Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter

INSTANT "AHAH!" # 9: CREATIVITY

Creativity, Intuition, and Gladwell's "Blink Thinking"
 
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director                                Week Three

INTUITIONS GUIDE CREATIVE DECISION MAKING

 

"Blink Thinking"

 

In his best-selling book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking(Little Brown, 2005), Malcolm Gladwell justified the importance of intuitive, "gut" thinking in decision making. In fact, he pointed out that, contrary to our assumptions about our rationality, many high-level decisions are based more upon a "gut sense" or a "blink of an eye" impression than upon rational, logical thinking.

 

While they believe they are using objective indicators for choices, people are often influenced by subjective, peripheral factors "outside of awareness." For instance, for generations, classical music orchestras believed that women could not master the instruments or the nuance of the music. Women were seldom hired.

 

Then, orchestras started having performers audition behind a screen, cutting out visual cues in making hiring decisions. To everyone's surprise, chosen through "listening" alone, women were actually chosen a majority of the time, even for instruments "presumed" to be more "masculine," like French Horn and other brass instruments.

 

Gladwell distinguished between two kinds of intuitive decision making:

 

        In the one case, a person has a "gut sensing," an unclear, preverbal "feel" about something, which is very real and substantial and resilient, impossible to put aside or ignore, even though words for it can't be found. An example: some museum curators have a "sense" that there is something wrong about an antique statue. They don't know what it is, but their "body-sense" tells them there is something. Eventually, following this "intuition," they discover concrete evidence that it is a facsimile.

 

        In the second case, a person makes a decision in "the blink of an eye," without even awareness of an "intuitive feel" but out of an immediate, precognitive assessment of a situation. An example: a fireman deciding where to step, which way to go, what to do in a split-second emergency situation.

 

Gladwell says that we can't really "unpack" our "gut senses." However, although this is true about the split-second decisions in emergency situations, it is not true for the more common situations in his first case, where there is a gnawing, long-lasting "gut sensing," an "intuitive feel," for which words HAVE NOT YET been found. In these latter situations, Intuitive Focusing, "sitting with" the "intuitive feel" of "the whole thing," and carefully looking for words and images which are exactly "right" in capturing this preverbal "intuition," is a premiere way for increasing the usefulness of "intuitive" or "gut" information.

 

Using Intuitive Focusing In Situations Of Uncertainty

 

In her Market Focusing approach (www.marketfocusing.com ), Flavia Cymbalista  taught Gendlin's Focusing to people like George Soros, financier, and others needing to make decisions in situations of "uncertainty", like the ever-changing stock market. Traders often had to follow their "intuition" and wished for something more substantial to base decisions upon.

 

Soros thought he used logical, rational indicators for decisions. Through work with Cymbalista, he realized that, actually, he got a "pain in his back" when his portfolio needed adjusting, and the pain disappeared when he got it "right." He was following an "intuition," a "bodily feel" without words. He and others learned that consciously using Gendlin's Focusing to find words and images for "gut intuition" allowed even greater access to the "intuitive feel" for market decisions.

 

"Gut Sensing" Is Everywhere In Creative Decision Making

 

Here are just a few situations where pausing for some minutes of Intuitive Focusing can provide a way forward:

 

        You have a "gut feeling" of exactly what problem you want to work on, but you don't have any words or images to describe it.

        Your boss hands you a problem to solve out of the blue, and you have no idea where to begin, how to approach it.

        You are "stuck" on a creative project, "blocked," no inspiration about where to go next.

        You know that something is bothering you, your whole body is tense, you can't sleep, but you have no idea what the problem is.

        You have an"inkling," an "intuition," but you can't put it into words.

        You have a "hunch" about what to do, an action you want to take, but you can't verbalize any reasons to justify it.

        You wake up with the "feel" of a forgotten night-time dream.

        You have a wonderful feeling of well-being, a "spiritual" feeling, and you would like to spend more time with it, finding a way to describe it.

        You have an uncomfortable feeling after an interaction with someone, but you don't know exactly what it is about, so you don't know what to do about it.

        You know exactly what you want to do but find yourself blocked, unable to move forward.

        You might have no feelings, no creative ideas. You feel like a flat piece of concrete.

