GV Design Sprint, one side of creativity
Last week, I came to experiment with GV Design Sprint, an express methodology to foster creative processes, by Jake Knapp. This methodology is a very powerful tool, as in just one week, you can review the cycle of the product, from research and ideation to user-testing: a powerful accelerator.
As a supervitamin programme, Google Design Sprint keeps a high pace, sets objetives and looks for results over a short period of time. It is a very focused programme which fosters participants to use one part of their creativity, the one related to conscious focused attention. Spontaneity or mind-wandering are not welcome into the programme, this led me to write this post.
“Creativity is not a simple process but a set of complex stages and cognitive mechanisms.” Dr. Shelley Carson
During the creative process, cognitive neuroscience research has proven that creative thinkers tend to reduce their cognitive activity in the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain responsible for taking decisions). This leads to the brain making connections in a more freely way, with a defocused attention.
The brain of conventional thinkers, however, keeps information properly organised and categorised. When it comes to thinking outside the box, the conventional brain shows, according to research, much activity in the prefrontal area, meaning that the rational mind is trying to “think” to get new ideas. Some individuals even show a higher activation in those areas, meaning that the person is “thinking hard” to get an idea. Though, research has proven that reducing the mental activity is how you can foster connection-making leading to novel ideas.
In the Google Design Sprint, I experienced the time and objective constraints in the ideation process which made me think that something could be improved there. I am not trying to make a whole new method, but just pointing out that to foster creativity, and more in individuals not trained in this process, maybe some guidance in the process of ideation would be an optimal solution. Just some explanations on how to relax the mind so as to foster the generation of new connections, thus new ideas in the brain.
Relaxing and defocusing the mind, we can get better ideas.
On this topic, I highly recommend to check Dr. Shelley Carson TED Talk “Quick start guide to creativity”.
