Creativity is not an inherited skill

Creativity is not something people are born with but is a skill that is developed over time with consistent practice. It could be argued that people you think were “born” creative because their parents were creative, too, are creative simply because they have been practising creative thinking since childhood, stimulated by their parents’ questions and discussions. It could also be argued that everyone is born creative, and each person simply needs stimulus and then practice to fully utilise that creativity.

Creativity is not free-form thinking

While you may want to free yourself from all preconceived notions, there is a recognisable structure to creative thinking. Rules and requirements do not limit creative thinking—they provide the scaffolding on which truly creative solutions can be built. Free-form thinking often lacks direction or an objective; creative thinking is aimed at producing a defined outcome or solution. 

Creative thinking does not always involve coming up with new or original ideas

Rather, it can be the process of seeing the same things others see, but differently. You use skills such as examining associations and relationships, flexibility, elaboration, modification, imagery, and metaphorical thinking. In the process, you will stimulate your curiosity, come up with new approaches to things, and have fun! 

Combine old ideas in new ways

When King C. Gillette registered his patent for the safety razor, he built on the idea of disposable bottle caps, but his venture did not become profitable until he toyed with a watch spring and came up with the idea of how to manufacture inexpensive (therefore disposable) blades. Bottle caps and watch springs are far from men’s grooming materials, but Gillette’s genius was in combining those existing but unlikely ideas.

Train yourself to think “out of the box”. Ask yourself questions like, 

• “What is the most ridiculous solution I can come up with for this problem?” or
• “If I were transported by a time machine back to the 1930s, how would I solve this problem?”

 You may enjoy watching competitive design, cooking, or fashion shows (Top Chef, Chopped, Project Runway, etc.); they are great examples of combining old ideas to make new, functional ones.     

Think metaphorically 

Metaphors are useful to describe complex ideas; they are also useful in making problems more familiar and in stimulating possible solutions. For example, if you were a partner in a company about to take on outside investors, you might use the pie metaphor to clarify your options (a smaller slice of a bigger pie versus a larger slice of a smaller pie). If an organization you are a part of is lacking direction, you may search for a “steady hand at the tiller,” communicating quickly that you want a consistent, non-reactionary, calm leader. Based on that ship-steering metaphor, it will be easier to see which of your potential leaders you might want to support.

Your ability to work comfortably with metaphors takes practice. When faced with a problem, take time to think about metaphors to describe it, and the desired solution. Observe how metaphors are used throughout communication and think about why those metaphors are effective. Have you ever noticed that the financial business uses water-based metaphors (cash flow, frozen assets, liquidity) and that meteorologists use war terms (fronts, wind force, storm surge)? What kinds of metaphors are used in your area of study?

Ask

A creative thinker always questions the way things are: Why are we doing things this way? What were the objectives of this process and the assumptions made when we developed the process? Are they still valid? What if we changed certain aspects? What if our circumstances changed? Would we need to change the process? How? Get in the habit of asking questions—a lot of questions.