Creativity Thinking

"Everyone has creative potential, but creative people think they are creative."

Self-esteem is one of the most important elements of creativity. People must believe in their ability to develop original ideas and they must continue to believe in themselves after repeated failures.

Creativity flourishes in an environment that rewards attempts, as well as successes, and is conducive to failure. People must feel comfortable failing before they will repeatedly take risks or attempt creative approaches.

Roger von Oech labels four stages of the creative process:

1. Explorer
Finding new ideas and resources from which an idea may be built.

2. Artist
Transforming ideas (gathered by the explorer) into something new.

3. Judge
Ideas developed by the artist are evaluated and their merits are weighed; suggestions are offered on how they can be improved or further developed.

4. Warrior
Implementation of the ideas approved by the judge requiring persistence and determination.

SECRETS TO CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

• Be an optimist
• Take your time
• Get enough information
• Brainstorm by yourself
• Redefine the problem
• Plan for results
• Break the routine
• Make a minus a plus
• Don't give up.
• Allow yourself to daydream
• Ask questions
• Have a sense of humor
• Tolerate ambiguity


GROUP TECHNIQUES TO GENERATE CREATIVITY

Brainstorming
Groups generate as many ideas as possible, listing ideas on a chart so that group members may modify them or combine them to create additional ideas. Criticism is not allowed during brainstorming, nor is evaluation of ideas.

Storyboarding
An adaptation of brainstorming, but it is primarily nonverbal so articulate group members are not able to dominate the process. Storyboarding uses a process similar to parliamentary procedure to gain support of an idea before it can remain part of the discussion. Storyboarding allows group members to produce data and solutions to problems generating ideas off of previous suggestions.

Nominal Group Technique
Focuses attention on individual members' ideas by having members write down their ideas/solutions on their own before sharing them with the group. Ideas are all recorded, everyone votes to prioritize ideas, then discussion is held on only the top ones before another vote is taken. This technique allows everyone to participate and contribute ideas before the group reaches its decision.


ROADBLOCKS TO CREATIVITY

Thinking there is one right answer
Many of us have the tendency to stop looking for alternative right answers after the first answer has been found. Often it is the third, fifth or tenth right answer that is what we need to solve a problem in an innovative way.

"That's not logical"
Logic is an important creative thinking tool when you are searching for ideas, however, excessive logical thinking can short circuit your creative process.

Following the rules
You often have to break out of pattern to discover another.

Being practical
Practical people know how to get into an open frame of mind, listen to their imagination and build on the ideas they find there.

Avoiding ambiguity
Too much specificity can stifle your imagination!

Being afraid of making a mistake
Errors are a sign that you are diverging from the norm. If you are not failing every now and then it is a sign you are not being very innovative.


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