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Goncalo Creativity Toolkit I: Changing Perspectives on Coursera.
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Copyright © 2022 by Jeffery Loewenstein & Jack Goncalo

All rights reserved.

Published by the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign, and the Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois

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Module 3 Creativity Toolkit I:
Changing Perspectives

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 Lesson 3: Introduction

Lesson 3: Introduction
Media Player for Video

The Creative Journey (1 of 2) - Slide 1

Module 3 Introduction

Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta

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Transcript

Loewenstein: The creative process is a process. It's not a moment in

time, it's not a single insight. If Archimedes pops up out of the
bathtub with that aha moment. Great. He's not a done. He's just
starting. True. You're right. We have to actually use that insight to get
some work, done to solve a problem. Maybe the insight's going to go
somewhere or maybe it's not going to work out. Who knows? Almost
certainly one insight isn't enough and to get to that invention, to get
to that enlightenment, it can take many insights and a lot of time. It's
a journey.

Mehta: I agree. Creativity is a journey. The thing is there are going to

be bumps in the road. When you are traveling, when you are on your
road in that journey, there are going to be bumps in the road. It is like
any other endeavor. You'll face problems, you'll face hurdles going
through anything. Same thing with creativity. We think of creativity as
fun and games and that's true, it is. I'm not saying it's not, but it can
be a grind sometimes. So true. A lot of people don't appreciate that
and they give up.

Loewenstein: Yeah. If you watch the movie version. Right. If you

watch the movie version, you have that moment of insight and then
we're cutting the ribbon on that, celebrating the outcome, but we
don't focus on all the toil and dead ends and mistakes along the way.
True. We have to pull that back in and see that and make sense of it
and try to help articulate what the challenges are that arise in that
journey and how to help people through that journey. Let's talk about
that.

Mehta: Absolutely. Another thing you know what? When we talk

about creativity as a journey, it's not that, you'll get hit on the head in
the middle of the road or you reach a dead. Many times what also
happens is, most of the times you just turned away at the gate itself.
People would reject you. You come up with a very beautiful idea. You
think it's a great idea, people don't like it, they reject it.Right. The

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thing is, I don't think there are ways or it happens, when you come
up with a new idea or invention, people would say, you know what?
Amazing, we'll just take it.

Loewenstein: There is so many examples of this and I think it helps

actually, to appreciate how many really creative ideas. The Nobel
Prize-winning breakthrough, the famous book, a movie. It was
originally rejected. Right. Stephen King, Carrie. His first book was
rejected 30 times. He threw it away. His wife dug it out of the trash,
so think about that. Rejected 30 times, throws it in the trash.
Absolutely. His wife pulls it out. If that doesn't happen, we don't get
that book and maybe not the career. As we'll see, persistence is
crucial. We have to have the motivation to keep going.

Mehta: Absolutely. We have to understand that as people working on

this creativity, rejection is a big part of creative journey. These ideas,
they're untested, unproven ideas. Others are dealing within this
realm of uncertainty and rejections seem logical. No one knows, if
it's a good idea or not. So many creative inventions and
enlightenments have that issue. They're so often a gatekeeper who
puts up a block for the creative journey. You are very likely to have to
overcome rejection, which means you have to persist. That is so true
and here's the kicker. Rejection isn't the only challenge when it
comes to the creative process.

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The Creative Journey (2 of 2) - Slide 2

Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta are sitting across the table and
discussing.

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Transcript

Mehta: In many ways, we ourselves are our worst enemy in this

journey. No, that is true. We met the enemy, it's us. That's so true.
The thing is what happens is our mental process is a very big thing.
If we are rooted in our own ways, that puts creativity. We tend to fall
back on our past experiences, our past knowledge and that is rigidity
in thinking and it's a big hurdle when it comes to creative journey.

Loewenstein: Absolutely. We talked a little bit about generating

insights and how that can be hard, but there is a temptation I think
that, once I have the first insight, now it's easy, now I've got it. What's
inside the world is open before me and I can see everything. But in
fact, that new change in perspective, because it was exciting and we
just had it, we want at that point to say, okay, I've solved it and now I
can commit to this perspective and just move forward. But one bump
in the road solved doesn't mean there won't be any more bumps
ahead of us, so just because you change your perspective once
doesn't mean you won't have to change it again.I agree. It's so
tempting to commit to our current perspective and that is rigidity in
our thinking process. That rigidity then is one of the main hurdles in
the creative journey. It makes us feel lost and stuck because we're
holding on. Frustrating.

Mehta: So frustrating. The funny thing is, we do it to ourselves. It's

our own rigidity. Yeah. That leads to this frustration, leads to this
feeling of being stuck and feeling of being lost. A very good example
of this is, writer's block. Just as you're trying to write something and
not knowing what to say, I think.

Loewenstein: Yeah. I mean and the funny thing is, it's just you and
the paper or the computer, there is no one stopping you and there is
nothing stopping you from writing anything. Then we don't write
anything. No, that is so true.

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Mehta: Another very interesting thing is that rigidity. Yeah. Can also
be driven by or impacted by these expectations of external rejection.
There is a really good example. We have Sylvia Plath. Sure, the
poet. The well-known American poet. She also won a Pulitzer Prize.
She was looking at or trying to assess why does she face a writer's
block? Yeah. What she concluded after all her going through thinking
process and everything, what she thought was a big concern was,
how would others evaluate her work? There was this concern about
external recognition and acceptance. There was this fear of
rejection. When that happens, what happens is your mind goes back
to simply what know or it goes to your comfort level and that is what
rigidity is. Our task then, should we choose to accept it, is to
examine rigidity and to examine rejection and how they make our
creative journeys difficult. How to handle that. Yeah. What would be
the solution? How do we tackle these? And then there are some
thinking tools which we can apply and then see if we can make this
journey much more productive, much more fruitful.

Loewenstein: If we understand these common challenges that arise

in the creative journey, rigidity rejection, and if we can figure out
some ways to handle them, be flexible, be possessed, then we'll be
better prepared for the journey and more likely to succeed.
Absolutely, so honored. Honored.

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 Lesson 3-1: Creativity is a
Journey

Lesson 3-1: Creativity is a Journey

Media Player for Video

SETTING THE SCENE - Slide 3

This slide shows a sunset view.

WITH JACK & JEFF

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Transcript

Goncalo: We talked about how the creative process isn't just one
insight, and then it ends there. How communities can jump out of the
bathtub. But then he asked to actually do the work involved in
collecting those insights and pursuing them to the point of reaching
an invention or an enlightenment. Here we really want to talk about
all of the adversity that can occur in this creative process.

Loewenstein: There are bumps in the road. You have to persist. Yes.
You can't give up at the first bump. You got to keep going.

Goncalo: Maybe we can even learn from those bumps in the road
and profit from adversity, and view it as an opportunity. One question
that arises is, why do people persist?

Loewenstein: Then how? Why do we put up with all that trouble?

Then what can we do to make it easier and maybe less adverse so
that we accomplish creative pursuits rather than fail along the way?

Goncalo: That's the creative journey. Creativity doesn't just happen

in easy flashes of insight. In fact, it feels a lot more like a grind then
people appreciate.

Loewenstein: Part of that is because the ideas get rejected, right?

Yeah. So it's not as if I generate a great idea and the world, just
goes, "Oh, amazing. We'll take it."

Goncalo: There's so many great examples of this. I think it really

helps to think about very creative ideas that we know now to be
really important. They're often rejected. One example would be
Stephen King's first novel. Carrie, people probably don't know then it
was rejected 30 times. In fact, Stephen King.

Loewenstein: He threw it away.

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Goncalo: He threw it out. His wife actually fished it out of the trash.
Thanks to her, we have it.

Loewenstein: His career, I mean all that follows. From that first
success.

Goncalo: Given up in that first book, assistance is key.

Loewenstein: We get that from everyone. I mean, Harry Potter is the

more contemporary example that people talk about.

Loewenstein: That was, I think at least 20 publishers rejected that.

Goncalo: Jackson is part of it. Part of the problem is that, creative

ideas are initially untested and unproven, and so you're dealing in
the realm of uncertainty, and so there are a lot of examples of.

Loewenstein: No one knows if it's a good idea or not.

Goncalo: Creativity is also a journey, maybe even a grind. Because

creativity doesn't involve just one idea, it involves potentially multiple
ideas that are generated and integrated over time. Great story that
illustrates this is from Gordon Gould who explained how he invented
the laser.

