p.49 The creative process needs to be in contact with that inner child. Not at the expense
of our critical thought process, or years of experience, or the way life may have seasoned us, but, rather, to be
included as part of the mix.
The inner child comes not from a rejection of our adulthood, but rather as a source
to be tapped into, as our adult experiences are as well... the inner child... isn't becoming a child again, it is
adding to your adulthood a dimension of yourself that was lost for a while, but can be rediscovered, reborn, and renewed.
p.50 Here are some of the highlights that characterized Einstein's thought process: he
was visual, he didn't compare what he knew with what he was considering, he was not trapped by theories,
he let his imagination lead him to new insights, he was able to consider these new insights even if they were radical
or new or unheard of or contradicted conventional wisdom.
p.51-52 Step one in structural thinking is, "Start with nothing," in other words, without a preconception
or theory or concept. This is not easy to do if your mind has the habit of free association... when the mind isn't
filled with "stuff," it is free to consider freely. It is open to questions and answers that do not have to fit into anything
else. It can let a thought travel to its own conclusion, rather than to have to conform to anyone's theories, belief systems,
or concepts.
Step two in structural thinking is to turn words into pictures, creating a visual
language. Visual thought is more capable of discerning complexity.
p.52 In fact, the moment you no longer have to maintain "this or that" belief, concept,
ideal, theory, or past experience, life becomes an adventure of discovery, as new doors open, new thought
becomes available, and new possibilities are given birth.
p.53-54 One of the students [attending Pine Woods College, a school in New Hampshire that focuses on the
arts] said she had "creative block." "What do you do?" I asked her. "Photography," she said. "That's interesting. I don't
believe in 'creative block,' I said.
I gave her a suggestion. "Here's what you can do: Make bad pictures... The worse the better. Take
them out of focus with bad compositions, unattractive subjects, bad lighting, bad depth of field, and use all the wrong settings
on your camera."
p.69 if you think in pictures, you will be able to process information better, more quickly, more
accurately, and with greater understanding. When you think in pictures, you are able to see relationships among elements
of a structure more easily. This gives you an enhanced ability to comprehend complexity effortlessly.
And this is why one of the techniques we teach in all of our structural thinking courses is visual
thinking. If you are "picturing," you can reach penetrating clarity, an ability that increases your chances of understanding
the dynamics in play in reality. Then you can make effective adjustments in your creative process. There's an old phrase that
goes, "Picturing makes you smarter." It's true.
p.73 So, no matter what your starting point, learn how to picture. Develop a visual
language... A picture is worth ten thousand words, and, as we have seen over and over, is well beyond words.
p.81-82 what it takes to have an underlying structure that advances rather than oscillates is knowing
the outcomes you want and reality as it is in relationship to that.
p.85 [Singer Bob] Dylan makes an astute comment on creativity. "Creativity has much to do with experience,
observation, and imagination, and if one of those key elements is missing, it doesn't work."
p.85 For the artist, imagination is lost if observation and experience are not there. To put this in our
terms, vision without reality or reality without vision do not yield enough structural tension to bring a creation
into being.
p.124 Structural dynamics is the study of how structures work. By structure, we mean how elements within
a system impact each other. Like its close cousin, system dynamics, structural dynamics considers the broader
set of relationships that determine how a system behaves. The insight that both studies have in common is that the
ultimate behavior is a product of the system or structure, and without changing the fundamental relationship among elements,
real change is unlikely.
p.124 Structural dynamics... understands that any change effort, no matter how good on its own, cannot succeed
when imposed on an inadequate structure... What we learn from structural dynamics is how to support change by redesigning
structures... An advancing structure is one in which goals are achieved, but, instead of a reversal that neutralizes
the progress that was made, the success becomes a platform for future success. When we are in an advancing structure,
we are able to build momentum, which makes it easier for us to expand, grow, and achieve our goals.
For change to succeed ultimately, it must be supported by the structure within which it is
made.
p.125 The more we understand the elements of the structures we are in and how they combine...
The more we can understand how and why fragmented systems operate the ways they do, the more we can address the real
causes of impediments to success. We can become designers and architects of structures, rather than simply pawns
in a game we haven't made.
p.126 Mindfulness is our ally. We need to rethink what we think we know. We need to ask
authentic questions... We need to look from new vantage points, from broader perspectives, from greater heights, and with
new eyes. And when we do, there is something new we will find.
p.131 The key to the creative process is structural tension. Whenever we establish
a tension, it strives for resolution. Structural tension is established through contrast: between our desired state
(our goals, aspirations, desires) and our current reality in relationship to those goals. We can move toward resolving the
tension by taking actions that bring our goals and reality closer together. The ultimate resolution happens when we accomplish
our goals. Moving toward our goals sounds simple but requires the development of many skills... In establishing structural
tension, it takes discipline to define the actual end result we want to create, and to define reality objectively outside
the distortions of our assumptions, theories, and concepts.
p.136 Once we have established the desired outcomes we want and the current reality we have, the
next natural step is to act. There is a feedback system that kicks in when we act within the context of structural
tension: action produces results that are evaluated ("How well did the actions move us toward our goal?"), which leads
to adjustments of future actions. This feedback system continues until the goal is accomplished... Actions are choices.
p.180 The mind has a quirky thing about it. It cannot stand unresolved questions. It can't tolerate gaps
in our knowledge. It wants answers - NOW! ... The mind doesn't like it when we are confronted with unanswered questions...
The mind likes the feeling of knowing. It like the sense of resolution it receives from the answers
we give it.
p.182 If we didn't pretend to know answers we didn't know, we would be more amenable to exploring
the question openly.
p.183 Step one in our approach to structural thinking is "start with nothing." That is
to say, start to observe reality without a premise of what we might find.
