Catching the Subconscious

I was just reading about one of Salvador Dali's techniques to inspire his creativity.

He believed that most creative thoughts come at a subconscious level and this occurs in the transition point between being awake and falling asleep.

His technique was very simple. He would put a cup beside his bed; lie on the bed and suspend a teaspoon over the cup with his hand and allow himself to fall asleep.

As he started to fall into the subconscious sleep state, ideas would flash into his head and at the same moment, the hand would release the spoon into the cup thereby immediately awakening him.

He would then write down any of the thoughts he had just experienced.

Punishing exercise maybe but it illustrates the effort one has to exert to achieve new thinking, new ideas and creativity in general.

How we encourage this level of effort in the context of work will be a future post once I've finished reading Daniel Pink's fascinating new book on motivation - Push.