Comfort Zones = Creative Traps
As a Generalist, I draw upon my divergent interests to provide insight into my own work and attempt to come up with unique solutions. But, like anyone else, I find it easy to fall into comfortable patterns where I’m simply approaching a problem in a rather conventional way instead of challenging assumptions and seeking new perspectives. It’s the path of least resistance, especially when faced with deadline pressure, and can become a habit without even realizing it .

When I’m faced with a problem requiring some creative solution, one of the methods I’ve used to try to break free of that comfort zone is pick some random field and try to identify similarities and convergences between the random field and the field within which I’m working the problem. The theory is that by digging deeply and asking plenty of questions,  the process can shed unexpected perspectives on the problem and hopefully lead to some unique and creative result.

The Medici Effect
Recently, I did some Googling to research perspectives regarding this approach to creative problem solving, and discovered The Medici Effect, by Frans Johansson. It’s main theme is exactly the process I described above: the creative possibilities located at the intersections of seemingly unrelated fields. I bought the book, and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in creativity techniques.

One of Johansson’s claims runs counter to standard opinion regarding the mechanisms of idea generation. According to research, ideas generated by individuals working on their own tend to be better and more numerous than those generated by those working within a group. He goes on to describe a number of factors that account for this, primarily focusing on deficiencies in standard brainstorming methodologies that can lead to ideas being either being lost in the process or not sufficiently developed in the group setting. Remedies include better facilitation techniques, participant pre-work, and anonymous concept building.

Taking it Online
The above remedies can all be achieved through the use of online social media tools. I plan to explore those theories in an online social network that I’m in the process of setting up that will allow practitioners within the knowledge management fields to generate ideas using the random fields intersection strategy. I’ll announce it’s launch on this blog. Members in this group will share the starting point of having similar professional expertise. But I think it would be a fascinating experiment to set up an online network that would connect people expressly _not_ in the same field – instead of starting from the point where interests coincide, start from the _opposite_ end and work to find the common ground. So many online communities assume the starting point of birds of a feather flocking together, whether professionally, geographically, demographically, and so forth. I think there is great possibility in a group whose theme is “Meet people who are nothing like you. The only thing you need to have in common is a desire to learn and to create.”

Image: Contraption Awaits, by Damian Cugely on Flickr.