BASIC FUNCTIONS OF

MIND
Contents
•Introduction to Creativity
•Definition of Creativity
•Definition of Innovation
•Creativity and Innovation
•Blocks of creativity
•Creativity process
•Convergent and divergent thinking
•Neuro linguistic programming
Introduction
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby
something new is created which has some kind of
value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to
the individual creator, or to the society or domain
within which the novelty occurs. What counts as
"valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.
we can say that creativity involves the generation of
new ideas or the recombination of known elements
into something new, providing valuable solutions to
a problem. It also involves motivation and emotion.
 Definition of Creativity
Creativity “is a fundamental feature of human
intelligence in general. It is grounded in everyday
capacities such as the association of ideas,
reminding, perception, analogical thinking,
searching a structured problem-space, and
reflecting self-criticism. It involves not only a
cognitive dimension (the generation of new ideas)
but also motivation and emotion, and is closely
linked to cultural context and personality factors.”
(Boden 1998).
Objectives of Creativity
Main objectives of a creative thinking process is

• To think beyond existing boundaries

• To awake curiosity
• To break away from rational, conventional
ideas and formalized procedures
• To rely on the imagination
• To consider multiple solutions and alternatives
According to Boden (1998), there are three main types of
creativity, involving different ways of generating the
novel ideas:

a) The “combinational” creativity that involves new

combinations of familiar ideas.

b) The “exploratory” creativity that involves the generation

of new ideas by the exploration of structured concepts.

c) The “transformational” creativity that involves the

transformation of some dimension of the structure, so
that new structures can be generated.
 Increase or Encourage creativity

• To be happy, to have fun

• Keep channels of communication open
• Trust, failure accepted
• Contacts with external sources of information
• Independence, initiatives taken
• Support participatory decision-making and
employees’ contribution
• Experiment with new ideas
Innovation

Innovation is a change in the thought process

for doing something, or the useful application
of new inventions or discoveries.
It may refer to an incremental emergent or
radical and revolutionary changes in thinking,
products, processes, or organizations.
 Distinguishing between creativity and
innovation
Creativity
Innovation
Creativity is typically
used to refer to the act while innovation is the
of producing new process of both
ideas, approaches or generating and
actions applying such creative
ideas in some specific
context.
 Creativity and Innovation

In the context of an organization, therefore, the

term innovation is often used to refer to the
entire process by which an organization
generates creative new ideas and converts
them into novel, useful and viable commercial
products, services, and business practices,
while the term creativity is reserved to apply
specifically to the generation of novel ideas by
individuals or groups, as a necessary step
within the innovation process.
Blocks to creativity

There are three main blocks to Creativity

• Environmental blocks
• People blocks
• Internal blocks
 Environmental blocks
Some blocks occur in our environment.

Environments can be supportive as well as

obstructive, and you can deliberately build an
environment that are full of creative stimuli--or
maybe just very relaxing. Effective creative
environments can vary with people and moods,
so you may want to be able to experiment with
your surroundings so you can build the most
effective environment you can.
 People blocks
Many blocks come from other people. We are highly social creatures and
even the thought that a complete stranger may find us ridiculous is
enough to make most of us clam up. We are also competitive and
judgmental which can easily lead us to evaluating others and their
ideas, even when we consciously know the corrosive effect it will have
on them.
Psychologist Carl Rogers said we should create two conditions for people:
Psychological safety by accepting the person, empathizing and not
evaluating them.
Psychological freedom to think, feel and contribute fully.
This is why group creativity is particularly tricky and why one of the basic
brainstorming rules is 'no judgment'. If you do not trust your co-
creators, you might as well all go home. It is also one reason why it is
useful to have a neutral facilitator run the session.
 Internal blocks
The final and most pernicious sources of creative blocks is -
ourselves. More accurately, it is our subconscious and that little
voice that warns us of the dangers of unconventional thought.
Many of these blocks come from our past and are programmed in
from an early age. We are taught to follow the rules, be logical
and not rock the boat. Our parents, teachers and peers have all
helped us put some powerful psychological blocks in place to
keep us on the straight and narrow socially-acceptable road.
Most of the time this is perfectly useful, but when we want to
be creative, it is just a darned nuisance.
In the final analysis, all blocks are internal, although the people
and things around us can still make it easier or harder to get into
a creative frame of mind.
 A Simple Process for Creativity
DO IT was devised by Robert W Olsen

DO IT is a process for creativity.

Techniques outlined earlier in this section focus on specific aspects
of creative thinking. DO IT bundles them together, and introduces
formal methods of problem definition and evaluation. These help
you to get the best out of the creativity techniques.

DO IT is an acronym that stands for:

D - Define problem
O - Open mind and apply creative techniques
I - Identify best solution
T - Transform
How to Use the Tool
1. Define the Problem

This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure

that the correct question is being asked. The following steps
will help you to do this:
Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of
the problem. To do this, ask yourself why the problem exists
repeatedly until you get to the root of it.
Lay out the bounds of the problem. Work out the objectives
that you must achieve and the constraints that you are
operating under.
Define the Problem cont..

