From the new book: Reinvent Yourself

Chapter Six Creative problem solving

with ideas from Bill Moyers and other innovators

Bill Moyers greeted me with a riddle. “A man is at home. He is wearing a mask. Another man is coming home. What’s happening here?”

I made several bad guesses, most involving a bandit in the house.

Finally Moyers said, “I didn’t get it either. My twenty-year-old daughter did. It’s about a baseball game. The catcher at home plate is trying to tag the runner out.

“This is from a new book on creative thinking that I recently read, The Mind’s Best Work by D.N. Perkins. It’s a riddle that challenges thinking that gets set in its ways.”

I was looking forward to talking with Bill Moyers because he has spent years as an award-winning TV journalist talking with some of the world’s most creative people. He also had a separate career as head of the Peace Corp and a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Here are some of the things he told me about how creativity can change people’s lives.

“I believe too many opinion makers and the media underestimate the basic intelligence of their audiences. Education often has little to do with common sense. My own father had to leave school at the age of fourteen to help support his father’s family. Yet my father was as wise an observer of the human scene as anyone I know. In my own work I’ve always assumed a high degree of intelligence irrespective of the schooling of the viewer.

“I was stopped once on the subway by a very shabbily dressed man. He held out his hand, and I thought he wanted a coin. But he was reaching to shake my hand, and he said, ‘Mr. Moyers, last Saturday night I had some of the boys over to the house to play poker and drink beer. We had accidentally left the TV on, and your program came on with Mortimer Adler talking about Aristotle. We got to watching that program, and stayed up until 2 o’clock in the morning talking about what we had just heard.’”

I asked him to define creativity.

“Scholars have debated the meaning of creativity for years. To me, as a journalist who has spent so much time among creative people, I would say that creativity is the ability to see things in a new way, and from that fresh insight produce something that didn’t exist before that is useful to human beings. It may be a solution to a personal problem. It may be to see an idea you hadn’t acknowledged before.

“It may be to look at the familiar and see the strange, or to look at the strange and see the familiar. It means piercing what we usually take for granted – piercing what is obvious and mundane to find what is marvelous.

“I have found some common characteristics shared by many creative people. They are infinitely curious. They never take for granted what they’re told. They’re skeptical without being cynical. They are restless. They listen to their unconscious. Some do it deliberately by setting aside a time of the day for the unconscious to rise up and speak to them. Many are unknowing listeners to their unconscious. They all tend to listen to the accumulated experience of the ages. But most of all, many of them were touched by someone special at some certain time in their lives. It might have been a grandmother, a parent, a friend; more often than not it was a teacher – someone who said, ‘You matter,’ and made that person aware of his or her own intrinsic value as a human being.

“Maya Angelou, the great Afro-American poet, was raped when she was eight years old. When she spoke the name of the man who raped her (her mother’s boyfriend), he was killed. She stopped speaking completely for fear her tongue would cause another’s death. Her grandmother, Mrs. Flowers, took her into her home and began to read to her. One of the books was the Tale of Two Cities. Mrs. Flowers read aloud, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The words of that book worked a kind of magic on Maya, and – as she said later – brought the poet inside her to life.

“A sense of self-worth is important for creativity. But you must also be doubtful whether you really know all there is to know. Self-doubt is a propellant. So you must endlessly search the oceans of imagination and information and intuition to see what you can plumb from those depths. You must never think that this harbor is the best or the last. You have to sail on.”

Without hesitation I can say that the books by Edward de Bono, author of Lateral Thinking, I’m Right – You’re Wrong, and Serious Creativity, among others, have strongly influenced my way of thinking about creativity and have sparked many of my own books and ideas. I urge you to read one or more of these books.

He originated the term Lateral Thinking which is now defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “seeking to solve problems by unorthodox or apparently illogical methods.”

Edward de Bono says the key word in this definition is “apparently.” When you arrive at a solution through lateral thinking, in retrospect, it appears completely logical.

He believes that all of us have well- established ways of thinking, based on traditional Western thinking which in turn is based on the syllogism.

(First leg of a syllogism) All fruit is red –

(Second leg) All apples are fruit

(Conclusion) Therefore, all apples are red.

