Saturday, July 15, 2006
That Will Never Work! – Heard it Before?
I was reading a little piece from a book on creative problem solving when I came upon a little piece relating to a rule created by Charles H. Clark, it was Rule 816, it made me reflect on my working past and my schooling, and it read like this:
“Rule 816: Relating to New Ideas
Rule 816 is now in effect until further notice. When confronted with a new
idea, vote against it.
Rationale: It is probably not a good idea; new ideas seldom
are.
- Even if it is a good idea, the chances are it will never be
tested.- Even if it is a good idea and even though it is tested,
chances are that it won’t work first time.- Even if it is a good idea and even though it is tested, and
even if it succeeds, there’ll be plenty of time for thinking up alibis.Therefore: When confronted with a new idea, the rational action
is to take a positive and forward-looking stand against it.”
I have worked in many places, three industrial employers and several research centres and groups, and I find myself relating to this as I have seen it all before. Some of the research groups that I was so lucky to be a part of, however, were not like this at all, some people within them are perhaps a little like this, but in industry, if I remember rightly, are very much like this. And I guess Charles H. Clark found the same; that’s why he created the rule, rather sarcastically I might add, but it certainly gets the point across. And I guess that J.D. Couger found the same and that is why he included it in his book.
Generating a culture of accepting ideas and then doing the critical thing with them, which is bringing the best ones to fruition. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian psychologist in his excellent work on creativity, stated that
"Today many… spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase
the originality of their employees, hoping thereby to get a competitive edge in
the marketplace. But such programs make no difference unless management also
learns to recognize the valuable ideas among the many novel ones, and then finds
ways of implementing them."
I guess that sums it up, ideas are only ideas, and will always remain only ideas, until you do something with them; you must call yourself to action, and leave the Devil’s Advocate at home!
References
Couger J.D., 1995, Creative Problem Solving and Opportunity Finding, Boyd & Fraser.
This is a useful text and introduces many concepts in creativity… it contains brief descriptions of some useful creativity techniques as well.
Csikszentmihalyi M., 1996, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Harper Perennial.
A must read for those interested in the origins and meaning of creativity, a classic work.
