PRISMS/S PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS AND PARADIGM SHIFTS
Creativity = Thinking Outside The Box = Paradigm Shifts
Creative genius includes thinking "outside the box," setting aside preconceived concepts and ideas and being able to "look at" a problem from a totally new angle. Actually, this "looking at" is really the "sitting with" the "intuitive feel," the fresh, present "felt experiencing" that underlies existing concepts and can lead to the articulation of new, non-linear, creative ideas.
In his e-newsletter, The Simple Truth's Newsletter,(see the website and subscribe to the e-newsletter at http://www.simpletruths.com/index.asp )Mac Anderson reviews cutting-edge models for increasing creativity and innovation. In the newsletter quoted below, he leads to a link to a beautiful, three-minute video clip which exactly captures the essence of "the paradigm shift":
"Dear Kathy,
Tom Peters gets it. He said...
"I've spent a good part of my life studying economic successes and failures. Above all, I've learned that everything takes a back seat to innovation."
Tomorrow comes at us with lightning speed, and your competitive advantage is a fleeting thing. As leaders, we must create an environment that puts innovation front and center. Your people must know it is the key to your company's survival.
You must create a climate that rewards risk and creative effort. Your people must not fear mistakes, but understand that honest mistakes can be life's main source for learning.
SO TEACH THEM TO FAIL QUICKLY, AND OFTEN, TO ENABLE THEM TO REACH THE NEXT PLATEAU.
Every now and then a simple book comes along that deals with a profound subject in an unforgettable way. Paper Airplane is that book; and it teaches a valuable lesson about courage and creativity for people of all ages. It takes less than 30 minutes to read, but the "a-ha moments" are priceless. It's one of my all time favorites.
So, if you haven't seen Michael McMillan's 3 minute inspirational movie titled Paper Airplane, you're in for a treat! Just click on the link below and share it with friends and co-workers.
Usually, consultants coming in to help corporations with "creativity and innovation" provide a variety of games and other experiences which allow participants to "drop" or "step out of" existing schemata and access the fresh, new pre-verbal experiencing from which new paradigms can be articulated. Here is an introduction to one such "package" of "shake up" exercises:
"WHAT THE CATERPILLAR CALLS THE END OF THE WORLD, GOD CALLS A BUTTERFLY
If you always think the way you've always thought, you'll always get what you always got. The same old, same old ideas over and over again. The future belongs to those thinkers who embrace change, break new ground, forge new paths, and transform the way they think. Discover how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different by using the creative thinking techniques and strategies that creative geniuses have used throughout history.
Internationally acclaimed creativity expert Michael Michalko's Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques have inspired business thinkers around the world to create the innovative ideas and creative strategies they need to achieve unimaginable success in today's changing business environment of complexity and uncertainty. Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
[Available at www.amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most major bookstores. Visit www.creativethinking.net for more detailed information on these inexpensive workbooks.]"
DeBono's Six Thinking Hats, and Parallel and Lateral Thinking ( see http://www.debonogroup.com/newthink_programs.htm for description of trainings and books to purchase) approaches are at the cutting-edge of creavity as breaking out of old structures, accessing the new.
Mind Mapping Techniques (
http://www.mindmapper.com/?gclid=CMHz54C975ICFQJtlgodQT-75w for a complete description) are another method for breaking out of linear thought structures and allowing the presentation of facets of problem/solution from the non-linear, "intuitive feel" of "the whole thing."
Intuitive Focusing: "Direct Access" to Paradigm Shifting
As I presented last week, Flavia Cymbalista has helped George Soros and others dealing with the complexity and uncertainty of financial markets to use Gendlin's Focusing to articulate from the "intuitive feel" in her Market Focusing approach at www.marketfocusing.com .
While games and exercises can "shake up" thinking from the outside in, at some point, the "new" answer emerges because someone in the group becomes free of old concepts and able to access The Creative Edge, the preverbal "felt sensing" of new possibilities.
Intuitive Focusing allows anyone to access the Creative Edge of new, non-linear problem solving at any time.Rather than looking to the outside for new ideas, the Focuser goes inside, getting in touch with the raw, new, "preverbal" complexity of situations from which new solutions, Paradigm Shifts, emerge.
Reflecting Before Acting or Reacting
The radical contribution of Gendlin's Focusing (Bantam, 1981) and McGuire's Creative Edge Focusing ™ is that the problem solver makes the explicit choice to pause and take some moments for silent reflecting before acting or reacting.
Instead of simply repeating past reactions, the Focuser can create new, completely innovative solutions and behaviors from the "intuitive feel" of the whole situation.
A quiet pause is needed in order to sense into the "intuitive feel," The Creative Edge, of problems. Whether in private or in group decision making settings, these opportunities for pauses to contact and articulate the Creative Edge are what allow the creation of totally new ideas and solutions. No pauses, no creation of the new!!!!!
Using the PRISMS/S Problem Solving Process is like passing light through a prism. A few moments of pondering, and The Creative Edge opens into a whole spectrum of new possibilities and action steps.
Pausing To Ponder: From Problems To Possibilities
The PRISMS/S Problem Solving Process includes seven ingredients of predictable "Ahah!" experiences using Creative Edge Focusing ™. With its Core Skills of Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening , PRISMS/S is based upon Eugene Gendlin's "A Theory of Personality Change" (link to Gendlin Online Library at www.focusing.org, where you will find all of Gendlin's articles for free download) and his Focusing self-help book (Bantam, 1981), as well as Dr. McGuire's thirty years of experience integrating Listening/Focusing skills into task-oriented groups and supportive communities.
