The Hall of Awesomeness

Tag Archive for creativity

Checking your creative pulse: 5 ways to know you are NOT being creative

October 4, 2007 / Luke / No comments

How do you know if you are being creative? Today I want to talk about five ways you can check your creative pulse.

1. Staleness

Staleness is the problem of being used to creating things that are not working. Ultimately I think we become stale when our lives fall out of balance or something distracts us from what we are supposed to be doing. Staleness is when what we create is not fresh. This can happen for a variety of reasons all of which you need to seek out. Staleness often opens up the door for people to question your ability when really you are just having a bad week. Find out what is causing your staleness. I can almost guarantee it will be pressure of some sort. Find it and get rid of it.

2. Repetition

The oft used quote about repetition goes something like this: ‘the definition of madness is doing something over and over again to get a different result’. When repetition emerges out of you it’s because you are finding the same answers to the same problem over and over again. That is, you have not given up your favourite solution yet because you are still applying it to different problems. This sounds counterintuitive but think about it. We often have solutions in mind (i.e. the garbage can model of decision making) looking for problems or decision making opportunities to air those solutions. Repetition often occurs because we think our solutions are sound. If this is you write down the solution you automatically think of in each context. I think you will find over time that you are indeed apply the same old ideas unconsciously. To change this you need to perhaps talk to other people or read this or this to help you out.

3. Innovation is not innovative

Innovation is a word thrown around a lot. When we innovate we are really changing something slightly or tremendously NOT representing it as something different. In places I have worked (no names) there have been strategic initiatives introduced that looked like something new. Over time you realise that it was just a smokescreen to maintain the status quo. It’s not innovative to keep things the same. If you are being innovative then change must come through on the building blocks of the effort made by yourself and others. Re-presentation as such is not making things new… it’s simply re-presenting the old as if it were new. This is sleight of hand trickery not innovation. To be innovative you must present something that was previously working as improved, better or totally transformed.

4. Ideas don’t make anything better

Have you ever noticed how your ideas don’t make anything better? That’s a problem! I have had entire periods of my life in recent times when my ideas simply did not improve anything. This is troubling. Here is where you need what Napoleon Hill calls a mastermind group. You need to find a handful of people you can trust to be honest who will tell you like it is. For me my wife and a fellow by the name of John Beard are the people I turn to. Whenever I talk to them I can know that they will tell me if I am stuck in a rut. If your productivity wains find people you know and trust to help guide you out.

5. Trapped in the logic box

Sometimes you are simply stuck for ideas because of wrong thinking patterns. No amount of counsel or otherwise will help you there. I have spoken about how we become trapped in our own ideas here and here. Again, the problem in such cases is our limited perspectives. When we commit to something that we know isn’t helping we trap ourselves in our own logic. In such cases we need a perspective shift to get us out.

In all of these things remember that true innovation occurs when we are internally committed to improving things. If we are finding ourselves stuck creatively it can be for reasons as varied as: stress, tiredness, false beliefs and so on. Life becomes very hard to manage when you are stale. It can be terrible when you know you have to do something and you aren’t doing it. The problem is, you will never really have the answers laid out until you try something. When we rely on these predictable patterns of thought and action, all we are really doing is deceiving ourselves instead of admitting fault and moving on. It’s good to make mistakes! Remember this as my final point… there are more reasons that I can think of that true creativity is inhibited. Search yourself carefully for the answers and when you need to, talk to people who can help.

Technorati Tags: creative, problem, repetition, problems, mind, ideas, Innovation, innovate, strategic, the status quo, change, transformed, the logic box, wrong thinking patterns, answers, patterns of thought, mistakes, creativity

Category: creativity / Tags: creativity

How do you learn?

September 20, 2007 / Luke / 2 comments

I am moving house at the moment so I am strapped for time so I thought I would write a brief post on how I learn. I have spoken about this before here and also more specifically about learning here. How do we really learn things? Instead of writing a post about it I would like you to do this test.

I turned out to be a tactile/kinesthetic learner which according to this test means and I quote, “You learn best when physically engaged in a “hands on” activity. In the classroom, you benefit from a lab setting where you can manipulate materials to learn new information. You learn best when you can be physically active in the learning environment. You benefit from instructors who encourage in-class demonstrations, “hands on” student learning experiences, and field work outside the classroom.”