The syllogism works fine if all of its legs are true, but if the first (as in this example) or the second leg is false, then the conclusion is false. In vertical thinking each syllogism conclusion builds on the conclusions of the preceding syllogism. This can become a house of cards.

In de Bono’s terms, vertical thinking is similar to digging a hole in the same place. In lateral thinking you dig holes in many unrelated places to come up with new solutions.

Getting a little lost? So was I until I got to some of his examples.

Take a case (not too uncommon) where a large paper plant or chemical company builds a plant on a river because the manufacturing process requires a continuous flow of fresh water. But there’s a problem. The plant discharges used (polluted) water back into the river, creating problems downstream for communities needing fresh water.

Western (vertical) style thinking: Let’s impose a $10,000 fine on the polluting company.

That doesn’t work. The company pays the fine as a cost of doing business.

Vertical style thinking (digging a deeper hole in the same place): Let’s increase the fine to $25,000!

That doesn’t work either. The company’s accountants quickly point out to management that new pollution control equipment could cost $300,000. It is much cheaper to pay the fine for that good old accounting entry - cost of doing business.

Lateral thinking (moving sideways and digging holes in many different areas). Let’s pass a law that makes the company release their used water upstream – before it reaches the company’s intake valve.

Now it suddenly becomes much cheaper for the company to buy the pollution control equipment rather than constantly cleaning polluted water.

This simple solution has been tried in communities worldwide and it works.

Lateral thinking means:

1. Don’t necessarily settle for the first solution to a problem. Look for many alternatives.

2. Pose some “provocative” solutions to a problem that force you to think in different directions. Placing the water outflow upstream of the factory is such a provocative thought.

3. Don’t kill a new idea prematurely. The quickest way to doom an idea is to say it’s the “same as” something we’re already doing.

I found another example of creativity at work close to home.

“I visualize something first in my mind and then I try to create it.” said Richard “Dick” Kline as he leaned back in his dining room chair. Dick has been a personal friend for more than thirty years, and I have always been amazed at the lightning twists and turns of his mind when confronted with a problem.

I wanted to know how he had created a new principle of flight and developed a paper airplane that had become world famous, without knowing a single thing about aerodynamics.

He told me the story. For many years he had been a successful advertising art director on Madison Avenue. One Sunday he was working on an ad project with a copywriter on an upper floor of a building on 42^nd Street in New York City, overlooking Bryant Park.

“We made a bet,” Dick said. “Who could fold a paper airplane that would fly straighter and faster than the other’s. We each made a plane and threw it out the window toward the park trees below.”

Dick won the bet because his plane flew as straight as if shot from a bow. But he was disappointed that the plane crashed too quickly. That contest didn’t end that Sunday afternoon in Dick’s mind.

“I kept thinking – how can I fold that plane so it will stay straight and stay aloft. I kept visualizing in my mind the kinds of folds that might make the plane more stable. I even toyed with the idea of pasting bee-bees in the wings.”

But nothing worked. Then one day he began to fold part of the wings under each other, creating pockets. He flew the plane. It flew straight as that proverbial arrow, staying aloft for several minutes.

Fast forward a few months. He sent his new invention to several major toy companies. No interest at all. Then one day Floyd Fogelman, a man who retouched Dick’s advertising photographs, came into his office and Dick flew the plane down the hall to show him how well it was flying.

As he later described the moment, the plane began to climb as soon as it left his hand. It reached a height when most paper airplanes stall and fall back. But this plane leveled itself and began a slow descent, making a safe landing far down the hall.

Floyd, who was also a part-time pilot, could only say, “A new concept in aerodynamics.” Dick agreed that Floyd could take the paper airplane home to make a balsawood model of the plane to see if the model would have the same flight characteristics. Several days later Floyd returned with the model. It flew as straight and smooth and long as its paper prototype.

Dick and Floyd became partners. Although neophytes in the legal and rights field, both knew they had to apply for a patent to protect the new invention. Whatever it was! After tests in wind tunnels and help from patent attorneys, they submitted their drawings and claim of the Kline-Fogelman wing to the U.S. Patent Office. After several rejections (which they later learned was fairly common), they received Patent No. 3,706,430 for “a steplike discontinuity midway back on an airfoil for aircraft and for helicopter and propeller blades.” Not bad for two newbies in the arcane field of airplane design.

