上周在清理我的硬盘的时候，发现我的一篇老文章，说的是我给一些年轻的项目经理讲述如何开发自己的创造力。我仔细看过一遍，我意识到，里面有些是相当适合于博客写作时需要的更多创造性，今天，我就讲述一下创意创作的具体方法。
那么创意从何而来？
正如我自己想到的以及我看到其他人写的那样，创意通常情况下来自以下几个方面：
1. 演绎
新的想法来自于以往的经验知识的积累，这在很大程度上是一个循序渐进的过程，以前的每一步看上去都很小，但是最终的结果却非常重要。
一个具体的关于演绎的例子就是目前最常用的平台Wordpress，他们定期进行更新的功能，每次都在原有的基础上进行重建。
大多数博客们使用了演绎这个方法后，新鲜的思路和观点（无论是自己的还是别人的）每天都会源源不断的产生。
提问的智慧：“我是怎么改善某某的（这里这下需要演绎的内容）？”
通常情况下，它可能是最常见的创造新的思路的方式。
2. 重用
重复使用，就是将一些旧的东西用一种新的方式来再次表达。
举个例子来说，我曾经在一次会议中给与会者提问，给所有人一把叉子，并且告诉他们在2分钟内讲出这把叉子更多的新用途。
很多人在刚开始这种尝试性思维的时候显得不知所措，他们想到的只是叉子的传统用法，而目前需要打破传统，这往往可能会产生一些有趣（有时是有用的）新发现。
提问的智慧：“我是怎么用另一种方法去做某某某的？”
3. 综合
将两个或两个以上的现有观点相结合，从而产生第三个新观点。
这是我最喜欢的创造方式。我喜欢这个方法带来的挑战和机会。
也许正是因为某天某个人忽发奇想将剧院和餐厅综合在一起会是什么样，才产生了剧院餐厅这样的发明。
由于综合的原因，我认为博客领域会有更多的应用出现，博客会和其他类型的网站（论坛、视频、音频、就业板、聊天室等）整合起来。
提问的智慧：“我是怎么从某某和某某某之中获得好处的？”
4. 革命
革命，就是一个完全崭新的观点，和以前的观点完全不同。
一个例子是，我最近认识的一个经营使用电子邮件列表的人，他发现自己的邮件列表用户越来越少，因此决定从邮件列表转移到博客，将他的经营方式进行重塑。
他的目标没有改变，但是他的方法却彻底改变了。
提问的智慧：“我怎样才能将某某某做的更好？”或者“如果不使用某某某，我怎么能做到这个目标？”
5. 改变方向
这会是一个彻底转变主要关注内容的方法。
这对一个企业或个人来说是一个相当激进的过程，通常会涉及清除全部内容并重建站点，白手起家。
提问的智慧：“如果我们重新开始，我们该如何做到不同？”
上述五个方法可能会是一个良好的开端，但是我敢肯定还有其他的方法能产生创意，我很想在评论中听到你的意见。
English:
How to Be a More Creative Blogger - Methods of Creativity
Last week while cleaning up my hard drive I came across an old presentation that I gave to a group of young leaders on how to develop your creativity.
As I read through it I realized that some of it was quite appropriate for bloggers wanting to be more creative in their blogging and so thought that this week I’d present a short series of posts based upon my presentation. Today I’ll start with a post on ‘methods of creativity‘.
I’m not sure where I got this material from - it’s likely that at least some of it comes from some of Edward DeBono’s material (but it’s been a decade since I researched this).
So where do creative ideas come from?
As I ponder the different types of creative posts that I’ve written or that I’ve seen others write - they generally come in one of the following ways:
1. Evolution
When new ideas come as a result of building upon previous ones. This is very much a step by step process where at each step the progression in ideas very small but where over time it is significant.
A great blog related example of this has been the evolution of most blogging platforms, like WordPress which periodically updates it’s features - building each time on what they previously had.
Most bloggers enter into this evolutionary process every day with their blogging - taking previously expressed ideas (both their own and those of others) and extending them.
A good question to ask yourself when entering into this evolutionary process is - ‘how could I improve (insert thing to evolve here)….?’
Evolution isn’t the ’sexiest’ of the methods that I’ll talk about here - but it’s probably the most common way of creating new ideas.
2. Reapplication
When you look at something old in a new way.
The exercise that I did with participants in my presentation to illustrate this point was to give each person a fork and to tell them to come up with as many new uses for a fork as they could in 2 minutes.
Most people start that type of exercise somewhat paralyzed by their previous boxing of forks - but breaking outside the box can lead to some interesting (and sometimes useful )discoveries.
A question to ask - ‘how could I do XXX differently?’
3. Synthesis
Where two or more existing ideas are combined into a third new idea.
This is one of my favorite ways of being creative. I like the challenge and possibilities that it can bring.
This is what happened that fateful day that someone wondered what would happen if they combined the idea of a theatre and a restaurant together - theatre restaurant.
It’s this Synthesis that I think we’re seeing more and more of in the blogosphere at present as people combine blogs with other types of websites (forums, video, audio, job boards, chat rooms etc).
A question to ask when entering into synthesis - ‘how could I take the benefits of XXX and combine them with the benefits of YYY’?
4. Revolution
Where a completely new idea that is markedly different from a previous one is developed.
An example that comes to mind is of a blogger that I recently met who used to be an email newsletter marketer. He found that his newsletter lists were becoming less and less effective so decided to move from newsletters to blogs - reinventing (and enlivening) his business in the process.
His goals didn’t really change but his methods did considerably.
A question to ask - instead of asking ‘how can I make XXX better’ one might ask - ‘what could I do instead of XXX to achieve the same goals?’
5. Changing Direction
Where there is a complete change of focus.
This is a fairly radical process for a business or individual to take and generally involves wiping a slate clean to rebuild from the ground up.
A question to ask in this case - ‘if we could start over - how would we do things differently?’
I’m sure there are other ways to be creative (and I’d be interested to hear your suggestions below) but the above five might make a good place to start.
Note - each of the above methods can be applied as bloggers on at least a couple of levels including during the writing of posts but also on a broader level as we think about our whole blogs and what we’re developing on a big picture level.
Tomorrow I’ll continue this series of posts on creativity with a post on attitudes of creative people.
