Simple Ways to Expand Your Creativity
- Linda Bedinger
- Jan 27, 2017
- 2 min read
We all want to be more creative. Creativity is often making connections that we weren’t expecting to make. Putting ideas together in an unexpected way, and giving ourselves the best opportunity to be inspired are things we can do to enhance the creative process. So what are things we can do to keep ourselves in a more creative state of mind?
Following are some of the things that have helped me over time.
Collect and read articles about a variety of different things. I often tear articles out of magazines and keep them in a folder in my car, so if I have a few minutes before an appointment I can review.
Use the time on an airplane by sending articles to myself by email so I can read them on an iPad or on my phone.
Subscribe to Futurist Magazine.
Sign up for an electronic subscription to the “Heart of Innovation” for a constant feed of creative thought.
Subscribe to blogs on creativity.
Check out the Mind Tools website when I need new inspiration.
These are a few things you can do to easily keep inspiration close at hand.
The next set of suggestions have less to do with getting ideas from the outside and more about how to think about your problem or issue. Sometimes being more mechanical in your approach can lead to unique solutions.
Break the problem or issue down to its simplest form. How would you describe what you are trying to solve for to a six year old. This approach can help you get to the essence of the problem or the solution quickly.
Reframe the problem. This technique is the opposite of the idea above. State or write out the problem. Then make a list of everyone touched by the problem, a stakeholders list. Ask yourself how each the people identified might describe the problem. Do they even see a problem? My guess is that you will not know how many of the stakeholders view the problem. Interview them and ask how they see the problem or issue.
When this process is complete you will have a more thorough idea of the real scope of the problem or issue.When you solve for this more expanded view your solution will be more complete.This process also is generally more easily accepted or approved because it is comprehensive.Also, fewer people will object to the solutions if their viewpoints have been included in the solution.
Break down assumptions. Identifying the unique parts of a problem not for simplicity, but for the component parts can lead to unique solutions. The following ideas often block creativity.
We see what we expect to see.
‘Functional fixedness’ we get stuck in thinking in habitual ways about objects, ideas and people.
To think about things differently we have to escape from these established ways of thinking.By breaking down the problem or issue to its more basic parts and learning to think about them as separate components, we may be able to shake up our thinking and put the components back together in a unique way or with a different definition.
By employing some or all of the ideas here you can increase your chances for more creative solutions.