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Gordan Gould - Slide 4

This slide contains an image of Gordan Gould.

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Transcript

By his account, it just flashed into his head, is a moment of insight

one Saturday night, and he just saw the whole picture of how to build
a laser all at once. But he was quick to point out though, that that
one moment of insight, even though it was quick, came about after
20 years of hard work in two very different fields, physics and optics.
Only by working through the problems in each of those fields and
then combining them, did he really reach that one moment of insight
that seemingly occurred out of nowhere. I think it's also telling that
he talked about all of those ideas is really like separate bricks that
had to be arranged in just the right way. Sometimes there's a
temptation to focus on the end results of that insight that occurs
easily and out of nowhere. But in reality, it's the culmination of many
different ideas, and changes, and perspectives that have to be
combined. Again, creativity is not just one idea, it's many ideas.
Creativity evolves over time and takes us in directions we couldn't
even have imagined from the starting point. That could be in the
course of one particular product or invention. It can also be over the
long haul of multiple inventions, multiple products, multiple stories
joining together into a larger story. For example, 3M. the Minnesota
Mining and Manufacturing Company, that's where it got its name,
three 3M's. It started out in 1902 I think as a mining company that
sold a popular mineral to grinding wheel manufacturers.

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3M - Slide 5

3M

Transcript

From that mineral, then they began selling sand paper, and then
tape, and then more kinds of tape, first masking tape and then clear
tape. Now they sell 55,000 different products, including everything
from car care products to touch screens. The point is that where you
start maybe pretty far away from where you end up. As one idea
leads to another idea, leads to another idea, and there you have it.
Take a different example. David McConnell started Avon in 1886. He
was a door-to-door book salesman, a job that had already been
around, but he had trouble selling books. Then he realized he could
get attention of the people he was visiting at their homes by offering
them perfume samples.

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David McConnell - Slide 6

This slide contains an image of David McConnell.

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Transcript

Well, soon it was the perfume sample and not the book that sold and
as a result he founded the California Perfume Company in New York
and eventually turned into Avon. The point is you don't really know
where you're going to end up based on where you're starting. Honda
for example, came into the American market with motorcycles and
they tried to build a giant, big, heavy, powerful motorcycle. It turns
out no one was particularly interested in those but everybody loved
the tiny scooters they brought and wanted to buy those from Honda,
that they were planning to only use for their own employees. Again,
you don't know where it's going to take you, you have to be open
and flexible to where the journey goes. Even within a single story,
even within a single project, creativity can be a journey. It may take
more than one insight, it may take more than one invention even to
continue with a single story. I'll give you just one example, this is a
story from Linda Putnam, who's a wonderful researcher of conflict
resolution and negotiation. She tells this story about a school board
that was working with a teachers union to try and figure out a new
way forward. You can think about this as any negotiation context. But
they were trying to figure out how to manage pay differences across
teachers.

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The Teachers Union - Slide 7

This slide contains a dollar sign and an up arrow on the left side and
a down arrow on the right.

Transcript

The teachers union was asking for a pay raise and the school board
was trying to unsurprisingly limit the amount of additional funding
that they needed to provide to teachers. They had a fairly stiff
argument about that and then what they did is they had an insight.
They realized this wasn't just teachers asking for more money. What
was really happening was that it was a collection of teachers who
served as coaches for teams or otherwise we're coaching clubs or
activities around the school. What they had noticed was that some of
those teachers were underpaid relative than others. That shifted the
school board's perspective because they realized it wasn't changing
base salaries for teachers, it was changing compensation for after-
school activities or club leadership. That was the first shift.

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First Shift - Slide 8

Base Salary

Compensation for additional duties

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Transcript

Further conversation evolved after that and they then realized that
the real issue was that the difference in pay for teachers who are
coaching a team or leading a club, was that the men seemed to be
getting paid more than the women. As a result it was really a matter
of defining what are the investments that you might make when
you're leading a team or coaching a club that require more pay
versus less pay. It may take a lot of work to be, a football coach or a
volleyball coach and it may take less work to be the person in charge
of the chess team. But the logic here is that they started off with
more pay and then they got to gender disparities in payments, and
then finally they resulted in a new guideline and policy around what
time commitments and what activities were worthy of more pay and
which ones required maybe less pay.

Steps Of The Journey - Slide 9

More Pay leads to Gender disparity, which leads to Varying

compensation for different duties

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Transcript

Even within a single negotiation, even just talking about a single

issue, there were multiple insights along the way leading ultimately
to the agreement that resulted from the end of this teacher union and
school board negotiation. You can imagine that that could happen in
any context, whether you're developing a new product, whether
you're designing a new service, whether you're negotiating a
contract or whatever else. The first insight might get you a little way,
the second one may help you get even further, a third one maybe of
course, and the fourth one might get you across the line. There's a
journey, there's a story even within a given project. It doesn't have to
be one insight and done. We've seen that creativity doesn't have a
beginning and an ending, it's really a moving target in lot of ways.
That even if we settle on a creative idea the world changes, our
perspectives have to change and so the process just continues to
unfold over time. If we can change our perspective and in so doing
change our goal, change what we think we're doing, change who we
think we are, then this could morph into something very different.
That to me implies that we have to get used to being in the middle of
the process, rather than thinking it's going to start and end and we'll
be done. The bad news is though, is we'll see the process isn't
always fun, there are bumps in the road. We'll turn now to what
those bumps are and how do we deal with them? Right, and
persisting.

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 Lesson 3-2: The Reality of
Rejection

Lesson 3-2.1 The Reality of Rejection

Media Player for Video

Reality of Rejection - Slide 10

Jack Goncalo & Jeff Loewenstein

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Transcript

Loewenstein: Creativity means generating ideas. That's often

exciting and fun, but not every one of those ideas is universally well-
loved and effective.

Goncalo: Well, I've never experienced rejection. We all have. With all
these interesting things I see all of these ideas that are retrospect
seem really genius. It's really fascinating to know the backstory and
see that no matter how creatively talented you are or how good your
idea is objectively. Nevertheless, the process can be difficult and
we'll experience rejection inevitably almost. How do we deal with that
and how do we keep going despite the trouble? Maybe even profit
from the experience. Use it to fuel our creativity. Absolutely.
Unfortunately, the creative journey can involve bumps in the road,
even outright rejection as we saw in the case of Stephen King and
many others. But that's not to say that rejection is inevitably a bad
thing. In fact, rejection can actually motivate you and show you new
paths to explore. I know that we have said that creativity is more
than just something that happens in the arts. But a great example of
creativity coming from adversity comes from the story of an
impressionist painter named Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Slide 11

This slide contains a photograph of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

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Transcript

You can probably guess from the sound of his name that he was
from a wealthy aristocratic family. It was interesting because his
father was very athletic, hard-driving, overachiever. But
unfortunately, Henri was actually the product of several generations
of intermarrying within the family to keep their wealth intact. But that
also led him to have a genetic problem that stunted his growth and
he ended up not growing to more than five feet tall throughout his
life. What that did was it made him marginal and his father rejected
him because he couldn't pursue all of the athletic, hunting, and all of
the other events that the aristocracy liked to pursue back then. For
Henri, what that meant was he had to pursue his own path and what
he did was he started to pursue painting as a serious vocation and
not just something that was a passing hobby, but something he really
devoted himself to. Also as a result of his rejection from the upper
class, he was inspired to paint on the margins of society. He spent a
lot of time with the working class, and he was even known for
painting prostitutes, both of whom were considered absolutely
forbidden subjects at the time. I think this is a great and inspiring
example of how rejection can actually be used to fuel creative
thought. As the story about Lautrec suggests, rejection can fuel
creativity but there's a catch. It really depends on how you respond
to it. Some people will respond to rejection by trying extra hard to be
liked and trying really hard to fit in so as to restore that connection to
other people. But in my research, I found that people with an
independent sense of self, interpret rejection as a sign that they're
not weird but unique. I'm not weird, I'm actually different. That can
actually inspire them to explore more unusual unconventional paths
and so rather than trying hard to fit in and restore that connection,
they respond with a bit of independence even rebelliousness. It
could be that they're wrong and I'm right. I just have a unique point of
view on the world and I'm going to pursue that point of view even if it
means I'm an outsider, a misfit, and a reject

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Responses to Rejection - Slide 12

- Try hard to fit in

- View as a sign of being unique

Transcript

Those things can actually be strengths when it comes to the creative

process.