Then serendipity took over, as it sometimes does when people have paid their “dues” in a certain field. An advertising account executive interested Dr. John Nicolaides, a professor and founder of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Notre Dame University, in flying the paper plane in a wind tunnel. Then Time magazine carried a story about the new invention, “The Paper Plane Caper.” Then Dick appeared on 60 Minutes as his plane flew over Central Park in New York, with Frank Sinatra singing, Come fly with me. This show was repeated two times, followed by Dick’s appearances on The Letterman Show, CBS Morning News, Regis Philbin and many other national TV programs.

Some months later, Dick and his wife Fran had joined me the day before Christmas at my home. I suggested that Dick should write a book about his plane and incredible experiences.

“I’m not a writer,” he said.

I told him the publisher could get a ghost writer. I asked him to see my agent, Barbara Kouts, and tell her about it. He did. Fortunately she knew a senior editor at Simon & Schuster who had a great interest in paper airplanes. Soon Dick was in contract talks with him.

“I’m not a writer,” Dick told him. “Should I work with a ghost writer?”

“No,” said the editor. “You should write it yourself.”

So Dick apparently fell back into his favorite mental creative exercise. He “visualized” a book.

The Ultimate Paper Airplane book by Richard Kline has now sold more than 124,000 copies worldwide. I can’t imagine how many copies he might have sold if he had been a “writer.”

Artists, writers, designers and architects often start by visualizing pictures in their heads. Art therapist Lucia Cappacchione said that practical visionaries in many fields (executives, scientists, and just plain folk) often use mental pictures to “design in their mind”). That’s true in sports, also. Many books have been written about the “inner” game of tennis or golf.

I never met Roger von Oech, but I have long admired his enthusiasm for creativity and his exuberant ways of expressing it in his books. Here’s an example:

We’re all born with the ability to think about things in original ways, but as we grow up we develop attitudes that undermine this creativity. They include ‘to err is wrong,’ ‘don’t be foolish,’ ‘that’s not my area,’ ‘be practical,’ and ‘follow the rules.’ These attitudes make sense for much of what we do, but when we try to generate new ideas, they imprison our imagines. For this reason, I called them mental locks.

That’s von Oech’s preface in his book, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. It was published in 1985, but its ideas about how to generate new ideas is just as relevant, if not more so, today. Copies are still available on amazon.com, and I recommend you get this great book. (At the time I checked, you could buy a used copy for as little as $1.19. “Used” copies are an inexpensive way to buy great older books.)

The back cover of his book summarizes his method:

To develop a new idea, you must become an Explorer. Read. Observe. Poke around in areas outside of your immediate field. Pay particular attention to patterns.

Now let the Artist in you come out as you review what the Explorer has gathered. Ask “What if” questions. Look at things backward. Add something or take something away. He concludes, “Ultimately you’ll come up with an original idea.”

The next step is to call in the Judge in you. Now you can become critical. Is the timing right for the idea? Is the idea really worth your time (and expense) of developing it. Question each of the steps that led to the idea. Now make a go-no go decision.

Once you’re ready to go ahead, become a Warrior for your idea. Defend your idea but use the objections to modify or change it. Do what’s necessary to reach your objective.

Reinventing yourself

Think about:

What “creative thing” have you done this week? Created a new dish from ingredients that were in the pantry? Or found a new way to help a friend keep moisture out of his basement? Creativity is not just about painting a work of art or writing a masterpiece. It’s about solving a problem for yourself or someone else.

Take action:

Starting today, look for one new way to do something in your life. “Visualize” in your mind different solutions. They won’t always work. But remember that learning what “doesn’t work” is an important part of creativity. That is what Dick Kline learned when he invented a new principle of aerodynamics and wrote an international best seller.

Words to consider:

“Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport.”

Robert Wieder

Books to make you more creative

Reinvent Yourself. Eighteen chapters with special "reinvent yourself" exercises at the end of each chapter for only $13.95. Click here to purchase.