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In Search of the "ah ha" Moment: Creativity is About Connecting
Have you ever experienced an “ah ha” moment? It’s what you feel when insight strikes, when a solution to a tough problem suddenly occurs to you, or when a great idea hits you seemingly “out of the blue.” Behavioral scientists have been studying this phenomenon for over a century. Recent research indicates that this creative insight is more positively influenced by “unexpected connections” than through deep knowledge of a particular field.
Past studies suggested that knowledge and experience within a particular domain are the most necessary ingredients for insight. Those researchers theorized that the more knowledge an individual possesses within a certain subject, the more likely they are to recognize the relationships between different ideas, resulting in a stronger and stronger ability to create reliable patterns, and hence, significant insight into the subject at hand. However, this knowledge, by itself, does not produce insight. In fact, more recent studies show that the level of experience an individual brings to a field can actually inhibit creative problem solving. This is due to what creativity experts call “functional fixedness.” You’ve seen functional fixedness before: it’s when an expert can only see an object used for its intended purpose. Individuals who’ve solved problems in a particular way numerous times before form problem-solving mechanisms that inhibit them from developing creative solutions. Experts tend to understand answers to problems by searching through well-defined solutions. This type of problem solving is more likely to lead to small, incremental solutions than to the “ah ha” response of insight.
Unexpected Connections = “ah ha”
Several behavioral scientists, working in the 1990s, argued that insight occurs when a person’s mind is able to unconsciously peruse random combinations of ideas that finally synthesize. This theory explains why many of the most notable scientific breakthroughs occurred through a process of free association. Free association is when a person generates as many unusual combinations between the many different bits of knowledge they have, then screens the results, only retaining the best combos. William James wrote about this process a century ago, in Principles of Psychology (1890):
Instead of thoughts of concrete things patiently following one another in a beaten track of habitual suggestion, we have the abrupt cross-cuts and transitions from one idea to another, the most rarefied abstractions and discriminations, the most unheard of combination of elements, the subtlest associations of analogy; in a word, we seem suddenly introduced into a seething cauldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbling about in a state of bewildering activity, where partnerships can be joined or loosened in an instant, treadmill routine is unknown, and the unexpected seems only law. (p. 456)
The role of chance, then, is crucial to insightful discovery. One researcher, Melissa Schilling, writes, “This random recombination appears consistent with illustrative anecdotes of some of the great discoveries of the past.” Creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, puts it another way. In his 2006 TED talk on how schools are killing creativity, he offers this definition of creativity: “The process of having original ideas that have value.” Creativity, he tells us “comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.” How can we develop “different disciplinary ways of seeing things?” It’s one of those mandates, like “be creative,” or “think outside the box” that sound so easy but tend to leave a person scratching their head, wondering where all their innovation is at. I think we need to create the means to make connections, and I think the place to start is in re-connecting our brains to our bodies.
Mending the Cartesian Split
Since the 17th century, westerners have operated under the unconscious assumption that our brains and bodies are separate entities. This severing of our heads from our bodies -- defining ourselves having a “body” distinct from a “mind” -- has caused myriad problems, from obesity to lack of mental agility to global warming to violence against women, to the focus of this paper: decreased creativity. In Brain Rules, a book about what scientists know about how the brain works, author John Medina demonstrates how physical exercise enhances every aspect of brain function. The body and mind are so connected, Medina tells us, that “aerobic exercise, just twice a week, halves your risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent.” So, if you want your brain to work at peak capacity, first connect it back up with your body. My best ideas come when I’m in the shower or on a walk. Sitting at your computer, you have far less chance of hitting on an idea worth exploring than if you’re taking a swim, or looking at that same computer while riding a stationary bike.
“Fill the Box”
Start to view your life and work as one big “assemblage.” Here’s Merriam-Webster’s on-line definition of assemblage: “an artistic composition made from scraps, junk and odds and ends.” Whatever the artistic impact an assemblage piece has, be it moving, insightful, beautiful, disturbing – whatever – that impact results from the juxtaposition of different elements, selected and arranged to create something new by their association. Take for example the work of Joseph Cornell. It’s the way Cornell associates his materials that make the work fresh, give it meaning, and give the viewer that “ah ha” feeling.