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Steve Jobs - Slide 13

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the

troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones
who see things differently..."—Steve Jobs

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Transcript

Goncalo: For that reason, I love the famous Steve Jobs quote in
which he raises a toast to, "The crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels,
the troublemakers, the round pegs and the square holes, the ones
who see things differently," because those people who exist on the
margins have found a way to use that experience of rejection to see
the world in a different way and use it to fuel creativity and to change
their perspectives and the perspectives of the people around them.
It's not all wine and roses. Apparently not. But I take comfort in that,
actually knowing all of the great people and great ideas that were
rejected over time. I think we can all take comfort in that. Sure. I
think the implication then is that we have to approach it with a
mindset that we're going to get knocked down and the question is,
are we going to get back up again? The question is how we able to
do that? Also let's find out how to make the most of it

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 Lesson 3-3 Introduction: Thinking
Tools for Flexibility

Lesson 3-3.1 Introduction: Thinking

Tools for Flexibility?
Media Player for Video

Thinking Tools for Flexibility - Slide 14

Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta

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Transcript

Mehta: So one challenge in creative journey is rigidity. So, one main

solution has got to be flexibility, right? And we have talked about how
creativity is a journey, is it always going to be nice and sweet, and
we know the answer to that. No, right? In every journey, there are
going to be bumps along the way, and these bumps can slow you
down. They could be detrimental to create a process then what do
we do?

Loewenstein: Well, we want not just new insights, but new inventions
and enlightenment, right? So it's new solutions, it's new knowledge,
it's new products we can bring to market, and as a result that
requires an extended creative process, a creative journey, right?

Mehta: And you know, the first obstacle in the journey we need to
discuss is rigidity. Rigidity comes from our commitment from our
current perspectives. So in part we are rigid because of our own
internal mental processes. The way we think.

Loewenstein: Yeah, just like you can't build anything if you don't have
any materials. We've talked about perspectives that way, you can't
think anything if you don't have a perspective. So we always need a
perspective in order to think, and in order to act, the problem is it
might not be a very good perspective, right? And we tend to think we
have a good enough perspective, even if we have an insight or even
especially after we've had an insight. We tend to want to count on it
and use it to understand the world and to guide our actions.

Mehta: So commitment to our perspectives then, it's a big part of

rigidity, right? So the thing is, if creativity for example involves
changing perspectives, then by committing to our old perspective,
what we are doing is actually demonstrating unwillingness to be
creative. And one current way of processing information, one way of
solving problems is not going to work. You have to have new

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perspectives, you have to have diverse perspectives, and that is
what creativity is going to be about.

Loewenstein: So maybe it sounds bad once we put it this way, right?

That perspective sounds like they are just lock boxes, right? That
hold us in. But if you think of it as confidence in my understanding of
the world, and being accurate and grasping the core elements of
reality. Maybe now it sounds pretty wonderful. Who wouldn't want
that?

Mehta: Absolutely right. Once you wrap your mind around that, and
then I think then think world will look wonderful, right?

Loewenstein: Right. But that's the warning, right? I mean, that's the
bumper sticker, right? Don't believe everything you think, right? And
so it's tempting to be sure of ourselves, and it's hard to hold out
doubt and humility about the limits of our own understandings

Thinking Tools for Flexibility - Slide 15

Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta are sitting across the table and
discussing.

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Transcript

Loewenstein: So we talk about perspectives in this class, we talk

about perspectives. And we use the word perspective precisely to
help ourselves remember not over commit to them and think that we
are seeing the world as it truly.

Mehta: Absolutely, and if it was only ourselves, right, individually, it

would be hard enough to keep from rigidly, but it's not.

Loewenstein: Know the people around us, right? Give us even more
reasons to commit to our current person.

Mehta: Absolutely, and we have heard this, right? I'm pretty sure
someone has told you this and told you this too, well, I can't do that
because that is not what we are supposed to do. Or this is not how
we do things around there, or this is not how we have never done it
this way before.

Loewenstein: It sounds painfully familiar.

Mehta: So right, now you're thinking of someone you know who

actually behaves that way, exactly like this, who's not open to
accepting new perspectives, rooted in their own ways of thinking.
Maybe that person is us.

Loewenstein: So we get all this support, right, from other people to

stick with our current perspectives rather than question or change
them. And in addition, right, that's over and above having our own
reasons for committing to our current perspectives. And so the funny
thing is even when we're on a creative journey, the temptation to
commit to our perspectives is still there, right? It's easier to keep
traveling down the same known pathways than venture into unknown
pathways. And having changed our perspective once, doesn't make
us somehow super open to changing our perspective again.

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Mehta: No, it's so true, because what happens is once we had the
insight to proceed with it, we are back to being committed to our
initial perspective. And that means you're back to square one being
rigid again.

Loewenstein: It's comforting, right? I mean really.

Mehta: No, that is what it is, right? It gives a sense of safety. What's
interesting is when we look at creative journey, the very nature of it, it
nudges us towards rigidity rather than being more flexible, think
about this, right? Within the creative process. There's a lot of
frustration, there's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of ambiguity. You
tend to feel lost. You tend to feel frustrated. What do you do? Do you
take more risk?

Loewenstein: No, right? You fall back on the known part. You want to
go back to something that is familiar. That is comforting, and that is
what rigidity is.

Mehta: Yeah, so one main reason the creative journey is hard then is
because we want to remain sort of constantly open and open to
changing our perspectives. But the desire to make progress on our
story, leads us to want to commit to our perspectives, so we can
move forward.

Loewenstein: Absolutely right. And then what do we need here? We

need some flexibility, right? That is what we need. We need some
tools that can help us come out of this rigid way of thinking, and
change our perspectives.

Mehta: So we need some thinking tools to make it easier. And earlier

we talked about queues, right? So that prompt us to think about
changing our perspective. So during our creative journeys we want
to be continually open to some cues, right? So that's a starting point.

Loewenstein: And we have also talked about pages. But the pages
are all about how do we make our current perspectives explicit by
talking to various parts or actions, goals, evens, and sub concepts

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that were currently in our perspective. Doing that can help us
consider alternatives.

Mehta: Now, in addition to cues and pages we're going to consider

some further tools for helping us change our perspectives. And we
call them thinking tools because their ways of connecting to, and so
thinking about ideas outside our current perspective.

Loewenstein: Right, and if you get comfortable using the thinking

tools it makes it easier to change our perspectives. The easier it is to
change them the less tempting it will be to remain rigid. You do being
overly committed to our current perspectives.

Mehta: The more flexible will be in our thinking.

Loewenstein: That is so true. And then rather than get stuck in our
creative journey by being so rigid, thinking tools will help us being
flexible.

Lesson 3-3.2: Analogy

Media Player for Video

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Analogy - Slide 16

CREATIVITY TOOLKIT I

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

This slide shows an image of a hammer and a Screw-Wrench

Opener.

Transcript

So as we've learned, creativity is a process of changing perspectives

and building new perspectives. We've discussed why we have no
choice but to make some sort of perspective to interpret the world.
We've discussed the functional aspects of the perspective.

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PAGES - Slide 17

Parts
Actions
Goals
Events
Self-Concept

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Transcript

Goncalo: The parts, actions, goals, event and self-concept or

PAGES which is the model that we've gone through. We've also
discussed what a new perspective gets us. Insights, inventions and
enlightenments are all the products of creativity even though they
are very distinct in their own ways. Now we can ask a crucial
question, how do we think beyond our perspectives to generate
creative products. How do we change some of our current pages
such that we can generate insights, inventions and enlightenments?

Loewenstein: Well, first and foremost, you gotta be willing to go

exploring, so I think that's the overarching message. When you're
willing to be creative is you have to back off your current story and
be willing to explore a different kind of perspective. And without
knowing, if you're going to come up with anything, and where it's
going to take your story.

Goncalo: Right, but exploring is difficult when you basically have no

map and no understanding of where you are. Or where you've been
or where you're going, right? You're sort of starting with the blank.
Slate, so how do you get around that?

Loewenstein: Well actually, that's the thing. You don't want to start
with a blank slate. I think that's maybe a counter intuitive element
here, is you don't want to be throwing darts into a void. You want to
start out by saying well, what is my current perspective? Can I
actually turn my attention to articulating and making explicit my
current parts, actions, goals, events, self-concept? Because if I can
do that, then I know what it is I'm supposed to be changing.

Goncalo: Right, and so we talked about the idea that it's inevitable
that we have perspectives, right? So we just have to understand
what that is before we can proceed to change it in some systematic
way.

