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2: Thinking Creatively

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    Chapter 2 Learning Outcomes

    After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

    1. Identify eight creative thinking ideas to boost your personal creativity.
    2. Explain three ways to enhance team collaboration and creativity.
    3. Identify three threats to team creativity.
    4. Describe the “shape of ideation” as it is graphed from a team ideation session.
    5. Describe the SCAMPER technique for brainstorming.
    6. List three barriers to creativity.
    7. List three benefits of doing creativity exercises.
    8. List ten reasons businesses nurture creativity and innovation.

    Inspiration or Perspiration

    A century ago, Thomas Edison thought deeply about what drives invention or, as we call it today, innovation. One of his famous sayings, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” stresses that innovation involves more than just great ideas. Edison knew from his own experience that the systematic hard work of trial-and-error experimentation paid off. His inventions, like the lightbulb and the phonograph, emerged through thousands of attempts as he refined the process step by step ([1]).

    Thomas Edison knew breakthroughs do not come from “lightbulb” moments (pun intended). His quote captures this concept perfectly.

    (Thomas Edison)

    Personal Creativity

    Not everyone considers themselves creative, but most of us do have the ability to be creative. We use our creative minds more often than we think. Whenever you solve a problem, try something new, or give advice to a friend, you are probably using creative thought.

    Just like doing physical exercise to work out your body, sometimes you need to do mental exercises in order to work out your mind. Watch the video below to learn about the following eight creative thinking tips you can put into practice to help boost your creativity.

    1. Schedule Creative Free Time
    2. Set a Timer
    3. Think Quantity Over Quality
    4. Become an “Idea Machine”
    5. Switch Up Your Routine
    6. Look at Something Familiar Through a New Lens
    7. Read More
    8. Freewrite More

    Watch the “8 Creative Thinking Exercises to Boost Your Creativity” YouTube Video below to see if there is an exercise to boost your creative thinking.[2] Transcript for “8 Creative Thinking Exercises to Boost Your Creativity” Video [PDF–New Tab]. Closed captioning is available on YouTube.

    There is a misconception that creativity is this thing that happens in the shower, a strike of lightning that you get out of nowhere, but the reality is creativity is not a moment in time, it’s a process and it takes time to develop.

    If you were to generate a list of possible solutions to any given problem you may notice that the first few on the list will be similar to ideas other people may also come up with, but as you get to the bottom of the list you may find your ideas become more unique. This is because we solve problems every day in our lives and we are good at it. If I asked you how you will get to work today since your car is being repaired at the service center, you might say, “I’ll get a ride with a friend,” or “I’ll take the bus,” or “My mechanic loaned me a vehicle.” If I then asked you to think of some other ways you might get to work, I’m sure your ideas will become more novel as you provide additional possibilities. These novel ideas may not always be feasible, but while you are brainstorming new ideas, don’t judge them for feasibility, just get the ideas first (quantity), then later evaluate each idea on how well it resolves the problem or takes advantage of the opportunity.

    Commands for Being Creative

    1. Get Stupid! Throw out what you know and start from somewhere new. Try drawing an image of a telephone. What did you draw? Something you have seen? Did you think to draw a phone that does not exist yet? Lose the concept of what you think a phone is and start thinking about what a phone might be in the future.
    2. Want the Box. Constraints are necessary for creativity. The more boundaries you have the more creative you will be.
    3. Can the critic. Don’t listen to the critic inside you that always tells you, “that’s a bad idea.” Ignore this voice.

    Explore the Concept – Personal Creativity Exercise

    Doing daily creative warm-up exercises may help you become a more flexible thinker in your job and help you approach work challenges with less fear and a more playful attitude.

    1. Take any household product you use daily, such as a coffee cup, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, a pen, a notebook, a laptop, etc.
    2. Use one of the following innovation techniques to change the product. You don’t actually have to change the product but imagine it would be changed and this change you make will provide a new function or value to the user.
      • Addition Technique: Add something to the product to change it. What can it now do or be used for?
      • Subtraction Technique: Subtract or take away a part of the product. What can it now do or be used for?
    3. Answer Example: For the addition technique, you might add another handle to a mug, making it easier to hold or making it into a sippy cup for toddlers (if you also added a lid). For the subtraction technique, you might subtract or remove the handle on the mug altogether turning it into a travel mug that will fit in a car cup holder.

