Solved by verified expert:answer the questions inside of the module8 file, the questions should be yellow or green letter.the answer better be creative.
module_8.ppt
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Module 8
Creativity & Society
Experiences 14 & 15
Experience 14.
Here is a quotation to ponder,
“Everything made by human hands had first to be
imagined
by human minds”.
So perhaps by now you have come to the conclusion that
THINKING is not as straightforward as you once believed !
Let’s pursue that idea for a moment.
Write down your definition of THINKING !
Here is ours !
Thinking is the mental arrangement or rearrangement of information in one’s possession.
Of course, this topic has been contemplated by
philosophers down through the ages. Even artists have
grappled with it and Rodin’s “The Thinker” is the most
famous.
If you don’t know of this art … look it up !
In modern times, Edward De Bono has written and sold a
considerable number of books about thinking. As a result
De Bono now owns and lives on a private island in Venice.
In addition to the one book on the Review List here are
some others.
New Think, Basic Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1967.
Lateral Thinking, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY,
1970.
Six Thinking Hats, Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, 1985.
Six Action Shoes, HarperBusiness, HarperCollins Publishers
Ltd., New York, NY, 1992.
Surpetition, HarperBusiness, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.,
New York, NY, 1993.
These are all very easy reading. Students should certainly
read at least two in the future and it is hoped that you may
wish to read them all sometime.
Vertical and Lateral Thinking
De Bono points out that there are two types of thinking ….
Vertical and Lateral !
Let’s be clear about Vertical first of all.
Vertical thinking is the type of thinking taught throughout the
present educational system.
It is exemplified by the answer given to the question
“What’s two plus two ?” which is usually stated to be
“Four”.
There is however, an often unrecognized assumption built
into that question and that is that the units associated with
each “two” are the same. Two apples and two oranges
are certainly neither four apples nor four oranges.
The acceptance of assumptions, either tacitly or recognized,
can be a huge barrier to creativity.
Here is an example we have all seen. You go into a
bank and find pens attached to tables by a chain. How
did this come about ? By vertical thinking !
Someone in management decided, that either bank
customers are dishonest and will steal pens that are not
chained up, or that bank customers are so woolly
headed that they will take any unchained pens away.
Do you really want to do business at a bank that regards
you either as a thief or mentally impaired ?
The next time you are in your bank ask to speak to the
manager and ask why the pens are chained up.
If you were the bank manager how would you deal with
the pen situation ?
Do you know that the UW Bookstore gives away pens in
the electronic equipment section (or did so at one time !)
Another vertical thinking example probably occurs on every
US campus.
Bicycles are not allowed inside buildings and must be left
outside.
Bicycles left outside are stolen if not locked up.
So bike owners have to buy a chain and padlock.
Then potential thieves buy a chain cutter and act to
liberate the bikes. So bike owners buy a thicker chain.
The thieves riposte with bigger chain cutters.
Soon the chains are so thick and heavy that the bike
owners do not want to carry them and leave them
padlocked to the bike racks.
How should this situation be handled in your view ?
Submit your analysis.
Here is another downtown situation which always
intrigues !
You park deep in a multi-floor garage under a skyscraper
and head off to your meeting.
Upon return some time later, people sometimes forget
on which garage floor they parked, and can’t easily
find their car.
A Vertical solution to this lost car problem is to place
printed pads of paper in little plastic boxes at the
elevators on each floor so that a floor-numbered sheet,
often differently colored for each floor, can be torn off
and carried away by the parker as a memory aid.
Reflect on this approach and analyze carefully all the
numerous steps involved in its implementation and
maintenance. Suggest how you would solve this problem
if you were the manager of the parking garage.
Submit your analysis.
Now turn your analytical skills to the parking meters found
all over the country.
Use W5H perhaps ? The next time you are out where there
are parking meters, STOP, and look at one really carefully
and ponder what it would be like to be in charge of the
parking meters in a large city. After many years, it is now
beginning to be realized here in Seattle that classic parking
meters are not a good solution to the parking control
problem ! Why is this ?
