Learning to Think Creatively
God is
creative. His creation demonstrates this very well. No two human beings has He
created the same. Human person is made in the image and likeness of this Creative God. Hence he too continuously desires
and attempts to think creatively. Creative thinking aims at bringing out some
innovative ideas for progress. It is also closely related to finding solutions to
the day to day problems of life. The creative thinking helps students in
performing well in their classes and projects. Adults excel better in their
jobs or business if they have creative thinking. It is clear that creative thinking
can help us to be happier, healthier and fruitful
in our life. Being able to think outside the box is a learnable skill. One just
has to be willing to try new things.
Creative thinking is not a talent,
it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding
strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and
where appropriate profits. Strong emotional self-management is
often needed in order to allow creative thinking to emerge. It is important to
be able to cope with risk, confusion, disorder and feeling that you are not
progressing quickly.
Creative
thinking skills are as much about attitude and self-confidence as about talent.
Creative thinking is often less ordered, structured and predictable. As you are
not looking for 'one' answer, you are likely to come up with lots of
suggestions that are not 'right'. So don’t be discouraged by failures. Give new
meaning, direction and enthusiasm to your life by thinking creatively.
There are many
useful techniques which can help in thinking creatively. Certainly, practicing the
following methods will fire up the spark of creative thinking in us.
1. Brainstorming
The
brainstorming method introduced by Alex Faickney Osborn in his book Applied Imagination (1953) is one of the
most common devices to come up with new and creative ideas. Brainstorming can
be practiced individually or in a group. Think as many as possible ideas on one
topic and note them on a paper: don't edit these. Just write them down. Treat
all ideas as if they may contain the seeds of something potentially useful. While
working with a group it is to be noted that, We need to come up with as many
varied ideas as possible, it is important to stick with the main two
principles, originally attributed to Osborn namely postpone your judgment and
hitch-hike on the ideas of others. Inspiration can strike at any time. Ideas
can also slip away very easily. Keep a small notebook at hand so you can jot
down your ideas straight away.
2. Reversals In the
reversals technique, we are asked to reverse the problem. So a problem
statement such as, ‘How do we help students become motivated to learn?’ might
end up as ‘How can we prevent students from being motivated to learn?’ We are
usually much better at coming up with negatives so will come up with ideas such
as ‘bore them to death in a lecture, speak in a monotonous voice, never relate
it to real life’, etc. We then reverse each idea in turn to see if any useful
ideas come from this. For instance, relate your lectures to real life incidents
to motivate the students.
3. Incubation
‘Incubation can
be at any stage during the process of creative thinking but classically, after
an initial sorting the ideas they can be developed by simply incubating’ –
resting, walking or sleeping.’ Allowing yourself to play with an idea whilst
you go for a walk. If you’re trying to solve a problem and can’t, go to bed—you
might find a better solution in the morning. Sleep restructures new memory
representations, meaning we think about experiences in new ways. At the very
least, take a power nap, which
stimulates right brain activity (the part of
the brain responsible for creativity). Forcing yourself to find a solution will only lead to
exhaustion. Try standing up from your desk, walk outside or to the vending
machine, grab a coffee, talk to people and look at the scenery outside your
workplace. Some inspirations strike you at the most unexpected places and when
you’re actually not working.
4.
Question Formulation and Clarification
When you need to start a
creative session, always start with why, how, what, when question and try to
answer it. It’s very important to find out what the real problem is towards
which you want to find a creative solution. In the book ‘Developing Creativity
in Higher Education’ it is stated thus: The problem to be solved needs to be examined from many
perspectives…It can also be a convergent stage if the exercise helps to refine
our understanding of the problem, such that by the time it is well defined it
is almost solved. The process helps us to form a problem or problems in
different ways and stops us from rushing off to start solving the ‘wrong’
problem. Hence, Earnest R. Hilgard has rightly said, “detecting
the problem is as important as finding the answer.”
5. Re-conceptualize the Problem
One thing that researchers have
noticed with
especially creative people is that they tend to re-conceptualize the problem
more often than their less creative counterparts. That means, instead of
thinking of a cut-and-dry end goal to certain situations, they sit back and
examine the problem in different ways before beginning to work. So, if you find
yourself stagnating by focusing on generic problems ("What would be
something cool to paint?"), try to re-conceptualize the problem by
focusing on a more meaningful angle ("What sort of painting evokes the
feeling of loneliness?").
