How Creative Thinking Happens
By: Charles Leon
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Design, Risk, Creative Thinking

The Adjacent possible

In the middle of the 17th century, two men came up with the same idea, independently and simultaneously and a bitter international row broke out, dividing the scientific community and the countries they belonged to.

Isaac Newton and Gottfried Willem Leibnitz both published their versions of calculus which they had arrived at independently. Researchers found that their notebooks show that they both worked their way towards the conclusion from independent routes. Unlike nowadays, information was not shared freely, mainly where national pride was involved (perhaps it’s not so different?).

Leibnitz, Newton and Calculus

With something so complicated, how can it be that they both arrived at a similar insight at a similar time but entirely independently?

The answer may become evident if you understand a principle known as the adjacent possible, first coined by Stuart Kauffman in 2002.

Kauffman used the term to describe how biological systems can change into more complex structures by making small incremental changes, rather than radical changes. Incremental changes are less energy consumptive and always involve small steps leading to what appears to be giant leaps.

Steven Johnson, in his book, “Where Good Ideas Come From” (watch Johnsons animated talk on creativity here) picked up Kauffman’s insight and applied it to describe how we arrive at insights.

The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself. Steven Johnson

New insights hover on the edge of what we know, believe and assume. They are the re-combination of concepts that exist, that are transformed into new ideas.

If we think about any modern innovation, it’s clear that the innovation could not exist unless other situations, concepts, products and environments weren’t already in place.

The iPhone couldn’t have happened without innovations in battery technology, computing technology, the palm pilot, all the way back to Babbage and Turing, and probably further back than that.

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Isaac Newton

At the boundaries of our reach, with the right mental attitude, we create new ideas. The boundaries grow as they are explored, each new innovation engenders the possibility of further new combinations.

This, I think, is the primary motivation behind all motivation. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and it’s giants all the way down.

Whilst our brains crave certainty and predictability, we also have an unquenchable thirst to make meaning out of meaningless information.

We do almost everything we can to avoid uncertainty, by forming stories, beliefs and assumptions so that our brains consume less energy. Assumptions are the predictive power to keep us alive, they keep us stable. By trying to avoid uncertainty, the brain has developed specific biases which help to steer our behaviour back onto a predictable track. This is why we have a confirmation bias where we look for information that reinforces an existing concept or idea.

We view changing our mind negatively and ridicule politicians, for instance, for changing their mind when new evidence comes to light.

This begs the question; “If everything is grounded in our history of assumptions, why do we ever want or need to see anything differently?”

Our pattern-making brains crave novelty and deeper understanding.

Nothing interesting ever begins with knowing, it always begins with not knowing. Curiosity and an unquenchable desire to learn more or to do things better or different fuel our restlessness. Creativity questions assumptions and finds novel solutions to new problems. It doubts what we already know and steps to the adjacent possible to combine, conflate, or contort what we already know and what is already out there, to make a new, emergent property.

To the outsider, these leaps may seem to be giant leaps, but in reality, these are small steps within the realms of what is available and what is possible. Obviously, the more comprehensive your realm of knowledge and experience, the more possibilities you have.

The Adjacent Possible

This is illustrated in the diagram above. Person A may combine diverse ideas from within their adjacent possible, their knowledge and experience. Person B, however, who doesn’t have those reference points within their realm, will not be able to combine the new concepts (unless he has knowledge or experience of them). They are outside their frame of reference. Therefore, from their point of view, the combination of the new concepts appear to be a giant leap. They are, in fact, a small further step for person A.

This would explain why specific ideas can happen simultaneously in different people who may have had no contact. So long as their frames of reference are similar and contain either similar problems or equivalent knowledge and experience; there is a fair chance that they could come up with the same, or similar new ideas or innovations.

The concept of the adjacent possible has also been applied to business and data theory by implying the idea of collaboration to generate new insights. Team members, who have different perspectives on different aspects of a business combine together to create higher-value conclusions and insights.

Incremental progress in an enterprise by the use of diversity can produce a valuable method for business insights. By combining diverse experience, the richness of the “pool” of potential possible is increased.

The concept of the adjacent possible captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation.

I was privileged, some years ago, to be part of an experiment carried out by the Intercontinental Hotel Group, IHG. The moderators, Ove Arup, gathered together a diverse group of specialists. Architects, designers, sociologist, behavioural psychologist, planners, hotel operators and many other seemingly non-related specialists came together to generate ideas for a new hotel concept.

The results were surprising, some completely radical ideas, some completely unusable (but interesting) ideas. Overall, though there was a richness and breadth to the ideas produced which were unlikely to happen if a conventional design route were taken.

Understanding the concept of the adjacent possible is something most creatives will do intuitively. They have trained their minds to seek out ideas by association, assimilation and deconstruction. Using influences and references from a rich background of knowledge and research.

Creative thinking involves risk and uncertainty, but it is how we grow as individuals, as communities and as societies. We share information and then step up on the knowledge ladder and add a further step for those following in our footsteps.

www.charlesleon.uk