Be Different:

Lateral Thinking

Creativity

How To Be More Creative: The Art, Science and Practice

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

– Albert Einstein

Creativity Defined

A "new" idea is a combination of old elements. Being able to devise new combinations depend on your ability to discern relationships between seemingly disparate items.⁸

'Creativity is the juxtaposition of ideas which were previously thought to be unrelated.' It is your ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make useful associations among ideas.

"There is virtually no problem you cannot solve, no goal you cannot achieve, no obstacle you cannot overcome if you know how to apply the creative powers of your mind, like a laser beam, to cut through every difficulty in your life and your work."⁶

You Are Creative!

Creativity is not about inventing something totally new, it is about making new – synergistic! – connections. You don't have to be a special kind of person to be creative – everyone can do it. It's not about who you are, it's about what you do. You just need to start looking for multiple solutions rather than settling for just one, and give yourself permission to be playful and inquisitive, flexible and versatile.

Psychologists call the activities associated with idea generation "loose associative thinking" processes. Associative thinking is not linear or sequential. It is jumpy. To invent new connections, the maintenance of uncertainty is important for a time. "Closure is a killer; it strangles associative thinking, in favor of arriving at "an answer". Early in the process, leveraging uncertainty, riding it, and valuing it are critical to developing robust ideas."⁴

An Important Pre-Condition

Although creative people come from varied backgrounds, they all seem to have one thing in common – they love what they are doing.

Practice Every Day

How often should you practice if you wish to win the World Tennis Cup: once a month? once a week? every day?

How often should you exercise your right brain's creative muscles if you wish to master your creative skills: once a month? once a week? every day?

Learn and Develop Creativity

"The good news is that creativity is a skill and a talent that can be learned and developed through practice. With this skill, you can dramatically accelerate your personal and professional growth. By sharpening your thinking skills and exercising your natural creative powers, you can multiply the value of your efforts and rapidly increase the quantity and quality of your rewards."⁶

Take a Different View

It was by taking a different view of a traditional business that major innovations were achieved. To find a better creative solution to the current practice, force yourself to reframe the problem, to break down its components and assemble them in a different way.

Ask Searching Questions

Creativity requires an inquisitive mind. Unless you ask lots of "Why?" and "What If"? questions, you won't generate creative insights. "To avoid this most common of creative errors, be sure to peek under all carpets, including your own. Don't take anything for granted. Especially success. Try looking at the world through more inquisitive eyes; try getting ideas in motion; try asking the all-important: "Why?" See what happens!"⁷

How To Achieve High Visibility In Your Target Market:

10 Strategic Tips

By: Glenn Ebersole

Strategic Tip #4: DO commit to and be an idea generator. Highly visible people are seen as resources and people who can really help move a business, an organization and/or ideas forward... More

Be the Best Possible

10 Tips by Ten3 NZ Ltd.

• Continuous creativity.  Every member of an organisation can be creative. The key towards discovering and maximising your creativity is to be a member of an organisation that offers a work environment that encourages individual and team creativity.  These organisations understand that innovation and creativity are the very source of excellence and quality when applied to customer service, delivery, distribution, sales and marketing and employee productivity, etc... More

10 Ways To Murder Creativity

• Ask for a 200-page document to justify every new idea... More

Inspirational Leadership: 10 Roles

Inspirational leaders create an inspiring culture within their organization. They supply a shared vision and inspire people to achieve more than they may ever have dreamed possible. They are able to articulate a shared vision in a way that inspires others to act. They encourage entrepreneurial creativity and experimentation... More

The Danger of Categorization...

"It's a pity nature isn't divided into the same categories as universities."

By Roni Horowitz

We need categories to be able to handle the huge amount of information we use and control.

That's why we have a hierarchy of folders and files in our computer, and that's why universities are categorized into faculties and departments. Categorization helps you, but can also prevent you from using what you know about one field in another.

There is a well known problem in education called the transference problem. If you teach something in one context, students most likely will not be able to use that knowledge in another¹⁰ and build synergies...

References:

1. 1000 Things You Never Learned in Business School, William. N. Yeomans

2. Decision Making and Problem Solving, by John Adair

3. The NLP Coach, Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago

4. Radical Innovation, Harvard Business School

5. Lateral Thinking, Edward de Bono

6. Get Smart!, Brian Tracy

7. Creativity, Alexander Hiam

8. A Technique for Producing Ideas, James W. Young

9. Unlocking Your Creativity, Brian Tracy

10. ASIT Technique – Creativity and Inventive Thinking, Roni Horowitz

11. What Does Creativity Brings To Your Life?, Linda Dessau

12. The Leader's Guide To Lateral Thinking Skills, Paul Sloane

13. Creativity, Osho