Creativity guru Roger von Oech argues that the creativity process
requires individuals to assume four roles; the Explorer, the Artist,
the Judge and the Warrior. Only by occupying all four roles can
an individual reach the best possible solutions to a given problem.
As the Explorer, an individual actively seeks out information
and experiences, all with the goal of blazing a new path to ideas.
As the Artist, the individual takes the information collected
during the Explorer phase and tries combining that information in
different — and sometimes unexpected — ways. The results
are a number of possible approaches to solving the problem at hand.
As the Judge, the individual must consider the merits of
each approach developed during the Artist phase and decide which
ideas are most likely to solve the problem.
Finally, as the Warrior, the individual takes the idea and
battles to implementation.