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Loewenstein: Yeah, often it's we assume it. We're not necessarily
very aware of it, so by simply making ourselves more aware of our
current perspective, then we've opened it up for flexible thinking.

Goncalo: Right, so is there, sort of, one easy way to do that or is this.

Loewenstein: Yeah, it's funny. So when we looked at the research it

seemed as if a lot of people talk as if either there's one thing you do
when you're creative. You make distant associations. And then
there's another group of people that says, yeah, there's one way to
do it. You have to combine things that you've never combined
before. And then there's another group of people that says well,
there are 8 billion ways to be creative. Sort of you put socks on your
head or you rattle teeth, or whatever.

Goncalo: Or wear a thinking hat or whatever right.

Loewenstein: Exactly, there are books of countless techniques to

make you creative. But if you peel back all of that it looks as if there
are four main cognitive mechanisms or tools for thinking that we can
to use to change of perspectives.

Goncalo: So one is association right?

Loewenstein: Right so clearly we sometimes make associations and

draw on associations we've made in the past. And we've also
combine, we form combinations of things and merge or blend things
together. We also make analogies or metaphors. And then we
recategorize, right? We shift something from one category to
another.

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4 MAIN THINKING TOOLS - Slide 18

Association
Combination
Analogy
Recategorization

Transcript

Loewenstein: And those four cognitive tools that covers most of the
turf for how we change our perspectives.

Goncalo: Well that's helpful.

Loewenstein: Yeah, so let's go through them, let's start with analogy.

Goncalo: Analogy is a special form of similarity. The most obvious

form of similarity is when one item is just like another. Maybe a, this
bicycle is just like that bicycle. Now, a bicycle is not like an elephant,
right? So that's a case of dissimilarity. But a line of bicycles has a
kind of similarity to a line of elephants.

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ANALOGY Pattern similarity- Slide 19

Not similarity on the surface

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Transcript

The pattern is consistent, and that's what an analogy is, pattern

similarity, rather than similarity on the surface. At this high level,
thinking about analogy as a similarity of patterns, we find that some
people talk about it as metaphor rather than analogy. That's fine,
good metaphors and good analogies are both good because they
identify a similarity in patterns. One can be thought as being like
another because of some underlying consistency. For example,
ignorance is a wall, Is a metaphor that indicates that like a wall,
ignorance can be a barrier to progress. That analogies and
metaphors are dissimilar on the surface makes them hard to spot.
For example a bank account doesn't seem much like a bath tub, but
just as water flows into a bath tub accumulates and then drains so
too can money flow into a bank account, accumulate, and then drain.
If the bathtub drain is wide open, then a small flow of water from the
faucet won't keep the tub filled. And so it is with bank accounts. If
withdrawals are greater than deposits the account balance drops
too. Keep pushing on that analogy and you will form an
enlightenment. Looking for patterns of stocks and flows is a general
way to think about any system. Be it a supply chain, a cell in our
bodies or the planet's climate, analogies are useful because they
provide us a useful way of thinking about something that we might
not otherwise have noticed. To experience the effect of analogy on
the creative process we can think about a specific problem. For
example, let's imagine that we work at a company that sells paper
towels. First, let's start with our current perspective. What would the
pages include in this situation? Well, without getting into too much
detail and just to be illustrative, the parts might include the paper
towels themselves, a cardboard tube to wrap them around, and a
plastic wrapping to serve as packaging. The actions might include
using more or less paper in each roll.

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Actions - Slide 20

This slide shows six tissue rolls.

Transcript

Putting more or fewer rolls together in one package. Setting at a

price that is higher or lower. Putting particular words and images on
the packaging, things like that. The goals might include selling more
paper towels. Increasing profit margins on each sale. Increasing
market share. The events might include making the paper towels.
Consumers buying the paper towels. Consumers using the paper
towels.

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Self Concept - Slide 21

This slide contains the image of bounty.

Transcript

The self concepts might include being a maker of paper towels and
being a user of paper towels. Once we've generated some thoughts
for the pages then, then a useful process is to consider different
aspects from each of the pages in turn. Now one for the parts, later
one of our goals and so on. We don't want to get stuck thinking
about just one aspect from our perspective. Considering different
aspects gives us different starting points for recalling information that
might be useful. This is why breaking down our thinking on a
problem uses PAGES is a good starting point for creativity. Then for
each aspect we can think about possible analogies. For example
take the paper towel itself. What is it like? Well, it's a little like toilet
paper in that it's paper that comes in a roll and it's perforated to be
torn off sheet by sheet. It's also a little bit like a tissue in that it's
paper that you use once.

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Paper towel & tissues - Slide 22

Paper used once

Paper towels in a box?

Transcript

Could paper towels come in boxes like tissue so that you can grab
one at a time without tearing it of? I don't know. That's a simple little
analogy that indicates a simple possible invention. Maybe it's out
there somewhere already. Surely there are many other analogies to
be found and thinking about the different aspects of PAGES could
help us find them. Analogies make patterns salient. It's not obvious
that a bank account is like a bathtub, it may not even be obvious that
a paper towel is like a tissue.

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Analogies (1 of 2) - Slide 23

Analogies can lead us to different perspectives

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Transcript

Once that's how we're thinking about it though, other interpretations

can fade to the background, that is analogies can lead us to take a
different perspective. For example, what kinds of solutions might you
offer to reduce crime in cities? In a recent study, Lera Boroditsky and
Paul Thibodeau demonstrated that we get quite different sets of
solutions to a problem depending on which analogies we used to
describe urban crime. If urban crime is described as a virus, then the
solutions are predominantly shaped around social reforms, such as
changing laws. However, if crime is described as a monster in our
community, then the solutions focus on dealing with the individuals
involved. So taking a different perspective generally leads us to take
our stories In different directions and to look for different kinds of
resolutions. Analogies by providing shifts and perspective can
therefore change which creative products we generate. So more
generally, how do we find analogies? Well, there are two main ways
we know about for finding good analogy. The first is to think more
abstractly about our stories.

Analogies (2 of 2) - Slide 24

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Think abstractly about your stories

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Transcript

Rather than thinking about, say a bank account in terms of some

specific bank and money and fees and everything else, we can think
of it more abstractly, as a place to store something until we need it
again later. Or, we can think of a bank account as a product offered
by a company. Many people actually running banks view it in this
way. And that leads to thinking about what other products their
customers might want, that banks could be like supermarkets with
many products so that there can be one stop shopping for
consumers financial needs. To find analogies then, one main
approach is to abstract away from the surface elements of your
particular story. Those tend to limit you from finding analogies.
Instead you want to think about the underlining patterns and where
else those patterns might occur. For example, designers, architects,
engineers, and others are learning to ask whether nature has
already generated a good solution to their problem. How do we lay
out solar panels to gather the most energy from the sun? Well, I
don't know, how do sunflowers do it? How can buildings shrug off
rain and dirt? I don't know, how do leaves do it? And so on and so
on. The second way to help find analogies is to talk about your story
with different kinds of people. After all, the creative process is about
shifting perspectives. There's no need for you to do all the work
yourself or to have all the knowledge yourself. It turns out that when
we talk to people about our stories we're often pulled away from the
minute details that can consume our own thinking. So it helps us to
be a bit more abstract. In addition by talking to different kinds of
people we're going to think differently about our story because of
how we think to communicate to a different kind of person. And
further, they will have to come back to us with different knowledge
than we have because they're different than we are. all told then,
talking about our stories to different kinds of people is a second way
to improve our chances at generating an analogy that we can use to
change our perspective or to build a new perspective

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FINAL BUSINESS - Slide 25

WITH JACK & JEFF

Transcript

Analogy is on the tools we have for thinking beyond our current

perspective. We can help ourselves find analogies as part of the
creative process and so help ourselves take our stories in new
directions and form new products.

Lesson 3-3.3: Re-Categorization

Media Player for Video

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Re-Categorization - Slide 26

CREATIVITY TOOLKIT I

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

This slide shows an image of a hammer and a Screw-Wrench

Opener.

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Transcript

Goncalo: Another tool we have for changing our thinking is

recategorization. When we recategorized something, we're changing
the way we are thinking about it by switching to another type.

