On Sunday mornings, I like to do the New York Times crossword puzzle. Sundays are busy days, and so there often isn't time to do the entire puzzle at once. So, usually, I get a chance to spend about 15 minutes working on it early in the day. I get a few clues and fill in a small section, but I often read most of the clues. Then, something comes up, and I don't get back to the puzzle until some time later. When I do get back to it, I often find that I am able to find the word for a number of the clues that I didn't get when I read them at first.
There is a lesson for creativity and innovation here.
In the book Tools for Innovation that I edited with Kris Wood, there is a chapter by Steve Smith, Andruid Kerne, Eunyee Koh, and Jami Shah that talks about the relationship between memory and people's ability to be creative. One lesson from this chapter comes from ways to overcome tip-of-the-tongue states.
We have all had times where someone asks us a question, and we can't remember the answer, though we know that we know the answer. Or, we see someone familiar, and can't remember their name. Often, the wrong answer or the wrong name comes to mind. We know that answer or name is wrong, but then we can't remember the right one. For example, you might be talking about classic movies with a friend, and someone asks you who played the old man at the end of the science fiction movie Logan's Run. You're sure you know the answer, but you can't quite remember it. Perhaps the name "Richard Harris" pops into your mind. You know it is wrong, but you're stuck.
The best thing you can do in this case is walk away from the problem. (Ok, these days, the best thing you can do is probably to go to Google, or perhaps imdb.com, but if you have to do it from memory, then walk away.) In these tip-of-the-tongue states, you have an incorrect answer that is interfering with getting out the right one. As long as you continue to think about the problem actively, that same wrong answer is going to stand there blocking the way.
If you do something else for a while, that wrong answer will gradually fade into your mind's background. At this point, the right answer has a good chance of popping through. That is why these tip-of-the-tongue states often resolve themselves while you're doing something unrelated to the problem like taking a shower, walking the dog, or sitting on a bus. (By the way, the old guy in Logan's Run was Peter Ustinov.)
When you are trying to come up with a creative solution to a problem, the same kind of thing can happen. When you first think about a way to solve the problem, a rather mundane solution may come to mind. Even if you get what seems like a really good idea, that idea will park itself in your head. There might be an even better idea in the background waiting to come out, but you don't know it, because the first idea is standing in the way.
Before you commit to a particular solution to a problem that requires some creativity, walk away from the problem for a while. Let that first idea fade into the background for a bit. (Obviously, if it was a good idea, write it down first so it doesn't get lost completely.) Come back to thinking about the problem again some time in the future. Hopefully, if there were other good solutions to the problem lurking in your mind, you'll find them when you come back to thinking about the problem again.
