by Kazi Monirul Kabir

I have been asked many times on how to get creative ideas; people think that there must be some formula that people in the creative industry have in delivering success. Then again, some argue, an individual’s genius must be the key, that there is no special formula just a special person with superhuman genius … in my personal view that is a major misconception.

You see, for a long time people thought that being special was divine, a quality that can be present inside an individual only if God wills it to. Hence, the term god-given-talent.

This quality was thought of as something that was present within you since the day you were born and could never be replicated, reproduced, transferred or modified.

This “something” made you special and led to the creation of the word “genius” to allow people to better differentiate you from the normal people. However, people know more today; they know more about the world, the cosmos and, most importantly, about the human mind. With this new knowledge the process of idea generation has become so very apparent that the use of the word genius, for differentiation, is no longer required. Being special is no longer a birth right.

To understand the creative process you need to understand the clear distinction between Creativity and Innovation. Certain individuals and even corporations treat these as synonyms of each other when in fact they have completely different meanings. Creativity refers to the generation of the idea while Innovation refers to the industrialization of the idea. So, the sheer brilliance of Dr. Yunus in developing the idea of micro-credit would be creativity whereas Grameen Bank bringing this idea, this service to the masses would be an innovation.  Creativity, that is the key driver for innovation, has been studied over the last few decades and scientist have come up with a definitive process on how human brain works when it thinks creatively. Thought leaders and scientists have described the following four steps roughly happening inside the human brain when it creates or ideates –

You see the creative process involves 4 key steps;

1) Immersion: The initial information gathering phase when the problem solver looks to understand the problem to its deepest depths, gathers all information possible around the problem; immerses them into the problem or issue in hand.

2) Incubation: Involves sending the digested information from the conscious mind to the sub conscious. Waiting for the brain to munch on the information it has been fed continuously or subconsciously.

3) Illumination: As the name suggests, it is the ‘Eureka’ moment. A moment that is so instantaneous that it can only be compared to switching a light bulb on, it is the ‘when’ of the solution. This occurs when one walks away from the problem without having a clear solution in sight, as soon as you walk away from the incubating, complicated and conflicting thoughts … illumination happens and it usually occurs when you are on the verge of giving up!!

4) Verification: After the solution has been identified it must be checked for feasibility, sustainability, scalability, etc. Basically we need to see if it can realistically work or not.

This 4 step process is used (usually subconsciously) by every living human being. We all go through these steps a multitude of times each day to solve mundane problems. It’s just that we have solved these problems so many times over and over again that we never notice ourselves going through these steps.

People like Steve Jobs, David Ogilvy, Vincent Vangough  and Dr. Yunus don’t really hold any sort of biological superiority over the rest of mankind. They are people, like you and me, who simply have trained their brain of the creative process and devised a solution that works. The only difference is that they solved problems of a much larger scale and thus took a longer time going through the various steps of the process. But does that make them geniuses? Probably not !

Take for example CNG driven three-wheelers and CNG drivers. Ever wondered why there are empty bottles, with pipes in them, present in the driver’s quarters? Well these bottles are used to funnel air into the quarters while the CNG is in motion, following the same concept as, and acting like, a make shift air conditioner. Now do you really think that the one who created such an ingenious invention genetically inherited the ability to do so? Or had some ‘special’ training in the creative arts? No, it was probably invented by a CNG driver; a normal, hard working, person with no special training or bloodline.

Related: The Role of Creativity

The creative process was only recently discovered, however it has been in use since the dawn of man. Identifying the process has debunked the theory that you need to be special to be able to create something special, since now anyone who follows the process diligently can create feasible solution to his/her problems. The process has sparked into life a new wave of thinkers – those who are not bound by the absence of an imaginary ability – and has put to death the age of the creative geniuses.    

Photo: Foyez/wikimediacommons

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About the author

Kazi Monirul Kabir

Chief Innovation Officer at Spider Digital Innovations, UAE

Former Country Manager of 

Google, Bangladesh and Singapore