Loewenstein: So let's see my dog, Romeo, right? Yeah. So, he's a

dog, right? That's a category. He's a pet, that's a category. And it
might make you think a little bit differently. If you think of something
as a pet, other things come to mind, right? So goldfisher, cats or
whatever it is. Am not a dog person so I think of it as a paperweight
or- Exactly. A decorative wall. Or something annoying. Right. Right.
So there is a category, right? Yeah. And we categorize, it doesn't
have to be anything terribly fancy, right? This is, we're sitting in
chairs. These are not dining chairs or arm chairs or you have a desk
chair. Electric chair. Electric. Sorry. Well, the point is, we've probably
been making and selling and designing chairs for hundreds,
thousands of years, right? And we're still coming up with new ones,
some of them dreadful. But, and all of those are recategorizations,
right? Because they make you think a little bit differently about
whatever it is we're dealing with. It's not just a pile of wood and foam
and whatever this is, right? Right. It's a way of conceptualizing. It's a
way of perspection. Yes. changing your interpretation of it. And also,
what we think is related, what we think counts, or doesn't count as
that kind of a thing. So that's what categorizations are going to do.
They're going to allow us to change our interpretation of some
aspect of our perspective. Recategorization changes how we think
about something because categories offer just one of many possible
interpretations. We can think of categories as maybe stereotypes, or
caricatures, or models, something like that. As a result, when we
switch categories, different aspects and connections become
prominent. So let's take an example, maybe a computer. When it's
being manufactured, people probably think about it as an electronic
device. But when we're buying it, we probably think about it as a
product. And then when we're using it, a computer, we probably think
about as a source of entertainment or a tool for getting work done

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COMPUTER CATEGORIES (1 of 2) -
Slide 27

ELECTRONIC DEVICE
PRODUCT
ENTERTAINMENT/TOOL

Transcript

And each category, an electronic device, a product, entertainment

tool, highlights different properties and features of computers. Each
different category leads us to consider different items. Entertainment,
as a category, might make us think of games, videos, music.

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COMPUTER CATEGORIES (2 of 2) -
Slide 28

ELECTRONIC DEVICE - The image of a computer chip is

shown as an example.
PRODUCT - The image of a SALE tag is shown as an example.
ENTERTAINMENT/TOOL - The image of camera, gaming
mouse and music is shown as an example.

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Transcript

Whereas, when we think about tools that might make us think about
phones, copiers, offices, or maybe hammers or drills. For years,
thinking about computers as electronic devices meant that people
didn't pay that much attention to what they looked like. Once they
were pretty common though and people started buying them and
having them around their homes, the fact that they were a product
that consumers would buy started to bring attention to the external
design of computers. Namely, instead of being boring and ugly, the
least we could do is to add some color or maybe some interesting
shapes. Or to take a more recent example, computer routers only
started recently looking like something you'd actually want to put out
on a table rather than something you wanted to hide behind your
desk. So to get ourselves to think differently about some aspect of a
problem or some element of a story, it's useful to consider
recategorizing it. So there are four main ways we can help ourselves
recategorize something. We can zoom in, we can zoom out, we can
consider the opposite, we can also switch P.A.G.E.S. So let's start
with zooming in. So if we're going to zoom in, then you might think
about, I don't know it's not just a chair but it's a desk chair or a
rocking chair.

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ZOOM IN - Slide 29

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Transcript

Loewenstein: Or it's not just a dog, it's a basset hound or a shih tzu,
basenji, poodle mix or whatever it might be, right? So let's take
paper towel. So imagine we zoom in, what do you get if we zoom in
on a paper towel?

Goncalo: It's extra absorbent, multicolored, soft, all kinds of features,

right? Shoes, your own size. Right. Yeah exactly. Extra large. So I
guess that's how the process works, right. We're noticing features
about this object that may not have been apparent before we
zoomed in.

Loewenstein: Exactly. So when we think about what zooming in does

to change your perspective, it's making you confront every detail of
that item and think about how that might be or how it might play out.
Right. Exactly. So zooming in is one way to change your perspective
by flipping to a narrower category that might then have properties or
elements that you hadn't considered because you've overlooked
them. I prefer dried leaves. It's just me. Well, so then the opposite,
right? Right. So the opposite of zooming in is zooming out. Yeah. So
it's not just a chair, it's a piece of furniture. It's not a dog, it's a pet or
an animal, something like that. So it's not a paper towel, it's a paper
good. It's something I buy at the grocery store. Right. It's a roll of film
maybe or something, I don't know. Is that too crazy? So the idea of
zooming out is what's the broader, it's a category. It's a product I
bought. It's something I use once. Yeah. Right? So it's a category
that's more abstract but contains the item. Right, that we're talking
about. Right.

Goncalo: So any kind of paper product would be broader than

thinking about it narrowly as a paper towel.

Loewenstein: Exactly. And that might lead you to new ideas. Right.
So I might notice connections between other things in that category
that I could then combine and use to generate something more

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creative. Exactly. That's exactly right. So maybe, I don't think of
paper towels in a certain way but I think, "Oh, disposable goods, "
right? Right. So maybe they come in convenience packs, right?
Yeah. I don't know. But to paper towels, no. Maybe they could?
Right. Right? Or something like that. So I can think of paper products
that have colors.

ZOOM OUT - Slide 30

There is no text or image for this slide.

Transcript

Like multi-colored Kleenex and then they will, paper towels could
have colors as well. Exactly. So then I'm combining those in size.
Exactly. Yeah. So by zooming out we can maybe see connections or
possibilities. Yeah. That we can't when we're just thinking about the
item itself. Right. Yeah. So zooming out. Another step is we can flip,
we can consider the opposite.

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CONSIDER THE OPPOSITE - Slide 31

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Transcript

So it's not a dog. I tried to do that, just to be difficult and you know
that. No. That's true. So it's the opposite of a paper towel? I don't
know. So not a paper towel but a cloth towel. So instead of being
absorbent, it's waterproof. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. Or instead of
being white it's black, right? Yeah. You mentioned colors. Right. So it
moves to get you to think of- Stepping rolled around in a circle, it's
rolled around in the square, maybe? Sure. Exactly. Like easier to
store. That's right. Or, laid out flat. Right. Absolutely. Sure. So it gives
you different possibilities. And we often get them from
counterfactuals, right? Yeah. What air for if only. So you're
considering the opposite leads us in new directions. Exactly. And
that's a way to change our perspective. And then lastly, we can
switch the P.A.G.E. that we have in mind. So if I'm thinking about a
paper towel, am I thinking about a paper towel? What role the am I
in? What's my self concept? Right. Or, what event am I in? Yeah.
And so if I hold onto paper towel and then think what's the event that
I'm in. Am I at a birthday party? Am I at home? Am I at my office,
right? Where am I? Or myself concept to my mechanic or my cook.

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SWITCH P.A.G.E.S. - Slide 32

There is no text or image for this slide.

Transcript

Loewenstein: Am I looking for something to hit? Am I violent? Am I

trying to hit your head with the paper towel? It leads you to a new
direction. It absolutely does. Yeah. So I think that idea then is all of
these are flips of a category, right? Yeah. So am I getting narrower?
Am I zooming out? Am I switching to the opposite? Or am I thinking
about this same category but through the lens of some other element
of my perspective? And different roles, different goals, different,
yeah. Yeah. It's your view on it. Yeah. And all of that leads us to
different interpretations and therefore is a possibility for changing our
perspectives.

Goncalo: Recategorization is a tool for thinking differently about

some aspect of pages. We can stumble into recategorizations but we
can also deliberately consider the different pages and consider
alternative categorizations. And in doing so, trigger insights that can
lead to inventions or enlightenments.

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Lesson 3-3.4: Combination
Media Player for Video

Combination - Slide 33

CREATIVITY TOOLKIT I

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

This slide shows an image of a hammer and a Screw-Wrench

Opener.

63
Transcript

Goncalo: A third way to recall new information that might be relevant

to the problem is to form combinations.

Loewenstein: The escalator is actually one of my favorite examples

of this. So, it turns out, elevators were long in use and apparently
were commercially widespread by about 1850's. So you started to
see tall towers being built because you had elevators by the 1850's.
Right. So, was there a combination that resulted in the elevator
becoming the escalator? Yeah. That was the insight. That was the
insight, it was an elevator for stairs. Okay. Right? And that was the
combination that led to that invention. Right. So rather than elevating
a platform, we could combine a staircase with the technology they
were using to lift the elevator, and there you have it. And you got an
escalator, but that was 50 years later in about 1900. And it's still
present in the word, right? So elevator, escalator, they sound a little
bit alike. What's the difference? Well, stairs is a German word, and
they chose the Latin form, Scala. So esca-later, right? Elevator,
right? So we need more German and Italian people collaborate, is
that what we're getting into? Right. So form a combination in order to
generate an idea that then turned into an invention, an escalator. So
the role of a combination is to bring information into the perspective
that can then interact with what's already there to produce something
that's different, and so, change the course of the story. So, let's see.
How about incubators?

