"Version: 20221001"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

part I. Koestler's law of creativity. 1. What, precisely, is creativity? -- 1.1. Some dictionary definitions -- 1.2. My 'sound-bite' definition--just five words -- 1.3. Ideas as outcomes, ideas as questions -- 1.4. Invention and discovery -- 1.5. What's missing from the sound-bite? -- 1.6. What is 'new'? -- 1.7. It's difference that's important, not novelty... -- 1.8. ...and the best way to discover differences is to be observant -- 1.9. Value

2. Creativity in context -- 2.1. Creativity alone is not enough -- 2.2. A richer picture -- 2.3. Process 1--creativity -- 2.4. Process 2--evaluation -- 2.5. Processes 3 and 4--development and implementation -- 2.6. The target diagram and skills

3. The six domains of creativity -- 3.1. Creativity is not just about 'the better mousetrap' -- 3.2. Content -- 3.3. Process -- 3.4. Strategy -- 3.5. Structures -- 3.6. Relationships -- 3.7. You! -- 3.8. The importance of the organisational culture

4. Koestler's law -- 4.1. Arthur Koestler's definition of creativity -- 4.2. The 'eureka moment' myth -- 4.3. 'But I'm not a creative person' -- 4.4. Creativity is all about patterns -- 4.5. 'Bisociation' and 'thinking aside' -- 4.6. The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole -- 4.7. What Koestler's law does, and doesn't, do -- 4.8. The Koestler challenge

5. Some more examples of Koestler's law -- 5.1. Literature -- 5.2. Art -- 5.3. Chemistry -- 5.4. How chemistry made impressionist art happen... -- 5.5. ...and how physics has facilitated contemporary art -- 5.6. History, politics, philosophy, and economics -- 5.7. Newton's laws of motion and gravitation -- 5.8. A brief digression--coincidence, co-invention and the zeitgeist -- 5.9. The light bulb -- 5.10. Casa Batll�o -- 5.11. The DC electric motor -- 5.12. The impossible building -- 5.13. Special relativity -- 5.14. The structure of DNA -- 5.15. DNA--a final word. part II. How to have great ideas, deliberately

6. The 'da Vinci problem' -- 6.1. Building on Koestler's Law -- 6.2. The helicopter that couldn't fly -- 6.3. The problem of the missing component -- 6.4. You might be a 'victim', now -- 6.5. Identify the missing component(s) as precisely as you can -- 6.6. Keep your eyes--and ears--open -- 6.7. Be patient -- 6.8. In conclusion

7. Emergence--why some patterns are better than others -- 7.1. Emergence -- 7.2. Same components, different patterns -- 7.3. Not too little, not too much -- 7.4. Patterns within patterns -- 7.5. Emergence is often subjective -- 7.6. An enriched definition of creativity

8. Knowledge, experience, learning, and unlearning -- 8.1. Where are the Koestler's law 'components'? -- 8.2. Donald Hebb's theory of learning -- 8.3. The learning trap -- 8.4. Unlearning -- 8.5. Why is unlearning so difficult? -- 8.6. Hegel, and genetics -- 8.7. A brief pause...

9. How to have great ideas 'on demand' -- 9.1. InnovAction! -- 9.2. Step 1 : Define the 'focus of attention' -- 9.3. Step 2 : Individually and in silence, write down everything you know about the agreed focus of attention -- 9.4. Step 3 : Share -- 9.5. Step 4 : Then choose one feature, and ask 'How might this be different?' -- 9.6. Step 5 : Let it be... -- 9.7. Step 6 : ...and then, when that discussion runs out of steam, choose another feature and repeat steps 4 and 5 -- 9.8. The nine dots puzzle revisited

10. InnovAction! in action -- 10.1. Ideas for games based on chess -- 10.2. Some things we know about chess -- 10.3. Ideas, ideas, ideas... -- 10.4. It really is as simple as that! -- 10.5. The central step--step 4 : 'How might this be different?' -- 10.6. Different ways of being different -- 10.7. Some examples

11. Springboards and retro-fits -- 11.1. InnovAction! is not the only way to have idea 'on demand' -- 11.2. Some other springboards -- 11.3. Random words--a retrofit -- 11.4. Some other retro-fits -- 11.5. Springboards and retrofits--which to use?

