A crucial aspect of your creative thinking is the capacity to imagine. As an author and educational advisor Sir Ken Robinson once said: “Creative Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement.” You must expand your creative thinking continuously.
Or perhaps a more inspirational quote would be this one from Albert Einstein:
“Creative thinking is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Creative thinking is the ability to consider something in a new way. It might be a new approach to a problem, a resolution to a conflict between employees, or a new result from a data set. Employers in all industries want employees who can think creatively and bring new perspectives to the workplace.
Without imagination, our ability to blend ideas, to see things not as they are but as they might be, is greatly hindered. If we cannot imagine new possibilities, our ability to think creatively is limited. How can we think of ways that generate novel and worthwhile ideas if we keep coming back to existing and proven ideas?
To improve your critical thinking, you must look at the source of our perceptions: your knowledge.
What fuels critical thinking is everything we already know.
Our minds always come back around to what we already know. It’s in our nature to compare new experiences to ones we’ve already had, without that comparison we cannot begin to understand new ideas.
For example: try imagining a color that doesn’t exist. The harder you try to do so, the more likely you are to keep envisioning colors that readily come to mind: blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, and so on. If you try hard, you might blend colors, forming off-shades of violet, teal, etc.
Where our knowledge fails our imaginations, our perspectives can encourage them.
We can easily turn our knowledge on its head to come up with more imaginative answers to the question at hand: What if we were to imagine sounds like colors? Not literally, of course, but metaphorically. Who’s to say the ping of a door closing or the hum of a flapping wing cannot be types of colors? Or what about textures, or tastes, or entire experiences? Suddenly unimaginable colors are imaginable…but again: only in the context of what we already know.
To build a bridge between what we know and what’s possible, we must do two things.
First, we must build knowledge and gain new understandings of the world. If our minds can only imagine possibilities within the context of what we already know, then it’s clear we must increase that knowledge if we want to increase what we can imagine.
Thankfully, knowledge is easily gained if you dedicate even a small amount of time to it.
Reading, not merely books or blogs you are drawn to, but the ones you initially disagree with or find boring as well is one way to build knowledge. Travel can open your mind to new cultures, often ones that will do things in surprising or backward ways than you’re used to, as a way of spurring knowledge and ideas. Trying out new things, like a new type of food or a new store in your neighborhood, helps to build knowledge as well. Conversations with acquaintances can be a surprisingly powerful source of new knowledge too.
The second thing we must do to increase our imaginations, once we have begun to build our knowledge, is to remain powerfully curious about that knowledge, even humorously so.
We can do this by asking questions constantly, not only about new things we experience but about everything old and true as well.
Learn by observing imaginative people very closely. You’ll note they are different because they operate a little differently. They:
Your creative thinking … build on others
One of the misunderstandings around creativity and imagination is that you have to be utterly original to do it. The truth is all creative people stand on the shoulders of those who came before. Writers learn to write by reading; painting students are sent to museums to copy the masters, while great chefs learn the already tested basics of cooking to create some new dish.
Innovation stands on a platform that already exists. Yes, inspiration is involved, those flashes of insight, the ah…ha moments. You start with something that already exists and takes it to another level. So relax. Let go of thinking you have to do something original. Take the pressure off. Celebrate that there is all this help available.
Question everything
Want to think what nobody has ever thought? Start by questioning all assumptions.
There comes a moment in time where everyone agrees with everybody about pretty much everything. For any sized organization that is focused on creating a culture of relentless innovation, hardened dogma is an innovation obstacle they must overcome.
And that starts best with questioning everything, assumptions included.
Pay attention to patterns
Treat patterns as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very useful, but be careful not to become part of it.
Observe with all senses
Truly creative people have developed their ability to observe and to use all of their senses, which can get dull over time. Take time to “sharpen the blade” and take everything in. Add thoughts as you go.
Your creative thinking skills … continuous learning
Both creativity and innovation are based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t normally read as often as you can.
Defer judgment
Your perceptions may limit your reasoning. Be careful about how you perceive things. In other words, defer judgment. Let it all hang out.
Experience as much as you can. Exposure puts more ideas into your subconscious. Actively seek out new and very different experiences to broaden your idea thinking experience portfolio.
Look for what is not easily seen
Creative thinking examples are everywhere.
Look where others aren’t looking to see what others aren’t seeing.
Be able to overlook rules
Rules, to the creative person, are indeed made to be broken. They are created for us by other people, generally to control a process; the creative person needs the freedom to work.
Ask“what if…”
Seeing new possibilities is a little risky because it means that something will change and some action will have to be taken. Curiosity is probably the single most important trait of creative people.
Push the boundaries of mistakes
A photographer doesn’t just take one shot, and a composer doesn’t just write down a fully realized symphony. Creation is a long process, involving lots of boo-boos along the way. A lot goes in the trash.
Collaborate
The hermit artist, alone in his garret, is a romantic notion but not always an accurate one. Comedians, musicians, painters, chefs all get a little better by sharing with others in their fields.
Engage all the senses
“There is the strange power we have of changing facts by the force of the imagination.”― Virginia Woolf
Do not shut your senses off when you are doing creative thinking.
Include all the senses to make it rich. Some of us are visual learners while others are kinesthetic and others learn best while reading and writing.
The bottom line
Make your thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound. You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings.
DO not feel compelled to stay within any single modality but make your visualizations and imagination vivid and rich by including numerous modalities. Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind. Make it colorful and exciting. Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.
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Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
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