Introduction to Creativity

Creativity is the process of generating new ideas, or finding new solutions to challenges. With a high level of creativity there are no problems, all problems are challenges, and challenges lead to opportunities. Opportunities are the pathway to success.

The first step to creativity requires you to clearly identify the brief, or challenge. Determine the objectives, the context, resources and constraints. Question and clarify these. Determine the reasons behind the brief.

Build knowledge - sift through lots of related (and slightly related) knowledge and compile.

Brainstorm - rapidly generate and collate all ideas without evaluating them. And have fun - be outrageous.

Consider analogies from related and non-related topics.

Evaluate ideas. Record what aspects of ideas are good and what aspects appear irrelevant or are not feasible because of constraints. Keep all ideas, but prioritise on grounds of relevance and feasibility.

Mix and match parts of ideas and synthesise new ideas from the ideas identified in the other steps.

Manipulate ideas - change the parameters, attributes, assumptions... (selur eht kaerb dna)

Look at ideas from other perspectives and in other contexts. Perhaps an idea would be good for a related activity or in a different context.

Think about the challenge then forget about it for a while. A few days later when you are relaxed and free from interruptions have another go at the challenge. Repeat this process to build upon previous ideas.

Ask other people for their views, including those outside the context of your working environment. Other perspectives can be quite revealing and helpful.

Oh and in point seven, it said: and break the rules!

Now ask yourself the following questions about the above steps:

1. Are they the only steps to creativity?
2. How could they be improved?
3. Are they in the right order?
4. What happens to ideas that fail the evaluation?

For answers to these questions and much more subscribe to the Creativity services.