Damian Gordon

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Creative Techniques In Your Research

• Damian Gordon

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Contents

• Individual Creativity
• CoRT
• Mindmaps
• How to think like Leonardo
• Thinking about words
• Group Creativity
• Six Thinking Hats
• The Wisdom of Crowds

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CoRT
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CoRT Thinking Programme

• PMI Plus, Minus, Interesting
• CAF Consider All Factors
• OPV Other Peoples Views
• FIP First Important Priorities
• CS Consequences Sequels
• AGO Aims, Goals, Objectives
• APC Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices

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Mindmaps
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Mindmaps

• Do your supervisor a favour, and when you give
  them a proposal, give them a mindmap of it as
  well.

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Mindmaps
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How to Think like Leonardo
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Seven Principles

1. Curiosità
2. Dimonstrazione
3. Sensazione
4. Sfumato
5. Arte/Scienza
6. Corporalita
7. Connessione

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Curiosità

• Realise your Ideal Hobby
• How will I benefit from this pursuit?
• What are my goals?
• What resources will I need?
• Where can I find a good teacher?
• How much time will I devote to it?
• What obstacles must I overcome?
• How can I make money from my hobby?

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Curiosità
For your MSc

• Doing your thesis
• How will I benefit from this pursuit?
• What are my goals?
• What resources will I need?
• Where can I find a good teacher?
• How much time will I devote to it?
• What obstacles must I overcome?
• How can I make money from my research?

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Curiosità

• Build a Lexicon
• Codex Trivulzianus is full of them, define words,
  new vocabulary, foreign terms, neogolisms.
• Arduous difficult, painful
• Alpine of the region of the Alps
• Archimandrite a leader of a group
• A large vocabulary is a powerful ally

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Curiosità
For your MSc

• e.g. you are doing research on Communities of
  practice
• What other keywords do we need to look out for?
• Network of practice
• Virtual community
• Virtual Ethnography
• Virtual team
• Community-driven knowledge management

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Dimonstrazione

• Explore attitudes to mistakes
• What did you learn from school about making
  mistakes?
• What did your parents teach you about making
  mistakes?
• What is the biggest mistake you have ever made?
• What mistakes do you repeat?
• What role does fear of making mistakes play in
  your life, your work, at home?
• Are you more likely to make mistakes of
  commission, or omission?

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Dimonstrazione
For your MSc

• Explore attitudes to mistakes
• In terms of your research...
• If you dont get the research answer you expect,
  is this a problem?
• What is a mistake in research?
• Should I tell my supervisor if Ive made a
  mistake in my experiment?

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Sensazione

• Visualization
• Visualization is a technique that Leonardo used a
  great deal in his work, and is now used by top
  athletes and business executives.
• It is simply a matter of imagining (practicing) a
  performance before you do it, to allow your brain
  to match the imagination.

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Sensazione
For your MSc

• Visualization
• Use this for practising your proposal
  presentation and your final presentation
• Use this for practising interviews

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Sensazione

• Learn how to draw
• Identify approaches
• Get good pencils and paper
• Take lessons or get a book
• Doodle
• Scribble
• Etc.

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Sensazione
For your MSc

• Draw diagrams
• Draw models
• Draw technical architectures

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Sfumato

• Count the number of times in a day you use
  absolute terms such as totally, always,
  certainly, must, never, and absolutely
• Consider how you close conversations, do you
  typically end conversations with either a
  statement or question?

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Sfumato
For your MSc

• In your thesis avoid using terms such as
  totally, always, certainly, must,
  never, and absolutely
• Also do not use the terms prove, proof or
  proven

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Arte/Scienza
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Arte/Scienza
For your MSc
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Connessione

• Setting goals the SMART way
• S PECIFIC
• M EASURABLE
• A CCOUNTABILITY
• R EALISTIC AND RELEVENT
• T IME LINE

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Connessione
For your MSc

• Setting goals the SMART way
• S PECIFIC
• M EASURABLE
• A CCOUNTABILITY
• R EALISTIC AND RELEVENT
• T IME LINE

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Thinking about words
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acronyms
single-concept principle
pseudo-synonyms, or false synonyms
antonyms
hyponyms
neologisms
phraseologism
UNDERSTANDING WORDS
quasi-synonyms, or near-synonyms
hypernyms
Cross- references
collocation
monosemy
synonyms
tautonyms
polysemy
abbreviations
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Six Thinking Hats
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Six Thinking Hats
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Six Thinking Hats in the Thesis Make sure each
chapter has
BLUE Introduction and overview of topic
WHITE Facts and Figures about the Topic
YELLOW Positive outcomes of Topic
BLACK Negative outcomes of Topic
GREEN Interesting outcomes of Topic
RED Personal, emotional and people-oriented aspects of topic
WHITE Review of new facts uncovered
BLUE Summary and finish up
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The Wisdom of Crowds
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The Wisdom of Crowds

• The key factor that causes Groupthink is when the
  crowd is homogeneous.
• If all members think and act the same this can
  lead to groupthink, as can be seen in highly
  regulated organisations like the army.
• To harness the power of the wisdom of crowds you
  really need diversity, the nay-sayers, the
  moaners and complainers, and the crazy optimists,
  the fools, the happy-go-luckies you need the
  whole mix.

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The Wisdom of Crowds
For your MSc

• You are doing a taught MSc, harness the power of
  the group,
• Meet regularly as a group during the dissertation
  module, e.g., twice a month
• Swap papers, references, and models
• Discuss issues in your research
• Compare war stories about supervisors

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Creative Techniques In Your Research

• Conclusions

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Conclusions
For your MSc

• Ive presented a few ways you can use the
  techniques we have explored for your research
• Dont be limited by my suggestions, use the
  techniques in as wide and as many ways as you can
  think of.