CREATIVE THINKING: CHARACTERISTICS AND TECHNIQUES - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

The creative thinking is a way of thinking with which no existing solutions are created prior to new or old problems. It is a concept related to creativity that can be stimulated both by an unstructured process such as brainstorming, and by a structured process such as lateral thinking.

Some of the most important components of creative thinking are critical thinking, Socratic questions, changing perspectives, or non-acceptance of the established / status quo.

Creative thinking, as its name suggests, refers to a way of thinking that has the ability to create; that is, having the ability to think in such a way that one's own thought is capable of creating, inventing or producing something new.

This type of thinking allows you to have new ideas and obtain different concepts in relation to some aspect. For example, if you have your own business and you want to find the formula to advertise your product well, you will need a good idea.

To get this idea you will need to use your creative thinking, so that with all the knowledge you already have in your head, you can create a new one that is useful for your purpose.

characteristics

What makes this type of thinking really extraordinary is that when it appears, it brings very useful solutions and thoughts. Creative thinking should be based on looking for ideas that have not been proven to be reliable or useful, but that upon finding them reveals that they are.

For example, when looking for an idea to advertise a business, you can think of making an advertisement for it to appear on the radio.

If the final idea is this, a solution will have been obtained (a useful a priori idea), but creative thinking will not have been used, since nothing new has been created, an already existing idea has been taken.

The objective of creative thinking is to obtain a series of new ideas or concepts, the result of which is not known, but which, when materialized, prove to have their value.

When Albert Einstein began to formulate the theory of relativity he did not know if it was going to be true or not, if he was going to devise something useful or not. It was at the moment in which he materialized it that he discovered the usefulness of his idea.

What is it for?

Creative thinking allows you to generate thoughts and have new ideas, but in reality it is used for many more things, let's see what its uses are:

• Refine - Find new enhancements for anything and discover better ways to perform any action.
• Solving problems: creativity also allows you to discover or create new solutions, reach different conclusions, or obtain new results that are useful to remedy or prevent any issue.
• Added value: nowadays, organizations, like people, are increasing their competitiveness more and more, and that makes the added value, the increase in profit or the generation of opportunities that creative thinking can bring you to be very important.
• Motivation: creativity is probably the greatest source of motivation that a person can have, since it generates the hope of always finding something better, achieving achievements and obtaining a more interesting life.

Techniques

Brainstorming

Brainstorming consists of bringing together a group of people who take turns sharing their ideas to solve a problem. To do this process properly, you must comply with these principles:

• Everyone has may have a different opinion.
• All ideas are equally valued.
• No criticism of other people's ideas is allowed.

The principle behind the effectiveness of brainstorming is Linus Pauling's reflection that most ideas are not very good.

So the best way to get a good idea is to come up with lots of ideas, discard the impractical and inappropriate ideas, and keep the good ones. The problem is that there is no scientific formula for the number of ideas you need to generate to find a good one, or a guarantee that you will be able to find one even though many are generated.

Using the "right brain"

Another known process for thinking creatively is using the right brain or right hemisphere. The right hemisphere of the brain participates in the most creative and innovative activities. The left side of the brain is more focused on logic and order.

There is evidence that doing physical activities that engage creative areas of the brain can help you think differently.

Get out of your comfort zone

The first requirement for you to develop your creative thinking is to get out of your comfort zone. If you always stay at home or at work, operating in a monotonous, routine way, you will never stimulate your creativity.

You need to get out there, stay active, get stimulated. Do not let monotony take hold of you, if it does, you will be depriving yourself of developing creative thinking. To be able to have creativity you have to be open to it, so you have to have a way of seeing things and a dynamic way of life.

You must be interested in the aspects of your surroundings, be awake, be curious, experience new things. Somehow, you have to adapt your personality and your way of being to an active and receptive style.

If you manage to interact in this way with the outside in a regular way, you will have already opened the door to creativity.

Always write down your ideas

Never belittle any of your ideas, go to the stationery store, buy a pocket notebook and always carry it with you to be able to write down all the thoughts that may arise during the day.