For me, this wasn’t too suprised because I hate giving tutorials without a physical component. I often find ways to demonstrate ways of saying something by doing it. My earliest memory is of me pulling apart my bike just to see how it fit together. I think I was five. That memory makes me realise that I was always a ‘doing’ and then a ‘learning’ person which in some circumstances may be harmful. However, that’s the way I am wired up. What about you?

This test showed me some of my cognitive biases as well. As an academic I think my theories should work and be useful (I am into ‘action’ research). If they aren’t then what’s the point? All of my research is geared up to ‘pragmatic’ philosophy which means I am constantly applying my ideas as a basis of their validity. I have plenty of opinions which I can’t validate yet most of what I believe I have experienced to be the case. Go ahead and take this test you might be surprised at the results.

Technorati Tags: learner, research

Category: creativity / Tags: creativity, learning

4 ways to come up with cool ideas

September 19, 2007 / Luke / 7 comments

Have you ever been stuck to come up with cool ideas? Today I thought that it would be nice to share some of the things that have worked well for me over the past few years. So here goes: 4 ways to come up with cool ideas.

1. Write (journal) your ideas down

There is a lot to be said for the art of writing. One of the most helpful things I have found in coming up with cool ideas is to write about the topic and see what flows out of my pen. Now this is really the free flow of intuition coming out of your pen. I don’t really know why but writing is a really easy way to find new ideas. Try this: take a blank piece of paper (or open up an office document… open or MS variety for you lovers of Bill Gates) and simply start writing about the topic. Those of you who have experimented with journaling before will understand what I am talking about. This is a wonderful way to find new ideas. When you switch off your reasoning process and move to the right side of your brain you will begin to think in a creative manner. Writing stuff down is a great way to do this.

2. Build a mind map

Mind mapping for me is a fruitful activity. It’s helps to see your assumptions about an idea right there on the page. I have used many modelling techniques over the years but this one is the simplest and quite possibly one of the best (maybe with the except of rich picture building) techniques available. If you aren’t familiar with it I would recommend reading the wikipedia article. Remember though, you can make more than one and then compare your results. This is also very important!

3. Synthesise

This is the art of putting two old ideas together where it was previously thought impossible (roughly speaking). To synthesise means you take one idea and add others to it to see what results. The process of brainstorming is a good example of this. Of course synthesis is flawed because it relies on the premise that you can put two things together and there will be a good result. Clearly this is not so (consider the Pug?). However, sometimes the right amount of synthesis can be a good thing. Adding one idea to another can spark a revolution of creativity which leads to new perspectives not previously available. Try it!

4. Talking to yourself (meditation)

In the bible we find the term ‘meditation’ which I think really means talking to yourself or thinking out loud on one concept for an extended period of time and doing so from different angles. I am not sure why this is so but I have to admit when I talk to myself about a topic my creative processes (I would argue intuitive processes) take over. Once I was stuck on a topic for a model I was building for one of my lectures on the Mobile Workforce. I began to think it through and talk about the concept from every possible angle when suddenly the idea spontaneously formed within me. The students in two classes responded so positively to it I believe most intuitive things are like this. We are often one good meditation session away from the answer!

Remember that when you are creating you are building things up from the inner you. Our minds prohibit this in general because of our capacity as humans to build overly large mental structures which form rules for us to live by. I think that when we engage in creativity we are putting the logical process aside so we can create new things to build. That is, when we build things from the inside we are creating things for the outside. I honestly believe our educational processes set aside creativity and intuition as a second order concept. In a later article on faith I will develop this idea further. I hope you have enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing from you if you would like to add some techniques to the very short list I have here. Thanks for reading!

Technorati Tags: cool ideas, creative processes, creativity

Category: creativity, making decisions, strategy / Tags: creativity, making decisions

Four ways to break the logic box

September 11, 2007 / Luke / No comments

In a previous post I talked about the concept of the logic box. You might remember them as limiting belief systems that we form to make sense of things. They become a box when our thinking is stalled because we can’t move past the logic we have placed in our minds. Today I want to show you four techniques for breaking out of stale thinking patterns and how to break the logic box.

