Creative thinking is an acquired skill
Always stumped for ideas during brainstorm sessions in the office? According to Doug Hall,author of jump Start Your Brain, creative thinking is an acquired skill. Adopt Hall’s methods to get your creative juices going:
Make the connection: Flip through newspapers and magazines with plenty of photos, and allow your mind to absorb the images, news, trends and ideas presented. Jot down captions, titles, names, brief descriptions that interest you. This exercise opens your mind up to make new connections from the material to your related task.
Get a fresh perspective: This involves expanding on ideas from other people. Ask someone outside your industry a question that pertains to your task. Listen to their off-the-top-of-the-head spontaneous responses and explore the possibilities of their answers. Sometimes we get so sucked in with the task at hand that we lose sight of the bigger picture. By combining your expertise and their fresh ideas, you’d be surprised what it can lead to.
Do a mental swap: Step out of your chair and imagine you are in someone else’s shoes. Scientist, Jeffrey A. Stamp, PhD, used this method during his doctoral research on aspartame. He mentally transformed himself into an aspartame molecule, to understand the reaction of food sweeteners under certain experimental variables. Your insights may lend a helping hand to your task!
