Don’t Concentrate! Innovate!

Let me set the scene for you. I am sitting at my study table at home at three in the morning (jet-lagged), reading a book on creativity and innovation. Here is a question from the book.

People tend to forget what they read in newspapers/blogs/e-books. Research has shown that we need to read or practice something at least 7 times for it to move from short-term memory space to long term memory space. Suggest ways to make it happen.

In essence, how can we make people remember stuff they read?

I pondered over the question for 10 minutes, without finding any suitable solution. Giving up, I turned to my phone, unlocked it and started playing my favorite game on it. The question was still on my mind, but not at the fore. And that is exactly when the solution hit me.

Why not design an app which can capture paragraphs you want to remember, convert the text into a question and answer format, and ask you a question every time you want to unlock your phone. The question will stop popping up on your screen once it has been answered, say, 10 times. If you can’t answer the question, the app will redirect you to the paragraph you had read.

The point of this blog post is not the solution, but how the solution was reached. The lack of concentration was key. I have even coined a phrase for it. I call it (Drum roll)…. Aided Creativity.

Aided creativity is the art of coming up with a solution for Problem A, while working on Situation B. In my case, Problem A was the Remembering-Stuff question and Situation B was the Playing-Game situation.

So how can companies use the concept of Aided Creativity, to increase productivity and innovation?

Watch television/play laser-tag/plan a heist, while thinking of an answer to that question!

Oh and by the way, I broke my high score record in the game too. See the power of lack of concentration!