Much of your creative thinking can be influenced by the trends that are influencing the market right now and the ones that are coming up in the future.
Keeping up with the trends is not just about consuming all kinds of news related to your field. It is also necessary to develop a keen eye to distinguish what has the creative potential to get viral or not. This ability will be essential to the success of your strategies in marketing.
Being able to predict trends does not require a crystal ball. Instead, you need to understand how your business segment operates and where the innovation comes from. Having a problem-solving stance is critical for coming up with creative and original ideas. When someone wants to lose weight, they come up with an exercise plan that requires a daily effort as commitment.
The same concept applies to the workout of your creative thinking and technical skills required to stay sharp. So, with that goal in mind, make sure to try to create something new daily.
It does not have to be something large or significant, just anything new that derives from all the new references you are absorbing. Such creations might also serve as solutions to everyday problems you or your community face. The most important part of this process is creating a habit of coming up with new things so it begins to come naturally to you.
Get help from others to keep your creative thinking and technical skills in constant development. You can build a network of people with the same goals and put all these tips in action as a group. Interacting with your peers is a great way to exercise your creativity. It is even better when these people are also creatively-oriented and contributes to coming up with original ideas as a network. Try to come up with group projects to create a solution to a common problem or innovate on a certain aspect of work.
Be careful not to surround yourself with people that think and create exactly like you. Realizing creative thinking skills require constant training is the first step in improving how you come up with new ideas.
People who are experienced in this craft can improve every field of expertise. Consider the tips in this article and begin a process of self-improvement focused on honing your creative thinking skills. Speaking of improvements, how about learning more about how to evaluate your results? Check out this post on the 14 most important metrics to measure content performance.
Sign up to receive Rock Content blog posts. Creative thinking is important because it drives new ideas, encourages learning, and creates a safe space for experimentation and risk-taking. As organizations and people grow, they often develop tried and tested ways of operating. Creative thinking is important because it drives new ideas, encourages learning and creates a safe space for experimentation and risk-taking. Simply put, creativity and creative thinking are part of what helps businesses and individuals succeed and grow.
Using creative thinking skills at work creates b enefits not only in the ways we solve problems but also in how we approach everything from communication to self-fulfillment, task management, and growth. Bringing a culture of creative thinking into a workshop or group is often the job of a talented facilitator but whatever your role, there are benefits to thinking more creatively. Empathy and creative thinking go hand-in-hand. By practicing creative thinking skills and regularly looking for new ideas and points of view, you can actively become better at understanding your colleagues, customers, and even your family and friends.
One of the major barriers to having productive and meaningful relationships is an unwillingness to see things from a perspective other than your own or failing to understand how another person is feeling. By developing this skill, you can engage more meaningfully and honestly with people, ideas, and perspectives in all aspects of life. Assumptions can be harmful in both our personal and professional lives.
Using creative thinking skills to challenge assumptions, build clarity, and see things from new perspectives can be transformative. If an assumption someone else makes feels incorrect, think about why and try to find out more. If someone challenges an assumption you hold, be open and listen.
An example of not being a creative thinker is sticking to a tried and tested approach and sticking to the norm in every situation without considering whether trying something new might not lead to better results.
When looking to solve a problem or create innovative solutions, going outside of what you know and being open to new ideas is not only exciting, but it can create more impactful solutions too. You might even try using problem-solving techniques alongside some of the creative thinking skills below to find the absolute best solutions!
Some processes and working practices can be slow, especially in large organizations with many moving parts — but do they all have to be? Thinking creatively can help you find lean, actionable solutions that you can put into practice quickly and test ahead of bigger changes. Experimentation and a willingness to take risks are vital to growth and change, and creative thinking helps create a climate conducive to finding and trying quick, effective solutions.
Finding fresh, appropriate solutions to problems can be incredibly satisfying and is a fast-track to finding happiness both in and out of work. Bringing your whole self to a situation and being enabled to think outside of the box is a great way to feel valued and engaged with what you are doing.
Feeling frustrated with how a situation or process at work is going? Try developing and employing your creative thinking skills alongside your colleagues to find a better, happier way to collaborate! Feel unfulfilled or that not all of your skills and interests are being utilized?
