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Champions Fax Archive
Volume 3, Number 20, October 5, 1998 Michael Michalko has authored several books on creativity. His recent book is Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Geniuses. Michalko summarized the book in a recent Futurist Magazine. Drawing on those who study the lives and patterns of great geniuses in history he identifies eight ways a leader can think like a genius. 1. Look at it differently. Re-state or re-phrase a problem in as many ways as possible. Initial approaches usually draw from past experiences. A new approach may lead to a new solution.2. Make it visible. Geniuses use their spatial abilities to display information in new ways. So draw it, graph it, diagram the problem on paper or a white board to gain a new perspective. 3. Do something. A study of geniuses found they not only produce great works but lots of mediocre ones. Quantity can sometimes lead to quality. Einstein had a few memorable scientific papers but published over 250. 4. Combine things. Put together differing ideas and images into new thoughts, whether they make sense or not. Ask, what if we combined concept A with concept B? What would that produce? Then ask about the combination of A, B and C. 5. Force it. Unconnected concepts must often be forced. Sometimes novel inventions come from bailing wire and chewing gum solutions. Connecting seemingly unconnectable thoughts, concepts and processes can lead to genius breakthroughs. 6. Think opposites. Sometimes we have arbitrarily held concepts to be in opposition. Often we must have two opposite components to produce positive change. 7. Think metaphors. Can you compare the issue or problem to another existing condition? Is this similar to something in another field, sport, or nature? This can help explain a concept as well as draw new ideas from other fields. 8. Prepare for a chance. The principle of creative accidents means asking: "What did we produce?, not, why did we fail?" We often find unexpected successes when we follow an interesting, failed, first try. Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius is from Ten Speed Press copyright 1998. The article "Thinking Like a Genius: Eight Strategies Used by the Supercreative, From Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison is found in the May 1998 Futurist Magazine. Look for your brochure for the Gathering of Church Champions event to arrive prior to the next issue of Champions Fax.
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