What do you know? What are you doing with your knowledge? How are you taking action to make a difference in the world? Do you ever work backwards to generate creative ideas? What does creative thinking mean to you?
A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech.
For the author, sharing your knowledge is one of the ways to generate creative ideas. Knowledge and experience are the key to creative thinking.
The book is full of refreshing ideas about the creative process. A few concepts resonate with me in my own process of cultivating creativity.
Creative Cultivation
- Cultivating your imagination is a daily practice
- Have an explorer’s attitude
- Wherever you go, there are ideas waiting to be discovered
- