Insight or ideas: escaping the idea centered "Box" defining creativity

The article is for those who are less than delighted by the state of the art in the various computer, Internet, and multimedia systems designed to enhance team creativity. It explores a hypothesis that certain common assumptions about team creativity and problem solving make it nearly impossible to develop systems which can measurably assist the richness and complexity of real world problem solving and design collaboration. Because creative success often results from recognizing that the original problem definition is hiding effective solutions, it may be advantageous to explore a definition of the creative event not as "an idea that is newer and better" but as "a shift in perspective or belief that makes new possibilities obvious". In the classic phrase: "don\´t raise the bridge, lower the water" the creative event is seen as the shift of problem definition to "getting the boats past", thus making a great many new possibilities obvious. This alternative perspective shifts the focus for deliberate creativity from "out of the box thinking" to "better box thinking" and validates the role of experience, expertise, and knowledge in the creative process. It is especially useful in understanding the more complex creative work of people like Einstein and Darwin, and in guiding the management of complex and cross functional creativity.