It takes effort

Yes, it does, but not that much! Well, at the very least it takes an understanding and acceptance that to go to those really great ideas we have to do something differently, something that can disrupt the old patterns of thinking and problem solving we have grown habituated to.

Many of us have watched Ken Robinson’s amusing but serious condemnation of the education system for destroying our innate creative drive and self-expression. Here is a link to an animated shorter version of it, what do you think?

Luckily there are tons of ways to generate creative thinking, which, simply put (as it is still being studied) involves a process of divergent and convergent thinking – pulses of each, like those on a blender. We diverge, we converge, we diverge, we converge…I said simply put!

People like Edward de Bono, who coined the term parallel thinking, lateral thinking and developed the 6 Thinking Hats®, have come up with tools, techniques and approaches to help us be more creative, not only as individuals but also as teams and organisations.

So everyone is able to think creatively if they want to, learn how to…and practice.