Where a problem appears to be very large,

break it down into smaller parts. Keep on
going until each part is achievable in its own
right, or needs a precisely defined area of
research to be carried out. See Drill-Down for
a detailed description of this process.
2. Open Mind and Apply Creative Techniques

Once you know the problem that you want to solve,

you are ready to start generating possible
solutions. It is very tempting just to accept the
first good idea that you come across. If you do
this, you will miss many even better solutions.
At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in
evaluating ideas. Instead, we are trying to
generate as many different ideas as possible. Even
bad ideas may be the seeds of good ones.
Open mind and apply creative techniques
cont..

While you are generating solutions, remember

that other people will have different
perspectives on the problem, and it will
almost certainly be worth asking for the
opinions of your colleagues as part of this
process.
3. Identify the Best Solution

Only at this stage do you select the best of the

ideas you have generated. It may be that the best
idea is obvious. Alternatively, it may be worth
examining and developing a number of ideas in
detail before you select one.
When you are selecting a solution, keep in mind
your own or your organization's goals. Often
Decision Making becomes easy once you know
these.
4. Transform

Having identified the problem and created a solution

to it, the final stage is to implement this solution.
This involves not only development of a reliable
product from your idea, but all the marketing and
business side as well. This may take a great deal of
time and energy.
Many very creative people fail at this stage. They will
have fun creating new products and services that
may be years ahead of what is available on the
market.
They will then fail to develop them, and watch
someone else make a fortune out of the idea
several years later.

The first stage in transforming an idea is to

develop an Action Plan for the transformation.
This may lead to creation of a Business or
Marketing Plan. Once you have done this, the
work of implementation begins!
The Creative Process has six phases

inspiration

perspiration

clarificati
on

incubati
on

Evaluatio
n
distillatio
n
Inspiration: In which you research and generate many ideas

Clarification: In which you focus on your goals

Evaluation: In which you review your work and learn from it

Distillation: In which you decide which of your ideas to

work on

Incubation: In which you leave the work alone

Perspiration: In which you work determinedly on your best

ideas
Inspiration
This is the research or idea-generation phase.

The process is uninhibited and characterized by

spontaneity, experimentation, intuition, and
risk-taking.
Clarification
• What am I trying to achieve here?
• What am I trying to say?
• What exactly is the problem I am trying to solve?
• What would I like the finished work to be like?
And in more open ended work:
• How could I exploit the ideas I have had?
• Where could this idea take me - what could I make of it?

The aim here is to clarify the purpose or objective of the work.

It is easy to lose your sense of direction while dealing with
detailed difficulties in creative work. So you need
occasionally to disengage from these obstacles and ask
"what exactly am I trying to do?".
Evaluation
In the evaluation phase you examine your work
for strengths and weaknesses. Then you need
to consider how the work could be improved,
by removing weaknesses but also by
capitalizing on its strengths. Then there will
probably need to be another perspiration
phase to respond positively to the suggestions
for improvement. Perspiration and evaluation
phases often alternate to form a cycle.
Distillation
Here ideas from the inspiration phase are sifted through
and evaluated usually in the light of the findings of a
clarification phase. The best ideas are chosen for further
development, or are combined into even better ideas.

This is a self-critical phase. It requires cool analysis and

judgment rather than slap-happy spontaneity. However
it should not be so critical as to inhibit productivity
entirely. Remember, the ideas you have had are only
ideas, not complete solutions - you must not expect too
much of them. It is where the ideas can take you that
counts, not the ideas themselves.
Incubation
'Incubation' is particularly useful after an
'inspiration' or a 'perspiration' phase, or if a
problem has been encountered. Creative
people are often surprisingly patient and
untidy, and are content to let half-baked ideas,
loose ends and inconsistencies brew away in
their sub-conscious until 'something turns up'.
Perspiration
This is where the real work is done. You are
involved in determined and persistent effort
towards your goal, this will usually involve
further 'inspiration' 'distillation' and
'clarification' phases.
 Some expected results of the creativity
process are

• Innovation through new product and process ideas

• Continuous improvement of products or services
• Productivity increase
• Efficiency
• Rapidity
• Flexibility
• Quality of products or services
• High performance
 Creativity tools

Creativity tools are

• Convergent thinking

• Divergent thinking
Convergent thinking

Convergent thinking is oriented towards deriving

the single best (or correct) answer to a clearly
defined question. It emphasizes speed,
accuracy, logic, and the like, and focuses on
accumulating information, recognizing the
familiar, reapplying set techniques, and
preserving the already known.
Convergent thinking cont..

