Do you know about creative thinking and what are some creative thinking exercises?

 

Do you know about creative thinking and what are some creative thinking exercises?

What is creative thinking?

A distinctive feature of a person is the ability to think creatively and express oneself very creatively. Intellectual activity involves the process of processing information, creating through non-standard sensory, imaginative mental concepts and connections. It allows you to come to fundamentally new, non-trivial solutions to problems or problematic situations, and also gives rise to original ideas and leads to discoveries.

 

The author of the "concept of creativity" J. Guilford identified four key features of creative thinking:

Semantic flexibility. This is the ability to consider objects or phenomena from different angles, determine their unusual, non-trivial characteristics and features, propose unconventional methods of application, increase the range of practical functional use;

 

Spontaneous semantic flexibility. It is understood as the ability to produce and propose various ideas in conditions of uncertainty, when there are no specific, clear guidelines for the implementation of the task;

 

Adaptive figurative flexibility. This is the ability to look at an object from a different angle, perceive it in a new way, highlight implicit, hidden features and features;

 

Focus on intellectual novelty. It consists of putting forward original and unusual ideas, striving to implement one’s own unusual solutions in any area.

 

What are some creative thinking exercises?

There are many options. Even if you sit down to come up with an answer to the question of how to develop creative thinking exercises, this will already be practice in developing this skill, because something new and non-standard is being created.

 

To develop creativity, you can study other professional fields, try new hobbies and develop an eye for design, literature, cinema, and music. Look for inspiration in communication with other people. And in parallel, it is important to constantly ask yourself the question: “What can I do to improve this item or product?”

 

There are also several interesting tasks for weekly practice that will develop creativity and keep the creative brain in good shape.

 

Invent new meanings for words

We take a few words and select a new meaning for them. For example, “lemon”: what else can this word mean? We know that this is a sour fruit, but now let's imagine that it is not so at all. We don’t know anything about it - what could it be, based on its name, shape, color? Options include an anti-stress toy or a term indicating that a person is very sad.

 

Unreal is real

What if... You can start with this question and imagine something unreal, which definitely will not happen in our world. What if an elephant could fly? What if all people were the size of ants? What if all the cities were in the air?

 

This technique often helps to come up with something unconventional when creating advertising creative, as it breaks the usual patterns and attracts attention.

 

100 ideas

Take a piece of paper or open notes on your phone and come up with 100 ideas of any kind. For example, you might come up with 40 ideas for creating a new product or business, 30 ideas to help you work more efficiently, and 30 ideas for home improvement.

 

In this technique, the emphasis is on quantity. You can still come up with 5-10 ideas, but when it comes to a hundred, here we turn on our creative thinking to its full potential.

 

Techniques for generating ideas

Most often, ideas come spontaneously. You can wash in the shower, chat with a friend and walk down the street and at that moment catch yourself thinking that an idea has appeared. But this is an accident. And for randomness to become practice, you need to use creative thinking techniques. They will help you get off the ground, find different approaches to solving one problem and lead you to a fountain of ideas.

 

There are definitely more than thirty creative techniques, and each can be modernized and developed in its own way. One of the popular TRIZ methods was created by the Soviet scientist Heinrich Altshuller. And American researcher Bob Eberle came up with SCAMPER, which we will talk about later. Therefore, it doesn’t matter at all what kind of profession a person has - creative techniques help everyone, everywhere.

 

Brainstorm

A group of people get together and generate as many ideas as possible on a given topic. A team can consist of 3-4 people or 12 - no longer necessary.

 

The main rule of brainstorming is not to criticize ideas, even if they seem stupid or unfeasible. Criticism is a negative reaction. Nobody likes when their ideas are criticized, because ideas are like children. In a team, criticism creates an unfavorable atmosphere, and the atmosphere is very important for generating ideas.

 

First comes the preparation stage: 2 days before the brainstorming, participants receive a topic for discussion and begin to search for information. On the day of the session, it is worth doing a warm-up before the start of the assault: joke, draw.

 

For example, our team often sits down in the office lobby before a race and discusses abstract topics and jokes. Then we start generating ideas. There are no restrictions, but the most important thing is to ask questions and not criticize. Questions will help push the brain to find solutions, and criticism will create barriers to generating ideas.

 

The session lasts an hour or two. Afterwards, we write down all the ideas and evaluate them, using a point system. This happens in the format of live communication, and the final decision is made by the creative director.

 

Associative thinking

We find associations on a given topic and generate ideas based on these associations. For example, if we need to develop a name or design concept on the topic “furniture,” we build associations with various objects and concepts associated with furniture: home, comfort, style, materials, colors, etc., and develop ideas from this.

 

Associations can work in different ways. Let’s say, if you need to come up with an idea for the design concept of an architectural bureau, we start with the word “architecture.” We come up with different options for associations with it: sculpture, clay, accuracy, reliability. Next, we look at associations and choose the word we want to cling to. For example, accuracy. We think about what can be associated with this word and base the design on this.

 

There is another approach when the association is built on a chain.

Let's imagine that we need to do some kind of creative event. Let's take the word "creative". In three minutes we write down associations for this word - 5-8 words are enough. Each next word must be an association to the previous one.

