Thinking Creatively
101: James Webb Young
For all the talk of creative thinking as a part of a
pedagogical paradigm (teaching strategy and theory), creative thinking and
critical reasoning are skills that are rarely, if ever, dissected and
addressed. The concepts are paid lip service and theorized around, but to my
recollection, I was never provided with a blueprint or strategy or even
satisfactory definitions.
However, while the actual practice of teaching may fall
short in making these practices understandable and applicable to students,
there have been numerous scholars attempting to elucidate how we think
creatively or critically. In the 1940s, James Webb Young, an executive tasked
with rethinking advertising at his company, came up with a simple, but rather
crudely brilliant workflow outline for thinking creatively1. He then
translated this into a widely popular and influential book.
According to Webb there were five key steps to thinking
creatively. The first involved gathering new material and learning as much as
possible that specifically relates to your task. The next step was to consider
the new material, to think about it actively and come up with ideas you’ve
formulated yourself about the material to further your understanding of it.
However, the third step might be a surprise: get some
distance from the problem. According to Webb doing something that stimulates
you (that is unrelated to your problem) allows you to passively consider it
without taxing yourself by its consideration. Eventually the fourth step
happens, which is that your idea “returns” to you, as Webb says. It is at this
point you reconsider it again. You are constantly thinking about it, trying to
apply the knowledge you’ve obtained and evaluated. This usually leads to a
“Eureka” moment.
The fifth and final step was what Young called “The cold,
grey dawn of the morning after.” It is in this step where you take the ideas
you’ve generated for feedback and see how well they “live in the world.” You
may find your ideas are satisfactory and you’ve come up with a solution, but
also you may find that your ideas need restructuring and revision, at which
point the process begins again.
Written by Jeremiah Ockunzzi, courtesy of Dr. Bart Rademaker
MD.
