4.3 Creative Thinking

This topic offers ways to develop as a creative person and a creative thinker, especially in a work context. We can all learn to be more creative but, contradictory as it sounds, we might have to be a bit more conscious of doing it. Asma Karoobi gives a great overview of some things to help us be more creative:

Reflection

From Slide 53 there are 15 Tips to be creative. When you’ve looked at these: Write down THREE THINGS you are prepared to do to be more creative.

You can use the Stepping Into Leadership Course Workbook to record your thoughts.

Joanna Maxwell gives some tips on how to harness our natural creativity and develop it.

This presentation suggests four key steps to enhancing our innate creativity:

Step 1: Be Curious

Step 2: Make Connections

Step 3: Challenge Yourself

Step 4: Cultivate Your Ideas

Reflection

For each of these four steps:
Think about, and write down at least TWO specific things you will do to be more effective in each of the four steps.

You can use the Stepping Into Leadership Course Workbook to record your thoughts.

Creative thinking tools

There are many books and other resources on creative thinking tools and techniques. You might have to try different methods before you find things that work for you. You will have some favourites, but it is good to have a few different techniques for different types of problems and situations.

The following presentation gives a brief description of 27 techniques. It's given here to give you a sense of the range of techniques available - you are not expected to absorb and try them all. If any of them look interesting to you, you could find more details for yourself and have a go.

There is a directory of techniques and more detailed descriptions on the Creative Minds website.

Continue the course with: 4.4 Innovation