Creative Thinking

Definition of Creative Thinking

A way of looking at problems or situations from a
fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox
solutions (which may look unsettling at first).
Creative thinking can be stimulated both by an
unstructured process such as brainstorming, and
by a structured process such as lateral thinking.

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• Creative thinking means thinking about new
things or thinking in new ways. It is “thinking
outside the box.” Often, creativity in this sense
involves what is called lateral thinking, or the
ability to perceive patterns that are not obvious.
• Some people are naturally more creative than
others, but creative thinking can be strengthened
with practice. You can practice creative thinking
by solving riddles, by becoming aware of and
letting go of your assumptions,
 Example
• Creative Problem-Solving
Creative problem-solving stands out as
innovative. A creative problem solver will find
new solutions, rather than simply identifying
and implementing the most appropriate
standard solution. You might brainstorm new
ways to cut energy use, find new ways to cut
costs during a budget crisis, or develop a
litigation strategy to defend a client. All
creative.
 Divergent Thinking
• Divergent thinking is a thought process or
method used to generate creative ideas by
exploring many possible solutions. ... By
contrast, divergent thinking typically occurs in
a spontaneous, free-flowing, 'non-linear'
manner, such that many ideas are generated
in an emergent cognitive fashion.
 Divergent Thinking
• Divergence is typically signified by the capacity to produce
many, or a greater number of complicated or complex ideas
from a single idea or simple triggers or ideas.
• It calls for making unexpected combinations, changing
information into unanticipated forms, identifying
connections among remote associates, and the like. In
divergent thinking, a single question returns multiple
answers, and though the answers vary considerably
depending on the person, all answers are of equal value.
• Perhaps they did not exist ever before and so are novel,
surprising or unusual. At times, this is true purely for the
specific setting or in the experience of the person
responsible for the variability in question. However, it may
also be the case in an absolute sense.
 Elements of Divergent Thinking
• Complexity – The capacity to conceptualize
difficult, multifaceted, many layered or intricate
products or ideas;
• Curiosity – The personality characteristic of
displaying probing behaviors, searching, asking
questions, learning to get more
knowledge/information about something, and of
being able to go deeper into ideas;
• Elaboration – The skill of adding to, building off
of or embellishing a product or an idea;
 Elements of Divergent Thinking
• Flexibility – The capability of creating varied
perceptions or categories wherefrom come a
range of different ideas pertaining to the same
thing or problem;
• Fluency – The skill of engendering many ideas so
as to have an increase in the number of potential
solutions or associated products;
• Imagination – The capability of dreaming up,
inventing, or to think, to see, to conceptualize
novel products or ideas, to be original;
 Elements of Divergent Thinking
• Originality – The skill of coming up with fresh,
unusual, unique, extremely different or
completely new products or ideas;
• Risk–taking – The readiness to be courageous,
daring, adventuresome – take risks or
experiment with new things so as to stand
apart.
 Convergent Thinking
• Convergent thinking is a problem solving technique involving the
bringing together different ideas from different participants or
fields to determine a single best solution to a lucidly defined
problem. In other words, this is a kind of thinking that concentrates
on finding out the single best or frequently, correct solution to a
problem or answer to a question.
• The credit for coining the term “convergent thinking” goes to Joy
Paul Guilford. He came up with the term as an opposite term to
“divergent thinking.” The focus for this thinking strategy is speed,
logic and accuracy and on identifying the known, reapplying
techniques, and amassing stored information.
• This strategy is best suited for situations characterized by a readily
available answer that just has to be worked out or recalled by way
of decision-making strategies.
• A vital facet of convergent thinking is that it culminates in one best
answer, meaning there is no chance for ambiguity. You either have a
right answer or a wrong one. This type of thinking is also associated
with knowledge (one of the key facets of creativity) as it entails
using existing knowledge by way of standard procedures.
 Examples
• Divergent thinking: Mr. A’s home is at a distance of five
miles from work. His Chevrolet gets 30 MPG. However,
he wishes to expend less fuel in his travel for both
monetary and conservation-associated reasons. Money
is not an issue. What choices does he have to cut his
fuel consumption?
• Convergent thinking: Mr. A’s home is at a distance of
five miles from work. His Chevrolet gets 30 MPG.
However, he wishes to expend less fuel in his travel for
both monetary and conservation-associated reasons.
Money is not an issue. Which three vehicles are the
best replacements for his car?
 Brainstorming
• This process involves engendering a huge number of
solutions for a specific problem (idea) with emphasis
being on the number of ideas. In the course of
brainstorming, there is no assessment of ideas. So,
people can speak out their ideas freely without fear of
criticism. Even bizarre/strange ideas are accepted with
open hands. In fact, the crazier the idea, the better.
Taming down is easier than thinking up.
• Frequently, ideas are blended to create one good idea
as indicated by the slogan “1+1=3.” Brainstorming can
be done both individually and in groups. The typical
brainstorming group comprises six to ten people.
 Three Stages of idea generation
• 1. Generation
• Core competencies, in reference to ideation,
have to do with leveraging ideation to develop
upon a company’s abilities. In this kind of
ideation, the organization is looking for fresh
applications or new markets for existing
services/products.
2. Selection

• Picking the best ideas starts much before the

beginning of the ideation process. It is essential
that you fix the criteria by which the ideas are to
be assessed, who would be responsible for
evaluating the ideas, and how the top ideas
would be given to the concerned internal teams
for further assessment or execution.
• 3. Implementation

The success of implementation is dependent

on an organization’s ability to choose the top
ideas and take action based on them. It also
depends on the organization having
appropriate workflows in place so that the
right groups take part at the appropriate time
 Image Generation
• One must select what image to form, must
hold this image and update it as new
information comes in.
Debating