Creative Thinking

What is Creativity?

• An Ability
• An Attitude
• A Process
 Creative Methods

• Evolution
• Synthesis
• Revolution
• Reapplication
• Changing Direction
 Negative Attitudes That Block
Creativity
• Oh no, a problem!
• It can't be done
• I can't do it. Or There's nothing I can do
• But I'm not creative
• That's childish
• What will people think?
• I might fail
 Myths about Creative Thinking and
Problem Solving

• Every problem has only one solution (or one

right answer)
• The best answer/solution/method has already
been found
• Creative answers are complex
technologically
• Ideas either come or they don't. Nothing will
help
 Positive Attitudes for Creativity
• Curiosity
• Challenge
• Constructive discontent
• A belief that most problems can be
solved
• The ability to suspend judgment and
criticism
• Seeing the good in the bad
• Problems lead to improvements
• A problem can also be a solution
"Is there something good about this
problem?"
• Problems are interesting and
emotionally acceptable
Good Bad Interesting: Get creative thinking with the
G.B.I. exercise

Reframing ideas to see different aspects

1) Theme: DISEASE
• Good: Medical and pharmaceutical companie
s make big profits.
• Bad: Humans suffer pain, misery or early dea
th.
• Interesting
: Word breaks down to DIS-EASE suggesting
strong mental component to illness
.
• Theme: ILLITERACY & POOR
EDUCATION
• Good: Keeps manual labour force
numbers adequately high.
• Bad: People are ill-equipped to make
sound decisions beyond narrow areas.
• Interesting: Uneducated people are easier
to control for power and profit.
•  
• Theme: AIMT
• Theme : Your Favorite Movie
• Theme : Your Favorite food
• Theme : your favorite teacher
• Most people react to a new idea by either liking or
disliking it. They then use their intelligence to defend
their decision because of their need to be right. The
Good Bad Interesting exercise forces creative thinking to
generate multiple perspectives on an idea. It shows that
ideas can be seen as good, as bad or as interesting,
depending on the particular frame of mind you are
coming from. Any idea can be looked at in a different
way by reframing it. The idea changes in the mind of a
person depending on how they are looking at it. This is
important to remember in all negotiations between
people with opposing viewpoints. The GBI creative
thinking exercise enables you to understand other
people much better. It will make you a more flexible
thinker.
 Combining Ideas: How to combine ideas for
creative thinking breakthroughs
• Combining ideas is one of the fundamental exercises in
creative thinking. When you combine ideas you are
following in the footsteps of mankind's creative
breakthroughs. Ever since cavemen twigged that a stick
could be a weapon and a tool, something to build shelter
with and somewhere to hang your saber tooth fur coat
off the ground... we've been combining ideas.
Here is the list of words you can choose from. Feel free to
choose your own words. Mine are just a starter list. You can
combine as many as you want but I suggest starting with two
to begin with.
cherry, car, mobile phone, internet, gun, pen, lion, track,
petrol, fire, candy, machine, ocean, airplane, bread, legs,
brick, drug, bicycle, camel, juice, shoe, compact disk, wheel,
hair, light, leaves, gravel, judge, scissors, steam, lips, mouse,
wood, money, crystal ball, guitar, hypnosis, cloud, zip,
handle, book, software, King, sex, flame, raison, mirror, gas,
space ship, diver, drill, axe, heart, saint, teeth, child, swan,
sing, ball, zoo, cloth, yeast, death, desire, damp, window,
engine, ear, umbrella, tent, toenail, fur, fart, friend, tie, scales,
grandmother, grease, jam, kite, language, marriage, noise,
onion, pizza, pirate, question, radar, smell, tennis, underwear,
value, wax, fox, screen
 Seven Step Problem Solving Technique

1. Finding the right problem to solve

2. Defining the problem
3. Analyzing the problem
4. Developing possibilities
5. Selecting the best solution
6. Implementing
7. Evaluating and learning
 Lateral Thinking
• Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect
and creative approach, using reasoning that is not
immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be
obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.
The term lateral thinking was coined by Edward De Bono
in the book New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking
published in 1967.
• It is primarily concerned with judging the true value of
statements and seeking errors. Lateral thinking is more
concerned with the movement value of statements and
ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they
want to move from one known idea to creating new
ideas. Edward de Bono defines four types of thinking
tools:
• Random Entry Idea Generating Tool: Choose an
object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and
associate that with the area you are thinking about.
• Provocation Idea Generating Tool
• Challenge Idea Generating Tool
• Concept Fan Idea Generating Tool
• Disproving
 Puzzles
• You are driving down the road in your car on a
wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop
and you see three people waiting for the bus
• An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
• An old friend who once saved your life.
• The perfect partner you have been dreaming
about.
• Knowing that there can only be one passenger
in your car, whom would you choose?
• Answer: The old lady of course! After
helping the old lady into the car, you can
give your keys to your friend, and wait with
your perfect partner for the bus
• How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story
building onto the ground and live?
• The baby fell out of a ground floor window
• Bad Boy Bubby was warned by his mother
never to open the cellar door or he would
see things that he was not meant to see.
One day while his mother was out he did
open the cellar door. What did he see?
• When Bad Boy Bubby opened the cellar
door he saw the living room and, through
its windows, the garden. He had never
seen these before because his mother had
kept him all his life in the cellar
• There are six eggs in the basket. Six
people each take one of the eggs. How
can it be that one egg is left in the basket?
• The last person took the basket with the
last egg still inside
• A man and his son are in a car crash. The
father is killed and the child is taken to
hospital gravely injured. When he gets
there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on
this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this
possibly be?
• The surgeon can not operate on her own
son; she is his mother