Professor Isoba: Is creativity taught correctly in Argentina?
The answer is negative. It exists as an isolated subject in some universities in the careers of engineering, advertising, psychology, etc. and there is a degree in educational creativity at the basic level. But in general there is no systematic program on creativity, innovation and even less on invention.
In other words, no concrete examples are given of the manufacture of objects or systems, and even less of solving problems in everyday life or of product design or service improvement.
Many psychological theories are studied to define creativity but if one consults the instructor, how to improve a product, service or process, not to mention that. In short, you cannot operate creatively.
It would be something like that you know about combustion and different parts of your car but if someone needs and asks you to drive it from one place to another, you do not know how to operate on your car.
In addition, the myth is still believed that one with imagination and intuition can reach optimal results and the truth is very far from this.
And even worse is believing that with divergent thinking and random objectives (like most creative techniques such as brainstorming, lateral thinking, etc.) solutions can be obtained that are applicable in reality.
Give me an example?
Ceramic flying saucers have been used in shooting clubs for people to practice shooting with objects that move similar to birds. The problem is that the large amount of broken ceramic in the grass makes it difficult to sweep up and remove the remains of broken dishes after the shots. How can we innovate in order to solve this contradiction of offal of dishes on the lawn.
This typical problem is used to see the big difference between the various creative tools.
With brainstorming, lateral thinking and other techniques, solutions of the type are obtained: -make the plates unbreakable, make the plates with ferromagnetic material so it is easier to put the pieces together, make the plates divisible into parts so that they do not spread much, Unite the plates to a machine that joins them after being the target of the shooters, cover the shooting area with a folder so that it is easy to collect the pieces, make the plates of fine sand so that there are small fragments in the grass, etc.
But only with TRIZ, the Inventive Problem Solving Theory, you get to the solution of ice dishes quickly, since ultimately hail is ice. In addition, these ice plates, colored by size according to the score of each shooter (beginner, senior and veterans, etc.) are easy to visualize and this is what is used in many shooting clubs in Europe and the USA.
Resolution using TRIZ is faster, more efficient and optimal than using other tools since it uses the inventive principles of patents that have been successful in the industry.
If you use intuition or trial and error then you will waste a lot of time and costly effort, instead you should think about the contradictions of your problem, and try to overcome them with TRIZ.
Is there a tool that stands out today in industrial innovation and marketing?
The current tool most developed and used in marketing, industry and social environment, is TRIZ which translates as the Theory of Solving Inventive Problems, developed by the Russian Altshuller and which considers the inventive processes of existing patents and discoveries, and is unique by not looking for solutions at random or by trial and error, but through a systematic and structured process.
It is fast, functional and of great applicability in wide fields of Knowledge and for this reason its advance is overwhelming from its worldwide distribution in the 90's.
Enter the web www.triz-journal.com and you will see its application in all branches of knowledge.
No other creative and inventive tool has this conceptual depth and applicability.
Are there differences between creativity, innovation and invention?
Yes, there are and they have different studies and principles.
Most seminars only get to introduce themselves in creativity, but innovation and invention are unknown in Argentina. And even within the creative seminars that are dictated locally, alternatives are available but the treatment of the different creative ideas and their commercial viability is not considered.
Creativity is the identification of a problem and the generation and development of various alternative ideas to solve it. Innovation is the selection, development and commercialization of a creative idea that solves a problem at a given moment. In other words, it is inextricably linked to the market.
Finally the Invention occurs when each and every one of the technical and physical contradictions of an object, system or process is overcome. You reach an ideal end result as outlined by Altshuller.
Innovation and invention are studied with Triz, Altshuller's Inventive Problem Solving Theory, which allows optimizing products based on successful patents, resolving technical or physical contradictions and forecasting new generations of products and processes.
Unfortunately, these topics of Innovation and Invention are not yet studied in Argentina.
And are you born creative?
I don't think so, it is considered that creativity is not innate or else education and skills development would not have a role. Creative potential is innate but the person can develop it or not, for this reason it is necessary to educate and investigate creativity, since it is the best resource for human development and for competitiveness in the globalization scenario.
Science tells us that we use our mental faculties only in a smaller percentage and that anyone with basic intelligence processes can become significantly creative, the concept of genius has already been demystified.
I do not believe that the gene for intelligence or creativity is found, what has been detected is the integral action of biological, psychological and cultural aspects.
