I am not suggesting the use of these relatively passive techniques in the active pursuit of directed creativity. I think we can do better. But, to the extent that simple distraction works in creative thinking, it works because it is a means of mental escape. Movement Simply paying attention to something and escaping current thinking on it is not always sufficient to generate creative ideas. Unfortunately, the natural mental processes of judgment tend to reject new thoughts as not productive or too ridiculous to dwell on.
Movement is a key principle behind the classic creative thinking technique of brainstorming.
The ground rules of brainstorming are to generate as many ideas as you can, with no criticism, building on the ideas of others. In other words, keep moving. Similarly, asking a group to come up with a sketch that illustrates their vision of the company's future is also a movement technique. You can't simply state the vision and be done with it, your mind must dwell on it long enough to complete the sketch. Click here to read a quick example of the application of these three principles to a process design issue in a health care clinic.