Goncalo: Right, yeah. Well, that's an interesting story in which

combinations actually played a huge role in moving creativity
forward. The real problem there was that in developing countries,
there's a problem with infant mortality. Just sending a $40,000
incubator over there only works for a while until it breaks, and then
what do you do? There's no sophisticated inventory of parts that you
can use to repair this complex piece of machinery. Right. Or the
sophisticated repair person with all that training to do it, right? So

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what do you do? Do you not have incubators? Yeah. That's probably
not a good deal. So what did they actually end up doing?

Loewenstein: This story that I heard was about realizing, well, wait a
minute, there are a bunch of mechanical things that do seem to work
and get repaired around here, namely cars. So, okay, we can keep
the basket part of the incubator, but how can we have a warming
function that runs off of the machinery of the cars? So you have this
car part-incubator combination. And you make these Frankenstein
monster sort of hybrid machine. Right. And not only are there the
parts available but there are plenty of experts that can repair those
cars. Yeah. So I think it was a headlight for the warmth and then the
fan to blow it all around. And battery power to keep it running. And a
car battery. And there you are. Yeah. And now, you've got an
incubator and we have a lot more healthy babies.

Goncalo: There are three different types of combinations. A

combination is more than just bringing two ideas to mind at the same
time. For example, to use a simple example from Ed Waznitsky, one
of the scholars who worked extensively on combinations.

Truck soap - Slide 34

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Truck + soap = The image of foam is present.

Transcript

Truck soap could mean soap for washing trucks. This is a kind of
combination in which there is some scenario that links the two
concepts together. Truck soaps might then be contrasted with, say,
dish soap or hand soap. Truck soap could also mean soap that is
shaped like a truck. This kind of combination takes a property from
one item and maps it onto the other item.

Shell soap - Slide 35

Shell + soap = The image of shell is present.

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Transcript

Truck soap, in this sense, might be contrasted with, say, shell soap,
soap shaped like a shell, or zebra soap. Finally, there are blends that
integrate aspects of both items in complex ways like the car part
incubators. So how do we find combinations? Unfortunately, unlike
everything else we're discussing in this module where we have
drawn on scientific research to guide our analysis and make
recommendations to you, there is actually no scientific research on
how to generate or identify promising combinations. There are a
great many suggestions in the popular press about generating
combinations, but we have really no certainty about how effective
they really are. For example, there are many recommendations to
use random words or picture generators, or to flip through
dictionaries. We're pretty skeptical, though, of the efficiency of that
approach. Another common idea is to make a table with different
kinds of things for the rows and columns. And then maybe, say,
leading products and types of consumers or types of technologies,
and then you just look at the intersections in the table and see if
there are empty cells that sound promising. It's at least systematic.
But the best evidence we have is to consider seeming opposites,
maybe I don't know, affordable luxury or rugged luxury, something
like that. There is some evidence that these kinds of combinations of
oppositions tend to be particularly fruitful for generating creative
ideas.

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SEEMING OPPOSITES - Slide 36

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Transcript

And there is some evidence that considering oppositions generally

tends to foster creative idea generation. We spoke about opposites
already when we thought about re-categorization. So, considering
seeming opposites and then trying to blend them together could be a
useful approach to generating interesting combinations. There is so
much evidence that combinations are a way to generate new
interpretations that we can't just ignore it as a tool for creativity.

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#5 Original Copy - Slide 37

This slide shows the image of two overlapping papers.

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Transcript

Just because the research literature has yet to give us a clear

pattern on how to generate good combinations, shouldn't stop us
from thinking about it as a possible tool. Combination is often
discussed as a route to creativity but it's not really well understood.
Still, considering how oppositions can combine to yield new blends is
clearly an avenue for changing our perspectives or building new
ones.

Lesson 3-3.5: Association

Media Player for Video

Association - Slide 38

CREATIVITY TOOLKIT I

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

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This slide shows an image of a hammer and a Screw-Wrench
Opener.

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Transcript

Goncalo: The fourth and final way in which we recall information that
might be useful to reinterpret our problem is by finding associated
information that, for whatever reason, is not already part of what
we're thinking about.

Loewenstein: This one association is pretty different from the other

three we talked about. So analogy, re-categorization, combination,
those are things we can sort of set about to do deliberately. I mean,
there are limits on how we access and retrieve that information but
we can try to think of analogies. It's harder to try and think of
associations. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Goncalo: And the harder we try, the harder it gets right sometimes.
Well, because you're often then focused on the one that's currently
in mind which suppresses all the other ones that you might have
had. So that's the gap.

Loewenstein: So, this happens to me. I'm terrible with names but
when I run into someone I don't know well, I don't quite know their
name but, I jump to one example, and I call you Frank instead of Jeff
because that's on my mind, I can't think of anything else. Don't think
of a white bear. No matter how deliberate I am. So what can you do?
I mean, I think the idea is you have to put your mind on autopilot a
little bit, right? You have to stop thinking quite so deliberately and let
your mind wander. So, some people talk about taking a walk, some
people talk about going jogging, some people stroll in the park, some
people do the dishes because it's just sort of mindless activity, or the
great idea that happens in the bathtub, or whatever while you're just
zoning out. Or whatever. I like to surf the internet all day at work and
that's how I free up space to make these unusual associations.

Goncalo: Sure. I mean, the point is, what is it that doesn't take your
full mind? And give yourself an opportunity to occupy yourself
enough that you can wander down random associations and see

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where that might lead you. It's not usually an efficient process, but if
you do get a problem in your hand or a story in mind and you think
about that a lot, then you go and wash the dishes or then you go and
take the walk, and those set of ideas can then generate some
nearby associations that you might not have thought of deliberately
but that are related and, therefore, might bubble into consciousness.
And that gives you a chance to possibly change your perspective.
So, Ravi, I wanted to talk to you a little bit

Conversation with Ravi Mehta - Slide

39

This slide shows Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta sitting and talking.

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Transcript

Loewenstein: Thanks for joining us today, about creativity and the

process of generating ideas. One of the things that comes up, I think,
is this idea of association that we catch something and the ideas and
environment and context around us, and that maybe guides our
thinking in some way shape or form. So, I don't know whether it's the
color of the sky or the color of your jacket that might stimulate some
ideas or thoughts that otherwise I wouldn't have had. So, you've
done a variety of work on these kinds of things. In your sense of this
topic, what's the role of the context in driving through the kinds of
things that pop to our minds?

Mehta: Sure, we talk about two things. One is association and then
coming with creative ideas, for example, and how does association
play a role there, and then we would talk about, for example, how
contextual effects. For example ,like you said, color of the sky or you
getting a blue jacket,

Loewenstein: how does that affect my ability to come up with some

creative idea?

Mehta: Exactly. So essentially, when we talk about creative ideas,

absolutely right. We talk about associations, making these remote
associations. Things we would not see in normal life. For example, if
I ask you to come up with ideas for a brick, the uses of a brick, for
example. So what we see is, hey, this is a construction tool and I can
build a wall or I can build a pavement. But then, we start talking
about these associations. Hey, I started looking at that brick. Hey,
this is a solid rectangular object. And I start saying, hey, this is a
rough object, it is heavy. And I start making those remote
associations and where I can start saying, hey, this is heavy, I can
use it in an exercise way. So you're connecting these things, remote
associations.

