Picture credit - Adam Grant and EveryVowel
Day 33 - Creative Thinking Skill
12 May 2020
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sirurp@gmail.com
My learning for the day
Today I want to summarise two TED talks on Creative Thinking.
Want to be more creative? Go for a walk
Summary -
This talk is about Marily’s study on how a walk triggers new ideas.
The Alternative Uses Test
Her study was about observing the impact of walking using the alternative uses test.
She put this question to the research participants - “You have four minutes. Your job is to come up with as many other ways to use common everyday objects as you can think of. So, for example, what else would you do with a key, other than to use it for opening up a lock?”. (This test was designed by J.P. Guilford in 1967. This is a great mental workout to build your Creative Thinking muscle. There are some more similar tests such as Wallach and Kogan Test, Torrance Test)
Impact of walking on creativity
Marily created three groups of participants for the alternative uses test.
The first group sat first and then sat again for the second test.
The second group sat first and then did the second test while walking on a treadmill.
The third group walked on the treadmill first, and then they sat for the test.
The result of their study was that those who walked first and then gave the test produced more ideas. So the advice to you is, you should go for a walk before your next big meeting.
Marily gives these tips to get the best out of the ‘creativity walks’ -
1. Pick a problem or a topic to ruminate during the creativity walk
2. Do not lock on that first idea. Keep going. Keep coming up with new ones, until you pick one or two to pursue
3. Record all the ideas in your mobile as if you are having a creative conversation with someone
Summary -
Adam Grant’s book ‘Originals’ is about how to champion new ideas.
This book is Grant’s exploration on how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt.
The study is also about building organisational cultures that welcome dissent. Some of the stories covered in this book are about -
A woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below
An analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA
A billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him
This is what Adam learnt by studying the ‘Originals’ (the non-conformists who move the world)
1. Procrastinators are more creative than Pre-crastinators - a great example is Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) who was working on Mona Lisa (created in 1503) for 16 years. The ‘Originals’ are quick to start but slow to finish. To be the Originals, you don’t have to be the first but you have to be different and better
2. Originals have fears and doubts like the rest of us. They just manage it differently. There are two types of doubts - self doubt and idea doubt. Self-doubt is paralysing whereas idea-doubt motivates you to test, to experiment and to refine. And this is what the Originals do because they have huge idea-doubts
3. Originals have lots and lots of ideas. The greatest innovators in history failed the most because they tried the most.
Being Originals is not easy but it’s the best way to improve the world around us.
Definition of Creative Thinking Skill
Creative thinking is the ability to look at things differently, and find new ways of solving problems
My learning so far on this topic
Day 3 post - 8 creative thinking techniques and tools
Day 13 post - An example of the Morphological matrix in action
Day 23 post - James Webb Young’s 5 step technique for producing ideas
How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Creative Thinking.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Creative Thinking.
Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of Creative Thinking
Apply -
Identify a model suitable to you
Create a template to document the flow of the process
Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did with respect to Creative Thinking
Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
1. Decision-making
2. Problem-solving
3. Creative thinking
4. Critical thinking
5. Communication
6. Interpersonal skills
7. Self-awareness
8. Empathy
9. Coping with emotions
10. Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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