Creative thinking
When we see the words “creative” and “creative thinking”, we usually imagine creative people who paint pictures or make mysterious installations. A banana stuck on the wall — that’s creativity for you, and we, ordinary people, do not understand, we are not creative. But creative thinking is necessary and inherent not only to artists.
Creative thinking helps with the generation of ideas and solutions. Many methods of creative thinking specifically protect us from logic and criticism so that we come up with a new solution. Sometimes the solution can be optimal, and sometimes innovative. Creativity helps to find a way out of difficult situations, save resources and even create businesses. It helps to go beyond and generate many solutions, rather than looking for the right one. I’ve met a lot of people who couldn’t come up with multiple solutions to the same problem. Sometimes even one solution was not found. For those who did not want to, this is a problem of motivation, and for those who wanted to, but experienced difficulties, there is good news.
People have convergent and divergent thinking. In other words, productive and creative thinking. Convergent thinking helps to find one solution to a problem, while divergent thinking is aimed at finding many alternative solutions. At one interview, I was asked to come up with three different uses for a pencil. I was stopped at ten options and praised that I was the first candidate out of eight who named more than five options. Divergent thinking helped me with the pencil. By the way, a couple of hours before the interview, it also helped me break the pencil into four parts and insert it into four holes of the wall cabinet to secure the shelf. Divergent thinking helps to cross the properties of objects, processes and services, transfer properties from one to another, as well as abstract from classes and categories in order to generate new ideas at a non-standard level. Otherwise, creative thinking can be called ingenuity. It is applicable everywhere and is always with you.
Today you need to answer at the interview what you would do if you became a coin placed in a blender, and tomorrow come up with a solution for business or get out of a difficult situation. It is not for nothing that the skill of creative thinking is included in the top of popular soft skills. People who are able to solve complex problems and can put “and” instead of “or” will always be appreciated in the labor market.
“Yes, you need to have a clear mind to think deeply, but sometimes you need to be a little crazy, thinking in a completely different direction”
Nikola Tesla
To develop and strengthen creative thinking, you need to do exercises and use tools that help to think out of the box. I would recommend starting with the works of Edward de Bono. He is one of the most respected experts in the field of creativity. In the 1960s, he coined the term “lateral thinking” — so he called the method of non-standard approach and problem solving, an analogue of divergent thinking. Write “books by Edward de Bono” in the search bar and you will see a lot of his works.
You can start with the books “The Art of Thinking: Lateral thinking as a way to solve complex problems” and “Brilliant! Tools for solving creative tasks”. You can also find CoRT templates — a set of templates for organizing thinking by Edward de Bono. The world of knowledge about thinking and approaches to it is very interesting and large, but we cannot delve into it here. Of the most accessible and effective ways to develop creative thinking, I would pay attention to the following exercises.
1. Non-standard actions.
Go to work using a new route, walk around the apartment backwards, write with your left hand, do it, read from right to left. Such small and funny exercises will help to distract and train the brain to work in an unusual direction.
2. Fantasize and draw.
I didn’t have a computer when I was a kid. One of my favorite activities was drawing endless plots. I took a sheet with a pencil and drew a palm tree on a desert island in the center. Then further away from it, I drew the development of events. For some reason, they were all on military cartoon themes. The A4 sheet depicted a lot of little men on tanks, helicopters, motorcycles, etc. Some captured a fortress or an island, others fought or participated in the chase. I could sketch up to a dozen A4 sheets, coming up on the go. Try to do this. It’s an excellent antistress.
3. Words and naming.
Play any games with words. For example, “Alias” or “Scrabble”. Cross different words, invent new ones, find words inside words. Thanks to boring lessons at university, I have a huge experience in wordplay. Also try yourself in naming. Come up with a company and a name for it. Read about naming techniques. For example, such as alliteration or neologisms. Pay attention to the creative names of restaurants, music artists or companies. Analyze how creative words work and try to repeat.
4. The method of focal objects.
Initially, this method was intended to improve consumer goods. With it, you can invent objects with unusual properties, which helps to develop creative thinking. Select the main object. For example, a pan. Then choose 5 more random objects. For example, a ball, a bag, a watch, a phone and a bottle. For all objects, write out their properties and start transferring them to the main object. For example, the bag is soft and square. Why not make a square pan? The refrigerator is square, and the pots are round. Square pots will take up space in the refrigerator rationally. So much for innovation. Offer such a game to a child — and you will understand that you have something to learn from him.
5. The method of associations.
Take any word and by association come up with new objects or stories. It is better to do it out loud in the company of friends. Develop a story from similar words, properties, similar objects and fantasies. It may sound like a complete absurdity, but it’s useful and fun. Over time, you can move on to serious stories, increasing the complexity.
6. Humor.
Depending on the degree of insanity, the method of associations may become a bit absurd. Such techniques are used in humor, often in the genre of stand-up. There are stand-up artists who develop absurd stories abruptly and are masters of the word. Combine business with pleasure. Laughter prolongs life, and studying the structure of other people’s jokes develops imagination. Try to study the difference between sarcasm and irony and self-irony. It is very difficult to amuse people, and nothing will work without creativity.
7. Brainstorms.
Participate in events where paradoxical or innovative tasks are solved as a team. Come up with a bank of the future, electronic umbrellas or cars. One of the rules of such an event is “No criticism and encouragement during a brainstorming session.” It is a very favorable environment for pumping fantasy and observing the fantasy of other people.
8. Brain simulators.
Use online services, computer and board games to develop creative thinking. The web is full of interesting exercises and tasks. It is better not to do much, but to practice regularly to keep your brain in good shape.
9. Watchfulness.
Expand your horizons, follow non-standard solutions in advertising, movies, books, humor and wherever you can meet them. Absorb the experience of others, notice the techniques and apply them for yourself.
There are a lot of options for developing creative thinking. Everyone will find a way for themselves if they want to. I have listed the options that I think are good for starting. I specifically focused on simple things so that everyone who believes that they do not have creative thinking or they are not gifted, could quickly see the result and make sure otherwise. The development of creative thinking allows you to perceive the world outside the box, generate new ideas and workarounds in difficult situations. Artificial intelligence does not know how to do this, so creative thinking makes you very competitive in the modern world.
You can come across many different kinds of thinking. Strategic, abstract, rational, innovative, resource and others. In my opinion, they are all combinations of logical, critical, system and creative thinking. Thanks to them, you will be able to think strategically, be far-sighted and count on the development of events a few steps ahead. You will be able to think abstractly and work with systems, objects and properties that do not exist in the physical world. Come up with ideas for innovation, rationalization, etc. It turns out that it is possible to optimize thinking with the help of its development and the use of special approaches.
This way you will get rid of excessive thinking, protect yourself from mistakes and increase the quality of your judgments, conclusions and decisions. Special approaches and tools help to optimize thinking, but optimal thinking helps to optimize and create your own approaches. This is a two-way and endless process. Constantly improve your thinking and look for people whose thinking you admire.
The topic of thinking is not easy, so take the time and find a balance of the complexity of information or exercises. It is important that they are not too simple or too complex. Very simple ones will not ensure the formation of new neural connections, and too complex ones will be difficult to perceive and digest.
