Skill of the Week- Creative Thinking
To start off the long list of skills for this series, I thought that I would tackle a nice easy one… yeah, right. Several hours of research and writing later, here we go:
Description
There are many misconceptions as to what creative thinking means. In some people’s minds it’s an oxymoron: creativity is often perceived as a lack of clear, logical thinking. After all, there we have been shown dozens of diagrams of the brain showing ‘left brain’ and ‘right brain’ uses.
Creative thinking involves divergent and convergent thinking. “Divergent thinking makes it possible to imagine different possibilities while suspending judgment, whereas convergent thinking puts judgment to work in making informed choices,” (http://aqpc.qc.ca/sites/default/files/revue/Filteau-Vol_25-3-E.pdf).
Common Problems
Ironically enough, at a young age we all have such wonderful imaginations. Somewhere along the way many of us have been told that we are “not the creative type…” and we believed them. Whether it was being told we had no creativity working on an ‘arts’ project as a youngster or that we were told to quite daydreaming, we gave up on imagination, risk-taking and adventure in one form or another.
In reality, many of us have been ignoring the divergent thinking in favour of the convergent thinking because it generally has served us better in our school and home life. Others have fought to retain their identity as being creative and really developed their divergent thinking, but find it challenging to select, direct and evaluate the myriad ideas.
Approaches to Improve
There are really three issues in the way of improving our creative thinking: 1) developing our divergent thinking skills 2) developing our convergent thinking skills, and 3) utilizing both divergent and convergent thinking skills in tandem.
To develop our divergent thinking skills requires time set aside to dream/daydream and brainstorm in a variety of situations. It takes practice to not filter your responses when brainstorming. We often evaluate our ideas before we are willing to communicate them in writing or orally. In a brainstorming session, practice including all ideas before you give yourself a chance to think about how silly, impractical, or downright dumb it may seem at the time. Sometimes the most ridiculous trains of thought can be the spark that leads to some amazingly creative, practical solutions or ideas.
If you have left your imagination in your early childhood, it’s time to rekindle it. A starting point is to explore the SCAMPER method: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse. Start with an ordinary object or problem and apply each component of scamper to it. Another approach is to take time to see a problem or concept backwards, inside-out and upside down.
Conversely, some of us have really held onto our divergent thinking, and we struggle with convergent thinking. We have millions of ideas but lack the skill set to organize and harness the power of those ideas. This too takes practice to get good at evaluating, analysing and making decisions about which ideas to develop further.
Growing up a neighbour of mine had so many ideas for a business, but lacked the follow-through. He started so many projects, but just couldn’t stick with it for more than a year or two before being swept away by another one or more of his ideas.
Often goal-setting and planning long-term with measureable components to see progress can help us stick with our plan. There are many resources out there about creating SMART goals. If you are still in school, many progressive teachers are getting quite good at helping you develop these skills.
To put it all together consistently well, really requires gaining experience in knowing when to use each type. Even the most creative people don’t get the interaction between divergent and convergent thinking right.
All the best as you seek to develop more pronounced creating thinking skills.
Matt Bean
Owner- Foundations Career Coaching
