Creative thinking skills enables us to break from the status quo and push for innovation. Creative thinking challenges assumptions which enables for organizational progress, enables for better solutions to complex problems, and for continuous improvement in the business. Creative thinking can be learned! Sometimes we just have to break away from our normal routine to be a bit more creative in how we think.
Here are six ways to improve and refine your creative thinking skills:
- Keep an idea book and jot down every time you get an idea (or, for those who prefer to track everything electronically, record your idea into your mobile device.)
- Get away from your desk at least for 15 minutes every day and allow ideas to take shape by going for a walk or hanging out in a park.
- Keep abreast of what’s happening in your area of expertise or industry by reading journals, attending conferences, or subscribing to relevant online magazines.
- Learn about what is happening outside your area of expertise or industry. Often we apply ideas from other areas to problems we need to solve.
- Pose questions regularly – “What if…” or “Suppose that…”
- Spend at least 30 minutes a week doing individual brainstorming to solve a problem you are having or develop a new way of getting something accomplished.
Interested in bringing a workshop on site to your organization to help your employees do a better job being innovative? Check out Abudi Consulting’s popular workshop on Brainstorming.