 

Now there are two words: “creative” and the last word in the chain “camp”. We take another three minutes and try to create and describe a product, service or service that combines the first and last word. There may be several options. For example, you can make a creative camp for young students.

 

Free writing

This is a creative writing technique that allows you to immerse yourself in the free flow of words. You will need a notepad, pen and timer.

 

The main goal is to start writing and looking for ideas.

Set the timer for 10 minutes. We define the goal: as a starting point, you can take the problem that needs to be solved. We write it at the top. And then - everything that comes to mind. There is no need to correct anything, think about punctuation and wording. If there is nothing to write about, we write nonsense.

 

The most important thing is to suppress the internal censor and write down all your thoughts. As soon as the time is up, we re-read everything written and record interesting words or thoughts - transfer them to a blank sheet of paper. The session can be repeated every other day, and then see which ideas are best suited to solving the problem.

 

Analogies

We look for analogies with other areas of life or objects and use them to solve problems.

For example, to advertise sports drinks, you might consider other sports-related products, such as sports equipment or accessories. We then use the similarities between these products and the sports drink to generate new advertising campaign ideas. For example, show how a drink helps athletes achieve high results, as well as the right sports equipment.

 

SCAMPER

The author of this technique is Bob Eberle, and it was later improved by journalist and creative process researcher Alex Osborne.

The method is based on the idea that everything new is a modification of what already exists.

Each letter in the acronym SCAMPER represents a question that can be asked to change an existing idea:

S ― Substitute (replace) ― is it possible to replace something or replace one element with another?

C - Combine - Is it possible to combine different elements of ideas or products together?

A - Adapt - is it possible to adapt an idea or product to new conditions or situations?

M - Modify/Magnify/Minify - Can the size, shape, color or any other aspect of the idea or product be changed?

P - Put to another use - Can the idea or product be used in a new context or for a different purpose?

E - Eliminate (eliminate/rebuild) - is it possible to remove some element from an idea or product?

R - Reverse - is it possible to swap elements or aspects of an idea or product?

 

A good example of using this technique was demonstrated at McDonald's. The management decided that waiters were no longer needed and customers could serve themselves. Now the company has moved away from this principle, but for a long time it was like this. They used Eliminate - they rebuilt the model of working with waiters.

 

Method 636

Method 636, a silent brainstorming method, was developed by German business consultant Bernd Rohrbach. The main difference from the usual storming is that participants exchange ideas in writing. 6 people participate in the storming, in each round everyone must write down 3 ideas, 6 rounds in total. Hence the name of the method.

 

2-3 days before the meeting, the participants are told the task.

At the meeting, everyone receives a sheet with three columns and six rows. In the columns of the first line, everyone must enter 3 ideas for solving the problem. After 3–5 minutes, the sheets are passed clockwise. In the second round, participants must add to the ideas that came before them. This goes for 6 rounds. As a result, in 30 minutes you can collect 108 ideas (6*3*6). And then a joint discussion and evaluation of ideas begins: the craziest ideas are discarded and the final 20 are recorded, which at the next stage are evaluated using a 5-point system.

 

We at the agency don’t often use this technique, because usually a standard brainstorming session is enough for us, especially since we can’t always get together six of us. But one day this technique helped us. We planned to participate in the festival - we needed ideas. Lots of ideas to choose the top five. There were just 6 of us: 3 creators, a designer, a PR-manager and a creative director. That's why we remembered this method.

 

Someone started the idea that they could make a logo for the village. The next person added that this could be not just a logo, but a design system. And in the end the idea got to the point where we came up with the idea of making a design system for different villages in Russia.

 

In addition, we came up with several options for communication slogans and how to translate this into a special project. The idea has not yet been implemented, but from a small logo we have reached a full-fledged communication campaign and a full-fledged special project.

 

How to use creative techniques

There is no universal rule.

If there is a group of people, several techniques can be used in one session. Because each new approach will restructure the brain and produce new solutions.

We usually use no more than 2-3 techniques - this is quite enough, and we use different methods already at the subconscious level and it can be difficult to say exactly which technique worked.

At the beginning of the storming, we warm up and create a favorable atmosphere - we joke, tell stories from life, and then we disperse them together. And after that we begin to generate ideas.

If you storm alone, you can use the method of associations or analogies. Although you can storm on your own, it is not so effective.

 

What else is important for solving creative problems?

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Creative thinking involves searching for non-standard solutions, which can lead to mistakes. But it’s not scary, because every mistake is an opportunity to learn something new.

Diversify your experience.  The more knowledge and experience you have, the more associations you can create and the more ideas you can generate. Try to read, watch and learn more from different professional and non-professional fields.

Constantly train creative thinking.  Creativity is a skill that can only be developed and improved through constant practice. Regularly practice developing creative thinking and look for innovative solutions to everyday problems.

Try doing familiar things in a new way.  For example, change your usual route from home to work or add a game element to routine and daily tasks. This helps you stay on your toes and notice something new in the usual.

Walk more often.  Scientists from Stanford University have proven that while walking, human creativity increases by 60%. Steve Jobs often walked before important meetings or chose a walk instead of an office for negotiations.

A healthy body means healthy creativity.  Exercise also helps develop creativity. Morning exercises or a little warm-up during the day will already be a good help.