scientist is regarded an innovation. Such creative thinking can revolutionize the world we live in. So today, we would learn about creative thinking which you should resort to while trying to solve the problems you face. We’d also learn how creative thinking takes place, the guidelines for it and the barriers on its way. Ready friends?
Introduction: How to be creative/ innovative? How to motivate and manage creative people? All it requires, really, is letting people think the way they like and never pose any ideological barriers on their way of free and divergent thinking. Creativity/ creative thinking is a process, not a product. One cannot teach creativity. By establishing the proper
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Can you name some innovations made by the European scientists?
[ A question to students] • Do you think you are creative? Why do you think so?
environment and offering encouragement, one can certainly facilitate the expression of creative ideas. Station-e does the same for the students. This kind of thinking gives us a way to look at the future and various solutions from a fresh angle. It’s a thinking skill that gets us out of the always-thinking-the-same-way rut. While thinking creatively, we invent something or modify or change the [ A question to students] existing fact/ think in a new way. • Can you give examples? For example, a) the idea to move round the world was an innovative idea that took in Magellan’s mind. He was almost successful in it. b) The cordless telephones are the modified versions of their wired counterparts. To define concisely, innovative or [Teacher shows the first slide] creative thinking means using thinking skills to make new and useful connections to what is known and ordinary and bring creative solutions from the information you have or know. Aristotle had once said, [slide disappears] “Something comes from something”, and that’s the point of creative thinking germination_ to make something new, unique or different out of something old. The creative/ innovative thinking process: Creative or innovative solutions are not found quickly and / or coincidently as is the general assumption among the masses. In fact, the opposite is true. [Teacher shows the 2nd slide] [Teacher points out each item.]
The mental or intellectual process that metes out creative solutions or innovative ideas takes place in 4 stages: [Teacher points out Getting ready] 1. Getting ready: This involves the following: a. Recognizing, with sharp [slide disappears] alertness, the time / moment of the opportunity occurrence and grabbing the solutions it offers in the form of creative answers or ideas. b. Understanding of the problems [along with their nature] that confront us. c. Understanding the nature of the opportunity/ opportunities in order to solve future problems. • How do you gather information about the problem you face? d. Gathering relevant information about the problem and endeavouring to fit it or its part to the concerned solution. [Teacher points out the 2nd point] 2. Contemplating over the problem and the new ways to find solutions: [slide disappears] Creative or innovative thinking involves the better understanding of the problem by ‘chewing’ it well. It takes time, many a time. However, scientists have proven by means of their credible experimentation that the best solutions are found out after we segregate mentally or intellectually from the problem we confront. The subconscious part of the human mind has the capacity of connecting unrelated information to the problem at hand and of finding
whether this information can be modified in such a way as to become the remedy for the problem or the source of its solutions or the way leading to them.
[Teacher points out 3rd point]
3. The Aha! By doing the above-mentioned process, the solution(s) we are looking for [slide disappears] come(s) to us like a flash of light or a lightning_ a bolt from the blue. It occurs generally after meeting the problem, since the gap-period between meeting with the problem and finding its solution allows full of active thinking in a new direction or through different angles. Here you know more than you thought you did. Archimedes’ shout, “Eureka, Eureka” is the result of his “aha”. [Teacher points out the 4th point] 4. Assessing the new thought/ solution(s): [slide disappears] When you get some new thought or a likely solution for the problem at hand, you need to check it out for its relevance, usability, utility value, viability, safety extent, the extent of its impact, its side-effects and so on by means of your analytical thinking. For example, suggesting flying cars as the innovative solution to traffic problems is unviable and, hence, need to be set aside as a ‘dross’ for a while. [Teacher shows the 3rd slide] • Guidelines for Innovative or [Teacher points out each item.] Creative thinking: Creative thinking doesn’t wait for anybody’s encouragement; but if given any, it can work wonders. The following guidelines for the innovative thinking
[Teacher points out the 1st point] can prove very beneficial: 1. Withholding your judgment: When you withhold your judgment for a while, you allow as many ideas as [slide disappears] possible since it creates some ‘space’ for their generation. This also benefits the other way round in the sense that other people would find it easy to mete out their own creative/ innovative ideas as they would know that their ideas [Teacher points out the 2nd point] wouldn’t be judged right away. 2. Generating a large number of ideas: The creative solution(s) call(s) for the ample fodder of a large number of innovative ideas. So you need to generate as many ideas as possible even though it takes some more time. Now let me test your ability to generate ideas.