12. Creativity workshops -- 12.1. Observation, curiosity and permission made real -- 12.2. The workshop themes -- 12.3. Who should participate? -- 12.4. How workshops are structured -- 12.5. The idea generation group briefs -- 12.6. Don't impose constraints on cost and resources -- 12.7. Creativity, not evaluation -- 12.8. Quantity, quantity, quantity -- 12.9. After the workshop

13. Creativity in science and engineering -- 13.1. What this chapter is about -- 13.2. Detecting gravitational waves -- 13.3. Building Nemo -- 13.4. Synthetic synapses -- 13.5. Biomimetic adhesives -- 13.6. The magic colouring sheet -- 13.7. Quantum entanglement, single-pixel cameras, and novel endoscopes -- 13.8. Keeping the UK's railways safe -- 13.9. The 'Medusa effect' -- 13.10. Mixing things up : ellipsometry and strong coupling -- 13.11. Reducing noise -- 13.12. How nanopatterns made it from a semiconductor facility to an artist's print room -- 13.13. Newton's rings and flat screens -- 13.14. Blue Plan-itª and Water ARCª

part III. How to evaluate ideas, wisely. 14. Evaluation in context -- 14.1. Why wise evaluation is important -- 14.2. A very bad idea indeed -- 14.3. Not all ideas are good ones... -- 14.4. ...and even good ideas can be fiercely opposed -- 14.5. How do you, and your organisation, evaluate ideas now?

15. How to evaluate ideas wisely -- 15.1. Features of a wise evaluation process -- 15.2. An ideal process for wise evaluation -- 15.3. The half-way house -- 15.4. Wise evaluation, Edward de Bono's 'hats', and the importance of language -- 15.5. 'Evaluation lite' -- 15.6. And so to development and implementation

part IV. Building an innovative culture. 16. What is 'culture'? -- 16.1. The Covid-19 vaccine miracle -- 16.2. Language -- 16.3. Observation, curiosity and permission revisited -- 16.4. The wider picture--'enablers' and 'motivators'

17. Enablers -- 17.1. Budgets -- 17.2. Funding -- 17.3. Managing development and implementation -- 17.4. The idea archive -- 17.5. Physical environment -- 17.6. Behaviours

18. Motivators -- 18.1. Reward and recognition -- 18.2. Performance measures -- 18.3. Training -- 18.4. The role of senior management -- 18.5. Embedding innovation in the day-job -- 18.6. So, what next? -- 19. Epilogue -- 20. Further reading.

All scientists and engineers are creative -- you wouldn't be a scientist or engineer if you weren't. But can you be even more creative? Do you know how to develop creativity in those who are less confident? And how to build a team culture in which creativity flourishes? If those questions spark interest, then this book is for you. Presenting pragmatic and powerful processes for generating ideas, and for distinguishing good ideas from weak ones, the book explores the fundamental first principles on which creativity is based, as well as the organisational factors that need to be addressed for creativity to happen. Filled with examples of creativity in science and engineering, and including a contributed chapter in which 13 contemporary scientists and engineers tell their own stories, this book is a practical 'how to' guide on how to have good ideas on demand, how to judge between good ideas and bad ones, and how to build a sustainable innovation culture. From gravitational waves to outreach, from safety on trains to how some cows in Kansas triggered an idea for noise reduction, the examples in this book are sure to stimulate individual and organisational creativity.

Researchers and advanced students in all scientific fields.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Dennis Sherwood is one of the UK's leading experts on creativity and innovation. For the last 20 years, Dennis has been running his own consulting firm, The Silver Bullet Machine Manufacturing Company Limited, working with organisations to generate great ideas, to evaluate them wisely, and to build a sustainable culture in which safe creativity and effective innovation flourish. In particular, much of the inspiration for this book derives from projects carried out with industrial scientists and engineers, as well as academic teams and Centres for Doctoral Training at universities across the UK.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on November 9, 2022).