6. Consume Content
that’s Way outside Your Comfort Zone
We all love
reading about stuff of our field which may lead to motivation or inspiration but
typically this doesn't boost creativity. If you want to get your creative
juices flowing, start consuming content you wouldn't normally consume. Read
blogs outside of your interest. Read books outside of your normal genre of
choice. Talk and have lunch with a complete stranger (just make sure they're
not a bad stranger). Research also suggests that
reading/experiencing something absurd or surreal can help boost pattern
recognition and creative thinking. The mind is always seeking to make sense of
the things that it sees, and surreal/absurd art puts the mind in ‘overdrive’ to
give a meaning to the meaningless.
7. Restrict Yourself
The idea that
freedom leads to more creative ideas is wrong. Counterintuitively, it turns out
that constraints can actually increase our creative output. The research shows that many people often take
the path of "least mental resistance," building on ideas they already
have or trying to use every resource at hand. The research also suggests
that placing self-imposed limitations can boost creativity. Try limiting your
work in some way and you may see the benefits of your brain coming up with
creative solutions.
8. Create During a Powerful Mood For a long time, the research has
pointed to happiness as being the ideal state to create in. Research also affirms that thinking about
love can produce more creative thoughts. Some studies on creativity in the
workplace make this bold conclusion: Creativity increased when both positive
and negative emotions were running high. I don't propose here that one has to
be in a bad mood to create something, but next time you're in any strong emotional
state, sit down and focus that energy on creating something worthwhile.
9. Exercise
Is there any wonder that ‘exercising
" is one of the most desired good habits in the entire world? Some
research even suggests that exercise can actually boost creative thinking as
well, due to it's ability to get the heart pumping and put people in a positive
mood. When we’re physically active, the body loosens up and our mind is a little
freer. So it’s easier to come up with solutions to problems and think of new
ideas. Once when researchers had half the participants in a study perform an
exercise video while the other half simply watched a video, those who had
exercised outperformed the others in terms of divergent thinking - or, coming
up with more possible solutions to a problem.
10. Ask, "What Might Have
Been?"
According to the research surrounding the process of counterfactual
thinking, looking at
a situation that has already occurred and asking yourself, "What could
have happened?" can boost creativity for short periods of time. According
to an analysis by Jeremy
Dean analytical problems are best
tackled with a subtractive mind-set: thinking about what could have been taken
away from the situation. Expansive problems benefited most from an additive
counterfactual mind-set: thinking about what could have been added to the
situation.
Creative
thinking actually works better at non-optimal
times. So, if you’re a morning lark, your brain will be better
at finding creative insights at night, when you’re tired. The reason behind
this is that a tired brain struggles to filter out distractions and focus on
one thing. It’s also more likely to wander off on tangents. While that seems
like a bad thing when you’re working but creative thinking actually benefits from distractions and random
thoughts. Research has shown that we’re
better at "thinking outside the box" at our non-optimal times.
We
always think creativity is about coming up with original ideas, but it turns
out creativity is really just about making new connections between
existing ideas. This is pretty exciting, because it means creativity suddenly
seems less scary: we can all connect things that already exist, right? Steve
Jobs agrees with this
theory of what creativity is all about: “Creativity is just connecting things.”
The research on
this one is still small, but one study showed that for college students, those who travelled (abroad)
scored higher on creative thinking tests than those who stayed at their main
campus. ‘This particular study followed students who travelled from their
college in the US to take part in a summer study program in England.’ In many
countries, cultural norms differ greatly between different states or areas, so
it follows that we might see an increase in creativity from even interstate
travel.
14.
Dim Lighting Makes Us Feel More Free
I like a lot of
natural light in my workspace. However, I was surprised to find this research that proved
dim lighting can improve creative performance. The researchers completed six
different studies, which all showed that dim lighting increased creativity.
They found if the lighting around them was dim, participants were likely to be
more creative. The reasoning came from the subconscious feeling of being freer to explore: darkness elicits a feeling of being free
from constraints and triggers a risky, explorative processing style.
