The future of work will increasingly require creativity to solve big societal challenges like poverty alleviation, global warming, addressing inequities among other issues. You can learn creativity which includes the ability to think differently, create something new, engage in creative problem solving, learn from setbacks and express/share your creativity with others. Creativity is your ability to generate new ideas through collaboration with others and implement them.
Discover the individual traits that make some people more creative than others. Watch the videos linked below to learn more about different types and how the are connected to creativity
Disney’s former Head of Creativity and Innovation provides insights on ways in which individuals must learn to think creatively to keep up in a fast-paced world.
The Kelley brothers have worked with many people to get their ideas moving. Thinking creativity can be a challenge but there are ways and tools that can help you overcome these challenges.
This activity from IDEO seeks to foster divergent thinking to generate ideas. Mindmaps can be a powerful way to come up with ideas and to gain clarify about a topic. You can use a mindmap to come up with ideas on just about anything – from career paths to pursue, to vacation options or how to tackle an assignment.
If you want to maximize your creative output, don’t rely on your short-term memory. Make an effort to capture your ideas right away, because your short-term memory holds a thought for fifteen to thirty seconds. One simple way to have more ideas is to start keeping track of them as they occur.
IDEO has a quick and simple exercise to get your creative muscles warmed up. They actually learned it from a product design student! It’s called the Thirty Circles, and you can do it individually or in your team. It aims to push your creativity by turning circles into recognizable objects in a short period of time. This is a great warm up exercise before an ideation session or a quick lesson about ideation.
Creativity is not limited to having lots of resources or being the smartest person in the room, it is actually learning how to maximize those same resources - also known as ‘frugal innovation’.