Directions: In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-F to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There is one extra choice, which does not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
Many people seem to think that creativity is producing the Big Idea—an idea from nowhere so clever and so profound that it defines creativity. (41) One of the key lessons of this book, and a clear message to the prospective client who rejected my proposals, is this: the instant Big Idea does not exist.
(42) Ideas come through a series of small steps or moves. They build up each other to produce the final idea. Look back on any idea you have come up with; think back to precisely how the idea grew, and trace its lineage. (43) Rather than the creative idea being an instant revelation, it will more likely be characterized by a haphazard series of moves, steps and linkages.
(44) (A study of the remaining 5 per cent of patents would, I suspect, reveal that they are the products of incremental thought.) Any truly great idea (possessing significant added value) will generally have emerged as a result of a series of incremental small steps in generating it, with much of its inherent added value gained in the subsequent implementation, or in how it was sold.
Examine any field of activity where creative ideas are generated and used, whether it is the world of management, the arts, or television comedy. (45) Indeed, the management guru Tom Peters describes in his book A Passion for Excellence (Peters, 1996) several case studies where organizations made decisions to pursue a Big Idea: “In all of history it seems, from French fry seasoning at McDonald’s to IBM’s System/360 computer, the first and second prototypes don’t work.” Often the key people in a project were simply intent on “making it work”; through trial and error they eventually succeeded. No Big Idea brought an instant solution.
A. Creativity, and its task of generating ideas, is essentially incremental.
B. Their ideas are created through a number of mini-steps, not via an instant, earth-shattering moment of inspiration.
C. The blinding flash of inspiration will, if you are honest enough, be linked to an earlier idea or element that you may have been dealing with.
D. In public relations work it may be the new campaign idea that no one else has thought of, which will achieve significant publicity, or the photocall gimmick that shows the product in a new light and generates extensive media coverage.
E. It is much more convenient to believe great creative people somehow intuitively and instantly arrive at Big Ideas rather than recognize that creativity can be a messy, unglamorous and protracted process.
F. This incremental nature of creativity is confirmed by the UK’s Patent Office, which reports that 95 per cent of new patents are merely adaptations of existing ones.
