Posts Tagged ‘Thinking Creative’
I’ve been chatting to a few friends about their ‘Thinking Creative‘ and the chat turned into a rather heated discussion.
The thrust of the debate centered around whether creative thinking is an art or a skill?
On the one hand, if it is a skill, then skills can be taught and mastered…….but if it is an art then the consensus of opinion was that an art is an inborn talent and cannot be learned or acquired.
Hmmm. It’s a tough one to call……
Personally, I believe that being able to think creatively is a skill – a science if you like – and can be mastered by following certain rules, exercises and course work. Like any other skill, practice makes perfect and creative thinking or problem solving will eventually become as easy as breathing. And in a relatively short time it will become second nature to you .
But, I also think that ‘Thinking Creative‘ falls under the heading of being an art too.
(Nothing like sitting on the fence here….)
This is because creativity, by definition, is an art!
Just think, (excuse the pun there…), creative thinking requires the thinking of the unthinkable, off the wall ideas, lateral thinking techniques, childlike expression, thinking outside the box, pushing the envelope and any other wild and ridiculous phrases that convey unfettered thinking, ideas and solutions.
Surely that’s art in action?!
In the end, my friends concluded that their ‘Thinking Creative‘ fell equally into both camps and that they deserved another high-priced espresso from the well-known High Street coffee provider – and who am I to disagree?
What’s your opinion? Art or science? Leave a comment & let the world know what you think.
Thinking Creative comes naturally to a child, therefore does that suggest it cannot be a skill?
Have you ever watched a child wrestling with a problem?
If so, you’ll know that children exercise their creative thinking skills in a very different way than adults do.
That is because children have little or no expertise in problem solving and far less experience of dealing with them!
The way children solve problems, though, can teach you a lot and this is the technique that I want you to master today.
A child approaches a problem with an open mind and I’m pretty sure that’s probably something you don’t habitually do. You probably approach a problem with some preconceived notions about how it is all going to end.
Maybe you come at it with a negative attitude even and view the whole thing as a time-consuming annoyance. A child, on the other hand, looks at any problem to be got around as a challenge. To them, problems are a great mystery and are excited about finding a way to unravel them.
I expect that you experience frustration when you can’t fix the problem right away. A child, on the other hand, will become more intrigued and will try different things until they find something that works. They will take great delight in experimenting and will often get lost in their own world as they keep working at it until they succeed.
Adults are far more likely to give up or just ask someone else to do it for them! In fact, children demonstrate a key component in their creative thinking skills without even being aware of doing so!
A child solves problems with wonder, amazement and persistence. Adults want problems to solve themselves because they do want to take the time to solve them properly.
And this is the key point here – one that if you can see the truth of, will unlock your creativity more than just about anything else.
Children see problems as a wonderland of discovery, worlds to get lost in as they explore but adults see problems as irritating time-stealers, keeping them from doing more pressing and important work
We adults tend to be so worried about the time a problem will take to solve that we fail to experience the joy of actually solving that problem!
So, here’s your homework for today – practice flipping your attitude towards problem solving and come at it as a child would. Cultivate a feeling of eager expectation of discovering new and creative solutions and relish the experience instead of becoming irritated at the time taken.
If you can master this technique, you will find that solving problems becomes easier and more enjoyable and ultimately, faster. Your solutions will automatically become more creative, elevating your problem solving creative thinking skills to that of an art not an inconvenience!