The 7 Best Creative Thinking Methods

“Creativity has this amazing power to give you renewed enthusiasm and energy—even in the most difficult circumstances.” – Warren Berger

“We need more creative ideas” is the most commonly used phrase used in brainstorming sessions. 

As per research, Creativity is one of the top 5 in-demand skills for 2022. As per Matt Adams, Portfolio Director, IDEO, the world needs creativity because problems aren’t getting simpler. 

Most of us believe that creativity is an inborn skill – there are creative people and non-creative people. This is a myth. Creativity is not an intrinsic trait. You can learn to be creative and you can develop creativity through practice.

So, What is Creativity?

“Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.” – Britanica

Creativity is a mechanism to do things in different and new ways. If a thing, either physical or intangible, is new, useful, and inspiring, then we term it as Creative.

Creativity is an output or idea that is new and can lead to exponential growth for businesses. There are processes and methods that you can apply to produce a creative output. 

In this article, we will cover highly useful methods to extract creative outputs.

Before we start, we want to highlight a key aspect of creativity. To get the maximum out of any creative thinking method, you need to prepare your mind for creativity. Have an open mind to all ideas and do not shut down any idea at the start. Also, creativity methods lead to new perspectives, so don’t let your pre-existing beliefs block the flow of ideas. 

Once you have attained a creative mindset, you can use the following creative thinking methods to derive creative output. 

Top Creative Thinking Methods

Research on the topic

As we discussed earlier, creativity is an output. Every output needs some input. One of the biggest inputs for creativity is your knowledge of the topic for which you are trying to solve a problem.

Before working and exploring creative ideas, you need to do research and educate yourself on that topic. Do thorough research on the topic, gain expertise, and then work on the problem. You will be equipped to inspect the problem through various lenses. 

Explore a high volume of ideas

To find a new idea, go beyond the first 2 to 3 ideas that pop into your mind. Stretch your mind to new territories and spaces. The first 2-3 ideas are more likely to be obvious ideas, and not highly creative. 

Set a target of at least 10 ideas for any problem to stretch your mind to explore new channels and perspective.

If you set a goal to find at least 10 or 20 ideas, then you will make your brain work and explore different ways to solve the problem. And end up exploring new perspectives and gaining unique ideas. 

Find Alternative Mediums to your problem space

One of the simplest forms of creativity is to take inspiration from solutions outside your space and use it in your space.

A regular or common practice in one industry or area can become a creative practice in your industry or area.

The most rudimentary example is how business leaders take inspiration from sports managers and coaches to motivate their teams and increase their productivity.

Similarly, you can explore alternative channels. If you are seeking a new B2B marketing idea, then explore B2C marketing ideas and then tweak them to your context. Or if you are seeking a growth strategy for a Fintech business, maybe you can explore growth strategies in other industries like e-commerce.  

Isolate Yourself Into Flow State

Isolation is a necessary component of Creativity and Flow State enhances it.

Flow state not only increases your productivity but also increases your creative thinking.

To solve a problem creatively, you need to hyper-focus on the problem and dedicate a lot of time to it. For this, you need to tap into the flow state and explore ideas.

“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing Jazz.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To tap into the flow state, set a focussed time of 60 – 90 mins. Make sure you turn off all the distractions for that duration and focus only on the problem you are solving.

Usually, it takes the first 15-20 mins of thinking of a single problem to reach a mental state where ideas and productivity keep flowing.

You may not achieve a creative output in the first flow state, tap into the flow state multiple times until you have a good amount of ideas that satisfy you.

Share and Collaborate

Isolation is critical to creativity, but even collaboration is important. 

With isolation, you improve your understanding of the problem and build multiple ideas. However, creativity needs further perspectives; it needs the fusion of multiple ideas from various folks. 

Collaboration post isolation is where the creative magic happens.

Once you have a set of ideas, schedule a meeting and collaborate with other members of the team.

It’s ideal if everyone from the team has isolated in the flow state and come up with a list of ideas. Now, collaborate and share each other’s ideas in the forum. You may notice that by combining the ideas of different individuals, you may end up with your killer creative idea. 

To make this work, give equal opportunity to everyone to express their ideas. Follow all the best practices to conduct a brainstorming session.

Leave with a Hook 

One of the practices that Hemingway used is to finish his writing session in the middle of a sentence. 

With this, his brain used to subconsciously think about the story and the book. 

Similarly, while working on creative solutions, Take a break in the middle of your work. You should leave with a hook. 

It helps in two ways – one, once you are back you directly jump into finding solutions and second even while away your mind keeps wandering into problems and sub-consciously working to find solutions. 

You can apply this during brainstorming and group meetings as well. Leave the room for a break by throwing a question, that question will keep wandering in the mind of every attendee during the break and it may be discussed casually within sub-groups. 

Switch Between Divergent and Convergent Thinking 

While finding creative solutions, you need to explore a number of solutions. You have to cover and think through multiple perspectives and channels briefly. 

However, you also need to deeply explore and contemplate each idea. Sometimes, an element of the idea can be part of the final idea. Diving deep into an idea can also lead you to new ideas. 

This process of covering the topic from a wide scope and then narrowing it down to a single solution is called divergent and convergent thinking. This will lead to a well-thought-out solution. 

Our greatest tool to solve problems and gain business growth is creativity. Creative solutions will help your business deliver higher value and make the world better. It will also keep you ahead in a highly competitive environment. 

Do share if you have any creative method that helped you a lot. 

About Idea Toasters

Idea Toasters is a platform where we share ideas and practices to boost innovation and creativity. Our goal is to build the science of innovation and creativity.