15. Inspirational Rituals
One of the best ways to inspire
yourself and create something new every day is to develop rituals that you
begin to use regularly and routinely. This will condition your brain for better
creativity. For instance, your ritual might be reading in the morning,
listening music, meditating for a few minutes or taking several deep breaths.
16. Try To Create Something Every Day Create something every day, even if
it’s only for 5 or 10 minutes. Try to write articles, draw mind maps in
meetings, cook a new dish and also collect and develop hundreds of ideas. Always have
three projects in the pipeline, lots of them are not developed but they
inspire. All those ideas are inspiring each other and generating new ones. It’s
a wonderful feeling. Some people call this luck or planned serendipity.
17.
Be Social and Have Fun When
we spend time with people we trust, we tend to have deeper conversations. These
chats often lead to creative thinking because we’re really able to be ourselves
and talk about our passions. Having fun with our colleagues or friends is a
proven and popular way to generate ideas. It’s a great moment to open up to
ideas of others, so you can make your ideas more consolidated. The best way to
do it is to listen to ideas without judgment. Listening to fresh perspectives
and seeing your issues in different angles may help you reconstruct your ideas.
18. Take Risks
A risk may be a double-ended sword,
but the more you avoid it, the more you are leaving ideas unturned. Risks allow
you to think out-of-the-box, look for the unconventional and embrace the difference.
Creative thinking doesn’t necessitate you to conform all the time; in fact,
most of the ingenious concepts are born from deviating. Don’t be afraid of being wrong or
being rejected. I would think that the biggest hurdle to
innovations or new creative ideas is the originator’s perception that he can be
ridiculed for voicing his thoughts. Although this happens a lot, you may never
know the outcome until you speak. If Marie Curie had been afraid of being
wrong, we wouldn’t have radium.
19. Be Childlike
Be
childlike, or at least consult with one from time to time. Children can connect
things that we don’t normally think go together. They can see patterns and
problems that we, as adults, can’t. What’s more, children’s natural curiosity
is a must for any business leader. Asking the right questions may be the only
way for you to get ahead of the competition.
20. Use Your Sense of Humor Essentially,
innovations and great ideas are just old concepts that are put together in a
way that is fresh and possibly quite funny. Humor puts things that don’t make
sense together in such a way that they do make sense. Learning to laugh at
yourself and your creative ideas frees yourself to think of the most outrageous
things, and may be you can stumble upon that combination of concepts for your
next big project or task.
21. Write by Hand.
Drs.
Carrie and Alton Barron, authors of ‘The Creativity Cure’ advise us to skip the Microsoft Word
doc and pick up a pen instead. Sometimes the whole experience of writing by
hand—the ink on our fingers, the smell of a fresh notebook—is all it takes to trigger
our creativity. Try taking ten minutes to jot down anything and
everything that comes to mind without judgment, a technique called
“free-writing” or “free association”.
22. Meditate Stuck
in a mental rut? When panic strikes, try meditating: It promotes divergent thinking, a state of mind in which we’re able
to generate new ideas. Spend time alone.
It’s true that hanging with friends can boost creativity, but sometimes a little
peace and quiet is necessary. Meditating everyday not only will evolve new
ideas in your mind but it also will increase your concentration and mental
health. Only a healthy mind can be creative.
23. Think about
Something Far Away
Research suggests our ability to
solve problems improves when
we think about events far off in the past or future or in another location. So
picture New Year’s Eve 2025 or dining at a café in a forest area and let the
imagination go! You might as well imagine how people will be communicating in
India in 2050. You are sure to get some nice creative ideas.
24. Make a
Creativity Space (Room)
Designate a
physical space for creativity in the house and include objects related to
hobbies, mementos from favorite memories, and vision boards. If not enough
space try a “creativity corner” in a single room. That way, says Dr. Mark Banschick, “the brain will get into the habit of
being creative every time we’re in that area.” The room needs to be set up so
that it is as inspiring as possible – the most important elements are light,
colour, flexibility in the use of space, comfort, warmth, music if desired and
a good supply of goodies and drinks. You may also try an imaginary space in
your mind with natural greenery (of your liking) etc. So whenever you close
your eyes and enter that sacred space you will start getting new and creative
insights.
No comments:
Post a Comment