How would you do it, do you think? Bailing the water out of the tub with the bucket? It certainly seems that would use up less energy than bailing it out with the teacup or teaspoon. But if your objective is to save energy, there’s an even better alternative: Open up the bathtub drain. In that way, you can devote your physical and mental energies to the other tasks. And you don’t need to think so much about where you’ll dump each bucket of water.
When faced with retailing problems, our creative efficiency can be compromised by attending only to the alternatives which are right at hand. In 1966, psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
In my supplying you with the bucket, the teacup, and the teaspoon and saying to empty the bathtub of water, Maslow’s point became even more pointed. I set up a sequence of container sizes, making it more likely you’d be drawn to considering container size as the measure of efficiency. Research findings from New York University-Stern and University of British Columbia indicate that if I’d given you one of the objects instead of the progression of three, you’d be more likely to pull the plug on my trickery.
If you start out small, with fewer problem-solving options available, you’ll look around, breaking loose of constraints imposed by the readily available.
A classic exercise to develop creativity is to give someone a few objects—like a paper clip, facial tissue, and scrub brush—and ask the person to list all the different ways the objects could be used all together. This is harder with six objects than with three. In their bathtub study, the New York/British Columbia researchers also found that creativity developed better with three-item than with six-item research participants.
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Funnel Choices to Cultivate Creativity
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