LIFE HACKS TO DEVELOP CREATIVITY
In our time, education and intelligence are essential as the ability to generate new ideas and find non-standard ways to solve problems. This skill helps to achieve high academic results and has a positive effect on building a career. We understand what creativity is, why it is needed, and how to develop it.
What is creativity
Creativity, or creative abilities, is thinking outside the box, finding new solutions, and generating ideas. Creativity is intelligence + imagination. A person can think, analyze information, understand cause-and-effect relationships, and conclude thanks to intellect. Imagination allows you to go beyond the usual patterns, discard stereotypes, and see new ways to solve problems.
The American psychologist and creativity researcher Ellis Paul Torrance identified the components of creative thinking, the level of development that can be used to judge the degree of creativity of a particular person.
Torrance Criteria for Creativity
Fluency is the ability to develop a wide variety of ideas quickly. With high levels of fluency, a person can come up with twenty ways to use an object, for example, a regular pencil, in a minute.
Flexibility is assessing a problem from all sides and applying different strategies to solve it. Flexibility helps to quickly capture the connections between different phenomena, establish patterns, and find common ground in various things and events.
Originality – the ability to generate non-standard or unexpected ideas and deviate from the generally accepted pattern. Originality helps to get out of emergencies successfully.
Elaboration is the ability not only to generate ideas but also to deepen and detail them. A high level of detail distinguishes inventors and designers.
Closure resistance is the ability to constantly perceive new information, not limited to any side or aspect of it, even if it seems most appropriate. Short circuit resistance contributes to expanding horizons and accumulating useful data for inventing original solutions.
A high level of creativity makes a person more successful and allows you to achieve high results in any field of activity. Creative thinking is ranked third in the Top 10 Soft Skills of 2020, compiled at the Davos Economic Forum.
How to develop creativity
Love the problem-solving process
A creative person finds pleasure not only in achieving a result but in the process of moving towards a goal – he likes to think, sort out options, and look for and find different options for getting out of a situation. When faced with new or unexpected challenges, learn to see them not as problems but as challenges to your creativity.
Look for original ideas.
Take your time with the most obvious course of action; come up with at least a few options for achieving the goal and solving the problem. Don’t put artificial limits on yourself.
Expand your horizons
The more you know, the more your imagination feeds, and without imagination, it is impossible to generate truly creative ideas. Read books, watch popular science and documentaries, gain experience in useful activities, and actively explore the world around you.
Get creative with your daily activities.
Try to be creative in any area of your life, not just while studying:
- Come up with new interesting ways to spend your leisure time.
- Engage in unusual hobbies.
- Offer non-standard solutions to everyday issues.
Even a banal trip to the grocery store can be a creative exercise – invent new routes to the store, draw maps, or overcome imaginary obstacles.
Learn to see the extraordinary in the ordinary
Even in the most familiar places, notice everything that looks special, different from the standard, and does not fit the templates. Learn to see familiar objects from a new angle and find unexpected ways to use them. For example, if you look at the branches of trees in early spring, you can see that they look like knotted fingers of some fabulous creatures.
Methods for the development of creative thinking
British psychologist Edward De Bono, the creator of the theory of lateral, or lateral (non-standard) thinking, described in his books several techniques that help develop creativity and find original ways to solve problems.
Technique 1. Synectic assault
Synectics is a combination of incompatible elements. Synectic assault as a way to solve problems was invented by the American researcher William Gordo. Based on his ideas, Edward De Bono created his technique of synectic assault. It consists of the consistent use of direct, personal, generalizing, and symbolic analogies.
- State the problem.
- List the ways people usually solve this problem (search for direct analogies).
- Think of how you would solve this problem yourself (using personal analogies).
- Retell the problem in your own words, and name its characteristic features (using a general analogy).
- Imagine how historical or fictional characters you know could solve this problem (using a symbolic analogy).
Method 2. Six hats
It is intended for work in a group, but one person can use it. To do this, he will have to try on different “hats successively.” The technique allows you to look at the problem from different angles. Each hat symbolizes a specific approach to solving a problem.
The white hat is informational. Putting on a white hat, you need to collect and voice all the information about the problem (facts, figures, circumstances) and list the resources and opportunities for solving it.
The green hat is creative. Having put on this hat, generating several original ways of solving the problem is necessary.
The red hat is emotional. Wearing it, you have every right to focus on the hunches, doubts, fears, and other feelings when thinking about different ways to solve a problem.
The yellow hat is optimistic. The owner of this hat focuses solely on the positive assessment of the proposed ideas.
A black hat is critical. It should consider all the shortcomings, difficulties, and negative consequences of different options for solving the problem.
The blue hat is organizational. You need to put it on last to summarize the discussion and draw conclusions.
Method 3. Go beyond
Often we cannot solve a problem or task because we limit ourselves to the framework of objective circumstances or our ideas about reality. The “go beyond” method involves the rejection of these restrictions.
- State the problem.
- Imagine how you can solve it with inexhaustible resources and opportunities.
- Consider each idea that comes to your mind and evaluate whether it can be realized in whole or in part in the given conditions.
Method 4. Random word
It can be used both in a group and individually.
- State the problem.
- Say any word that comes to mind first.
- Try to link it to the problem.
The more words you can associate with the task, the higher your level of creativity will be. The words should be as little as possible related to the essence of the problem.
What to remember
1. Exercises for creativity development help activate the brain and tune in to effective problem-solving. However, the ability to create new ideas and make unexpected moves is also a habit.
2. Every day, set yourself creative tasks and look for new solutions to intellectual and everyday issues – and creativity of thinking will become familiar and natural for you.
