AIR THINKING


The Air element of thinking represents creativity. The creative aspect of thinking is a unique and vital human endowment. Creativity is the capability to make leaps of insight, spur curiosity, produce novel solutions, generate ideas, and harness intuition. Each of these aspects of creativity is examined. Numerous techniques have been developed to bolster creative thinking through the ages. This book will provide some techniques to help you foster creatively. The goal of the Air element of thinking is to assist in generating to problems. The Air element of thinking represents the production phase of thinking. Good thinkers produce a large quantity of high quality ideas. They can conceptualize problems in various ways. They produce effective solutions and responses to deal with problems. Good thinkers see a problem from different perspectives, use a variety of invention methods, actively seek ideas, adopt different investigative approaches, take intellectual risks, entertain unusual ideas, break with conformity, and suspend judgment (Koestler, 1964).

· INVESTIGATION - Investigation involves exploration and curiosity. To be creative, one must deeply explore a subject. Mental fluency and expertise are developed by thorough investigation and study. One should strive to learn everything they can about the object of inquiry. One should seek out articles, books, research, lectures, and artifacts that comprise the existing body of knowledge on your subject of interest. The more background and expertise that you develop the more ideas you will be able to generate.
· INCUBATION - Incubation is the process of allowing your mind to gestate upon a problem. Directed mental activities, such as contemplation and meditation can be used. Your mind will also unconsciously work on a problem if you are persistent. Investigation and incubation are complementary aspects of Air thinking. Many problems are best solved through the periodic rejuvenation of thinking to arrive at insightful ideas over time. Creative inspiration can ebb and flow. Build a solid foundation of understanding through investigation and allow your mind to work on the problem subconsciously.
· INSIGHT - Insight is discovering some aspect of your problem that was not originally obvious. It means seeing what everyone else saw, and thinking what no one else thought. It is the "Aha!" moment in problem solving. Creativity thrives on insight. To gain insight into your problem, immerse yourself in the problem. You need to think deeply about the problem, and look for any missing links that might exist. Serendipity is a form of insight by recognizing a solution when a favorable situation presents itself.
· INNOVATION - Innovation is idea generation which is a defining aspect of creativity. Innovation is the development of an original solution to a problem. Innovation involves generating ideas through deliberate methods such as brainstorming, or serendipitous means. There are many ways to generating ideas which will be described later. Investigation, incubation, insight and innovation are the yeast that keeps creativity in active fermentation.

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