Conclusion

Previous approaches to creativity have often focused on the person or problem domain, as well as the task itself. In this book, we have focused on the task: a difficult problem is one that has no ready solution or even the means to a solution. Some consequences of this perspective are as follows: • Creativity is a matter of degree. The operant question is not “Is this result creative?” but rather “How creative?” • Creativity is a domain-independent concept. An accountant may be creative, as may a shopkeeper or a musician. • All of us face difficult problems from time to time. We may be creative at one point, and uncreative at another. • Creativity involves purposive novelty. Originality or diversity is a necessary component of creativity, but diversity in itself is not a sufficient factor if it does not resolve the referent problem. • As encapsulated in the Multidistance Principle, the solution must incorporate components exhibiting some properties that are distant, and others that are close. • If creativity is a form of higher-order problem solving, itself a cornerstone of general intelligence, then there exist rational approaches to enhancing creative results. • An effective procedure for dealing with difficult problems lies in the Method of Directed Refinement. • Active failure is the highway to success. • Productivity in project managment involves the pursuit of a select number of parallel activities: too few, and efficiency suffers through slack time; too many, and overhead paralyzes productivity. • Our social institutions, including the educational system, encourage conformity— a homogeneity often leading to mediocrity rather than harmony. For each problem of consequence, we should rather seed myriad ideas and cultivate multiple solutions. • Supervision of creative individuals is a delicate affair involving both intervention and insulation. It calls for inspiring action at a distance, without undermining interest nor tainting intrinsic drive. In this book, we have partitioned the components of creativity into five factors: purpose, diversity, relationships, imagery, and externalization. The purpose of the creative effort defines the problem to be resolved.