Creative Thinking

• Creativity

  Showing imagination and originality
• Creativity in business


  • Seeing the same thing as other people but thinking about it in a different manner
  • Breaking down and then rebuilding concepts in order to gain a better understanding and insight into business-related problems
  • Organizing thought processes and available resources to find viable (profitable) and feasible (possible to do) solutions to problems
  • A process of discovery to gain insight into a problem and then considering different ways to deal with the problem
  • Rejecting the obvious to find a solution that has not yet been considered and to then make this work for the business (thinking out of the box)
  • Differentiating the business from competitors in order to gain a competitive edge for the business
• Richard Branson: 'There is a need for the business to be creative and 'to make the future happen' through unique and creative business practices'

  
• Branson says businesses should not keep operating as they have been in the past, because there are too many and very rapid changes in the market place
• Change and being creative about the ways in which these problems are dealt with is the only way in which businesses will survive and prosper
• Businesses constantly have to come up with new products and services to satisfy the needs of consumers. This can only be achieved if they do not limit themselves to thinking out of the box but think as if there is no box
• Logical thinking


  The process where one uses past experiences to solve current problems
• Logical thinking and past experiences are not going to solve new problems that stem from unfamiliar situations
• Intrepreneurship


  Where employees suggest creative ways to handle existing problems
• Jack Welch: 'If the business rewards creativity, risk taking and innovation (intrepreneurship) that is what the employees will deliver'
• Jack rewarded these behaviours - whether it succeeded or failed, he believes the business can only take control of the future if it innovates
• PESTLE, SWOT and Porter's Six Forces


  • Tools that can be used to solve business-related problems in various business environments (Micro, Market, Macro)
• Four Pillar Approach to Creativity

  • Fluency
  • Flexibility
  • Originality
  • Elaboration
• SCAMPER


  A tool to help a business generate new ideas by thinking how it could go about improving the existing product and service offering
• SCAMPER elements


  • Substitute
  • Combine
  • Adapt
  • Modify
  • Put to a new Use
  • Eliminate or Elaborate
  • Reverse
• Force Field Analysis


  • A problem solving and decision-making tool that helps the business to weigh up the pros (forces for) and cons (forces against) implementing a new idea or project
  • Identifies driving forces and restraining forces
• Steps in Force Field Analysis

  1. Define the problem

  2. Define the change objective

  3. Identify driving forces

  4. Identify restraining forces

  5. Develop a change strategy
• There is more often than not, more than one correct answer to solving a problem, but if people resist voicing their ideas, a possible solution cannot even be considered
• Lack of sleep limits thought processes and this, combined with stress may limit creativity exactly when it is needed
• Routine thinking or logical thinking is important when a decision is made about which idea to implement. But when the ideas are generated, logic may be overrated
• A mindset of "this works well, why change?" will stifle creative and new ideas from being considered
• An attitude of "I don't have time to be creative" may mean that you avoid making time to think of a better way to do the job
• Managers may stop subordinates from being creative if they constantly send a message of "I am superior and if it is not my idea it probably is not a good idea"
• People that keep saying "I am not creative" create a self-fulfilling prophesy
• Indigenous thinking


  The local knowledge and way of thinking that is unique to a culture or to a particular society
• Being aware of the concept of Indigenous thinking may help the business to create a competitive advantage by offering a unique product or service to a group of people who may not have thought about this, because it is not part of their way of living
• Indigenous thinking may also pose a threat to a business that wants to compete in a market that is unfamiliar to them