1. Conjecturing

In a previous post I talked about why Sherlock Holmes is wrong when it comes to real world problems solving. In this article I introduced the art of conjecture. A conjecture is an educated ‘best’ guess that allows me to put on another way of thinking than I might be used to. If you are stuck on a hard problem and you cannot see your way out of it… try guessing something that you haven’t thought of previously. The way to do this is to offer an idea that is a guess that will help you to see things differently. When we conjecture, we immediately think of new solutions we haven’t thought of previously. Our logic box problem might be a lack of finance. Automatically you are locked in to a way of thinking that is very limiting because you will say, “well I need more money”. Hence you are now locked in a box you can’t get out of. To get out conjecture your way. So you don’t have enough money… start guessing at other things that might be causing the lack of money. Why don’t you have enough money? Conjecture a different problem. Take a guess: I am not happy because I don’t have enough money therefore I need to find happiness in lack. This would lead you think about happiness apart from materialism which in essence gets rid of you having to need money to be happy. Try another way of thinking: I recognise that I don’t have enough money therefore I must find ways to add more value to myself through different activities. Yet another example: My way of getting money is inadequate… I need to invent different ways to source finance. And so. This conjecturing process moves you from focusing purely on a unsolvable paradox into thinking about new ways to solve the issue. Conjecturing allows me to put on a new way of thinking so I can shift perspectives and assess the problem from a new light. A new assessment suggests new solutions and leads to new strategies for taking action.

2. Assumption/Perspective Shifting

Think for a moment about the things you believe. You hold some things very deeply in your heart and build assumptions based on these things. For example I believe in God. Now, I have built beliefs on top of these assumptions that I am extremely happy with. I believe in the so-called tenants of the Christian faith. These are my assumptions which are built on the back of what I believe. I am aware of these assumptions and I realise how to navigate them. Whenever I am faced with something external to me (like an opposite opinion) I have to recognise that as somebody else’s assumptions. When faced with a paradox (logic box) I need to change my assumptions in order to move forward to solutions. My hidden assumptions are telling me there’s a problem. I need to learn how to shift these assumptions. One way I have found to do this is become the devil. What do I mean? Look at the situation and ask yourself this question: What if the opposite of what I assume is true? Just the other day two people I work with were in loggerheads over an issue. After an uncomfortable week I thought: ‘I am going to resign’. Just yesterday I learned I was assuming there was a problem when really there wasn’t. The ‘loggerheads’ was an assumption about what somebody else thought I should be doing. When I told them the truth the assumptions changed and the perspective they had shifted. For me at least this makes it more bearable to work. At least for now! Remember, conjecturing is ‘believing first’ and then seeing what solutions arise as a natural flow on. Built into that process is a view of what we think our problem is likely to be and solutions flow out of problem identification. Recognise our ‘perspective’ in the problem is important because it shapes what we think issues are. Quite often you will find that you thinking something in your head that is simply not a problem … you just assume it is.

3. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a ‘free flow’ of ideas. You can also think of this as the creative process in action. When we look at a problem and begin to come up with new ideas new solutions will emerge. From this process you can shift to lateral ideas that will help you tremendously. Brainstorming really involves the rapid interchange of ideas from different angles in a group or individual setting. I like this process because done properly it can surface hidden assumptions, challenge stale thinking and suggest (quickly) new and innovative things that can be done. It breaks out of defensive reasoning and helps us to learn. Read this to find out more.

4. Thinking about what generates the paradox

Traditionally we might have called this ‘systems thinking‘. This is where we look towards things that ‘generate’ what we see by looking at the higher order process. Remember, you may be the victim of somebody else’s assumption making so carefully think about your situation and begin to recognise what’s happening. Where I work there are things put in place by management that make my job difficult. Paperwork by the mound for example. There is really nothing I can do about this yet it will cause me problems. Yet I have inherited this problem by nature of what I do. This is still something ‘systemic’ that is being generated around me. In such a case I need to recognise these things and learn to adapt to them rather than flow against them. To be honest, there are some things you just cannot change. So how does this relate specifically to the logic box? There are bigger picture things that form these things in us a lot of times and sometimes breaking them takes ‘bigger picture’ actions. What we do about these things takes place more on a group level than an organisational one. This is where you need the support of others working with you. That however, takes time, planning effort and an agreement of strategic values which I have discussed before.

Breaking out of harmful thinking patterns is a much bigger topic than this post. I would like to point out that if you are serious about this kind of thing then I would recommend you read a lot more and if needed seek the advice of a professional. I do not wish to oversimplify the issues I have spoken about here by saying that these are ‘generally’ applicable because that’s not true. I can tell you however, that doing these things, especially the fourth point, is extremely important. They have helped me and I hope they help you.

