The Need for Multiple Perspectives: Beyond Common Sense & Towards a Sense of Humor

Chapter 1 excerpt from The Power of Thinking Differently by Javy W. Galindo

From section entitled “The Need for Multiple Perspectives: Beyond Common Sense & Towards a Sense of Humor” (updated 1/18/09 from draft IIII)

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The first thing needed by anyone desiring to participate in the creative process is that they acknowledge that alternatives are possible; that there may be a different way to approach a problem. This means allowing ourselves to admit, if not just briefly, that our current point of view may not be the only point of view.

I remember being in many corporate meetings where one, if not all of the participants felt that they each had the correct perception of the issue at hand. Arguments would go on and on as everyone tried to defend their position, unwilling to even fathom the possibility of an alternative view. In addition, think of those of us that go through our daily lives without the consciousness to think that the world could be any different than it is now – those that live their lives doing the same things day after day, as if on autopilot.

By accessing different perspectives, by allowing ourselves to see the world through a different lens, we open up the field of possibilities. By thinking flight was for more than just birds, the Wright brothers were able to create the first airplane. By thinking that we may not be the center of the universe, Copernicus was able to discover a better description for the movement of heavenly bodies.

The problem is that when we investigate new perspectives we often find ourselves looking at possibilities that make no sense because they don’t fit with our old stories. It also doesn’t help that many others can have a certain arrogance about their old stories because they have worked so well for them in the past. Innovators like Galileo, Copernicus, the Wright Brothers, and Gandhi all faced ridicule to some degree. However, once we really have a chance to try these new ideas on for size, if they are useful, they can eventually make sense. Our stories will eventually evolve in order to fit them, and we end up learning something new.

We can never re-interpret data; never explore new contexts by exclusively thinking literally, linearly, or through our habitual modes. It is only by thinking differently — beyond the face value initial impression of things — that we can access alternative perceptions needed to find a creative solution to our problems.(section edited for website)

Unfortunately, waiting around for creative insight is often frowned upon as being a childish, magical endeavor, one seemingly based on pseudo-science (as if these were necessarily bad things). The aha moments that seem to enlighten us, providing us with new solutions out of the blue, are not larks, but have a biological basis that is key to our survival as an adaptive species. In fact, creativity is a skill that we are all capable of cultivating.

Whether we know it or not, we exercise our skills for creative insight every time we exercise our sense of humor; every time we get a joke.

Have you ever hunted bear?

No, but I’ve gone shooting in my boxers.

Think of the process involved here. First, there is a setup. And just as with our earlier scenario, once we hear the setup our habitual assumptions and judgments are triggered that make us perceive it in a certain way. But then, with the punch line, we access a shift in perspective, one that provides us with a “haha” moment of insight.

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