“Filling the box,” means collecting those odds and ends that attracts you, for any reason at all. Collage artists do this all the time. They create a “morgue” of interesting papers, images, scraps of fabric, broken tools, etc. Their “morgue” is a storehouse of materials for use in future projects. Sometimes, just the act of throwing an artifact into the box sparks an idea – the old bell from a cat toy rolls into the metal label from a high-school soft-ball trophy and – “ah ha” – I’m creating a piece about the meaning of toys and games. You can “fill the box” in your own life. Don’t edit. Whatever affects you, save it: like a racy post card a buddy sends from his trip to Big Sur that made you roll your eyes, or a short story you read in a Seventeen magazine while waiting for your kid at the dentist’s office that made you cringe, or an old photo of your uncle standing with someone you’ve never met that made you curious, or the over-worn Oshkosh overalls your son lived in one summer that are about to go to Goodwill that made you tear up. Whatever has meaning, holds mystery, grabs your attention, sparks a memory, delights, disgusts, angers or amazes. Collect it. You never know when the juxtaposition of one thing to another will bring an insight.
Collaborate
Is this not the most overused term of our decade, next to “entrepreneur?” Well, I say put it to use for your own connecting. Collaboration implies connecting with other people; that part is pretty obvious. It should also mean connecting with other domains of knowledge. If you want to spark an insight within your own domain, bring in folks from outside it. The way others interpret things you’ve already categorized and become an expert in will shake you out of patterns and assumptions. Find the people you least expect can inspire you, and put them on an innovation team. I can’t stress this en ough. Example: Father: Son, put down that stick! Son: It’s not a stick, it’s a sword. That’s what I mean. I once directed an original production of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Before casting the show and rehearsing it with actors, I assembled a creative team to read the book, discuss it, and discover surprising ways to stage it. The team consisted of a clinical social worker, an attorney, a chiropractor, a designer, another director, an actor and a real estate agent. This team met monthly for almost a year. At the end of that time I had an outline for an outrageously original, movement-based work that catapulted our little company into one of the best funded experimental theatre companies in our city, got us an invitation to take up residence at an established theatre venue, and increased our board membership. We also got some pretty great artists to sign on with us for our next show, because they wanted a piece of what we were doing. I could never, ever, ever, ever, ever have created that show without forcing myself to bump up against the ideas and viewpoints of those people who possessed deep knowledge stores in domains different from my own.
If you are reading this article, chances are you were educated in a system that put artistic training at the bottom of the hierarchy. If you excelled in that system, you’re probably pretty focused on a particular area of expertise. If you’re successful at your current job, there’s a real danger you’re not moving your body very much. The popular business press keeps running stories about the need for innovation, for creative solutions to our problems, for new ways of looking at the world. “Design thinking” is the next big wave in MBA pedagogy. In order to meet the demands these trends make, the demand to, in Sir Richard’s words “have an original idea that has value,” we’ve got to begin to value and utilize diversity of viewpoints, create opportunities to bump up against random stimuli, and cherish the fact that our brain is a bodily organ that depends on exercise to function well. In other words, we need to connect up.
References: James, W. (1890).
Principles of psychology (Vol. 1). New York: Henry Holt. Medina, J. (2008).
Brain rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press. Schilling, M. (2005). A "small-world" network model of cognitive insight.
Creativity Research Journal. 17, 131-154. Simon, H.A. (1973). Does scientific discovery have logic?
Philosophy of Science, 40, 471–480. Simonton, D. K. (1995). Foresight in insight? A Darwinian answer. In R.J. Sternberg & J.E.Davidson (Eds.), The nature of insight (pp. 465–494). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
About the Author
Julia Fischer Baumgartner is a founder and principal of art-cm, a consulting firm specializing in helping successful start-ups move up from the entrepreneurial stage to the professionally-managed level. Doctoral candidate in Organizational Consulting, Julia has more than 20 years of experience in both management and the arts. More information on Julia, and art-cm, can be found at http://www.art-cm.com
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