Technorati Tags: logic box, belief systems, Conjecturing, perspectives, strategies, assumptions, ‘systems thinking‘., thinking patterns

Category: creativity / Tags: creativity

Setting strategic values in your business

September 9, 2007 / Luke / No comments

Have you ever noticed that Virgin are the same no matter where they are? Consider people that work for them… they all look like they are having fun don’t they? I have worked in a few places that felt like death on a stick. If you met someone who left there and you talked about it what is the thing they remember most of all? How bad it was to work there! In most places there are strategic level values that filter down to the place where we work. The day to day reflects the bigger picture ‘feelings’ and ‘values’ that are at work in the organization. What is it that you wish your business to be known for? A good ‘heart’? A fun place? Well here are some of the things you will have to think about in order to make that happen.

What do you want your values to be?

Gloria Jean have worked well in this country to portray a loving image. They are very public with their charity work and make it known what their values are. What do you want people to think when they think about you? Work it out. For me, I want people to engage with me (either through my work as a lecturer or whatever) and feel like they got something out of it. If my business is teaching… I want people to say certain things about me… so I set strategic values that I live by in my teaching. For example, I want people to leave with a concept… so I use a narrative structure and teach around one idea. If nothing else you will leave that lecture with that idea.

Say you are a tree-lopper. You want people to think something of you don’ t you? You want people to say, ‘that tree-lopper is the best damned tree-lopper that I have ever used I want to use that person again!’ What is the impression you want to give to them? What are the values you want them to recognise? Get the picture? If not, consider it this way. What do you want people to say (i.e. word of mouth marketing) about your business? Write down a list immediately!

Building in values from the top down

Most westernised business have some semblance of a traditional hierarchy. Now before you pick up your rocks let me explain what I mean. There is usually a managerial structure in place that allows you to recognise a so-called chain of command. The person who is at the top of the chain has to create the flow on to the other people in the business. Once you have worked out what you want your business to represent you need to begin working in the values as a matter of practice. This is not an easy thing to do especially if those in the business are resisting it. However, you must persist with this over an extended period of time. Think of ways you can demonstrate these values without the use of coercion and bullying. Be clever!

Finding leaders to work with

Every movement in the history of man is based on a set of values. Setting these values should NOT as spurious as a mission or value statement. Nothing wrong with such things but there must always be practical outlets on a day to day basis. Hiring the right kind of people who share your values is more important than hiring people who are competent. I didn’t stutter! Your business would do better strategically if you had people with passion in the stead of good skills because that passion will flow on to your customers and they will recognise it.

Being consistent

The final phase after working in the values you want your business to reflect from the top down through key leaders is to be consistent. One thing you have to admire about a business with values like Virgin for example, is the consistency of their approach. Sure, they don’t always get it right but each time I have encountered them either on a plane or someone else I have found their approach to be consistent and my engagement with their brand likewise. This is clearly a strategic vision that has been cautiously worked in over time. It’s this kind of consistency that has made it what it is today.

Working with the right people

A general manager friend of mine said something which I have not forgotten. He said that it’s very hard to flow with people who don’t have similar values. It’s easy enough to say but without the right people willing to work with the strategic value set you have chosen for your business it simply will never come to pass. Author John Scott says that the highest form of power is collective mobilisation. When people work together it creates cohesion that no other social power can match. The problem can be that people often get sidetracked by career, selfish goals and other things at the neglect of the strategic vision. Nothing wrong with having goals or looking to get ahead, that’s important. A careful balance is suggested here.

A good strategic set of values is only as good as the environment it’s going into it. Think of your business as a seedbed that grows values overtime. With the right group of people growing the values day after day the right kind of results can ensue and good leadership is always important. Without these elements… you will NEVER have the values flowing out of your business that you desire.

Technorati Tags: Virgin, work, strategic, business, Gloria Jean, values, bullying., business, power, collective mobilisation

Category: making decisions, strategy / Tags: creativity

Beware the logic box

September 4, 2007 / Luke / 4 comments

A cardboard box is great for storing things isn’t it? Does it help you think? NO. It’s a square storage box for you to put stuff in. In the same manner that the box is used for storage so do we store things in mental boxes. When it comes to ideas you can create the form they take by building logical structures that you think represent reality. Take for example your concept of work? What is it?

Do you think you work to get money or you get money because you work? That is a logic box. The truth is you are being paid because you have something of value to offer someone else. If you conceptualise work in a box you will say: ‘Well I have to do it.’ No you don’t! You must begin to break out of the logic box you have built and make new ideas work for you. Starting thinking of yourself as adding value because that’s why you were hired. I think of the logic box as a set of ideas that you use to define something in a rigid, non-flexible logical way. Consider the following examples:

Well that is just the way it is…

Why do we accept things the way things are… well that’s just the way it is? No that’s a box. Things are the way they are because we made them that way and continue to agree that’s an acceptable way of doing things. Take poverty for example. A problem that is worldwide. Is there enough wealth in the world to fix this problem? I would argue there is more than enough yet the problem is still there. Why is it still there? Corruption? Bad politics? Greed? There is no one answer that makes complete sense.

