Creativity is a critical skill in life.

We tend to think of creativity in the realm of the arts, the novel written by a great author or a song by a gifted musician.

Creativity is a much broader concept and is important not only in creating new works of art but in problem solving and in how we face the everyday challenges in our lives.

Note that I called creativity a skill. We often think of creativity as a gift, as something we either have or don’t have, but creativity can be developed and learned. 

Research into the creative process has found a number of techniques that can help unearth and develop our creativity.

The techniques have two main directions:

  1. Techniques that force us to see the world in a new way, that force us out of our mental rut.
  2. Techniques that help us tap into our unconscious, where thoughts are far less constrained, think of how wild your dreams can be, unfettered by reality.  

First let’s focus on techniques researchers have studied to help us get out of our mental rut. These techniques are meant to help us get out of our fixed thought process that impedes creativity. They are exercises designed to break our established ways of thinking

1.  Generic parts techniques. Think about common objects in terms of their parts – naming those parts without allusion to their regular use.

2. Pay attention to sensory properties of objects-especially visual ones, and particularly those aspects that we normally ignore. Force yourself to notice.

3. Prime with a task that requires creativity -for example,  come up with 6 alternative uses for common objects.

4. Perform a set of tasks in an unusual order, breaking habits where possible.

5. Cultivate an open mind. Allow yourself to think with minimal rules and constraints. This last suggestion is to some degree a restatement of creativity. It is worth stating because we are often not aware of the constraints we put on our thought process.

The second set of techniques are geared towards helping us tap into our subconscious which is not as policed by rules and regulations as our conscious thought is.

  1. Sleep on a problem. Invite a dream that could illuminate the problem in a new way.
  2. Let your mind wander. Distract yourself deliberately. Take a break and do something entirely different.
  3. Step outside of your comfort zone. Do novel activities you have never done before.
  4. Imagine the problem far in the distance, either in time or space.

Adapted from:

  1. Tony McCaffrey: Innovation Relies on the Obscure. A Key to Overcoming the Classic Problem of Functional Fixedness. Psychological Science March 2012 vol. 23 no. 3 215-218
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