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Editorial Essay: Creativity, Intuition, and Innovation. Stephan A. Schwartz
This paper is based on both experimental research and an extensive literature survey concerning the lives of individuals historically recognized for creativity and innovation. It presents a six-step model of the creative process, extensively using the words of these individuals. The steps are: (1) Intellectual excellence: Intelligence alone is not enough. One must be the master of one's skill. The capacity to see things without prejudice for the conventional. (2) Deep knowing that a solution to the challenge does exist. An act of faith that gives the innovator the conviction to continue. (3) Strategies of Inward Looking. Whether it is meditation, gardening, or playing darts, some "pattern interrupting" technique of open focus is required. (4) Surrender. A surcease from struggle with the problem. Often associated with sleep, its essence is the ability to release the intellectual tension surrounding the challenge undertaken. (5) The moment of illumination. Almost always described as an event in which the answer to the challenge is seen "completely" and at once. Explication and verification. The conscious, analytical and synthesizing intellectual comes back into play in order to test the wholistic insight, and make it comprehensible to others.
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