Even though individual parking meters are now apparently
disappearing a recent technical advance of the meter
manufacturers is to put a sensor in the meter so that when a
parked car leaves, the time on the meter immediately goes
back to zero. So that finding an empty parking spot with
time left on the meter becomes impossible.
How do you evaluate that idea ?
These parking meter guys are also planning meters that
you can reserve with your cell phone.
Is this a direction in which we should be moving ?
All of these situations are intended to draw your attention
to the dangers of vertical thinking.
Once a first thinking step is taken, that constitutes a
direction ! The direction tends to force further effort into
extending the direction already established. The more the
direction is extended the firmer it becomes established and
the harder it is to escape from that particular solution. It is
very difficult to un-take that first step that fixed the initial
direction.
The dangers of being right in your thinking are
▪ it leads to arrogance
▪ it chokes off incorrect ideas
▪ it blocks better ideas
▪ it breeds fear of mistakes
A very good example of this fixation can be seen in every
automobile. Whatever the make, all are essentially the
same.
When you go to London, you may be amused to see that
taxis have a special licensing plate at the rear that carries
the words “Horseless Carriage” !
Why are you smiling ? Humor and Creativity ?
Now imagine that all internal combustion and electric
engines no longer function and we go back to horses. What
would it take to convert cars into horse-drawn carriages ?
Not much ! A couple of two-by-fours ?
Cars are actually a vertical thinking adaptation of horsedrawn carriages.
De Bono emphasizes that the mind organizes information as
it is received and this contributes to vertical thinking. That
is, the information already received influences what your
mind does with information coming afterwards.
De Bono makes this mental effect analogous to the
sculpting of the landscape by rain. The first rain creates
pathways and gullies as it runs off. Subsequent rain tends
to follow the gullies of the previous downpour thus
deepening them and making them the preferred route for
future rain.
As a simple analogy, De Bono suggests placing a
teaspoonful of hot water on the surface of a dish of Jello
(gelatin). If after a short time, the fluid is poured off a
slight depression in the Jello will be observed. Another
teaspoonful of hot water placed on the Jello will tend to
flow into this depression and after the liquid is again
poured off the first depression will now be somewhat
deeper.
De Bono likens this process to the natural phenomenon
whereby a landscape shapes itself. Rainfall deepens
existing gullies and follows established pathways rather
than being independent of previous downpours.
Assignment for Experience 14
Respond to the stimuli high-lighted in Green
within this Experience and submit together
with the responses to Experience 15 into
Canvas.
Creativity & Society
Experience 15
Lateral Thinking
Now Lateral thinking is quite different from Vertical
and is not taught in the education system. Its use
has been extensively promoted by De Bono and his
book entitled Lateral Thinking (Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 1970) is well worth
reading. Check the following link: www.debono.com
►
►
Lateral thinking aims to develop insight and to avoid
fixing on directions.
Lateral thinking embraces the concept that the
wrong idea can lead to the right solution.
►
►
►
Lateral thinking never makes a judgment.
Lateral thinking does not accept patterns.
Lateral thinking is willing to make unsupported jumps
because after you reach a solution arbitrarily, you can look
back and perhaps see other ways of attaining the goal.
By lateral thinking we are trying to break away from the
constraints of vertical thinking.
Magic shows depend on the fact that the audience tends to
think vertically and the magician leads the people by the
nose through the presentation. When the trick is explained
a common reaction is one of disappointment because it is
so simple, that it is hard to accept that one was so easily
fooled.
You can check out a video from the Seattle Public Library
that shows how a number of the famous illusions are
performed. A current TV show also does this.
Have you considered becoming a magician ?
Having a couple of tricks you can perform at a job
interview or dinner table will enable these to go more
smoothly and make you stand out from the other
applicants.
Here is a little demonstration to try on your friends.
Ask “What do the letters S-I-L-K spell ?”
The response is SILK of course !
Then ask “What do cows drink ?”
Your response ?
Almost always, the answer is MILK !
Why ? Because of the ILK pattern set up by the first piece
of information.
In other words the mind tries to organize and optimize
the organization of the information it receives as it is
received !
Now draw a circle about one inch in diameter and write
the number 100 inside the circle.
Now try to figure out a way of writing this total symbol
without taking the pen from the paper.