You are not born creative, you are born with immense potential but it is not developed, that the school and the family have the responsibility to strengthen it, but unfortunately we are the biggest inhibitors of that potential.
Education has the responsibility of raising this resource, this dimension to knowledge, raising it to knowledge and disseminating it in the communities for their development, although this is not really done in practice.
No business school or university is teaching TRIZ in Argentina, on the contrary its teaching in Europe and the US is extensive, and in Latin America Mexico and Brazil are booming in its study and application.
So creativity and innovation are at odds with traditional learning processes?
In general, yes, if these processes are static and reproductive of knowledge, as occurs in Argentina.
I recently visited several Argentine universities and the engineering curricula are identical to when I was studying 40 years ago.
Do you think nothing has changed in these years?
Research in education shows that the person accesses with greater creativity than the one who leaves. It is necessary for education to reflect on training processes, it is necessary to examine our ways of teaching. Piaget was convinced that education means training creators, contrary to what is happening today.
We have powers and capacities that we do not even dream of, we have to work not only in knowing, but in learning to think, learning to do and learning the laws of the Invention.
As important as your knowledge of a given topic is that you can make your team work and develop the creative potential of each of its members.
Our education is aimed at perpetuating the past, rather than inventing the future. In the educational process: there is the learner, the learning process and what needs to be learned, and current education is still only focused and outdated on the latest.
What is true is the education of oneself, and the educational system should concentrate on expanding that knowledge, on expanding the way of thinking and not on filling it with information that will soon be obsolete.
-In a society with limited resources can we still be creative?
In our countries, where there is a shortage of resources, the educational challenge is to use creative indicators to solve these problems.
We can use recursion with greater possibility, but think that street children, despite the environment, are more creative than ourselves. Necessity is also a driver of creativity, and the scarcity of resources a challenge for creative thinking.
This is seen in everyday life, Yunus, the Nobel laureate banker for the poor, reduced poverty in his country with a creative strategy through micro credits.
Research has shown that goods do not matter so much for creativity, the environment itself is a powerful mediator of creativity, that is, it inhibits or enhances it.
Within these extremes, the true wealth of intentions and determinations arises, which are what generate micro-environments favorable to creativity, therefore, even in critical situations, creativity can and should be encouraged.
Can you be creative by being pessimistic?
Seeing the glass half full and not half empty is a good predisposition. Just as a 100-meter runner invests a high percentage of his strategy in the game, so does creativity. The mere approach of seeing the problem as a challenge is important, this makes the person better able to address the situation than another who does not know how to raise it.
Einstein stated that "a well-formulated problem is a half-solved problem."
Having a positive vision and applying Triz helps to overcome physical and technical contradictions without neglecting the critical or unfavorable of a situation.
Are there barriers to creativity?
Perceptual, emotional, cognitive, organizational and cultural barriers are appreciated, such as the fear of making mistakes and making a fool of ourselves, restricting freedom or having an immediate vision of things, being very schematic or structured, weakening and inhibiting the action of create.
Creativity needs initiative but at the same time rest, it is dynamic but maintains its balance, the act of creating requires opportunity, control of chance and also requires time for the incubation of ideas.
What practical tips can you give to get creative?
I believe that creativity is not taught in an act and its own, unique and unrepeatable result, but it can be strengthened, facilitated and accompanied.
For example, learning to be flexible, open and divergent, looking for alternatives, also seeking to do differently, each day invent a new way to do things, see them from another point of view; change paths to work, change journals, incorporate analogies, combining and making unusual relationships, be curious and you will see that most inventions and discoveries have been found in an analog way.
Also study different techniques and in particular Triz, compare them, decide why some are more effective than others, and do brain gymnastics, which is like learning to breathe, harmonize mind and body, we just breathe to exist not to think, sharpen the senses, exercise visual thinking and mind mapping for your studies and reading.
In an automated world, how creative is it to be?
In the competition between man and machine, being creative serves to master the machine and put it at our service. We have a consumer life, but creativity is beyond utilitarian.
If you are curious, you have in the sea of curiosity an infinity of icebergs where there are creativity, music and a very wide spectrum of skills that you can investigate without forgetting the three graces: knowing how to give, knowing how to receive and knowing how to knowledge.
Can you still be creative in sports?
Of course. I give you two examples. The first is about the Fosbury back jump. He was the high jump winner at the Olympics and won the gold medal beating his competitors with his innovative new style: the Dick Fosbury jump.
