Mind Mapping For Dummies

Modelling the creative process

Creativity is not a sudden one-off event that comes out of the blue and favours creative types. Instead, creativity can be seen as a process involving several steps and ending in a creative outcome.

Here too there are a number of models, such as Creative Problem Solving. This is a generic model, developed and researched at the International Centre for Studies in Creativity in Buffalo, USA. It can be applied to any challenge in which new ideas for a solution are sought (Figure 16-2).

Figure 16-2: The Creative Problem Solving model.

Each of these models has its own history and its own pluses and minuses. However, what they all do is to perceive creativity as a process that can be broken down crudely into three major parts:

Clarification. Before ideas can be developed it’s essential to clarify precisely what the issue is that new solutions need to be developed for.

Transformation. Once the outlines of the issue have been sketched out, new ideas have to be developed and specific solutions worked out for the problem step by step.

Implementation. Once you ...