THE CREATIVE PROCESS
WHAT IS CREATIVITY? CAN YOU LEARN CREATIVITY?
Shifting to a more balanced approach; creativity isn’t about freedom from concrete facts. Rather, fact-finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process. Creativity requires constant shifting, blender pulses of both divergent thinking and convergent thinking, and to combine new information with old and forgotten ideas. Highly creative people are very good at aligning their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate.
In a recent study, IBM asked over 1 500 business leaders and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries what they believe will be the most important leadership qualities in managing their companies in today's world over the next five years. Some 60 percent of the respondents chose creativity. The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews.
The left-brain approach, with technical, analytical and linear approaches to problem solving, has traditionally been favored. But there has been a move towards right-brain thinking, which involves searching for more holistic views, strategic thinking, creativity and innovation.
Not everyone is naturally creative, but it is a skill that can be learnt. Develop your creativity by listening to music, asking lots of questions, spending time outdoors and being physically active, playing games and completing puzzles, watching motivating movies, finding alternative uses for everyday items, setting aside time to explore different ways of solving problems and working with others.
The left-brain approach, with technical, analytical and linear approaches to problem solving, has traditionally been favored. But there has been a move towards right-brain thinking, which involves searching for more holistic views, strategic thinking, creativity and innovation.
Not everyone is naturally creative, but it is a skill that can be learnt. Develop your creativity by listening to music, asking lots of questions, spending time outdoors and being physically active, playing games and completing puzzles, watching motivating movies, finding alternative uses for everyday items, setting aside time to explore different ways of solving problems and working with others.
STAGES OF CREATIVITY
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To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result). |
PLAY: KICK STARTING IDEATING
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AYSE BIRSEL: DESIGN PROCESS + LIFE
"Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints such as time, money, age, location, and circumstances. We cannot have everything. If we want more, we have to be creative about how to make what we need and what we want co-exist. This requires design thinking." - Ayse Birsel
THINKING LIKE A DESIGNER:
- Think positively
- Put yourself in the shoes of other people and see things from their perspective
- See the big picture
- Collaborate with others, makes ideas much richer
- Always ask yourself, "WHAT IF?"