创新天才自我进阶5步走

    类推创新

    从泡在浴缸里的阿基米德到乘电梯考虑相对论的爱因斯坦，但凡伟大的创新者都会用类推解决复杂的问题。为帮助解决挑战，我们运用类推方式，将自认为了解的某领域（来源）信息转移到某陌生的领域（目标）。例如真空吸尘器，这款机器的设计将近一个世纪都没有变动过。它的发明者詹姆斯•戴森当年类推了自然界里旋风的方式，通过一台离心分离机的旋转力分离颗粒物。

    类推可用于颠覆惯性思维，以便为新的创意开路。同样地，借助类推，我们可以用已知的事物模拟未知事物，从而帮助我们利用自己的体验，这样的类推过程反过来也能奏效。这就是说，我们可以根据自认为了解的事物类推、创造未知事物。艺术家将这一过程称为“变熟为生”（defamilarization）。法国小说家阿尔贝•加缪就常以家蝇的角度讲述自己的故事。假设你已经完成了战略开发过程，不妨换个角度，不要站在股东或者客户的角度看待，而是从你孩子的角度考虑这一开发过程看起来会是什么样。

    叙事创新

    你有没有听说过孩子需要努力学习把故事讲清楚？或许你有个好朋友讲什么精彩的笑话总是让人听不明白到底哪里好笑。这两类例子都说明，要连贯一致、言之有物地讲述一个故事，同时吸引听众是一件多么不容易的事情。

    故事集合角色、行为、情节、描述和语法于一身的综合体。最重要的是，它有一种叙述的语气，那是我们的声音，是真实的或者拟人化的口气。我们说故事的方式既可以让最平淡的轶事生动有趣，也可以让最煽情的传说沉闷乏味。

    记叙文是按顺序组织的一个故事，这种文体其实就是讲述故事的方式。为了形成不同的版本，或是创造新的综合体，可以把故事解构，然后重新组织合成。比如Dos Equis牌啤酒。上世纪70年代，许多美国人要等到上大学才能第一次品尝到这个牌子的啤酒。在美国加州或者墨西哥州，每逢寒假，大家聚会时都会一起喝这种酒。但它算不上什么高端的品牌。后来，从1900年起经营啤酒生意的酒厂Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery推出了一则“全球最有趣男士”的广告，改变了这个品牌的故事。广告的主人公是007特工詹姆斯•邦德和美国文学家欧内斯特•海明威的合体，广告以时间顺序回放了主人公英勇无畏的举动，显示了他堪称男子汉的种种成就。通过改变叙事体，Dos Equis牌啤酒虽然身处日渐萎缩的市场，却迎来了爆炸式的增长。

    直觉创新

    到了这种层次，创新的规模会变得更大，可能会超出我们的能力范畴。直觉就是接收了多少创意就能进行多少创新。许多方法可以让思维突破束缚，清除老旧的思想，如冥想、瑜伽和诵经。这些方法的基本目的是要分散注意力，让精神松弛下来，创造一种意识流的状态，让创意能来去自如。信徒们一般会拜在公认的宗师门下，常常修习数年以求掌握这些思维技巧。

    首位荣获诺贝尔文学奖的亚洲文学大师拉宾德拉纳特•泰戈尔专为提高个人的创新能力开发了一些练习冥想的方法。开创华德福（Waldorf）教育体系的鲁道夫•斯坦纳也设计过一些冥想法。直觉创意的方式数不胜数，实在难以一一例举。它们范围很广，既包括自动写作，也包括服用影响正常思维的药物（当然，我们并不推荐这种方法）。

    也许你无法成为莎士比亚、伦勃朗和达芬奇那样的一代文坛或画坛巨匠，但你可以始终为提高自身的创造力而努力。所有这些方式都没有超出大家的能力范围，只不过必须不断尝试新鲜事物。请记住，创新的一生就意味着生命不息、攀登不止。（财富中文网）

    杰夫•德拉格夫是教授、作家、演说家及数百家机构的顾问。了解杰夫的最新动向可关注他的twitter账号 www.twitter.com/JeffDeGraff。

    Analogical Creativity

    Great innovators, from Archimedes in his bathtub to Einstein riding his elevator of relativity, have used analogies to solve complex problems. We use analogies to transfer information that we believe we understand in one domain (the source) to help resolve a challenge in an unfamiliar area (the target). For example, vacuum cleaner design was largely unchanged for nearly a century when inventor James Dyson used a different analogue -- cyclones -- to separate particles through the spinning force of a centrifuge.

    Analogies can be used to disrupt habitual thinking to make way for new ideas. In the same way that an analogy helps us make sense of our experiences by assimilating what we don't know into what we do know, the process also works in reverse. That is, we can take something we believe we know and use an analogy to make it unknown. Artists call this defamilarization. Albert Camus frequently narrated his stories from the point of view of a housefly. Consider what your strategy development process would look like if it were done from the point of view of your children instead of your shareholders or customers.

    Narrative Creativity

    Have you ever heard a child try to get a story straight? Or maybe you have a dear friend who always blows the punch line of a good joke. Both are examples of how hard it is to tell a coherent, meaningful and compelling tale.

    Stories are a complex mash up of characters, actions, plots, description, and grammar. Most importantly, they have a narrative voice -- our voice -- authentic or personified. How we tell the tale can either energize the most mundane anecdote or dampen even the most rousing spellbinder.

    Narrative is a story communicated in sequence. It is how the tale is told. Stories can be readily deconstructed and reconstructed to make different versions or new concoctions. For example, many American's first drank Dos Equis beer in the 1970s during their college years while on winter break in California or Mexico. It wasn't exactly a premium brand. Then the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery, which had been in business since 1900, changed the story of the product with an advertising campaign about "The Most Interesting Man in the World." This character was a combination of James Bond and Ernest Hemmingway and the commercials chronicled his manly feats of derring-do. By changing the narrative, Dos Equis experienced explosive growth in a shrinking market.

    Intuitive Creativity

    This is where creativity becomes bigger and possibly beyond us. Intuition is about receiving ideas as much as generating them. There are several methods for freeing and emptying the mind -- meditation, yoga, and chanting to name a few. The basic idea is to distract and relax the mind to create a flow state of consciousness where ideas come easily. Disciples are typically apprenticed by acknowledged gurus and often take years to master these techniques.

    Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate, developed some meditative practices specifically to enhance personal creativity, as did Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Waldorf education system. The approaches to intuitive creativity are too numerous to chronicle here. They range from autonomic writing to taking mind altering drugs (not recommended).

    You may not be a Shakespeare, Rembrandt, or Leonardo, but you can always work to increase your own creative capacity. All of these approaches are within your power -- you just have to keep trying new things. Remember, a creative life means you make it up as you go along.