Throughout the semester I’ve used Sawyer, K., & Sawyer, K. (2013). Zig zag : the surprising path to greater creativity to help me solve problems that I’ve had throughout the semester. There are eight steps that Sawyer uses to structure his methods to help us become more creative. I’ll describe strategies from each step that I found most useful.
Step one ASK: The practice of finding the right question leads to better solutions for any problem. Problem finding requires you to become fluid to the to the problem, creating and adapting as you go. The creative strategy “Try Ten Questions” is one of many strategies from ASK that I used to help me with post blog post #1. In this strategy we are practice putting our unconscious mind to work to generate more ideas quickly.
Step two LEARN: A useful strategy here is to take the things you learn and apply them to new situations. Adaptive expertise is the ability to apply what you learn to new unrelated situations. You can bend and stretch strategies that you know of to many contexts.
Step three LOOK: Mindfulness is an important strategy to become more aware of your surroundings. To cultivate mindfulness we need to have an open and curious attitude, interact with our environment, create new categories instead of relying on old ones, and use empathy and feedback to adapt your behavior.
In the future I will use the list of creative strategies from Zig Zag to help me develop new products in many industries. There are strategies from each of the eight steps that must be practiced continually. One creative strategy that I plan to use more is Liven Up the Party (pg. 82) which involves reaching out of my comfort zone to meet new people.
Step one ASK: The practice of finding the right question leads to better solutions for any problem. Problem finding requires you to become fluid to the to the problem, creating and adapting as you go. The creative strategy “Try Ten Questions” is one of many strategies from ASK that I used to help me with post blog post #1. In this strategy we are practice putting our unconscious mind to work to generate more ideas quickly.
Step two LEARN: A useful strategy here is to take the things you learn and apply them to new situations. Adaptive expertise is the ability to apply what you learn to new unrelated situations. You can bend and stretch strategies that you know of to many contexts.
Step three LOOK: Mindfulness is an important strategy to become more aware of your surroundings. To cultivate mindfulness we need to have an open and curious attitude, interact with our environment, create new categories instead of relying on old ones, and use empathy and feedback to adapt your behavior.
In the future I will use the list of creative strategies from Zig Zag to help me develop new products in many industries. There are strategies from each of the eight steps that must be practiced continually. One creative strategy that I plan to use more is Liven Up the Party (pg. 82) which involves reaching out of my comfort zone to meet new people.