He wondered: Why jump the bar by jumping ventrally like everyone else does? What happens if we jump back to the bar? And after practicing it, he prevailed and won in Mexico 68.
The second example refers to when the Russians increasingly developed ornamental jumps with more aerial figures, but it happened that the athletes were injured in training when entering the water in bad form from great height. What can you think of that could be done to minimize these accidents? Air was blown into the water on the surface and in this way the density of the liquid was significantly lowered by the application of Triz. Later this procedure was used in all the Olympic games of ornamental jump.
And in a garden creativity is applied?
Of course, you must know the flowers with radiant colors that are fed with water with vegetable anilines or the case of the pots that are flooded with water, instead of watering on the plant itself, to have control of the irrigation.
I recently found a special bench wax that retains solar heat and makes you sit down without getting wet even after it has rained, developed by a Swedish inventor.
And in nature there is creativity?
Also there is a high dose of creativity and power of adaptation. Most very light colored flowers, like the lotus, stay clean all the time despite being in dirty environments. The reason for this is that they have a very thin layer of wax on their petals that repels dirt and water particles.
In the event that any dirt particle falls, it is retained, for some time, on the petal and when water falls, the drop captures it, by surface tension, dragging it out of the flower. It can be said that these flowers have the ability to self-clean. This principle is already marketed in clothes that repel dust and water and are based on an inventive principle from Triz.
Another example is the feathers of penguins, they have a structure very similar to the velcro closure, so popular in many garments. This characteristic makes them intertwine, very strongly, when the animal swims in the cold polar waters, forming a very thin but insulating film.
When the penguin comes ashore, the feathers “unhook” and “fluff up”, trapping a very thin film of air that insulates the animal's body from the cold wind of those latitudes and with very low thermal sensations.
Are Argentines creative and innovative?
We have some positive indicators to be fluid, original, recursive, sensitive, but there are also other negative indicators such as the low capacity for elaboration and finishing things well from the first intention, the lack of determination with sustainable objectives and goals.
We fail that we are inflexible and that stubbornness limits creativity and let's not talk about joining work teams.
Creativity is a multiple dimension, which is why it is necessary to venture into this field and we must invite all social development actors to join this training process, as it is important for organizations, urgent for countries and decisive for our future.
Regarding industrial innovation and Invention at its multiple levels, there are no great achievements and if you consider what exists, you will see that there is a lot of copying or purchasing of successful foreign proposals, think about our television shows, about new products, etc.
Why do you define invention on several levels?
I will give you an example. With Triz you can study and predict how your object of study will evolve. Take for example the television that almost everyone knows about.
In a first level of invention, the Television was manufactured with electromechanical components and with a compromise design. But these components frequently failed and technical contradictions were quickly resolved and monochrome cathode ray tubes were developed, representing a second level of Invention, which was recently commercialized in the US after the second war.
Physical contradictions continued to be resolved and the third inventive level was passed with color cathode ray tubes in 1970, with different standards in America and Europe, as they were independent developments.
A few years ago the fourth level of invention was reached with digital television and liquid crystal tubes and flat screens, made possible by microelectronic technology.
The fifth inventive level will be with the three-dimensional television that is now being developed in the US and Japan.
In other words, in a first level it is a prototype and in a second level the object is modified but only in its weakest parts.
At a third level, the object, our television, is modified with contributions from other industries and in general with variants that the market may or may not accept.
In the fourth level a break is made with the improvement and optimization of all its components and only in the fifth level is almost the ideal state achieved.
This fifth level coincides with a scientific discovery where the television system is the same as being in the filmed scene, with the same colors and sensations.
This level of invention is the least frequent and goes unnoticed by most of society and is usually the know-how of research centers and universities.
This that we review can be exercised with a watch, a sports shoe, a kitchen, a telephone or a camera.
In other words, you can make a forecast of the evolutionary stage where your object of study is today.
It seems that you give primary importance to the application of knowledge?
The theory that does not serve to explain and change reality does not make much sense.
I believe that the great difference between our colleges and universities and what is taught, for example in Japan or Canada, is that in the latter, learning to solve problems and apply basic knowledge with the necessary minimum of theory is prioritized.
Our European tradition goes in the opposite direction, it is interpretive and not very decisive, and so we are.
To this is added that there is practically no strong interaction between companies, universities and the government and in addition to the scarce updating of teachers.
In your daily work, companies will ask you to add value, to operate your computer and to assist the people in your charge, and not the various interpretive and confusing theories on these issues.