It’s been this way for years… it’s better the devil you know than the devil you don’t…

This is a logic box that is really saying… I don’t have the courage to make the changes and I would prefer to live with the devil I have rather than the devil I don’t. I would prefer for the devil to be gone. Why live with the devil? It takes just the same amount of fear to fail as it does to succeed. Why not take a step out there into the big beyond and try it? Things could get better as they could get worse. If they do get better then you will have gained something and if you make a terrible mistake you will also have gained something. See my previous post on learning from your past mistakes. Don’t settle for what the population in general settle for mediocrity… do what you know to do. Break that sucker!

Things are never going to change…

Really never? They will change if you begin to make steps towards making them change. You don’t build a great building overnight. It starts with a vision and you then build it step by step until the thing is complete. We have this terrible idea that things we have are simply never going to change. If you think it will never change… it will never change. If you begin to think change is possible… then it will become possible. This not some mysterious notion. Consider this, when you are looking for a new house to live in what do you notice in the television shows you see… things you like in a house. In like manner if you set your mind on something you will begin to explore possibilities, seek new avenues of thinking and eventually make small steps towards change.

That’s just what I believe…

People somehow have gotten this idea that what we believe is static. It’s almost as though changing our perspective is so hard that we would rather live with a worse explanation of what we believe that using a better one. Why do we do this? There are many reasons why but I think a major factor is that we simply grow comfortable in the ways in which we create things in our mind. We get so comfortable that we would rather hurt ourselves by believing something that’s just there rather than changing perspectives to a better more healthier belief.

This is just the way I am…

The picture you carry around of yourself is what you will think, speak and act to whoever is listening at any given time. This inbuilt image will be with you for the rest of your life and if you don’t do something to fix it… you will find it dominating you until you die. If for example, you belief you are destined to fail, then the chances are you will make decisions that will make this a reality. If on the other hand you believe you will do well, you will make decisions in accordance with this belief. This doesn’t mean you will do well because you believe BUT that belief will reside in you and when opportunities come along you will know how to recognise them.

These are all versions of the logic box… ways of thinking that are put into little boxes for us to interpret. Another common one I have come across is found in the media. I call this a false dichotomy. Say you are debating a divisive issue like euthanasia. Immediately you think of the two moral high grounds for the issue… pro or con. In reality this is a false dichotomy because there may be other solutions rather than yes or no. By taking an extreme stance you automatically exclude the possibility of new and innovative solutions. There is nothing wrong with taking a stand for things you believe in… but there is something VERY wrong in creating ideas to believe in and then not changing them when the situation demands it. The tendency towards logical solutions in our thinking hinders our creativity because it forces us to make boxes. When we do this we naturally exclude alternatives which in any field is a dangerous practice.

There are a few ways I have found that break the logic box and I will discuss these in another post later in the week. In the meantime consider this: what things in your life have you boxed in? Family? Friends? Work? In any case you will not be able to see the problem until you begin questioning it, turning it over in your mind and looking at it from different angles. Start today!

Technorati Tags: box, mental boxes, the logic box, logic box

Category: creativity / Tags: creativity

Why the Sherlock Holmes approach to problem solving is wrong

September 2, 2007 / Luke / 3 comments

“I say let it be known that I am acting in self-defense!” Sherlock Holmes

One the greatest literary caricatures of the last 100 years is Sherlock Holmes. The image of the pipe bearing detective with an eye for the most indiscriminate detail is burned firmly into the minds and hearts of thousands of people. What I am interested in today is to talk about the reasons why Sherlock Holmes and the majority of western thinking about problem solving is indeed wrong.

Not-so-elementary my dear Watson

Sherlock Holmes often cautioned Watson not to come to a conclusion about a crime until he had the ‘facts’. Watson was framed as the bumbling detective who never really put the pieces of the puzzle together. Holmes, the figure of the rational/logical detective espoused ad nausem in today’s crime shows, always reasoned through available facts, evidence and such things. Watson was always leaping to conclusions that were off the cuff, spontaneous and available. Putting the pieces together in a logical fashion as Holmes did actually is not all to dissimilar to Watson’s approach. Consider for a moment that we all making meaningful gestures at what we think problems are all the time. As we come to understand the situation we are faced with we immediately think of solutions. Chances are that we come to the conclusion that problems we faced have many ‘not-so-elementary’ elements that are not obvious. Conjecturing is one way we can actually tease out the not so obvious and begin to build better solutions.

