The Structure of the Creative Mind

In 2005, researchers at the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Bath compared all inventive processes and methods known in the English-speaking world. They looked at:

• psychological literature
• well-accepted theories of process in engineering design
• knitting fashion
• sociological action research
• organizational development
• theories of colour and perspective in Renaissance art and architecture
• the form of Baroque and early Classical music
• the classic dramatic structures of literature and modern screenwriting
• practise of Buddhist meditation.

Laying all inventive processes side by side, it became obvious there were common principles, language and strengths. There seems, in other words, to be a fundamental or underlying structure to creating in the human mind.

Given principles appear to be merely ‘translated’ differently in different contexts. There are, in other words, certain steps for ‘creating’, and even steps for ‘thinking about creating’, that are used intuitively by people everywhere. This is true, regardless of their age, race, religion, material product, skill, personal style or social culture.

For want of a better title, Anja (founder of PRIZM) called this a ‘generic process of creating’.  This is the process concretised in the steps of the PRIZM Innovation Map.

There are two reasons why it is useful to accept there is a pattern for creation;

First, societies need to agree on standard patterns, to be able to improve. If no standard exists, they cannot really judge whether something is new or better than what exists. Strictly speaking, all historically important inventions must be close enough to a known standard, to be recognised. At the same time, they must deviate far enough from the standard, to be interesting and profitable.

Second, if the processes of creation, innovation, problem-solving and solution-finding are not vague then we can use them to our advantage in designing the future. 

Another breakthrough made by University of Bath research is that the pattern of creation is most effectively described in pictures.

Imagine, for instance, that in 2D, we make a map of 'problem-solving', as if it was a journey moving from A to B. That means we locate the problem on the left and the solution on the right, just as if we were reading a sentence on a page.

If we then move ahead from the problem and plot every point of discussion or brainstorming around the original problem, all these points these fill space. Ideas are like butterflies, which emerge from a point of origin and move out to the light. The more thoughts we have, the more space is filled, so it seems to 'expand' from where we start thinking. Visually, it makes a triangle or cone moving out from our eyes.

At some point, we stop having ideas.

And then, moving to the other end of our map, silly ideas are discarded or combined and the whole process progressively take up less and less space. In other words, a map of this space of idea-evaluation seems to visually contract, like railway tracks at the horizon.

Together, the whole thing looks like a diamond.

Somewhere between the stage of expansion and contraction, everyone knows that 'inspiration happens'. This is usually attributed to unknown genius, chance, good luck or God.

Anja (founder of PRIZM) however, believes that inspiration actually takes place via a process of 'pattern matching', whether people know it or not. It means the solution and problem have a similar pattern. And it means inspiration happens because the arrow of the solution-finding moves in the opposite direction, toward the arrow of problem-solving. Luckily, it also means that when we know our problem situation completely, we don't even need to go looking for an answer - a perfect solution will come to meet us.

Anja chose the word ‘PRIZM’ for her thinking tool, partly based on the structure of expanding and contracting thought. A thinking-prizm could split problems apart and recombine them into solutions, just like a crystal prism splits and recombines white light.

For the full text describing this research and the results, please look at the section 'Further Reading'. You will find the source of information on this page under Pahl, Newnes & McMahon and also Pahl & Newnes.