    SCAMPER Technique for Brainstorming

    Creative thinking and problem-solving are essential parts of the design process to turn ideas into innovation and break the barriers against creativity. One of the successful methods used in creative thinking is the SCAMPER technique. While there are different creative thinking and problem-solving techniques such as reversed brainstorming, Hurson’s thinking model, the Six Hats of critical thinking, and Lego Serious Play, SCAMPER is considered one of the easiest and most direct methods. The SCAMPER technique is based very simply on the idea that what is new is actually a modification of existing old things around us.[3]

    What does the SCAMPER acronym stand for?

    • S–Substitute (e.g., components, materials, people)
    • C–Combine (e.g., mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate)
    • A–Adapt (e.g., alter, change function, use part of another element)
    • M–Modify/Magnify (e.g., increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes)
    • P–Put to other uses (e.g., more than one way to use, more than one function)
    • E–Eliminate (e.g., remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality)
    • R–Rearrange/Reverse (e.g., turn inside out or upside down)[4]

    Click on the information icon beside each of the letters below to learn more about SCAMPER.

    Transcript for “SCAMPER” H5P [PDF–New Tab].

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/leadinginnovation/?p=38#h5p-4

    Benefits of Doing Creativity Exercises

    Creativity exercises offer many benefits for individuals, groups, or companies who use them, including the following:[5]

    • Improved flexible thinking: Creativity exercises improve your mental flexibility. You may see the possibility of small shifts or changes to a project that you didn’t notice before.
    • Discovery of multi-dimensional ideas: If you or your team have been working in the same field for a long time, you might use the same ideas repeatedly. Creativity exercises help you discover entirely new solutions to repetitive problems.
    • Embracing work challenges: With enough practice, work challenges become something to look forward to as an opportunity to show and improve your mental creativity rather than a test delaying your progress.
    • Seeing new concepts: Some creativity exercises help develop your creative vision, allowing you to see objects, ideas, and problems in a new way. This is highly beneficial when looking for a novel solution to a business challenge.
    • Improved teamwork: Creativity exercises help individuals and groups improve teamwork skills like communication, problem-solving, and unity.

    Team Creativity

    Team creativity is based on having open debates, and a free flow of ideas. For that to happen, trust must exist among team members. Where trust is lacking–so will creativity. Below are some ideas on how to enhance creativity and collaboration in teams, as well as some threats to team creativity.

    When teams are working creatively during an ideation session there is a common pattern that occurs. At first, many ideas are shared that are not very unique, then ideas wane, then a spark of inspiration hits the team which drives momentum again but this time with unique ideas which may provide companies with new paths to increasing revenue, market share, and more. This pattern is known as the shape of ideation and you will read more about this below.

    Enhancing Creativity and Collaboration in Teams

    1. Complementary Skill Sets. Collaboration works best when team members have complementary and diverse skill sets required to complete the project. Companies may also consider collaborating with customers, experts in the field, or experts in technical, design, marketing, and finance areas.[6]
    2. Appreciating Others. Engaging in purposeful conversations and the ability to resolve conflicts are essential ingredients for collaboration. The team needs time to get to know each other not just as professionals, but as human beings, to build trust through informal social interaction.[7]
    3. Open Communication. Encourage people to voice their ideas and opinions. Team members need to know it is okay to share their ideas and opinions, and that this is actually valued. When team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, it’s more likely to foster the kinds of discussions required to generate creative solutions.[8]
    4. Facilitate Diverse Ways of Working. People have their own ways of doing things. Some people like to work in teams; others prefer to work alone. Some enjoy using a pencil and notepad to jot down their thoughts, while others always make notes on their tablets or make voice recordings on their phones. Managers and team leaders need to allow people to choose how they work – as long as they do their jobs and do them well – they’re happier, and that can prompt more creativity.[9]
    5. Prevent Internal Competition. Competition for a promotion, pay raise, a bonus, or anything else among team members has a negative effect on team creativity. Team members will try to promote their own ideas, or even not share ideas within the team, and rather share them outside the team with the team leader, or upper management. No internal competition among team members should exist.[10]
    6. Establish Ground Rules. Include rules such as “nobody gets to monopolize the conversation,” and “nobody gets to be quiet all the time.” Establish what happens when someone is late to a meeting. Will you allow using computers and phones in the meeting (hint: do you want their full attention or not?) Make sure you keep a “parking lot” list of things so you do not forget any idea.[11]

    Threats to Team Creativity

    Social Loafing: This is the tendency for group members to slack off. These members may think their ideas are dispensable or may see other members working hard, and believe they do not need to contribute.[12]

