爱华网The idea of creativity is wonderful: that a spark of inspiration can eventually bring something new and useful into the world, perhaps even something beautiful. Something, as it were, from nothing. 创造是一件很棒的事：一个灵感的火花可以最终为这个世界带来崭新的、有用的事物，有时，甚至是美妙的事物。这事物原本并不存在，是凭空出现的。
That spark may only be the start of a journey towards the finished article or idea, but it is still a wonderful moment. Without the initial spark there will be no journey. It's no exaggeration to say that our ability to be creative sits at the heart of our achievements as a species. 那火花的闪现可能只是完成一篇文章或是构思一个想法的过程的起点，但它仍然是一个美妙的时刻。没有最初的灵光一现，还谈什么过程呢！可以一点也不夸张的说，创造的能力是我们这个种族能够获得如此成就的核心根源。
Do incentives work?激励管用吗？
So, how do you encourage creativity in yourself and in others? I discuss this question of how to be creative in my recent ebook on creativity. There I describe six principles, based on psychological research, that can be used to understand and increase creativity. 那么，如何才能激发自己和他人的创造力呢？在我最近的一部关于创造力的电子书中，我讨论了这个“如何变得富有创造力”的问题。基于心理学研究成果，我总结了六大原则，用来帮助人们理解和提升创造力。
But, what methods do people naturally use to encourage creativity? In the creative industries the usual method is money, or some other related incentive. So, can incentives encourage people to be creative? 但是，人们平常是使用什么方法来鼓励创造的呢？在创意产业中常用的方法是金钱，或是类似的激励方式。那么，这样的激励是否可以促进人们的创造力呢？
According to the research, they can, but crucially these incentives need to emphasise that creativity is the goal (Eisenberger & Shanock, 2003). Studies find that if people are given an incentive for just completing a task, it doesn't increase their creativity (Amabile et al., 1986). In fact, incentives linked to task completion (rather than creativity) can reduce creativity. 根据研究，它们的确可以。然而需要着重说明的是，在这些金钱激励的措施中需要强调创造是最终目标（艾森伯格夏诺克，2003）。研究表明，如果仅仅为了督促人们完成任务而给予鼓励措施是无法激发他们的创造力的（埃姆拜耳等人，1986）。事实上，与完成任务（而不是追求创造）挂钩的激励措施往往会减少人们的创造力。
Another way of encouraging creativity is simply to be reminded that creativity is a goal. It seems too simple to be true, but research has found that just telling people to 'be creative' increases their creativity (e.g. Chen et al., 2005). 另一种鼓励创造的方法就是简单的提醒自己把创造视作为一种目标。这似乎因为过于简单而显得不太真实，但是研究发现，仅仅是劝告人们多去创造就已经增加了他们的创造力（例如：陈等人的研究，2005）。
The theory is that this works because people often don't realise they're supposed to be looking for creative solutions. This is just as true in the real world as it is in psychology experiments. We get so wrapped up in deadlines, clients, costs and all the rest that it's easy to forget to search for creative solutions. 根据这个理论，这种方法管用是因为人们总是没有意识到他们理应去需找创造性的解决方法。这种情况不管在现实世界还是心理学实验中都得到了验证。我们平日中被截止日期、客户、成本以及其他各种因素重重包裹，以至于轻易便忘记了去寻找富有创造力的新解决方法。
People need to be told that creativity is a goal. Unlike children, adults need to be reminded about the importance of creativity. Perhaps it's because so much of everyday life encourages conformity and repeating the same things you did before. Doing something different needs a special effort. 人们需要意识到创造力是一种目标。成年人可不比小孩子，我们需要提醒自己创造的重要性。或许由于日常生活鼓励人们的从众心理，鼓励我们不断重复一成不变的做法，因此若要寻求不同的解决方法，往往就需要我们付出特殊的努力。
Rational versus intuitive thinking 理性vs.直觉
However telling someone to 'be creative' is a bit like telling them to 'be more clever' or 'be more observant'. We want to shout: "Yes, but how?!" 然而，让一个人变得具有“开创的思维”，某种程度上就像是要让他变得“更聪明”或是“更善于观察”。我们不得不大喊一句：“是这样，但是如何做到呢？”
Along with the techniques I suggest in my ebook, another insight comes from a new study on stimulating creativity. This suggests one solution may lie in using an unusual thinking style—unusual, that is, to you (Dane et al., 2011). Let me explain... 除了我在书中提到的理论以外，还有另一个最新的、独到的激发创造性的方法。这种方法使用了一种非同寻常的思考方式（丹尼特等，2011）。下面我就来解释。
When trying to solve problems that need creative solutions, broadly people have been found to approach them in one of two ways: 当人们尝试解决那些需要运用创造性的方法来解决的难题时，一般会通过以下几种途径：
1、Rationally: by using systematic patterns of thought. This involves relying on specific things you've learnt in the past, thinking concretely and ignoring gut instincts.1、理性地：通过系统性的思考，即依赖于过去积累的专业知识，排除直觉的干扰，具体的去想解决方法。
Intuitively: by setting the mind free to explore associations. This involves working completely on first impressions and whatever comes to mind while ignoring what you've learnt in the past.2、直觉地：让思维自由的探索可能的关联，即完全靠第一印象和最初的想法行事，排除曾经学到的知识。
The researchers wondered if people's creativity could be increased by encouraging them to use the pattern of thinking that was most unusual to them. So, those people who naturally preferred to approach creative problems rationally, were asked to think intuitively. And the intuitive group was asked to think rationally for a change. 研究者们不确定人们的创造力究竟是否可以通过鼓励其使用打破常规的思维方式来激发。因此，在试验中，那些原本喜欢通过理性分析解决难题的人们被要求依靠直觉思考，与此同时，原本靠直觉思考的人群被要求反过来理性分析。
Participants were given a real-world problem to solve: helping a local business expand. The results were evaluated by managers from the company involved. When they looked at the results, the manipulation had worked: people were more creative when they used the thinking style that was most unusual for them. 研究者们布置了一个现实世界中的难题给志愿者们，即帮助某地方企业扩展市场。他们的解决方案将会被相关企业的经理进行评价。结果是，这种反串的做法非常有效：当人们使用那些最能打破他们常规思维的模式去思考的时候，他们变得更具有创造力！
One of the reasons this may work is that consciously adopting a different strategy stops your mind going down the same well-travelled paths. We all have habitual ways of approaching problems and while habits are sometimes useful, they can also produce the same results over and over again. 这种新的方法产生作用的原因之一是：有意识的选取不同的策略可以避免你的思维沿着相同的老路前行。我们都有习惯性的解决问题的方法，这些惯性思维有时的确有用，但它们不可避免的会不断重复相同的结果。
A limitation of this study is that it only looked at the generation of new ideas. This tends to occur mostly at the start of the creative process. So once ideas have been generated and a more analytical mindset is required, these techniques may not work so well (I discuss this balance between a wandering and focused mind in principle six of my ebook). 这种学说有一个缺陷，就是它仅关注了新思维的产生时的情况。而这往往只出现在创造过程的开始阶段。因此，在想法产生之后，理性分析的思维方式就必不可少，而此时这种（打破常规思维的）新方法就不怎么管用了。（在我的电子书中，我讨论了在思维迷茫和专注之间平衡的六个法则。）
