Have you ever stopped to wonder about the fact that everything that was ever created in the world was first an idea in the mind? The blueprint created by an architect that ultimately became a sky scraper was first an idea in mind. The innovation at a cosmetic company for a new and improved way to dispense the product was first an idea in mind. And the innovation at a consumer packaging company that upgraded the bag seal process to produce both lower manufacturing costs and improved customer satisfaction was initially an idea in the mind.
Knowledge has greatly advanced over the past few decades regarding creativity and innovation. And much of this advance is the result of improved understanding about how the mind works. The mind is a powerful asset that most businesses can leverage to far greater competitive advantage that they are presently doing.
A fundamental premise is that the mind works by association. It builds knowledge through analogy and metaphor…’this is like that’ and ‘that is like this.’ Each and every one of us has built up a knowledge base throughout life, through formal education, observation, experiences and a plethora of inputs from family, friends, authority figures, and mentors. We possess deep neural networks of associations in the mind. And so we can structure diverse groups, with diverse bodies of knowledge and expertise to use their powers of association to generate original and creative solutions in any area of business.
At least 90% of what we know and what drives our thoughts, beliefs, ideas and reside in an unconscious level of mind. That’s right, only about 10% of mind is operating at a conscious level. Imagine the possibilities of tapping into the whole mind. The fact of the matter is that the unconscious level of mind is always working, though it may not be working in the direction of your choosing. But you can change that now. People have far more control over inputs and outputs of mind than they may every have imagined.
A second fundamental premise is that conscious and unconscious psychological states are present in every creative act. Many artists and business people are naturally talented in accessing unconscious material, thereby leveraging inner creative resources and intuition. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Sir Richard Branson, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla come to mind. But we can sense when someone has that special something, when they are deeply connected with their inner resources because we have them too, and highly creative people exist at all levels of organization. But for people for whom accessing creativity has not come so naturally, rest assured that it can be taught. It used to be thought that creativity could not be taught; it either came with ‘the package’ or was unattainable. But decades of research and structuring of training to leverage deep inner resources have proven that creative innovation can be taught…and learned.
A third fundamental premise is that the unconscious mind works on a different logic from that of the conscious mind. It is literal rather than abstract and it follows the intent and direction of the conscious mind. The conscious mind is like the captain of the ship, delivering goals, intentions and instructions through a megaphone on an upper deck, and the deep inner mind is the crew beneath the deck, receiving the orders. And when the crew beneath the deck receives orders to identify a creative solution, it follows them via access to a powerhouse of resources. It is, indeed, the powerhouse of mind. The unconscious mind simply follows directions (it does not make decisions), and delivers creative solutions. So you can give your inner mind a problem to solve and allow it to deliver a solution. And you might like to call that using your intuition.
A fourth fundamental premise is that the inner mind understands and uses imagery, far more than words. So you can give the inner mind images of a solutions state and then let it shape the path regarding how to reach the desired solution.
While businesses are using more and more knowledge about the mind to leverage creativity and innovation, they’ve had to break away from a tacit culture of belief that only the conscious mind matters, or only the conscious mind exists at all. Conscious mind is that part of you that is logical, compiles and analyzes data, speaks and uses language, and faces externally, out into the world of data absorbed by the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell). Through advances in technology, companies have become very good at compiling and analyzing big data, and employing insights gleaned in all aspects of business, and especially marketing.
But what are they missing? In many cases, they are indeed missing the vast creative—and one might say—infinite creative resource that lies within the deep inner mind. Whether or not you believe that human beings are connected to a unified, creative source, I’m sure you can imagine the potential of teaching employees to look inward to tap their inner creativity. Their associative learning process can be used to draw seemingly desperate, metaphorical or analogous ideas together to create original ideas from which product and service innovations spring. Everything that was ever created in the world was first created in mind. And you have the opportunity to tap that wellspring of innovative energy.