    Conformity: Members may conform due to the desire to be liked. If they believe their teammates will be critical of their suggestions, they will be more likely to agree rather than disagree.[13]

    Production Blocking: This can occur when members cannot express their ideas because others are expressing their own. When working alone, individuals can work without interruption of thought, whereas when working in a group, members may forget their ideas or may not get time to speak.[14]

    Performance Matching: When working in a team for an excessive amount of time, members will start to develop the same tendencies. Members that achieve higher ideals than the group may “lower their standards”, whereas members that work at a slower pace may “raise the bar”. Overall, the team will plateau and may find it more difficult to generate unique ideas over time.[15]

    Team Ideation Session: Graphing the Process

    What happens in our thinking process when we are given a problem to solve in a specific amount of time? As described by Stefan Mumaw in the LinkedIn Learning, Creativity Boot Camp course, if we graphed this ideation process for a group trying to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity, we would see a graph that at first has many ideas, but after a short period of time the group feels they have exhausted all the good ideas, and the ideas stall. What happens next, someone offers a different, silly, or absurd idea, then more ideas come from that idea and the tide has turned. The best ideas often come after this turn in the graph. This is known as the shape of ideation because it consistently reveals itself this way.[16]

    The Shape of Ideation is a line chart that starts with many common ideas, these dwindle, then unique ideas happen.
    Shape of Ideation

    Explore the Concept – Team Creativity Exercise

    A common problem experienced during creative collaboration is interpreting what team members mean when they explain abstract concepts. This is a fun, and quite enlightening, game of interpretation that addresses this issue. You may even find yourself using it as a party game outside of work!

    You’ll need strips of paper with phrases or actions written out on them, something like “singing in the rain” or “Mother Earth.” Everyone starts with their own phrase and, to the best of their ability, draws it out on the first page of their notebook. After 30 seconds, everyone passes their notebook to the person on their left. That person then has 30 seconds to interpret the drawing and write down what they think it is on the next page in the notebook. The next person draws what the last person wrote. The notebook gets passed again and again until it makes it back to the original owner. Once each notebook is back where it started, the owner of the notebook shows each page to the group to see how the original phrase got interpreted down the line.

    This exercise really demonstrates how meaning can get misconstrued and the importance of explaining things with other people’s sensibilities taken into account.[17]

    Barriers to Creativity

    Below is a list of some of the things that can be barriers to personal, team, and organizational creativity.[18]

    1. Functional fixedness. You see objects, components, and things around you, and you can’t imagine them doing different functions than what they’re designed to do.[19]
    2. Structural fixedness. This makes it really hard to imagine objects having a different structure than what we’re used to.[20]
    3. Relational fixedness. This type of fixedness makes it very hard to imagine two objects having a relationship that wasn’t there before.[21]
    4. Self-censorship. Get the critic out of your mind. Stop telling yourself your ideas are not good enough.
    5. Micro-Management. Micro-Management stifles a person’s ability to be creative as micromanagers provide too much detail related to how a particular task or problem should be tackled. This reduces the ability for the person to think for themselves and add their own creative flair.
    6. Overthinking. Overthinking about a problem or task uses the logical conscious side of our mind. Often creativity comes from the subconscious mind so rather than overthinking it might be wise to go for a walk or simply start daydreaming.
    7. Concerns about Image. Image risks are where people worry about the impression that people will have of them after suggesting an idea.
    8. Lack of Time. Lack of time and/or opportunity. People often feel that they are too busy with their day-to-day efforts to have time to focus on being creative. Resolve this by setting some planned time aside each and every day for creative efforts.
    9. Lack of Sleep. Lack of sleep not only forms barriers to creativity but to most other things too! Try and lead a healthy well-balanced life with lots of exercise and water and healthy nutrition.
    10. Criticism. Criticism from others can off-put you from proceeding any further with your ideas. Try and dismiss negative thinkers or win them over by demonstrating the validity of your idea with a prototype.
    11. Rules, Policies, and Procedures. If the organization that you work in has lots of rules, policies, and procedures then these can sometimes stifle creativity due to the bureaucracy that they create. If you can’t advance your project forward without five signatures then you will find it difficult to maintain momentum.
    12. Fear of Rejection. Just having that underlying fear that others will reject your ideas can be a barrier to creativity. Work with your passions, enjoy your creative moments, and don’t let others put you off.
    13. Stress. Stress is not only a distraction that drains the energy we might channel into being creative, it is also very bad for our health and concentration.
    14. Lack of Motivation, commitment, skills to perform creative tasks, or employee preparation to persist.
    15. Lack of organizational or managerial support or sufficient resources for creative work.