It is based on familiarity with what is already

known (i.e., knowledge), and is most effective
in situations where a ready-made answer
exists and needs simply to be recalled from
stored information, or worked out from what
is already known by applying conventional and
logical search, recognition and decision-
making strategies.
Divergent thinking

Divergent or "synthetic thinking" is the ability to

draw on ideas from across disciplines and
fields of inquiry to reach a deeper
understanding of the world and one's place in
it.
There is a movement in education that
maintains divergent thinking might create
more resourceful students.
Divergent thinking cont..
Rather than presenting a series of problems for
rote memorization or resolution, divergent
thinking presents open-ended problems and
encourages students to develop their own
solutions to problems.
Divergent production is the creative generation
of multiple answers to a set problem. For
example, find uses for 1 meter lengths of black
cotton.
Neuro-linguistic programming

The word Neuro linguistic programming can be

broken down to three distinct words: 
• Neuro
• linguistic and 
• programming. 
Neuro refers to the brain and neural network that feeds into
the brain. Neurons or nerve cells are the working units used
by the nervous system to send, receive, and store signals
that add up to information. 

Linguistics refer to the content, both verbal and non-verbal,

that moves across and through these pathways. 

Programming is the way the content or signal is manipulated

to convert it into useful information. The brain may direct
the signal, sequence it, change it based on our prior
experience, or connect it to some other experience we have
stored in our brain to convert it into thinking patterns and
behaviors that are the essence of our experience of life.
Our experiences and feelings affect the way we react to external stimuli.

Let me illustrate. I am afraid of snakes. The impulse I get if I see a snake

or even hear a sound close to resembling that of a snake is a feeling of
total fright. This is because, I was born in an area infested with several
deadly snakes. One day a boy from my neighborhood came to our
house. He knocked on the door. I opened the door. He had a snake in his
hand. He wanted to show me the prize catch he had. He was holding it
like we hold a pet cat. For him it was a pet. So, it gave him lot of joy to
hold one. To me, it gave a migraine headache! 

Both myself and my neighbor boy saw the same thing. The same signal
was passed to our brain. It was the picture of a snake. However, our
brains interpreted the implications of the snake entirely differently. In
processing the information, our brains used our experiences (good and
bad), our biases, our opinions, our value systems, etc. to convert it into
useful information that we can use.
The basic premise of NLP is that the words we use reflect an inner,
subconscious perception of our problems. If these words and perceptions are
inaccurate, they will create an underlying problem as long as we continue to
use and to think them. Our attitudes are, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

The Neuro linguistic therapist will analyze every word and phrase you use in
describing your symptoms or concerns about your health. He or she
will examine your facial expressions and body movements. After determining
problems in your perception, the therapist will help you understand the root
cause. The therapist will help you remodel your thoughts and mental
associations in order to fix your preconceived notions. These preconceived
notions may be keeping you from achieving the success you deserve. 

NLP will help you get out of these unhealthy traits and replace them with
positive thoughts, and patterns that promote wellness.
Representational Systems

Representational system in NLP consists of our

five senses. These are:
• Visual (images)
• Auditory (sounds)
• Kinesthetic (touch and internal feelings)
• Gustatory (tastes)
• Olfactory (smells)
 Representational Systems cont…
Every one of us uses one or a combination of these senses to
perceive the world. The brain gets the "picture" of what we are
talking about from one or from a combination of these senses
and from these senses alone. For example, we see a dead dog
on the road. The eye senses the visual image and sends it to the
brain. The nose will sense the smell and send it to the brain. For
example, if the smell is rotten, the brain may infer from what it
had received so far (a picture of a dog lying still that is giving
out foul smell) that the dog had been dead for some time. If the
dog is crying, the ears will send this information to the brain. In
addition, we might touch the dog. We probably won't taste the
dog. So, these are the "inputs" to the brain.
 Making Changes To Our Life Style Using NLP:

Once we understand our own map of reality, we can make

changes to it in order to obtain the life experiences we
want. NLP provides us "maps" used by other people. We
learn how others have responded to a particular
situation we are facing. We see the differences in the
approaches and in the outcomes. Based on it, we may
voluntarily make changes to our own behavior. We step
out of our own map and step into the other's. When this
happens, the rewards are many. We experience a deep
connection to the successful person. And our life will
never be the same again.
Making Changes To Our Life Style Using NLP cont…

NLP increases the depth and effectiveness of our

relationships, beginning with our self and
extending through personal and intimate
relationships to our professional and work
lives, and finally, to the therapeutic arena or
working with others to bring about healing,
change and growth. NLP provides the tools
that enable this rich connection with self and
others to happen.
Conclusion
Creativity makes an individual grow with an innovative ideas
and helps to achieve the individual and organizational
goals creatively.

NLP is based on model of interpersonal communication

chiefly concerned with the relationship between
successful patterns of behavior and the subjective
experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them
and a system of alternative therapy based on this which
seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective
communication, and to change their patterns of mental
and emotional behavior.
Any Question?
Thank You