It is very difficult to get away from the vertical thinking
approach that we have been taught since kindergarten ?
How can we escape from these controlling patterns ?
This is very hard to do because of the conditioning we
have been subjected to since we were children.
You should read the old (about 1960) but marvelous
article “Marketing Myopia” by T. Levinson.
Recently reprinted in the Harvard Business Review (2004,
82 (7,8), 138).
Check this link
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=
buh&AN=13621076&site=ehost -live
Levinson points out that the major companies within
societies often do not realize what business they are
actually pursuing.
Why is this ? Because of the controlling effects of vertical
thinking !
One example given is the railroad companies. These
entities thought they were in the railroad business instead
of the transportation business. As a result, the growth
opportunities in the new trucking and airline enterprises
as they arose were completely missed by all the railroad
companies established in Societies worldwide.
If you go to work in an established company you will have
the chance to point out to them their new growth
opportunities if you have your creativity switched on.
In the newspaper recently there was a story about a
person tackling the problem of how to lock your luggage
when traveling by air. The airport security people want
access to the bags to inspect them and this requires that
the bags not be locked. On the other hand, the travelers
want the bags locked to avoid thefts from them. So there
is a conflict !
How can the bags be unlocked for the inspectors and
locked for potential thieves ?
Can vertical thinking resolve this dilemma ?
De Bono would say this is the perfect place for lateral
thinking !
What ideas can you create ?
The Mensa organization is a group of people who
especially value thinking. Here is an item from their
calendar.
“If each butter-fingered dishwasher breaks three plates in
an hour and a half, how many plates will the unfortunate
restaurant owner have to replace in an eight-hour day if he
has three butter-fingered dishwashers ? “
What was your answer to this Mensa problem ?
The answer on the back of the calendar was 48 !
Is that answer a consequence of vertical or lateral thinking ?
Vertical, of course !
How does that answer help the owner of the restaurant ?
It doesn’t !
Some lateral ideas are needed to actually help the situation !
To find these we must change our thinking gear !
It is like putting a car into reverse to maneuver out of a
difficult location !
Have you ever rented a car and found yourself unable to
put the car into reverse after you have left the car rental
location ?
What is a vertical solution to this difficulty ?
Obviously, look in the car manual for an explanation of the
gear lever positions !
But the car rental people remove the car manuals from
their cars !
Why do they do this ?
Write down why ?
However, we still have not discovered how to put an
unfamiliar car into reverse !
These kinds of problems can best be tackled by lateral
thinking and the necessity of gaining insight.
De Bono has a little sketch to illustrate the value of insight.
(Check next slide)
Don’t regard vertical and lateral thinking as antagonists …
they are complementary !
That is; they help one another.
But we must recognize that the first idea for a solution to a
problem is almost certainly the result of vertical thinking and
is not the best. Here is a real-life example !
One time during a winter storm, Professor Allan’s home
lost electric power for a long period of time. Fortunately the
home has a gas heating and a gas stove. But there were
not enough candles in hand to light the rooms. So thrifty
Professor Allan gathered up a collection of some small, old,
leftover, red Christmas candle residues to melt into large
new candles in an old aluminum pie dish heated on the gas
stove.
That economical approach recalls the question,
“What’s the difference between a Scotsman and a
rowboat” ?
The rowboat can tip !
When the old red wax was molten and quite liquid,
Professor Allan in lifting it of the stove, managed to drop
the hot metal pie dish and spill much of the red wax over
the white pebbled vinyl floor of the kitchen. The liquid
red wax ran into all the minute crevices of the pebbled
vinyl flooring and there solidified. What a mess !
How to clean up this mess and placate an irritated wife
who had opposed the whole candle-making idea in the
first place ?
Answer; get down on the floor immediately and start to
scrape up the hardened red wax from the white pebbled
floor with a knife. But carefully !
Why ?
The knife might cut the vinyl flooring.
This is the first idea of how to solve the spilled wax
problem !
Is it vertical or lateral thinking ?
And it is not so easy to implement !
Why ?
Come up with some lateral solutions to this domestic mess !
Here is another real life problem !