And what is creativity?
- Creativity is a multidimensional human expression, it belongs to everyone and it is incorporated into everything, it is part of the most elementary and simple act, and it is also incorporated in the deeper elaboration that a scientist develops, creativity has different levels and equally dimensions.
It is a combination of thoughts, feelings and actions, conceived as a characteristic, a process, a product and an environment at the same time.
We can understand it as the dimension of the human that transcends the highest order and that recreates nature
What is being creative?
Until recently it was thought that being creative was a person's ability, today it is thought that creativity is more to be than knowledge, it is a way of thinking, wanting and doing simultaneously, it is the human dimension to generate and develop new ideas, pertinent and relevant to society.
Being creative implies not only an idea, but putting it into practice, turning the idea into reality and then we say that it is an Innovator.
Creative developments have two conditions: novelty and value. The novelty is born from the examination of reality and its context, and the value has to do with looking from the margins, because what is not valuable or significant today, tomorrow may be.
In most inventions, the day before they were thought ridiculous, absurd, or irrational.
What are the indicators of a creative person?
There are basic indicators, five of cognitive origin and five of affective origin, but they are always combined.
They are originality, fluidity, recursion, or the ability to give different uses and functions to the resources that one has.
The fourth is flexibility, that is, not being stubborn and understanding that the truth is transitory. The fifth is the sensitivity to see problems and read in blur. The sixth is self-esteem, the higher the self-esteem, the greater the creativity and vice versa. The seventh is solvency, the ability to solve problems in which a divergent and a convergent part intervenes, as well as different ways of thinking.
The eighth is divergence, always looking for alternatives and possibilities rather than focusing on a single answer. The ninth is the development, the ability to carry and translate the idea, go to the end, and the tenth, the initiative, the ability to undertake beginnings.
How can creativity be nurtured?
One can feed creativity from three sectors: brain, consciousness, and actions. The brain with its mental development where breathing is fundamental, and music and the development of thinking skills and abilities are involved.
Awareness understanding that we have particular styles for learning, for communicating, auditory, visual, or kinesthetic preferences, and different styles of learning.
And finally the actions and attitudes, habits, behaviors and creative environments.
That is, creativity does not only depend on the mind, but on the disposition, affectivity, motivation and strategy.
Creativity even has different capacities. The first is the capacity for wonder; the second is intrinsic motivation; the third is imagination; the fourth is divergence; the fifth is knowledge; the sixth is the creative and environmental strategy; and the seventh values, as a condition for formulating and solving problems in balance with the development of the human being.
A fundamental value is the development of creativity not for itself, but for the benefit of man. It only makes sense to educate in creativity if there is formation of values.
In addition, creativity and invention feed on techniques, which are extremely useful if one uses them methodically, otherwise you leave everything to your imagination, intuition or trial and error, which I do not recommend.
What is the difference between intelligence and creativity?
They are two different but interrelated concepts. For example, one can find highly intelligent but uncreative people, or highly creative but unintelligent, yet one cannot find creative people without the basic traits of intelligence. That is, creativity depends on intelligence up to certain levels, but from there they have no correlation, you can find highly intelligent people with high or low creativity, or highly creative people with low intelligence.
And how does knowledge play?
To be able to pass a creative idea to an Innovation or to achieve an invention, you need an increasing flow and depth of multidisciplinary knowledge, that is why you must rule out a random procedure or trial and error because it is highly inefficient.
Knowledge plays an important role since one can drop a wood and think that this is due to the law of gravity. Now if I tell you that this object does not fall but rises, what do you think? An alternative is that you are, for example, at the bottom of a swimming pool, but there are many more alternatives. And if I tell you that the object neither falls nor rises, what do you think? An alternative is that it is in outer space but there are also many more alternatives.
Creativity opens the doors to many creative alternatives and then you must weigh which is the best. Another way to solve your problem is to use Triz, because you will already be directed to the inventive principles applicable to your problem. These inventive principles come mainly from chemistry, mathematics, physics and biology.
And how do you become an Innovator and an inventor?
The Innovator must reach the market with his idea and action plan and impose his idea through advertising.
On the other hand, the inventor must know the depth of a given problem, have a broad knowledge of the laws, as we have already said, of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and consolidate all this in a systematic strategy such as triz.
Is there a place where you can have a comprehensive course on creativity, innovation and invention?
We are proposing it to various organizations and educational institutions but without success yet.