Reasoning Versus Conjecturing?

These two practices are not mutually exclusive. As a matter of fact they are deeply connected. For a moment think of a problem you have. Tell me what’s the problem? I guess you have either spoken out loud and said ‘the problem is…’. Have you ever watched the news and a story caught your attention enough for you to whine about it? Say it was about the rental crisis. What’s the problem… well I guess you could say the problem is a lack of housing at a cheap enough price. Immediately you have just conjectured what the problem is and now we have available to us certain types of conclusions. Whenever you say… the problem is… you are conjecturing (either based on no or limited ‘evidence’). Getting more information may be important so we can reason but the ideas that underpin our reasoning processes are even more important.

Facts come after we beginning looking for evidence

People often say to me, ‘well this has been my experience.’ I then sit back and wonder why can’t people see that their experience (or the evidence in this case) happened and the facts they have collected are coming from a way of thinking about that experience. Facts are always available. When we conjecture as to what we think the problem is, we begin to look for support for our ideas. NOT the other way round. Human beings are wired up to believe things first then either confirm or deny later. To say that we come to conclusions through reasoning is true to a point BUT the vast majority of our decision making takes place on the back of ideas that have little or no confirmatory evidence. Sherlock Holmes was ridiculing Watson for doing precisely the same thing he was!

Reasoning comes from somewhere

Reasoning comes from a set of underlying ideas. If you think that there is a problem the chances are you may be the only one thinking that it’s so. Contrary to the majority of western thought… the ideas that form the problem take place in the human mind and may not even have support from other people. If you think people are saying nasty things about you… that’s a problem you have conjectured. You will then act on these assumptions, build a new way of defending yourself and even begin treating everyone as a possible threat. Holmes allow the ‘facts’ to speak him as he often said but these facts led to a reasoning process which in turn leads to Holmes conjecturing (taking an educated guess) as to what his problem is. Holmes ‘faith’ was created through the facts which led to certain conclusions as a result. We all do it! It’s not like we are immune to it. It’ s just this false consciousness we create whereby we think that we are being ‘scientific’ but we are not. Things like faith and belief establish the conjecture or set of ideas and we follow through to a conclusion from there.

In concluding this post I would like to add that Sherlock Holmes was right to trust the evidence he found but if you read what he did he used an awful lot of guesswork, theorising, brainstorming and creative thinking. All of which require no so-called ‘evidence’ to lead to conclusions. They are merely ideas that suggest certain kinds of possibilities, concepts that suggest ways of thinking and educated guesses that stimulate the problem solving process. Take a look at your own life and begin to see the conjectures you have floating around in your head. What are you worried about? What makes you fearful? These are nothing more than ideas you have attached your emotions to which in turn creates a new reality for you to believe. Remember, it’ s not the ‘facts’ but where the facts come from that are important.

Technorati Tags: Sherlock Holmes., problems, reason, reasoning processes, guesswork, creative thinking., ideas, the problem solving process., conjectures

Category: creativity, life problems / Tags: creativity

What is creative thinking?

August 12, 2007 / Luke / 2 comments

Do you like to create? Creative thinking is one of those things that requires no long boring lectures to work out. To be genuinely creative is to be totally spontaneous. Imagine for a moment that you have been put in charge of your city or town and your first job is to create a solution to the traffic crisis. What kind of solution would be creative?

Build more roads
Charge more for using the roads
Build more car parks
Any combination of the above

Actually none of those solutions are creative. Why? Well, because they are drawing on the same ideas that we have always used to fix the problem. It’s the first hand solution for goodness sake. A creative idea is something that makes the problem disappear. Why? If it’s not creative then it’s not creating and if that’s not happening then you are recycling through old answers. Notice all of the solutions about are the answers that are immediately obvious. A creative solution is one that makes the old ones obsolete. Here are some tips on how to create:

Imagine the answer you could have if you could have any answer
If you were able to start from scratch what would you do?
Come up with four answers before you understand the problem and write down at least two opposite points of view
Conjecture limitless possibilities!

Try this on a situation you are facing today and you will find it will kick start your creativity.

Technorati Tags: Creative thinking, creativity

Category: creativity / Tags: creativity

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