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Loewenstein: And now, the question is, can environment around us
actually affect that process? Yes, exactly. So, for example, color, you
brought up color. Absolutely, there is some research which shows,
for example, color blue. It makes you feel more relaxed. It induces
this associations of freedom. Think about it, and you mentioned that,
hey, you said like blue sky, ocean, openness, freedom. Yes, that's
right. So people feel more relaxed in going out and making these
remote associations, remote connections, and that then actually
enhances creativity. Just note, this is one of the factors, like blue
color. Then there had been some research on say, for example,
ceiling height. If you are in a room where ceiling height is much
higher, then you have the sense of freedom. You think you're more
free. And then what happens is, again, you start making these
associations, like very remote association, then that actually again
helps you come up with these ideas which are very normal, create
out-of-the-box ideas. And there are quite a few other things. When
the ceiling height is lower, for example, then you feel a little
constrained and then you really don't want to go out and venture into
these new ideas. You know what? I just saw you doing this when I
said constrained this thing. Right, you hunch, right? You hunch,
exactly. It's the body posture. Does it matter? Body posture.
Absolutely. So there's this, again, some research which showed you
first standing straight actually, then you'll feel much more in control, if
you this thing. Yes. But if you're in a slouch position, you relax, then
your mind starts to make all these connections. It just starts to fly.
So, all these things, these small, small things, they matter. We don't
really think about these things in everyday life but we're talking, we
are sitting in open atmosphere right now. Absolutely. This is a good
environment to be creative, right? Yes, exactly. And then I talk to,
again, quite a few students I teach these courses on, say, a new
product development and creativity. And I see students who will go
into the library and then do their work, for example. And it seems
right way to do it. You're in a library, it's quiet, nobody's talking,
you've too much to focus, and that's a great environment when you
are trying to solve, say, for example, mathematical problems or doing
your taxes, for example. You have to follow the rules, you have be

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very focused. But again, I did some work on background noise, for
example. The chatter.

Mehta: Absolutely. And what I found was, when you're actually sitting
in a coffee shop where people are talking, there's just buzz around
you that actually distracts you a little bit, and then you go off the
tangent. You start thinking, you start making these connections, then
you start thinking at a broader level and start seeing these
associations which are not routine. These are very remote and then
not usual, and that helps you come up with more creative ideas. So
a little background buzz can be helpful for poking you off in different
directions. Absolutely. Yeah. So, is there a limit on that? I mean, do I
want to go to a rock concert or something, a preschool? That's a
great question you bring up. Absolutely, no. So, there is a limit.
Again, you cannot just define, say, hey, this is the hard stop on this.
Yeah, sure. Usually, what happens is, if we go beyond a certain limit
when the noise is too much, then what happens is brain kind of shuts
down. You've seen that. Your a rock concert, you're just having fun
but your brain doesn't process information. And that hurts, not even
creativity, that'll hurt any cognitive task or any problem you're trying
to solve. So that's the thing. That's important. So, it suggests that
there's an element of creativity that rests on some foundation of just,
can you think? And then over and above that it's which direction are
you thinking? Are you being analytic and driven and straight ahead,
or do you have that element of being willing to go off in another
direction? And what you're suggesting, I think, is a little background
noise, a taller ceiling, maybe an openness and position or
environment is going to encourage you make you more willing to
track in associations off in different directions. Absolutely. Thank you
so much for coming out and chatting with us and learning a little bit
about creativity from you. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Loewenstein: ACheers. Association is a very different kind of tool for

thinking.

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Conclusion - Slide 40

This slide shows Professor Jack Goncalo & Jeff Loewenstein.

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Transcript

Goncalo: When we're using our perspective to think deliberately

about extending our story, we're not in a position to change our
perspectives. In fact, we actually shut down stray associations, the
kinds of unusual associations we're looking for, just to keep
persisting with our stories. But doing so is a way to bring information
to mind. However, unusual, that could lead us to change our
perspective or build a new perspective.

Loewenstein: So, taking that idea of association together with the

earlier discussion of analogy, combination, and re-categorization,
now we have a set of tools that we can use to change our
perspectives. And if we put that together with pages, parts, actions,
goals, events, self-concept that maps out our perspective, now we
have a way to go about this in a more systematic fashion. We have a
starting point for the creative process.

Goncalo: In which we started off by talking about is really daunting

because we have no map, we have no sense of where we are, why
are we doing this? Exploring. Who knows where we're going to go.

Loewenstein: And this gives us a little bit of a roadmap or a process

that we could follow. First, break down your current perspective into
pages and then try some of these tools. Pick up a part, try a re-
combination, and re-categorization, or pick up an event and consider
an analogy. And so now, we have a way to generate many ideas and
to hopefully keep us from getting stuck by just applying one
mechanism and not trying a different one. And it also allows you, I
think, to avoid some of the pitfalls because if exploring is
uncomfortable, if it feels like "I just want to get back to my story,"
then having something more systematic can keep us from falling for
two of the big traps, which is, "As soon as I have one idea, that's
when I'm done. I'm going back to my story," or because it felt exciting
to generate it, "I feel attached to it." And if I can be excited about
generating lots of ideas, well, then any one of them could do and I

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don't have to feel as if I have to follow through on this one idea
because I loved when I came up with it. This framework gives you a
real map for all of the options that you have at your disposal for
working through the process and generating changes in perspectives
and in creative insights and actions. So, tools we're thinking.

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 Lesson 3-4: Persistence

Lesson 3-4.1: Persistence

Media Player for Video

Why Persist? - Slide 41

Jack Goncalo & Jeff Loewenstein

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Transcript

Goncalo: So as we learn that the creative process can be very

difficult. And you know, clearly some people pick themselves back up
and keep going and other people quit. So I think the real question
then becomes why do people persist? And and also how can we
learn to be more persistent in our own work?

Loewenstein: Yeah, you gotta stick with it.

Goncalo: So we focused a bit on the dark side of creativity, right? It's

not always easy. There's objection, loneliness, even, you know, the
chance that you're going to be a misfit. But it's not all negative, right?
I mean, it could be, the creativity is its own reward.

Loewenstein: It's often exciting. I mean, we have the experience

subjectively of cool, what a great idea.

Goncalo: And we saw a little bit of that with Archimedes, right, when
you had the insight. But it's not just something that happened in
ancient times, right? It's very much a part of the creative experience.

Loewenstein: Exactly, you get examples like that all the time. So,
let's see, I think it was, wasn't it a mom, right? Or no, it was a nurse
after working with children for years, what was her name? Tiffany
Crimmins. Right, figured out that that rather than giving medicine,
being this a scary event. What if I made the spoon to bring the
medicine to you or the medicine dropper, whatever. In the shape of
an animal that was sort of friendly and nice and it wouldn't be a scary
moment. It would be a cool moment.

Goncalo: If you hear her, you know, recount that you could really tell
the obvious joy that that moment of insight brought. Not just because
it relieve the frustration that she had had for so long, but also
because she's helping somebody. And so that insight really, it was
something that was joyful and generated positive emotions. But it
can even happen in a place as cold as the financial world. There was

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a story of Daniel Glick who was trying to invest family members IRA
into real estate. And he realized that there is absolutely no a platform
that would be something that would allow him to do that. That
existing IRAs were just too narrowly focused on one kind of asset.
And so he was very frustrated. And then he had this aha moment
that he can actually create the platform that allows people to invest
their IRAs in a broad array of different kinds of investments. And so
that led to the creation of broad financial. But again, you can tell in
the way people talk about these experiences, how exciting, how
positive, how joyful that moment is. And so creativity in a sense can
be its own reward. So it's certainly true that that moment of insight
could be accompanied by feelings of joy and happiness. At the
thought that you finally overcome your frustration and and reached a
creative solution. But there's another element of the creative process
that could in and of itself be rewarding. And in my research I've
discovered that engaging in the creative process can actually feel
liberating to people.

Creativity can be liberating - Slide 42

There is no text or image for this slide.

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Transcript

That allowing people to freely explore across different kinds of ideas

and in different directions is reportedly something that feels liberating
to people. And the really great thing about that is that we've also
shown that giving people the opportunity to be creative because it
feels liberating, allows people to cope with different kinds of
psychological burdens. And it's something that is interesting to me
because you often read about it in advice columns. If you have a
problem, maybe you should go seek a creative outlet, so go, do
something creative and it will somehow benefit you psychologically.
But there was no empirical evidence to actually back that up. So
what we did was an experiment in which we randomly assigned one
group of people to think about a big secret that they were keeping.
And in another condition they thought about just a small minor secret
they were keeping.

Top Secret - Slide 43

Secrets feel burdensome

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Transcript

And the problem with thinking about a big secret is that

psychologists have shown that it's literally something that feels
burdensome, it weighs people down. And so it's a psychological
burden that actually makes, for example, you overestimate how
steep a flight of stairs are. Or it makes you overestimate how heavy
something is. Because the psychological weight of carrying that
secret is really experienced as a physical and psychological burden.
But the good news is that we're able to show in a subsequent task
that we gave people the opportunity to be creative. By just simply
asking them to generate ideas with the instructions that as they
generate ideas, they should try to think of creative solutions. And the
people who are given the opportunity to be creative reported that
their burdens were actually lifted. So we gave them tasks, for
example, that psychologists have used to tap into this sense of
physical burden. By for example, estimating how steep a hill is. And
on those tasks, the people who had the opportunity to be creative
were less burdened. So they were actually able to accurately
estimate how steep that hill is or how heavy that set of books are
because that burden had been lifted for them. So that's just an
example of how creativity can again be its own reward. That
engaging in the creative process can lead to feelings that may help
you overcome certain kinds of psychological burdens. So if the
creative process is bumpy, it's challenging, it's difficult, It's frustrating
and then you come up with something and people reject it, why do
people persist? Well, many people enjoy the process itself so much
that it doesn't really feel like work. Or they love the work so much, it's
a passion for them and a personal commitment.

