8 Steps to Creativity

Defining the creative process is difficult.  Even people who are considered to be “creative” have a very difficult time pinning down quite how they manage to do it and generally end up confabulating and speculating about their own process and suggesting a process that seems entirely sensible, but is not something they actually do.   Most creative people go about the process intuitively, bumbling into a solution to a problem and then attempting to make a happy accident seem like a deliberate process.  

So to avoid falling into that trap, I’m going to avoid specific activities and instead consider the eight basic steps in the process: recognition, diagnosis, incubation, insight, elaboration, assessment, articulation, and production.   It is my sense that any successful act of creation requires all eight steps, though some of them are often shortcut or skipped and the outcome may be as accidentally positive as the process.

1. Recognition involves recognizing the existence of a problem that needs a solution (or an opportunity that needs a method of achievement).  Though it is not optimal, it is entirely possible to have a solution in search of a problem, but the real work of creativity does not begin until a problem is recognized.
2. Diagnosis is a quest for understanding the problem.  This step is most often skipped when people latch upon the first idea that seems to be a solution, a mistake that generally ends in catastrophe when significant resources are expended in implementation without sufficient diagnosis.
3. Incubation is a period of reflection in which the problem, in all its complexity, is considered and one or more possible solutions are discovered.   The problem with incubation is that it often occurs below the threshold of consciousness – an idea seems to arise out of the blue, without really thinking about it – but this mischaracterizes the nature of “thinking” because most thoughts are nonverbal and the process of discovery is nonlinear.   Moreover, attempting to verbalize and streamline incubation often prevents real thinking from taking place.
4. Insight is the “eureka” moment when a connection is found and a potential solution is discovered.  It is at this point that nonverbal and unconscious thoughts take a shape that can be described, that the connection that seemed intuitive becomes articulate, and that the idea can be taken from the mind of one person and communicated to others.
5. Elaboration involves the work that is necessary to translate a rough idea into a practicable plan of execution.   It is the 99% perspiration” of which Einstein spoke.  This can be the most difficult part of the process, and the point at which many would-be creative drop off and leave their ideas on the workbench because coming up with novel ideas is exciting and fun, whereas elaborating and detailing them is hard work.
6. Assessment considers whether the insight is worth pursuing: does it solve the problem and is it worth the effort to undertake?   To pursue an idea that doesn’t solve the problem is pointless, and to pursue a cure that is worse than the disease is counterproductive and destructive (and destruction is the opposite of creation).
7. Articulation is a process of communication: the idea must be described and illustrated in sufficient detail so that others who are necessary to its achievement can understand it and are motivated to support its creation.  This step is optional in processes where an idea can be produced by the work of a single person, but that describes very few instances in the present day.
8. Production is the task of bringing the idea into reality.  It is often considered to be a separate matter from creativity, but it should not be: in order to be “creative” something must be created – and the kind of “idea men” who come up with brilliant solutions but lack the interest and discipline to deliver them to the world typically fail to create anything.

Of course, this “process” of creativity often folds back upon itself.   For example, during the period of assessment, a new insight may arise and the creator will need to step backward in the process and chase a different thread.   This does not mean the process is not linear – it is a matter of abandoning one line and changing to another, or going back to a previous step to address a problem – as the creator then moves through the following steps sequentially.

Ultimately, I feel this is a pretty good high level working model of the creative process.   But “pretty good,” “high level” and ”working model” are all caveats – as this is merely the latest iteration of attempting to define the process.  I expect it will happen again, and when it does my understanding will have changed.   But for now, there it is, such as it is.