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Architecture & Engineering


Clive Shearer
Management
by Design
By Clive Shearer
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March 12, 2003

For creative solutions, think outside the glass

  • To explore new horizons for your business, look beyond half-full vs. half-empty scenarios.
    • By CLIVE SHEARER
    Special to the Journal

    Analogies and metaphors are useful devices to generate creativity. They force us to look at everyday events and circumstances, and attach to them different mental images -- thus stimulating creative thinking.

    For example, let us visualize a cup that has liquid filling 50 percent of its volume. The person that observes that the cup is half full is thought to be an optimist. Someone else observing the same cup might note that the cup is half empty. This might indicate that this individual is a pessimist. An objective situation, seen subjectively, yields results quite different for each observer.


     
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