    Importance of Creativity and Innovation to Business

    Creativity fuels innovation. Creativity is a thought process, while innovation is an action. For a business to survive it needs both. Some of the top reasons businesses nurture creativity and innovation include:

    1. Innovation helps organizations grow.
    2. Innovation keeps organizations relevant.
    3. Innovation helps organizations differentiate themselves.
    4. Innovation increases productivity in the workplace by sparking excitement and feelings of purpose in employees.
    5. Innovation improves a team’s problem-solving skills by challenging the team to dive deeper and develop novel solutions.
    6. Innovation helps organizations position themselves as innovators in the marketplace.
    7. Innovation helps organizations generate more profits.
    8. Innovation helps organizations reduce expenses.
    9. Innovation helps organizations attract employees, investors, partners, and contractors.
    10. Innovation helps organizations gain a competitive advantage.

    Key Takeaways

    1. Eight creative thinking tips you can try any time. Schedule creative free time, Set a timer, Think quantity over quality, Become an “Idea Machine,” Switch up your routine, Look at something familiar through a new lens, Read more often, Freewrite more often.
    2. Commands for being creative. Get stupid! Want the box. Can the critic.
    3. Benefits of doing creativity exercises. Improved flexible thinking, Discovery of multi-dimensional ideas, Embracing work challenges, Seeing new concepts, and Improved teamwork.
    4. Team creativity is based on having open debates, and a free flow of ideas.
    5. Enhancing creativity and collaboration in teams. Collaboration works best when team members have complementary skill sets required to complete the project. Engaging in purposeful conversations and the ability to resolve conflicts are essential ingredients for collaboration. Open communication must be there. Facilitate diverse ways of working. Establish ground rules for working together.
    6. Threats to team creativity. Social loafing, Conformity, Production blocking, and Performance matching.
    7. Team ideation session: Graphing the process. When given a problem to solve in a specific amount of time what happens in our thinking process. If we graphed this ideation process we would see a graph that at first has many ideas, but after a short period of time the group feels they have exhausted all the good ideas, and the ideas stall. What happens next, someone offers a different, silly, or absurd idea, then more ideas come from that idea and the tide has turned. The best ideas often come after this turn in the graph. This is known as the shape of ideation because it consistently reveals itself this way.[22]
    8. Barriers to creativity. Functional, structural, and relational fixedness; self-censorship; micro-management; overthinking; concerns about image; lack of time; lack of sleep; criticism; rules, policies, and procedures; fear of rejection; stress; lack of motivation; and lack of organizational or managerial support.
    9. Importance of Creativity and Innovation to Business.
      • Innovation helps organizations grow.
      • Innovation keeps organizations relevant.
      • Innovation helps organizations differentiate themselves.
      • Innovation increases productivity in the workplace by sparking excitement and feelings of purpose in employees.
      • Innovation improves a team’s problem-solving skills by challenging the team to dive deeper and develop novel solutions.
      • Innovation helps organizations position themselves as innovators in the marketplace.
      • Innovation helps organizations generate more growth and profits.
      • Innovation helps organizations reduce expenses.
      • Innovation helps organizations attract employees, investors, partners, and contractors.
      • Innovation helps organizations gain a competitive advantage.