Consider how you might creatively deploy the skills or talents that make you happy and scratch that itch. As children, we are encouraged to see things differently and try new things as part of our learning and growing process.
Staying curious and following what interests you with an open mind is a prime example of what a small change in thinking can achieve.
Remember that creative thinking is a gateway to learning and by actively developing your creative toolset, you can grow and discover more in all walks of life — a surefire path to personal development. Adversity is something all of us will face at some point in our personal and professional lives but there are ways you can become more able to handle problems when they arise. A strong suite of creative thinking skills is an important aspect of how we can build resilience and be more flexible when adapting or creating change.
Creative thinkers are valuable employees at organizations of any size. Whatever your background or role, you are capable of thinking creatively and bringing creativity into your life.
Creative thinking skills are the methods or approaches you might use when trying to solve a problem differently and explore a fresh perspective. While some of these skills might come naturally to you, others might need a more considered, purposeful approach.
For example, you might be a natural visual thinker who is great at presenting and interpreting visual information but you might not be so good at freely experimenting or creating space for reflection. In this case, you might try some brainstorming exercises to loosen up your experimentation muscles or create scheduled time for reflection in your working routine.
While creative professions like artists, writers, or designers may see more obvious uses for creative thinking skills, all professions can benefit from developing and deploying creative thinking. If you find yourself having difficulty at work or in need of inspiration or motivation, finding space to build on your creative skillset is a way to not only move forward but have fun while doing so. Creative thinking skills come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from things like abstract thinking and storytelling to finding ways to radically plan projects or recognize organizational patterns.
Feel free to read and explore the creative thinking skill which feels most interesting or applicable to you and come back and experiment with others in the future! Note that this list is not exhaustive, and there are many more ways of thinking creatively — try to see these creative skills as a jumping-off point for seeing things differently and exploring creative thinking at work. It can be easy to fall short of implementing new ideas or following through with creative projects because critical judgment or overthinking gets in the way.
A good experimenter is a self-starter who makes informed decisions to kickstart projects and test hypotheses. Think of a painter who throws paint at a canvas and introduces new materials without overthinking or being self-critical. By experimenting, you can try things that might prove useful or will lead you towards new solutions and better ideas. Remember that the act of experimentation is generative and often fun so be sure to give it a try! One thing to watch out for is being sure to effectively capture the results of your experiments and to continue developing and iterating on the results.
Experimentation is a great place to start, but remember that it is part of a larger process. Without effective documentation, you might not trace what delivered the best results and be unable to reproduce the outcomes.
Experimentation is a great example of why creative freedom should be paired with a strong process in order to be at its best. Four-Step Sketch design sprint innovation idea generation remote-friendly. This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve.
Four-Step Sketch is a great method for promoting experimentation. By following a process that enables quick brainstorming before development, you can help build an experimental mindset that also generates results. Being open-minded means being receptive to new ideas, different ways of thinking, and perspectives which are not your own. It means not closing down conversations or ideas prematurely and trying to actively explore what is presented to you. Imagine that a colleague comes up with an idea that is so far out of the status quo it seems off-the-wall and bizarre.
Being open-minded means actively engaging with what is presented and to refrain from forming judgments before first understanding where your colleague is coming from. While you should always try to be open and receptive to new ideas and other perspectives, you should also critically appraise and engage with them as part of a larger creative process.
Heard, Seen, Respected HSR issue analysis empathy communication liberating structures remote-friendly. Open-mindedness is particularly useful when it comes to meaningfully communicating with others. Whether its developing the ability to walk in the shoes of someone else or building empathy and listening skills, Heard, Seen, Respected is a great method to try when learning to be more open-minded. Lateral thinking is a prime example of how we can creatively solve real-world problems in a measurable and easy-to-understand manner.
Deploying lateral thinking means using reasoning or non-traditional logic to find an indirect or out-of-the-box approach to solving a problem. A simple example might be a challenge like: we need to increase revenue. Traditional thinking might mean considering hiring new salespeople to try and get more direct sales. A lateral approach might mean engaging more with current customers to reduce churn, working with external partners to get new leads, working to get sponsorship, piloting an affiliate scheme or any number of new ways to solve the existing problem.
