Especially for SME – 13: Creativity.

10 November 2021

SMS 1: You were talking about intangible resources and we talked in length about uniqueness as one of them. What are the others?

Mr. Lowe: We talked about the need to build uniqueness in our product and services for us to survive and keep growing. We need two other critical intangible resources to make this happen. The first of them is Creativity.

SMS 2: I am hearing this from many people now- a- days in India. To build uniqueness we need to create a feature, an idea. To create an idea we need creativity, not just thinking.

SMS 3: How is it different from thinking?

Mr. Lowe: It is also thinking but of a definite and different kind. We humans have two opposite types of thinking process with us, one analytical and the other, creative. We need both of them and we use them to remove any obstacle or solve any problem that we may face in our life. The analytical thinking process uses logic as against the creative thinking process that uses imagination. The analytical thinking that uses logic resides in the left lobe of our brain and the creative thinking that uses imagination resides in the right lobe of the brain. As we need both in most situations, they are interconnected by a chord.

SME 1: How are they different? Can you elaborate preferably with an example.

Mr. Lowe: The analytical thinking process results in a unique or a few correct answers whereas the creative thinking process results in many possible answers. So you can call analytical thinking as a convergent thinking process (as it gives one or very few correct answers) and creative thinking as a divergent thinking process (as it gives several possible answers). For the same reason you may call the analytical thinking process as vertical thinking process and the creative thinking process as lateral thinking process. As you can see easily, the “thinking vehicle” we have, has the creative thinking as the accelerator and the analytical thinking as the brake.

Like any other working or functioning vehicle both accelerator and brake are required, both the opposite thinking processes are required by us; the requirement is not either-or, but both. You certainly need logical thinking process for coming to a decision, any decision, after evolving all possible options or alternatives through creative thinking process. Else you will be one of those who talk of a lot of options but come to no decisions at all, and so end up with no action and no result - a case of analysis – paralysis syndrome. The process of thinking is the same in all improvement and innovation exercises. The process is the same in choosing the correct shot to be offered in cricket or stroke in tennis or badminton. The right lobe of our brain imagines and comes out with several possibilities and the left lobe decides which to choose from among so many.

SME 2: Can you give another example?

Mr. Lowe: Yes, I will: What is 1+1=? ……………………….contd.