    End-of-Chapter Exercises

      1. Wild Westios. Most people think of the Wild West as a uniquely American era in history. However, during the same time, Canada was also expanding westward. With this expansion came a collection of interesting personalities, including brave lawmen, tricky outlaws, and proud, hard-working cowboys.
        • Grab a partner to try this creative exercise. Together you are going to write down as many cereal box toys as you can think of if boxes of cereal were around during the days of the wild, wild, west. You have three minutes to compile one list together; write down as many ideas as you can.
        • Compare Groups. How many ideas did you and your partner come up with in three minutes? Sometimes people say they don’t have time to come up with more ideas, but as you can see given only three minutes you and your partner were able to come up with some ideas. So time is not a problem, motivation may be an issue when it comes to thinking creatively. For this exercise you may have been motivated because the exercise was silly and fun, you had a partner to work with, maybe your professor was observing you, and you only had three minutes to finish the task. This exercise is adapted from one called Wild Westios shared in the LinkedIn Learning, Creativity Boot Camp module.
      2. Ultimate Desk. You have been sitting behind a desk of some form for almost your entire professional life. It’s time to retire whatever weak desk you’ve been using and come up with the most awesome desk ever devised by humankind. Money is not an issue, design is no issue, and materials are not an issue. There is only one rule and it is that the desk you create must actually perform the function of a desk in some way.
        • Grab a partner. You have five minutes to create the ultimate desk. Discuss and sketch it out.
        • Compare Groups. How many desks had a beverage dispenser? How many desks were mobile, roll or fly? How many desks have some sort of water feature? How many desks come with some sort of extra person, such as a chef or masseuse? How many desks have a large flat surface? Why a large flat surface? Because that is what you know. We start with what we know a desk to be. We attach ideas to what we know, so we become improvers. We have to stop starting with other people’s solutions and we have to ask questions. What is a desk and what does a desk need to do? We insert restrictions that are not really there. This exercise is adapted from one called Ultimate Desk shared in the LinkedIn Learning, Creativity Boot Camp module.
      3. Squiggles. This exercise should take you five minutes. Take a sheet of paper and draw 5 to 10 squiggles in different shapes and sizes. Now turn your squiggles into birds. Think about the main characteristics of a bird (beak, tail, legs) and start adding them. First, draw a beak which is a simple triangle – make variations in size and position. Then, do the same with the tale, which is also a triangle. Finally, add legs that are made out of sticks. That is how simple it is! Take a look at the drawings and spend a minute considering how easily the brain finds patterns.[23]
      4. Write a Six-Word Story. Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest authors of all time, was once challenged to write a complete story in just six words. Never one to shy from a challenge, he wrote: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” What would your complete six-word story be?[24]
      5. Packaging Yourself. If you were a product, available for sale at your favourite retail store, what store would you be sold in? What would the packaging look like? What would your catchy product title be? What would it say on the box? This is not just an exercise in creative thinking, but of establishing your own personal brand in a fun and inventive way.[25]
      6. Find Creative Uses for Everyday Objects. A pen is just a pen…or is it? What do you have around you right now that could be used for something completely different? Alton Brown, the chef who knows his science, refuses to buy objects that have just one use. He finds ways to use kitchen tools in the most inventive ways. So what can you do with that stapler, the pair of scissors, or that old bookend? [26]
      7. How Creative Are You? quiz Try the quiz at How Creative Are You? (QUIZ) | HuffPost Life

    Self-Check Exercise – Quiz – Thinking Creativity

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/leadinginnovation/?p=38#h5p-5

    Additional Resources

    1. LinkedIn Learning Creativity Bootcamp Training
    2. 50 Fun Creativity Exercises to Boost the Power of Your Creative Mind
    3. 21 Ways to Boost Your Personal Creativity
    4. 5 Team Building Exercises Guaranteed to Spark Creativity
    5. Business Innovation – Canada Periodical Fund – Canada.ca
    6. Innovation Canada (ic.gc.ca)
    7. MaRS Discovery District

    References

    (Note: This list of sources used is NOT in APA citation style instead the auto-footnote and media citation features of Pressbooks were utilized to cite references throughout the chapter and generate a list at the end of the chapter.)

    Media Attributions

    • Shape of Ideation © Kerri Shields
    1. Otazo, K. (n.d.). Innovation takes perspiration. https://www.strategy-business.com/article/li00010 ↵
    2. Johnson, S. (2010, September 17). 8 creative thinking exercises to boost your creativity. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/pfg9a9diN40 ↵
    3. Elmansy, R. (n.d.). A guide to SCAMPER technique for creative thinking. https://www.designorate.com/a-guide-to-the-scamper-technique-for-creative-thinking/ ↵
    4. Serrat, O. (2009, February 31). The SCAMPER technique. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/27643/scamper-technique.pdf ↵
    5. Indeed. (2021, March 19). 18 creativity exercises to improve creative thinking and problem-solving at work. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/creativity-exercise ↵
    6. Creativity at Work. (n.d.). 12 ways to enhance creativity and collaboration in teams. https://www.creativityatwork.com/12-ways-to-enhance-creativity-and-collaboration-in-teams/ ↵
    7. Creativity at Work. (n.d.). 12 ways to enhance creativity and collaboration in teams. https://www.creativityatwork.com/12-ways-to-enhance-creativity-and-collaboration-in-teams/ ↵
    8. Kelly. (2019, August 22). Four strategies to enhance your team's creativity. https://www.creativityatwork.com/12-ways-to-enhance-creativity-and-collaboration-in-teams/ ↵
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    2: Thinking Creatively is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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