When we hear the word “creative”, such spheres of human activity as marketing and advertising immediately come to mind. This is because the work of specialists from these areas is directly related to the generation of new ideas. However, if you think about what creative is, then, most likely, this is a creative process, therefore it is very
important for any field of activity.
Today
At the moment, creativity has become an important quality that a candidate who has taken part in the struggle for a highly paid position should possess. Someone says that it is akin to genius, and it is impossible to develop it. Someone, on the contrary, offers to develop this quality and guarantees success for any person. Now everywhere you can stumble upon hundreds of trainings aimed at developing creative thinking, but are they necessary? Therefore, before signing up for the next course, it's worth figuring out what is creative all the same.
Meaning of the word
If you imagine creativity at the household level, then it can be called ingenuity, that is, the ability to achieve goals and find a way out of this difficult situation, using objects and furnishings in a non-standard way. From the outside, this may seem like something brilliant, but at the same time simple. The thought arises: "Why didn’t I think of this before?" Such a non-trivial approach to solving problems is creative.
Translated from English, this word rather sounds like “create” or “create”, but this applies not only to material things. As you can see, this is an extremely useful thing. But where does it come from? According to Abraham
Maslow, an American psychologist, this ability of the individual is innately characteristic of absolutely everyone, but in the process of education and external influence, it can be lost. To assess the level
of a person’s creative
abilities , various tests, personality questionnaires are used, and various situations are simulated.
The problem of creating creativity
Now you know what creative is. Let’s take a closer look at the process of creating ideas. It may seem that ingenious thoughts come from nowhere and just appear in the head, but it's not like that at all. English psychologist Graham Wallace identifies 4 phases of creative solution to the problem.
The first of these is preparation. At this stage, the task or problem is formulated, and the first attempts are made to solve it. Next is the incubation phase. Here, a person, as a rule, is distracted by another object or action and does not return to the task until the moment of enlightenment (third phase), until an intuitive insight into the very essence of the problem. And the final stage is the verification, that is, the implementation of the solution.
In fact, in order for creativity of thinking to manifest, it is necessary to turn off consciousness and fully trust the subconscious. Therefore, the second phase is so important. Most often, we interfere with ourselves, trying to consciously find a solution to situations we already know, but this does not help to come up with something new. Our complexes or psychological blocks can also become a problem of creativity ; fear seems stupid. All this makes it difficult to think creatively.
Criteria for creative thinking
Many tests are aimed specifically at assessing the criteria for creativity in a person. The most famous test at the moment was created by psychologist Paul Torrens. It allows you to determine the level of this very beginning. Here are some of the criteria:
- fluency;
- originality;
- flexibility (allows you to determine false originality);
- metaphoricality, that is, the ability to see in the simple complex and vice versa;
- susceptibility;
- elaboration;
- satisfaction.
Creativity methods
Creativity techniques are methods and techniques developed in order to facilitate the process of generating new original ideas and solutions posed
tasks. They are designed to help clearly and clearly formulate problems, speed up the process of finding solutions, increase the number of ideas, and expand the industry problems. However, it is worth noting that this is not an algorithm, following which you will certainly get a solution. Methods only increase the likelihood of good and right ideas appearing, they organize the search process itself, making it more effective.
What is creative? This is primarily a tool for getting something new and original. Incentive techniques are used in all areas of life, for example, engineers and inventors successfully apply such methods as morphological analysis and TRIZ (theory of solving inventive problems). The lateral thinking technique is widely used in advertising and marketing, and the SCAMPER technique is used to create completely new products. There are universal ones. These include brainstorming and the Walt Disney Method. They have found application in almost any industry. Sometimes graphic images are also used, for example, the method of constructing a map of thoughts, these are also aimed at the additional development of creativity.
Popular methods and techniques
The most famous at the moment are the following:
- TRIZ. This method was developed by Heinrich Alschuler. It mainly consists in providing a database and tools for the consistent solution of problems and identifying problems in order to create a new or improve an old system.
- Brainstorm. This is an operational technique based on stimulating creative activity. Participants are usually asked to give out as many ideas as possible, even if they are completely out of the ordinary. Subsequently, of all thoughts is the most successful.
- In lateral thinking, the technique of six metaphorical hats is used, wearing each of which, a person should look at the problem from different points of view.
- Synectics was invented by William Gordon and consists of ten successive steps that are more associated with the construction of analogies.
- The principle of the Delphi method is that a number of experts who are not connected among themselves, give out a number of ideas, and the organization group collects, analyzes them and brings everything together.
Creative development
Having learned what creative is, you will certainly want to try to find a non-standard solution. Perhaps you belong to those people who have not lost this ability, then you will not have problems. However, practice shows that without training aimed at development, achieving creativity is not so simple. How to develop your creativity?
First of all, you need to get rid of stereotypes in thinking and
acquire the ability to think outside the box. Exercises that should become a habit for you can contribute to this.
Everyday Exercises
Take, for example, your way home or to work. Usually it goes along the same road. Try changing the route to a stop or walking that part of the distance that you travel by bus. Every day, try to change the way and find new options.
Everything new and untested is useful: places, menus, actions, clothes and even thoughts. Creativity, the meaning of which is directly related to creativity, will help develop art or needlework classes. Exercises like reading the other way around (from bottom to top or from right to left) are also very useful and also uplifting.
Try to come up with 10 exotic names, for example Diosthenes, Hematin or Ayergyestior. Draw an animal that does not exist, give it a name, figure out where it lives and what it eats. Take any word and imagine that it is an abbreviation, decipher it. All these exercises are simple and fun, but they will help you develop creativity.