        You feel totally stressed out, confused, overwhelmed ---

 

Focused Listening To Aid In Creative Problem Solving

 

While a person can use Intuitive Focusing on their own to find words for "gut sensing," having the help of a Focused Listener, in aFocusing Partnership or Focusing Group/Team, can make this process of "finding words" easier. Here is a hypothetical example.

 

The Focuser sits with The Creative Edge, the murky, intuitive "feel" of the whole Gestalt, and attempts to make new words and images using the Intuitive Focusing skill. The Listener uses Pure Reflection, simply saying back the words and images of the Focuser, without judgment or advice, and with emphasis upon reflecting "the unclear edge," the "bodily, intuitive feel."  The Focused Listener can reflect back the Focuser's actual words as well as the less-clear nuances, until the Focuser finds exactly the right new symbolizations to capture The Creative Edge.

 

 Example:

 

The Focuser starts out with a "gut sense" about a problem. He knows there is something wrong, but he can't put his finger on what that is nor on a solution:

     

 Focuser: "There is something about the mechanical execution of this model that is not going to work --- I don't know what it is, but I can sense it. I'm uneasy about it ---"

       Listener: "So there's an uneasiness there --- something not right about the

    mechanical execution ---"

Focuser: (sitting quietly, pondering at the Creative Edge --- ) "All I get so far is an image of red intertwining with white, two triangles intersecting --- "

Listener: "So there's an image --- two triangles intersecting --- red and white intertwining ---"

Focuser: (some excitement in voice, opens eyes) Let me draw that (starts drawing with pen and paper, grabs red and white chalk --- soon, a gear-like drawing emerges) ---(evident excitement) Yes, it's something there , in that gear box!!!

Listener: "So, you can see clearly now --- it's something in that particular gear box --- "

Focuser: (closes eyes) "Let me sense into that some more (sits quietly, pondering at The Creative Edge --- over a minute --- ) --- something, something twisty there ---"

Listener: "Twisty ---"

Focuser: (more closed-eyed Focusing, pondering at The Creative Edge --- minute or more --- sighs, shifts in seat --- more pondering ---)"Hmmmm --- I think I'm getting it --- something about the ratios there, the red too dominant over the white --- "

Listener: "The ratios --- red over white ---"

Focuser: "I've got it --- needs to be 8:6!"

 

Clearly, the Listener doesn't even have to understand what the Focuser is talking about, but, still, having that outside person offering Reflection can carry forward the process of creating new symbolizations out of The Creative Edge.

 

Even though Focused Listening allows the Listener to occasionally use other kinds of responses (Asking For More, Focusing Invitations, and Personal Sharings), pure reflection is still the most powerful form of response to someone using Intuitive Focusing at The Creative Edge.

 
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 the following blog entry )
 
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.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
 
For four weeks, we practice an actual exercise in three different categories: An Instant "Ahah!" to integrate into your every day life at work and at home, a Felt Sensing exercise or Interpersonal Exercise to practice this step of Focusing, and a Complete Focusing Session. Actually doing the exercise which  arrives in each e-newsletter insures that you can call upon these new skills when needed! This is Week Three of a four-week cycle.Catch up with Week One: From Blocks To "Ahah!"s and Week Two: Treasures In Blocks.
 QUICK LINKS TO E-SUPPORT, CLASSES, BLOG, ARTICLES, ETC.
 
Two Yahoo E-Groups, Creative Edge Practice and Creative Edge Collaboration, for Ongoing Support and Learning
 
 
Self-Help Package, CDs, DVD, manual English and espanol
 
Experiential Focusing Therapy manual
 
Certification Programs: Consultant/Helping Professional : Now with option of Structured Level 1-4 Listening/Focusing Training With Ruth Hirsch followed by 10 supervision sessions with Dr. McGuire. Contact Dr. McGuire for information on this NEW option
About Creative Edge Focusing (TM) 
 
Mission: bring Core Skills of Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening, and The Creative Edge Pyramid of applications from individual to interpersonal to organizational, to all audiences throughout the world.
 
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director
Location: Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR
These materials are offered purely as self-help skills. In providing them, Dr. McGuire is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director