Creative thinking Thinking outside of the box

First of all: There is no such thing as a ‘creative block’.

So? What if you get stuck? Think differently. Use creative thinking techniques!

Thinking  Thinking is: A conscious process  Creative thinking: Can be learned Can be done in various ways

2 ways Practical thinking:  Act  Evaluate  Improve  Plan new action Creative thinking:  Explore/Discover  Develop ideas  Evaluate  Check

Thinking process (2 steps) 1. Observation: Is about feeling, sensing, intuition. Answers questions like: What can you see? What could it be? Is about reality.

Thinking process continued 2. Evaluation Involves the mind, common sense Is about action Is about questions like: What does it mean? What do you think?

Message! Most people forget about stage 1 Brainstorming is about stage 1

Brainstorming Is about generating ideas. As many as you can.

4 basic rules  Don’t offer criticism  Free wheeling is good  We want quantity (rather than quality)  Aim for improvement and combinations

4 more rules  Just start – don’t wait for inspiration  Focus – on the task at hand  Pay attention -just one way of thinking  Concentrate- just go on, don’t give up

During a brainstorm Do:  Call out freely what’s in your mind  Associate, create links & relations  Use numbers, words, images etc  Think about synonyms, opposites etc Don’t:  Judge what’s being said  Think about practical matters  Say things like ‘This won’t work’ etc

3 T’s  Team: chairman, client, thinkers  Task  Time: max 30 minutes

Team: the chairman  Leads the session  Prevents people from talking at the same time  Encourages people to contribute  Prevents evaluation  Summarises ideas  Checks the time

Team: the thinkers  Should be people with: Different skills Different tasks/functions Different talents

Techniques  ‘Why not’ questions Be silly, outrageous, fantasize!  Use an oracle E.g. a dictionary. Flip it open and randomly pick a word.  Use metaphors Word imagery, proverbial sayings etc.

Techniques continued  Reason by analogy This looks like/is like…because… E.g. This is like doing the dishes because.. Use a list of activities to do this  Visualize Think of an image, play a movie in your head and write down what you see

More techniques  Think of a story Describe what the world/your product etc would look like if…  Identify How would you deal with this problem if you were…an astronaut, George Clooney, Bugs Bunny etc?

Even more techniques  Reverse Rules, techniques, procedures, Habits, conventions, etc. Note: A more detailed description (steps and aims) of these kinds of techniques can be found in the following PP on this website: ‘Thinking techniques_an overview’.

What you need  A room: Large enough for the group With good light, fresh air  No phones  Good atmosphere  Flip overs, blackboards, markers  Paper, pencils  Dictionaries, magazines, papers, books etc

Results  Realistic ideas  Fresh ideas (need to be worked on)  Intriguing ideas

Creative listening  While you are listening, your mind will start working  Write down what you think  This way you will be able to listen again!

After the session  Evaluate your ideas  Pick the best, most suitable.  Start stage 2 of the thinking process.

A mind map  A mind map is not exactly the same as a brainstorm.  A mind map is more structured.

Comparison Brainstorm  Write the ‘word’ in the middle of the paper  Write down everything you can think of  Anywhere…  Use words, numbers, colours, images etc Mind Map  Write the ‘word’ in the middle of the paper  Draw ‘branches’ for different categories  Make sub branches  Use words, images, numbers, arrows etc  Make new versions for large branches, different ways or ordering the information etc.

Sources  The information in this PP was based upon:  Brainstorming;  Creatief denken; Han Bakker