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• Give me ideas on increasing employee efficiency of an organization
The more you dig deeper and wider into the details of many possible innovative ideas on the way to their germination, growth and fruition or occurrence, the greater the likelihood of finding the “golden nuggets”_ i.e. creative solutions. Perhaps, amongst many, the ‘last’ solution after a prolonged deliberation can be a revolutionary panacea; so, move unto the ‘last’. [Teacher points out the 3rd point] 3. Accepting the unusual or even the queer: Some ideas/ solutions generated in [slide disappears] human mind might appear irrelevant or disconnected or too unusual or queer to be accepted. But then its occurrence might have some sort of linking or, at
least, remote inkling with the present or future problems. Instead of rejecting such ideas or solutions outright, you can store and preserve them as the probable alternative solutions for the present problems at hand or the solutions with the likelihood of resolving the future problems. [Teacher points out the 4th point] 4. Forming new links: Creative thinking enables the germination of more ideas or solutions [slide disappears] than the concerned problems. In a creative climate, many of the options give birth to new and unexpected products and new ways of doing things. Forming new links often comes after thinking deeply, silently and widely about the probable new relationship(s) and / or relevance formed by the newfound ideas which can likely befit as solutions to the problems. If you come across a queer idea, you can try to link it with another queer idea. The number of combinations you, thus, create can increase manifold, giving rise to rich creative thinking_ a kind of chain reaction_ that would enable you, during its course of happening, to find out proper novel solutions or remedies which would otherwise have been impossible, had you indulged in [Teacher shows the 4th slide] ordinary way or manner of thinking. Barriers to Creativity [Teacher points out each item.] Creativity is a constructive human virtue [slide disappears] but to attain it needs removing certain barriers on the way of our journey towards it. One of the most important steps in developing creative abilities is
recognizing and owning up to the obstacles to devising much desired [Teacher points out the 1st point] creative ideas. A. The foremost barrier is baseless • What are the features of baseless assumptions. assumptions? [slide disappears] For years the greeting card companies laboured under the fond assumption that their competition was other greeting card companies. No doubt this affected—and constrained—their creative efforts. However, the unexpected popularity of sending flowers and plants with just a telephone call (e.g. Florists Telegraph Delivery—FTD) soon came in vogue. Then, after a few years, people started sending greeting cards via picture SMSes and internet facilities. [Teacher points out the 2nd point] B. Unverified judgments are another barrier. When was the last time [slide disappears] you quickly responded to an idea with “It will never work,” or “We tried that before,” or “They'll never buy it”. Think about judgments some European people laughed at: “He'll fall off the end of the earth” (about Christopher Columbus), or “They'll never replace horses” (said about automobiles), or “Birds were made to fly, not man” (said about airplanes). What about the judgments that are now accepted as valid? Could today's blind acceptance of things, as they are,
inhibit creativity? The answer is regrettably ‘yes’. [Teacher points out the 3rd point] C. Unfortunately, a common barrier to creativity, the ‘right answer’ syndrome, is locked into people's brains shortly after they begin [slide disappears] their formal education, with the get-the-right-answer focus typical of our conventional education system. Most school systems are better at turning out ‘human automatons’ who can memorize and parrot the right answer memorized over the years of mechanical learning. These systems are not so expert at creating such geniuses who can think and invent new or different answers. [Teacher points out the 4th point] D. The FEAR FACTOR_ especially that of failure_ is the greatest barrier • Why are we afraid of failure? to creativity. [slide disappears] Failure is actually contributes significantly to creativity; it's a tremendous learning tool. In fact, the person can learn well by trial-anderror method and be creative through it, since it involves searching or exploring various alternative answers or solutions to the problem(s) via divergent thinking method or process. My dear friends, today, we have learnt about creative thinking which you should resort to while trying to solve the problems you face. We’ve
also learnt how creative thinking takes place, the guidelines for it and the barriers on its way. Any questions?
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