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Getting Your Head Out of the Box

Getting Your Head Out of the Box. Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH Dean M. David Low Chair in Public Health. “Imagination rules the world.” (Napoleon Bonaparte).

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Getting Your Head Out of the Box

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  1. Getting Your Head Out of the Box Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH Dean M. David Low Chair in Public Health

  2. “Imagination rules the world.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)

  3. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us” (Western Union internal memo 1876)

  4. Definition of innovation: To introduce something different or novel Sun deprived village in Italian Alps gets ‘sun mirror.” A novel solution to fix the problem: A giant mirror which reflects the sun into the village square

  5. Definition of lateral thinking: Thinking that seeks new ways of looking at a problem rather than proceeding by logical steps

  6. DeBono provides tools to jump outside the box of normal patterns of thinking: A B A B

  7. Purpose is to come up with new, innovative ideas that have not previously been considered

  8. DeBono: “Thinking is a skill …no different from any other skill and we can get better at the skill of thinking if we have the will to do so.”

  9. Have you ever taken a course in “Thinking”? • Do any other SPHs teach a course in Thinking? • A: only one other of >40 accredited schools

  10. Schools teach information. • Thinking is the method, not the content.

  11. YouTube: 5 Minute University

  12. Flexibility and novelty: think in different ways and make new connections across categories

  13. The airline ticket agent was asked why there was a mistletoe hanging over the luggage conveyer belt. His response: “So you can kiss your bags goodbye.”

  14. What is the one thing that all wise men, regardless of their religion or politics, agree is between heaven and earth? Answer: and

  15. Gary and Nancy are lying on the floor dead. Around them is a puddle of water and some broken glass. What are the circumstances of their death?

  16. Answer: They are fish and their fish tank broke – thus they suffocated.

  17. E.g.: Association • How is a matchbox like a marriage?

  18. Clues: non-coherent observations

  19. E.g.: Ovarian cancer research

  20. Etiologic Hypotheses • Ovulation hypothesis: Ovulation exposes ovarian epithelium to minor trauma which allows promotion of cells containing allele loss. • Pituitary gonadotropin hormone hypothesis: High gonadotropin levels have direct toxic effect.

  21. Gonadotropin Hypothesis Pro Parity Breastfeeding OC use Con Fertility drugs Prospective measures HRT

  22. ? Ovulation Involves Inflammation Parity  Breastfeeding  Oral contraceptive use  Reduced Ovarian Cancer Risk

  23. Tubal Ligation

  24. Talc Use and Ovarian Cancer

  25. Ovulation Elevates Inflammation Mediators • TNF, IL-6, IL-1 • Cell proliferation • Oxidative stress • Prostaglandins and leukotrienes • Vascular permeability

  26. Aspirin Use Risk 1.0 0.90.9 0.75 X X X 0.7 0.6 0.5 X X X Tzonou Cramer Rosenberg Tavani Akhmedkhanov Moysich 1984 1998 2000 2000 2001 2001

  27. Fluency: generate lots of new ideas – rapidity of new idea generation

  28. E.g.: Brainstorming

  29. E.g.: Plus-Minus-Alternatives • Looking at a problem from all sides

  30. PO: Fat people get paid more. • Defend this idea to get movement away from a normal judgmental attitude. Stepping Stone Method: de Bono’s Thinking Course

  31. PO: Restaurants do not serve food. Escape Methods: de Bono’s Thinking Course

  32. E.g.: Thinking Backward • Start at the end and get to the beginning

  33. Complexity: Keeping multiple constructs in mind while coming to solutions

  34. E.g.: Systems Thinking

  35. Complex Methods • Predictive • Provide a framework for what is known and unknown • Parameters can be specified even when based on “best guesses” • Incorporate known feedbacks • Clinic epidemiology uses induction to relate a single risk factor to a single outcome. HOWEVER, this approach… • Doesn’t envision new exposures • Doesn’t suggest interactions • Doesn’t help evaluate multiple exposures

  36. Knowledge: Stepping stone of creativity is knowing what to innovate from

  37. Knowledge provides parallels and analogies

  38. Creative thinkers are: • Internally motivated • Tolerant of ambiguity and adaptive • Willing to take risks • Self-confident • Perseverant • Intuitive • Able to delay gratification

  39. Creative thinkers can think heuristically (making speculative jumps as a guide to solution of a problem) rather than step-by-step

  40. “Trust yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe.” (Claudia Black)

  41. “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.” (Anonymous)

  42. Creative workplaces suspend judgment and reward novelty

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