What this means is that in the future, we believe that the people who will be valued in the working world will be those who can think conceptually, generate ideas, and explore new concepts - something akin to 'aha!'. We found this concept so fascinating that we started asking ourselves, how does 'Aha' happen in the brain? What we found was truly surprising. Here is some of the research we looked at...
fMRI-style Rapping
Siyuan Liu et al., (June 20, 2012) came up with a unique way of measuring creativity. They focused on ‘Free-style rap’ which is a fantastic example of a creative process that relies on bringing together words and information that is stored in the brain in a unique and novel way. Importantly this creative process is also relatively easy to track. What they found is fascinating and supports earlier work conducted in this area which highlights that when we are being creative some of the everyday areas that we use in our brain become dormant and other parts that we don’t use light up (as discussed by Widrich, l., February 28, 2013). We feel that this ability and skill can be translated into other areas and is similar to the skill that more of us will need to draw on in the future. We will all need to harness our inner rapper if we are to be successful in the new age of Imagination and Wisdom.
Improving Creativity and 'Aha!'
An ‘Aha moment’ occurs when information and knowledge held by a person is combined and new associations that were previously hidden come to light. The moment is frequently depicted visually as a light bulb - A sudden flash of insight and inspiration. The person always held that knowledge or information but some or all of it was held at an unconscious level and the conditions must be right (a perfect storm if you like) for the new associations from these disparate pieces of information to form and bubble up to the conscious mind. While you cannot force such flashes of brilliance there are a number of conditions where this is more likely to occur (Goleman, D., (2013).
John Cleese describes creativity as like a tortoise:
It will poke its head out nervously to see if the environment is safe before it fully emerges. Therefore he suggests creating a tortoise enclosure which is an oasis amongst the craziness of modern life. This will be a safe haven where creativity will emerge.
Insight generation often requires a quiet mind. We tend to notice possible new connections when the overall activity level in the brain is low. To Archimedes, it happened in the bathtub. Newton experienced it while wandering an apple orchard (Migliore, L), 2012). If our minds are busy trying to juggle many priorities we will not notice these flashes of brilliance. Repetitive activities which are pleasant such a walking or gardening can be a positive stimulus. These activities quiet the chatter in the brain permitting new associations to bubble to the surface(Goleman 2013) A positive mood state facilitates the production of dopamine. The more dopamine that is released the more creative we are (Ely, 2009). Stress and negative mood states tend to inhibit creativity.
So, next time you are trying to solve a problem, dose yourself up with a positive mood and let your mind wonder whilst relaxed. Who knows what you could dream up?