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Why Persist? - Slide 44

-Enjoyment of the creative process

-Enjoyment of the work (passion)

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Transcript

Not everyone feels that way about the work, I understand. But if you
have the passion for what it is you do then all the other issues can
fade away in the background. There's a story actually about a
mathematician, Gregory Pearlman. He was a Russian
mathematician. He ended up solving one of the most famous
problems in mathematics, the poincare conjecture. And indeed he
even won a prize, a standing prize of $1 million dollars for whoever
could solve it. Well, he turned down the prize, he figured I solved it, I
was fascinated in doing it. I don't need the money, I have the
personal satisfaction of the creative journey. So if intrinsic motivation,
that really joy and passion for the work really helps us overcome all
these bumps in the road. I think it helps to think about how do we
foster that at work, you know, in our workplace, how do we look for
that kind of joy? And in conversations I've had, I think it starts even
in the interview process. Where there's a tendency maybe to focus
on knowledge, skill and ability, but you also want to look for joy. And
in fact I had a student one year who took my creativity class. And
was really interested in working for a particular product design firm,
that is very, very good for creativity. In fact famously so. But during
the interview, he inadvertently asked about his salary. And they
responded very coldly and said, look, you know, our salaries are
competitive. But if that's all you care about, well you're not going to
be a fit here. And of course you didn't get a call back. So I think what
they got right part of, you know, why they fostered such a creative
environment maybe because they're good at looking for people who
have that joint passion. And if you ask about your salary within the
first five minutes, chances are you're not going to be that kind of
person, right? Absolutely, and we look for this, right? When we talk
to people that we want to hire as well, which is, do you love what you
do? Because in many areas of work it's not about how much I can
pay you relative to the competition.

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Thomas Edison - Slide 45

"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."—Thomas

Edison

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Transcript

Loewenstein: It's do you have a real passion for what it is we're

engaged in?

Goncalo: And can I find that passion based on talking with you and
hearing your excitement in your work and what you do? And so I
guess we're all after Edison who famously said, you know, like none
of it felt like work, I never did a day's work in my life. He was known
for only getting four or five hours of sleep at night, you know, being
sort of obsessively focused on his work two hours a day. But the
other complexities that maybe we're good at selecting on joy, right?
So we bring this person into the company who has inherent joy for
the work. And then we don't let them be creative. So we also have to
think about giving them autonomy or ways of doing that as well. We
love you have a passion for your work and do this, right?. So the
issue there is we see companies giving employees time, right?

Loewenstein: So either whether it's assigning you to a project that's

deep in the heart of your passion. Or giving you time to work on
something you're passionate about, right? So, 20% time or 10% time
or Fridays or mid days or whatever the framework is that
organizations do. To give people an opportunity to take a left turn or
right turn and try something different. During the middle of the
afternoon, the scary thing is that it doesn't look like work. So people
are reluctant to do that, but if you have to work on a project. So I get
sometimes we talked about with associations, sometimes you need
to sort of let your mind go and all of that. And sometimes you need to
blow off steam from a tough meeting. But there's also I think an
element of this isn't exactly the thing my company wants me to do,
but it's related. And let me explore that and have the joy of finding
out if that goes somewhere. And that can be an opportunity to take
that autonomy and that joy and lead you somewhere that no one
else was necessarily looking. So you pick the right people and then
you let them pursue their passion. So part of creative persistence
just involves loving your work. Because if you love your work, you're

88
immersed in it and you can kind of tune out some of the negative
things like rejection that happens inevitably, right? You'll keep going.
But the other side I think we've also seen is that if you care enough
about what happens at the finish line, right? That the recognition and
the value of having done it, then you'll also put up with a fair amount
along the way. Even if you don't love all those steps along the way.
So there's more than one tool that you can use to pull yourself
through and persist. And persist.

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Lesson 3-4.2 Module 3 Wrap up:
Confidence and Hope
Media Player for Video

Confidence & Hope - Slide 46

Module 3 Wrap-up

Jeff Loewenstein & Ravi Mehta

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Transcript

Loewenstein: This creativity stuff, it seems like a lot of work.

Mehta: But this is a lot of fun, though. Have you moved beyond
thinking of creativity that flash of insight as we start thinking of it as a
journey, as a creative process. We can start to see how much there
is to get from taking this journey of creativity.

Loewenstein: The journey metaphor is helpful. If we want to get to

great destination from new inventions, generating enlightenment, we
likely need flexibility and persistence. It will take far more than one
insight and far more than a minute to get there. So they're going to
be most of the road. We might get lost for a while. We might feel
stuck. We might even get frustrated.

Mehta: That is true. If we are likely to need to change our

perspective more than once, then we need to maintain our flexibility.
We need to remain on the lookout for cues. The thinking tools,
analogy, combination, recategorization, association provide us with
different ways to change our perspectives. Now, if one feels easy to
use, use it, and the thing is, if it isn't working, then try another one.
Being flexible is easier if we do not get so committed to our
perspectives that we resist changing them, and easier if you learn to
apply these thinking tools for changing that.

Loewenstein: We also have rejection, and the reality that the

journeys we take are nearly always with other people. It might be our
own team members who reject our ideas. It might be some form of
gatekeeper, either way. Our persistence matters. Being motivated to
stick with it because it matters, it's meaningful, we care, those are
things that are going to help us persist.

Mehta: True. You know learning how to keep ourselves flexible and
persistent is powerful. It means we will be more likely to have
productive, creative journeys. But it should also make us cope with
difficulties of rigidity and rejection.

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Loewenstein: So in learning about cues, pages, thinking tools, and
the motivation to persist, we should be building our creative
confidence. We should gain a sense of self-efficacy. That belief in
ourselves, that we can be creative and that confidence is going to
help us enter the creative process, and rather than avoid it
altogether.

Mehta: This is true and then it also brings hope.

Loewenstein: Now, the creative process makes us deal with

ambiguity, and that can bring feelings of anxiety and frustration. It
can feel as if we're making no progress at all. We can begin to doubt
that we're using our time wisely, that we're not being productive, and
so that confidence in our own creativity can instead help us feel
hopeful. We don't know and we can't know where the journey will
take us when you're starting. But if we had been through it before, if
we understand what can happen along the way and if we draw the
skills at navigating through it, then we can be hopeful.

Mehta: Then we start out and as we progress through it, that we will
come out on the other side with possibilities.

Loewenstein: Now, it makes sense though. That if you don't

understand and aren't skillful at doing something, well, then you
might avoid it. So if we start, we might give up quickly, and
understanding how to make progress in the creative journey is not
really going to help us be more effective in the creative journey. It
also is going to build up our confidence and that sense of hope that
making the journey will be worthwhile and therefore will be more
likely to enter it to find it enjoyable and be willing to go to ever
greater places. Yeah, send us postcards.

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Table of Contents
1. Preface
2. Module 3: The Creative Journey
1. Contents
1. Lesson 3: Introduction
2. Lesson 3-1: Creativity is a Journey
3. Lesson 3-2: The Reality of Rejection
4. Lesson 3-3: Introduction: Thinking Tools for Flexibility
5. Lesson 3-4: Persistence
2. Lesson 3: Introduction
1. Lesson 3: Introduction
3. Lesson 3-1: Creativity is a Journey
1. Lesson 3-1: Creativity is a Journey
4. Lesson 3-2: The Reality of Rejection
1. Lesson 3-2.1 The Reality of Rejection
5. Lesson 3-3 Introduction: Thinking Tools for Flexibility
1. Lesson 3-3.1 Introduction: Thinking Tools for
Flexibility?
2. Lesson 3-3.2: Analogy
3. Lesson 3-3.3: Re-Categorization
4. Lesson 3-3.4: Combination
5. Lesson 3-3.5: Association
6. Lesson 3-4: Persistence
1. Lesson 3-4.1: Persistence
2. Lesson 3-4.2 Module 3 Wrap up: Confidence and Hope

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