Supercharge your creative problem solving.

How a robber helped me become a better creative thinker.

“Empty your pockets, give me everything!!!”

A robber popped out of the bushes. Holding the AK-47 of pocket knifes.

This happened to girlfriend and I. 15 years ago.

We handed him our money… he was persuasive.

He then he swung the katana… I mean knife at my neck.

I dodged. I didn’t think.

I’ll tell you how it ended later.

But that made me realise that our brain is great at thinking fast.

We don’t all get mugged. But everyday we find solutions with barley any thinking. This is Intuition.

Like intuitively easing off the gas pedal when the driver in front begins to drift.

I propose that our intuition can boost creative problem solving — and profits — if trained right.

Reflexive actions like dodging are different from problem solving. But both are powered by the same systems.

How intuition helps us solve problems

Psychologist Dave Khaneman tells us how our brain makes this work.

There is a fast acting system that makes quick judgements and decisions. System 1. And a slower system that does deep analysis and calculations. System 2

System 1 is like your extroverted friend that talks a lot and always jumps to conclusions. System 2 is the introvert that thinks deeply but engages only if asked.

Intuition is the fast acting System 1 utilising the memories, learnt information and patterns stored by the slower more analytic System 2.

To use our analogy…

The extroverted friend (intuition) isn’t smart. But takes all his info from his smart introverted friend and gets all the glory. (Jerk)

Intuition is used for most of our day to day actions. Including processing problems.

Our system 2 only gets activated if we are truly challenged.

For example…

Firefighters use intuition to make split second decisions that saves lives.

Grand master Chess players use intuition to know the moves that will lead to checkmate.

So here’s how all this relates to creative people…

Building creative intuition for better performance

We naturally use intuition for solving problems. Training it for creativity is what I call “Creative Intuition”

If fast intuition (system 1) is powered by the slower analytical system 2. Then we can be better creative problem solvers by stocking our analytical system with the right raw material.

What’s the right raw material? I’m happy you asked.

Cross-disciplinary knowledge.

Cross disciplinary knowledge is very good at building effective creative intuition. If you aren’t a beginner.

It allows our intuition to factor in a broader set of variables than your immediate discipline gives.

We’ll be able to triangulate potent solutions faster.

That means…

Marketers could benefit from UX Design and Design Thinking.

Or…

Copywriters could grow more from studying production & screenwriting.

Or…

Graphic Designers can benefit from knowledge of Interior Design or Marketing.

You get the idea.

It works even if you a specialist. You would get breadth of knowledge and add to your depth of knowledge.

A few tips on how I do this

1. Focus on the Overlaps 
   Study how other disciplines solve problems that occur in your area. Marketers can learn from how UX professionals test and iterate. Which Marketers have to do also. Journalists can learn writing frameworks from copywriters
   
2. All exposure is helps.
   You don’t have to take a course. Learn from books, case studies, podcasts, articles even X posts. It all counts.

There are only upsides to this.

Plus, you may not lose your head under pressure. As I almost did 15 years ago.

As for how that story ended…

The robber got what he wanted. He decided not to go for another swing and ran off. He was nice…deep down.

Let’s sharpen our creative intuition. Let’s become better problem solvers and thinkers.

As the saying by Abraham Maslow goes “If the only tool you have is a hammer. All problems look like nails”.

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If you are interested in knowing more about how to train system 2 for mastery, research Gary A. Klein and The RPD Model.