If you function actively and dynamically, a lot of ideas are sure to pop into your head. In fact, although we may think otherwise, we all have multitudes of ideas during the day, what happens is that many times we ignore them.

Many times you may think that they are useless ideas or vague concepts without any interest, but when you develop your creative thinking that does not matter.

It doesn't matter if when the idea or thought comes to you, you think it's silly. It doesn't matter that when you think about something, you don't think it's the best thing that has ever occurred to you. Creative thoughts in and of themselves are neither helpful nor pragmatic, as they are new ideas.

And it is that the essential element to have a creative thought is the abundance of ideas and reasoning. The more you accumulate, the more material you will have to work on later and the more options you will have to develop your creative thinking.

Interact with others

Another vital aspect of generating ideas and gaining different points of view is sharing your thoughts with others. Do not pretend to acquire creativity by yourself, if you talk to others and they give you their opinion, the ideas will multiply and your creativity will have it much easier.

Four eyes will always see more than two, two brains will always think more than one. Take advantage of others to open your field of vision, think about things you might never think about, and promote creative thinking.

Shift your focus of attention

To start developing your creativity is much easier if you start with small thoughts. Great ideas usually don't come from very broad or very abstract thoughts, but from more focused thoughts and highly detailed ideas.

A very small creative thought can evolve and produce spectacular end results. So, change your focus of attention and get used to focusing on little things.

A simple question like: "Could you make a milk container more comfortable to handle?" while making your latte in the morning can become a great idea.

Obviously, this question is a simple example, but it helps me to show you in a practical way how you should focus your attention.

Concentrate on small details, think about simple things that you have never worried about and you will be empowering your creative thinking.

Ask yourself the why of things

Human beings are used to living in a certain environment, where practically everything is taken for granted and we hardly ever question the why of things.

Why is this done this way? Couldn't it be done in another way? What alternatives could exist? These simple questions aimed at just about any aspect of life can lead you directly to creative thinking.

However, we must bear in mind that creative questioning is totally different from critical questioning. What critical thinking does is evaluate whether something is correct or not, however the creative questioning that you have to do should not be like that.

Creative questioning must always answer the question why ?, with the intention of finding alternatives, improvements or improvements.

Experiment mentally

The thought experiment is about you thinking in a crazy way for a few minutes. Take all the ideas that you have been writing down in your notebook or those that occur to you at this precise moment and ask yourself: What would happen if…?

Many times great discoveries or great ideas are the result of chance, they are the result of trying something new that no one could imagine. So, take the thoughts or ideas you have had and hypothesize with them.

It does not matter if the idea is vague, poorly defined or a priori without any use, if you have thought about it for something it will be, and obviously it is always better to do something with a thought than not to leave it in oblivion.

"What if to better advertise my new product I sell it to the competition?" It's a crazy thought, yes, but why not think about it?

Why never think about things I never think about? Why don't I ask myself questions or hypothesize about unusual things?

If you want to have creative thinking, you should do it, so submit your ideas to all kinds of questions, no matter how outrageous they may seem.

Create while you sleep

Finally, a very useful strategy to increase your creative capacity is to use those thoughts that you have when you sleep. You may think that when you are sleeping your mind is sleeping too, but this is not the case.

The brain activity we have when we sleep is much higher than what we have when we are awake. So why don't we take advantage of it?

The answer may seem simple: "because we are asleep", since it is evident that when we sleep we are not aware of our thoughts. However, we can try to recover as much information as possible that is produced in our subconscious while we sleep.

To do this, I suggest that just before going to sleep you spend some time thinking about the problem or topic related to the ideas you want to have, and leave a notebook and a pen on the bedside table.

Set your alarm clock to go off approximately 40 minutes after falling asleep, and when you wake up write down everything that comes to mind at the time.

This technique is usually complex and may not be effective for everyone, however if you get practice doing it it can be very useful.

Themes of interest

Lateral thinking.

Games to train the brain.

How to improve creativity.

SCAMPER creativity technique.

Left hemisphere.

Right hemisphere.