Lesson 1 and 2 : Defining Creativity

What is creativity?

 

 

 

 

Creativity is the bringing into being of something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought.

You would be demonstrating creativity if you:

• Invent something which has never existed before
• Invent something which exists elsewhere but you are not aware of
• Invent a new process for doing something
• Reapply an existing process or product into a new or different market
• Develop a new way of looking at something (bringing a new idea into existence)
• Change the way someone else looks at something

In fact, we are all creative every day because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold about the world about us. Creativity does not have to be about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with developing something new to ourselves. When we change ourselves, the world changes with us, both in the way that the world is affected by our changed actions and in the changed way that we experience the world.

Creativity can be used to make products, processes and services better and it can be used to create them in the first place. It is expected that increasing your creativity will help you, your organization and your customers become happier through improvements in your quality and quantity of output.

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What is creative thinking?

Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before. Brainstorming is one form of creative thinking: it works by merging someone else's ideas with your own to create a new one. You are using the ideas of others as a stimulus for your own.

This creative thinking process can be accidental or deliberate.

Without using special techniques creative thinking does still occur, but usually in the accidental way; like a chance happening making you think about something in a different way and you then discovering a beneficial change. Other changes happen slowly through pure use of intelligence and logical progression. Using this accidental or logical progression process, it often takes a long time for products to develop and improve. In an accelerating and competitive world this is obviously disadvantageous.

Using special techniques, deliberate creative thinking can be used to develop new ideas. These techniques force the mergance of a wide range of ideas to spark off new thoughts and processes. Brainstorming is one of these special techniques, but traditionally it starts with unoriginal ideas.

Developments of products occur much more rapidly using these deliberate techniques than by accident. Many people known for being creative use these techniques, but are not aware they are doing so because they have not been formally trained in them. If you use these deliberate techniques during advanced brainstorming sessions then you too will be more creative.

With practice, ongoing creative thinking (the continuous investigation, questioning and analysis that develops through education, training and self-awareness) occurs all the time. Ongoing creativity maximizes both accidental and deliberate creative thinking. Ongoing creativity takes time and deliberate practice to become skillful at, but it's surprising how quickly it becomes an attitude, not a technique.

The first step to take is to learn the creative thinking techniques so that you can deliberately use them to come up with new ideas. You will then be at an immediate advantage over those who don't know how to use them. You should then practise the techniques to increase your skill at ongoing creative thinking. (After a while you may even find it unnecessary to use specific techniques because you may be having too many ideas anyway.)