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CHAPTER 15: LEADING CHANGE 469
Exhibit 15.5 can stimulate an array of different perceptions about the item being
analyzed.
An exercise of considering opposites will also stretch the mind in a lateral
direction. Physical opposites include back/front, big/small, hard/soft,
and slow/fast. Biological opposites include young/old, sick/healthy,
Right now, see if you can think of
male/female, and tortoise/hare. Management opposites would Action Memo
be bureaucratic/entrepreneurial, or top-down/bottom-up. Business three additional opposites in each of
opposites are buy/sell, profi t/loss, and hire/fi re. 45 the categories of physical, biological,
opposites to stretch your thinking for a

Creative Intuition The creative flash of insight leaders want to management, and business. Look at

awaken is actually the second stage of creativity. The first stage is
data gathering. The mind is gathering data constantly, especially when problem you face.
you are studying background material on a problem to be solved.
Then the creative insight bubbles up as an intuition from the deeper
subconscious. It may be hard to trust that intuitive process because it
seems “soft” to many business executives. The subconscious mind remembers all
experiences that the conscious mind has forgotten. Intuition has a broader reach
than any analytical process focused solely on the problem at hand.
Where or when do you get your best ideas? The most popular response is “in
the shower.” One man got good ideas so consistently in the shower that he regularly
experienced a 20-minute mental core dump of ideas. He purchased a piece of clear
plastic and a grease pencil to write down the creative ideas while in his “think tank.”
Creativity often occurs during a mental pause, a period of mixed tension and relax-
ation. In the shower, or while exercising, driving, walking, or meditating, the mind
reverts to a neutral, somewhat unfocused state in which it is receptive to issues or
themes that have not been resolved. A temporary activity that is relatively simple and

mindless can provide the moment for a creative flash from deep in the subconscious.
If the analytical part of the mind is too focused and active, it shuts down the spon-
taneous part. Thus, the semi-relaxed mental “pause” is like putting the analytical left

brain on hold and giving room for the intuitive right brain to find the solution in the
subconscious mind. C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, was fond of
46
long, contemplative walks to facilitate his creative juices. Novelist Stephen King runs
several miles most mornings. One study suggested that a single aerobic workout is
enough to kick the brains of college students into high gear for a couple of hours.
Thus, physical exercise may be as effective as the shower for triggering the appropri-
ate relaxed state that enables creative intuition to break through. 47
To understand your own creative intuition, consider the problems below.
Each set of three words has something in common. Do not over-analyze. Instead
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just relax and see if the common element pops up from your intuition.
1. April locker room bride-to-be
2. curtain fisherman nuclear reactor
3. catcher dinner table armadillo
4. watermelon tennis tournament idea
5. bowling alley tailor wrestling match

Don’t rush to fi nd the answers. Give your intuitive subconscious time to work.
After it’s fi nished working on these problems, consider the following question you
might be asked if you interview for a job at Microsoft: How would you weigh
a large jet aircraft without a scale? This question combines logical thinking and
intuition. Before reading on, how might you compute the airplane’s weight doing
something that is technologically feasible even if not realistic? 49