Whether you are an entrepreneur, an artist, or a community activist or are engaged in solving a family dilemma, you have likely experienced the precarious point where ideas must turn into action. This usually involves the generation and identification of viable options (i.e., creative thinking)…followed by a decision of some sort, whether made by you as an individual or by a group…followed by practical application. None of these transitions is necessarily easy.
Two Types of Thinking
It may be useful at this point in the discussion to consider two main types of thinking: convergent and divergent.
Convergent thinking is the one many people are most familiar (and comfortable) with, since it involves coming up with a single right answer to a question or problem, such as a math quiz or a question like “Who was the first president of the United States?” We respond by pulling from our past experience and mental store of facts about the world to converge on the one correct answer – a satisfying and rewarding experience when we get it right.
Divergent thinking is the generation of numerous alternative answers, all equally correct, such as “Name all the uses you can think of for this paper clip.” Divergent thinking is often called “creative thinking” and is becoming recognized as critically important in the work place, where innovation requires this type of unbounded thinking. Some employers have even started bringing artists into workplace environments or taking their teams to museums for workshops and training on “creative thinking” in the hope that this will help support and encourage innovation.
Creative Thinking – Generative Phase
In a practical sense, when faced with a life dilemma, it often makes sense to define the problem and parameters and then move into divergent thinking mode – creative thinking or “brainstorming” – to generate a wide range of potential solutions.
This is the stage where nothing is too crazy or “out of the box,” the idea being that even an idea that wouldn’t work in practicality could launch another idea that combines things in a creative new way that would work. Creative thinking often involves working in the realm of patterns and intuition, and shifting our way of arranging the various components involved (for example, “What if we straightened out the paper clip?) can launch a whole new set of solutions and applications that wouldn’t be considered if we were stuck with keeping its original shape.
We then reach a point, however, where we must choose from among the plethora of options generated through our divergent/creative thinking and move forward, lest we drown in perpetual idea generation.
Creative Thinking – Implementation Phase
Selecting a “right” answer from among a multitude of options can be challenging. Unlike the satisfaction offered by purely convergent thinking of finding the single right answer, the process here usually requires us to balance a variety of multi-faceted considerations. We must assign weight to each of these factors based on our values, priorities, resources, and constraints; decide what level of compromise and concession we can make without losing the integrity of what we are trying to achieve; and eventually land on what we believe or feel to be the most practical, livable, closest to “right” answer; then implement it and see how it goes.
This approach presupposes – and often requires – a willingness and ability to make reasonable course corrections along the way. In many ways, this process requires us to use divergent thinking patterns to problem solve our way around an obstacle, then use convergent thinking patterns to choose a path – narrowing down our options based on our set of parameters and priorities until we land on the single “most correct” answer.
But because the questions are often so complex, and our priorities and considerations may change over time, there is realistically a testing period in any implementation phase.
Creative Thinking – Testing Ideas Entrepreneurial-Style
Entrepreneurial and small business incubators apply this type of experimentation to new business ideas: hone your concept to a testable version and look for cost-effective ways of finding out whether and how it works. The idea is to “fail fast.” The goal: Find out how the idea does in reality as quickly as possible, and scrap or adapt the ideas – or part(s) of an idea – that don’t work. Move on to the next idea or iteration. Failure is not viewed as an end point; it’s simply good information.
So whether you are launching a new idea, tackling a complex project, or addressing a family challenge, there is much to be said for a willingness to move forward and to test ideas and approaches without knowing in advance exactly how the world will respond.
It’s not easy, for example, to know in advance exactly how you will really feel about a new living arrangement or routine or what tensions will arise as different people assigned responsibility for various aspects of a project vie for limited resources and attention – until you’re in it.
New issues will arise; previously unrealized priorities and time demands will create new tensions and dynamics. Fresh and adaptive solutions will be required. And so the process starts all over again with new information and parameters.
Creative Thinking’s Secret Ingredients
At the core of our ability to truly allow creative thinking into our lives and workplaces are three key ingredients:
- Letting go of the idea that there is one “right” answer
- Believing in our own competence
- Responding to new frustrations and complications with compassion
1. Letting go of the idea that there is one “right” answer: As tempting as it is to think that there is someone out there with the “right” answer for our specific situation, this is rarely, if ever, the case. Most “expert” advice is based on generalizations and over-simplifications, which may or may not apply – fully or at all – to your particular set of circumstances. Certainly we can all learn from research and sensible “expert” guidelines, however, only you can decide how best to adapt and implement these general ideas into your own specific life or work situation.
2. Believing in your own competence: Moving forward with a choice made by you or your group requires trust that you will be able to problem-solve your way through any future challenges that may arise during its implementation. Knowing that you are equipped to handle challenges as they come up can allow you to stop worrying at the various options, trade-offs, and potential outcomes and put the project into gear. When you give yourself permission to change course or call a halt to the project if it doesn’t bear fruit (which, keep in mind, may be different than what you expected at the outset), this can free you up to move forward.
3. Responding to new frustrations and complications with compassion: It is easy to apply 20/20 hindsight to complications as they arise, telling yourself (or your group) “I/we should have known!” or “should have” done something different or gone a different direction. The complicated reality is that learning while in motion in the midst of a complex set of variables means that this 20/20 hindsight story you’re telling yourself is likely an over-simplification. And even if it’s not (e.g., you really did miss or underestimate a glaringly obvious issue), what good does it do to berate yourself now? There is a Japanese proverb that applies here: “Fix the problem, not the blame.” The ability to let things go, learn from mistakes, and deal with what’s in front of you requires compassion – as well as a genuine belief in and commitment to creative thinking secret ingredients #1 and 2.
Putting Creative Thinking into Practice
Turning ideas into action requires confidence, compassion, and a willingness to keep whittling away at a solution until it fits into the reality of our daily lives.
The process of doing this in a group – whether work, community, or family – adds a layer of dynamics and communication issues that only make matters more complex.
All of which makes a commitment to these basic tenets all the more critical to finding and implementing a creative and workable solution that is flexible enough to navigate any obstacles that may arise.