PRISMS/S is Dr. McGuire's attempt to create an easily teachable rubric, especially applicable to business settings, combining Gendlin's 6-Step Focusing Process with the unfolding steps of change, the "felt shift," or "paradigm" shift facilitated by Focusing.
PRISMS/S can be used on one's own or with the help of Focused Listening in a Creative Edge Focusing Partnership, Focusing Group or Team, or Focusing Community. In any case, problem solving goes through the following steps:
Pausing : Clearing A Space for Problem Identification
Reflecting: Listening To Oneself or Focused Listening from Another
Intuitive Focusing: Back-and-Forth Between Symbols and Intuition
Shifting: The Kaleidoscope Turns And A New Paradigm Arises
Movement: Innovative Solutions and Action Steps Arise Spontaneously
Satisfaction: Tension Releases in the Sureness of "Ahah! That's It!"
Support: Listening/Focusing Partnerships Build Empathy and Community
Focusing Partnerships, Groups/Teams, Communities
While anyone can learn to use PRISMS/S for creative problem solving on one's own, the process can be greatly facilitated by having an outside Focused Listening Partner.
If you do not have a Listening/Focusing Partnership, consider whether there is a colleague at work, a friend or family member who is already an excellent listener and might be interested in learning the formal Listening/Focusing Partnership method with you. Then, use the multi-media materials in our Self-Help Package or the free download of Chapter Three: The Listening/Focusing Exchange (a link at the top of this blog entry ). You can also enroll in Listening/Focusing Classes/Workshops internationally with Certified Focusing Professionals or bring in Creative Edge Consulting for onsite training.
The Blurry, Vague, "Feel of the Whole Thing" Holds The Next Steps
I invite you to use Intuitive Focusing again below to find next steps on a "creative project": an article, a book, a poem, a song, a dance, a marketing campaign, an engineering breakthrough, some project needing creative ideas.
If you need to work more specifically on "blocks" to creativity, you could use Cornell and McGavin's technique from last week, using Focusing to give a gentle hearing to the "part" that wants to "hold back," as well as the "part" that wants to "go forward," until steps toward resolution arise (Week Two Treasures In Blocks).
Focusing On A Creative Problem or Project
(You can read these to yourself now, download them for continuous use, read them into a tape recorder for playback . Leave at least one minute of silence between each instruction)
(One minute)
Okay --- first, just get yourself comfortable --- feel the weight of your body on the chair --- loosen any clothing that is too tight ---
(One minute)
Spend a moment just noticing your breathing --- don't try to change it --- just notice the breath going in --- and out ---
(One minute ---)
Now, notice where you have tension in your body (pause) ---
(One minute --- )
Now, imagine the tension as a stream of water, draining out of your body through your fingertips and feet (Pause) ---
(One minute --- )
Let yourself travel inside of your body to a place of peace ---
(One minute --- )
Now, bring to mind a creative problem or project that needs attention (pause) ---
(One minute or more --- )
Think about it or get a mental image of it ---
(One minute --- )
Now, try to set aside all of your thoughts about possible solutions, and, as you carry a mental image of the problem or project in your mind, just wait and see what comes in the center of your body, around your heart/chest area, in response (pause) --- not words, but the intuitive feel of the whole situation, The Creative Edge ---
(One minute --- )
Now, carefully try to find words or an image for that Edge --- Go carefully back and forth between any words and the intuitive feel of the whole thing until you find words or an image that are just right for it ---
(One minute --- )
Now, gently ask yourself, "Is that it? Would that work here?", and wait, at least a minute, to see what comes in your wordless intuition, your whole-body sense, The Creative Edge ---
(One minute ---)
Again, carefully find words or an image that exactly fit that Edge ---
(One minute --- )
Now, try that possible solution out in the creative situation, either in your imagination or by actually writing, painting, tinkering with a model ---
(One minute --- )
Now, ask yourself, "Does that work?" and, again, don't answer from your head, what you already know, but wait, as long as a minute, for an answer to come in the center of your body, your wordless intuition, The Creative Edge ---
(One minute --- )
Again, carefully find words or an image for that, "Does that solution work?" ---
(One minute --- )
If the answer is "Yes," a release of bodily tension, a sense of coming unstuck --- then return to the creative project and work again until there is another place of not-knowing, where you can begin the whole Focusing process again ---
If the answer is "No," your body remains tense and your energy still blocked, flat, then, set aside everything you have already thought and tried and ask your "subconscious," the "intuitive feel" at The Creative Edge, again: "What does this situation need?", and, again, wait, as long as a minute or more, to see what comes in the center of your chest, an intuitive "feel" for the whole thing ---
(One minute)
Take a moment, again, to carefully find words or an image for whatever has come ---
(One minute)
Keep at this as long as you are comfortable, asking an open-ended question, waiting for an "intuitive feel" of "the whole thing" to emerge, looking for words or an image or even a gesture or action step that fits the intuitive feel "exactly."
(One minute or more --- )
But, if no clear next step arises, just remind yourself that, by spending Focusing time sitting with The Creative Edge, you have added energy and started a new living-forward, and, especially if you continue to hold "the feel of it all" on the back-burner of your mind, later something new will likely pop up ---
(One minute)
Appreciate yourself and your "subconscious," the "intuitive feel," for taking time with this, trusting that taking time is the important thing -- solutions can then arise later.
Remember, it is often easier to learn Intuitive Focusing with the company of a Focusing Listener. See links below to find many resources, including self-help groups, and Creative Edge Focusing Consultants for individual Coaching or Classes and Workshops.