Broadly speaking, lateral thinking often means stepping back and considering solutions or approaches outside of the immediately obvious.
Not every problem needs to be solved laterally and the best solution might actually be the most straightforward. Be sure to tap into existing knowledge and appraise a problem before trying something radical to avoid wasted time or frustration! The Creativity Dice creativity problem solving thiagi issue analysis.
Developing your lateral thinking skills comes more naturally to some than others. The Creativity Dice is a great method for getting out of linear thinking habits and moving into different ways of thinking.
Pattern recognition is the ability to recognise existing or emerging patterns and make connections based on the patterns you have discerned. While pattern recognition goes back to our prehistoric roots, being able to spot patterns outside of the ordinary and consider what may not be immediately obvious is a vital creative thinking skill for today.
Consider how meetings between some members of a team might often end in conflict. When trying to spot patterns, try to be mindful of existing biases so you avoid bending what is happening to fit a pattern you might be expecting. Be sure to interpret all data fairly and honestly, even if you believe a pattern is already forming. Affinity Map idea generation gamestorming.
Most of us are familiar with brainstorming—a method by which a group generates as many ideas around a topic as possible in a limited amount of time.
Brainstorming works to get a high quantity of information on the table. But it begs the follow-up question of how to gather meaning from all the data. Using a simple Affinity Diagram technique can help us discover embedded patterns and sometimes break old patterns of thinking by sorting and clustering language-based information into relationships. Pattern recognition is a skill that benefits from thoughtful practice. Try starting with a deliberate pattern-finding process like Affinity Map to build the ability to see patterns where they might not first be obvious.
While it might not seem like it at first, being a good listener is a creative thinking skill. It asks that a person not only try to understand what is being said but also to engage with the why and how of the conversation in order to reframe prior thinking and see things from a new perspective. Deep listening or active listening is not only hearing the words that someone is saying but actively seeking to interpret their intent, understand their position, and create a positive space for further conversation.
Not only does this create a deeper conversation for both parties, but this act of engagement and understanding leads to more creative and dynamic results too. Think of a workplace grievance that one person might have against another. We all tend to get on best with people who are like us, and particularly people with the same background and overall views on life.
Our assumptions go unchallenged, and our views tend to get reinforced. Taking time to actively go out and meet new people—and particularly more diverse people, who are not so like you—will help you to challenge your assumptions. Without even realising that you are doing so, you will start to think more widely, and see things differently. One particular research study tested creativity among people who had lived abroad, and those who had not lived outside their birth country.
The study found that people who had lived abroad were better able to think creatively to solve a problem. Obviously not everyone can go and live abroad for a period, but actively seeking out and taking up opportunities to do something new could have the same effect. It is worth challenging yourself to learn a new skill, or do something you find difficult, simply for the effect it will have on your thinking!
Another study found that people who were asked to think about people who did not fit a stereotype such as a male midwife were better able to think creatively than people asked to think about someone who fitted the stereotype. This is a very small thing, but it shows the effect of conventional thinking on our ability to think more creatively. It seems that people who visit the theatre, go to concerts, or engage with other cultural activities are also more able to think creatively. The third quality of creative thinkers is that they have a willingness to change.
They recognize that in a world such as ours, the unwillingness or inability to change is fatal. They prefer to be in charge of their lives rather than being caught up in the flash flood of change that is inevitable and unavoidable.
This means that you must be willing to change your mind and try something else most of the time. Mental flexibility is the most important quality that you will need for success in the 21st century. The fourth quality of highly creative thinkers is their willingness to admit when they are wrong. Truly intelligent, highly creative people are open minded, fluid, flexible and willing to both change their mind and admit that they are wrong when their earlier decisions turn out to be incorrect.
No matter what problems you have, there is someone somewhere who has had the same problem and who has already solved the problem and is using the solution today. One of the smartest and most creative things you can do is to find someone else, somewhere, who is already implementing the solution successfully and then copy him or her.
The smartest person is not necessarily the person who comes up with the idea.
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