NASA spent a huge sum of money to develop a pen that
could write when the shuttle was in space and zero gravity !
Success was not achieved.
The solution of the Soviet Union cosmonaut program to the
same problem was …… to use a pencil !
So vertical thinking excludes, while lateral includes !
Lateral thinking refuses to accept patterns or to make
judgments and wanders and wonders.
After trying unsuccessfully to go from A to D, through B
and C, lateral thinking jumps to G and hence to D.
Then looking back from D perhaps one can see the way
from A through B and C !
One of the earliest examples of recorded lateral thinking
can be found in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
King Solomon in his Court is confronted by two women
each claiming convincingly to be the mother of a particular
child. To satisfy the claims of each of the two competing
women equitably, the King offers to cut the child in two
and give half to each woman. One immediately declines
this solution and is thereby revealed as the true mother by
her loving concern for the child.
A more modern example is Einstein’s development of the
Theory of Relativity. He did no experiments, gathered no
new information but was able, from a new insight, to
construct a different view of the Universe.
But what is INSIGHT and how do we get it ?
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. stated
“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s
experience”
The American Heritage Dictionary defines Insight as
“The capacity to discern the true nature of a situation,
and
an elucidating glimpse”.
Often there is an element of time associated with insight as
is implied by the second definition.
This is now called the “Aha ! moment” when all seems to
fall into place in an instant. Such a moment is epitomized
by the story from Ancient Greece when Archimedes realized,
while having a bath, that he could meet the command of
the king for a means of determining the purity of a
supposedly pure gold crown by measuring the amount of
water it displaced when immersed in water.
He cried out “Eureka !” which is the Greek
for “I have found it”.
Psychologists are studying the relationship between brain
activity and the “Aha moment “ with
electroencephalograms and functional magnetic resonance
imaging (R. Petkewich, Chemical & Engineering News, May
15, 2006, p.40, quoting Psychological Science 2006).
As test subjects struggled with word puzzles the
researchers were able to examine brain patterns and show
that the euphoric “Aha moment” is the conclusion of a
mental sequence. An augmentation of medial frontal
activity in the brain apparently signaled that an “Aha
moment” was imminent.
It is suggested that this discovery may ultimately help solve
difficult scientific problems by enabling the mind to reach
its most effective state.
Of course, it is not necessary to have sophisticated
scientific instrumentation as a prelude to having
an “Aha moment”.
But it is required to activate the mind and this can be
achieved by the use of your favorite techniques.
De Bono’s lateral thinking certainly should be one of
them.
Among De Bono’s enlightening propositions about
searching for insights, is the analogy that one cannot dig a
hole in a different place by digging deeper in the same old
hole. You have to climb out the old hole that you know so
well and love, and go looking for a new place to dig !
Professors, in particular, often have problems in leaving
their old and comfortable holes.
Companies in various societies also find this very difficult
to do and often go out of business rather than change.
The makers of buggy whips in the days of horses and
carriages are a classic example. The carriage builders
became the car body builders. Buick cars in the 1950’s
carried a plaque saying “Body by Fisher”.
In contrast, the buggy whip manufacturers did not become
the spark plug producers and vanished.
Jenner’s discovery of vaccination against smallpox came
from the insight of asking why certain people (milkmaids)
did NOT get smallpox rather than focus upon those who
did. A comparable question in society today would be to
ask why some people do NOT get cancer rather than to
investigate those that do. Certainly, societies around the
world do not all have the same incidence of cancer ?
There are of course many less traumatic situations in
societies where securing an insight can open up a new
vision.
Can you remember when the sale of small bottles of water
everywhere was nonexistent ! Not so long ago, vacation
travel to Mexico was haunted by the prospect of severe
stomach upsets called Montezuma’s Revenge.
Who was Montezuma and why does he need Revenge ?
Now the potential unpleasantness of visiting Mexican
society is banished by the simple insight of providing noncontaminated water in handy-to-carry plastic bottles.
However the garbage baskets in the streets and plazas of
Mexico are now everywhere stuffed with empty
polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) plastic bottles.
Could you have obtained this insight to enhance Mexican
Tourism by a little mental effort ? Of …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
