When we talk about ideas, we often refer to a ‘flash of inspiration,’ an epiphany or a ‘light bulb moment,’ but the reality of how ideas are formed may be slightly less dramatic.
Steven Johnson in his TED talk refers to an idea as a network. What we consider to be an idea is actually a collision of different thoughts and influences, this may come from collaborations with colleagues, external information (eg: wriiten & broadcast media) or when a new thought connects with archived and partially formed concepts.
The most famous example of this collision of ‘half ideas’ relates to Tim Berners-Lee and the formation of the Internet. Although the source code was released in 1991, the origins of the World Wide Web actually date back almost a decade to a project Berners-Lee worked on to enable the sharing and management of data between nuclear scientists. In this example the fundamentals of the idea had been dormant and required a stimulus to reignite it.
I can recall several examples when I have seen an advert for a product, a press release for a new magazine or a trailer for a new TV programme and realised that I had a similar idea at some stage in the past. The chances are that you can recall similar examples and exclaimed to anyone in earshot ‘I had that idea, why didn’t I do something about it?’
The most likely explanation for this is that when we have a creative thought triggered by a stimulus, a partial idea is formed. That embryonic idea may reach an obstacle that can’t easily be overcome or is simply interrupted by something else. This ‘half idea’ then lies dormant in the hippocampus and may remain unstirred until it is recalled by a related stimulus.
The hippocampus is the epicentre of the creative brain, being the region where we both recall stored information and imagine the future. The hippocampus and wider default mode network (DMN) are shown in fMRI studies to experience higher levels of activity both when recalling detailed information and imagining future experiences. So how do we engage the DMN and how can this help us to be more creative and generate more ideas?
Put simplistically, the DMN is the collection of parts of the brain which are active when we are not engaged in a cognitive task. When we are engaged in an activity that requires cognitive engagement, the task positive network (TPN) is active and the DMN is effectively turned off. The two networks are antagonistic, that is to say that we can toggle between the two but they cannot be fully active at the same time.
The DMN is associated with daydreaming or mind wandering. When I have asked clients about where they were when they had a great idea, they may answer that they were on a train looking out of the window or swimming lengths in the pool. These activities where we are mentally alert but not focused on a particular task are where we are able to work within the DMN to both remember previous experience and imagine new ones. Meditation and other forms of mindfulness can allow us to turn off the TPN and enjoy some time in the DMN and exist in the place where creative ideas are most likely to surface.
The TPN also has a critical role in the ideation process, the information created by the DMN may be quite abstract based on partial recollections and imagined future scenarios. The task focused neural network is where we commonly spend most of our working hours, and it is there that ideas become properly formed and structured. Sometimes however it is where ideas can flounder, either through very reasonable, practical objections or sometimes through an unhelpful level of self criticism. Both networks have a role to play in creating and developing ideas but activating and utilising both effectively is challenging
In writing this article I thought back to a time in my own career when I had successfully launched an idea and tried to focus on the sequence of thoughts that led up to the moment of realisation:
1. Initial thought whilst not particularly focused on watching something.
2. Original thought recalled during a meeting on a related subject.
3. Thought activated again when noticing something out of the window on the bus.
A long time passed between stage 1 and 3 and in all three occasions I was not focused on any specific task so was likely to be in the DMN. It was another 2 or 3 months before I shared the idea with colleagues and started collaborating and utilising my TPN on the project. I may describe the third stage as being my Eureka moment, but in reality the idea was anything but sudden, taking many months to form.
Neuroscience is helping to build awareness of the way the brain operates in different stages of the creative process and the neural networks that we activate in creating, recalling and actioning our ideas. We may not know exactly where ideas come from but we do have a better understanding now about creating the best environment for teams and individuals to be receptive to ideas as they emerge, to recall and use their ‘half ideas’ to instigate more creative collisions. This knowledge can help increase the quantity of ideas we generate and the chances of those ideas reaching realisation.
Matt Hodgins
Ideas Academy
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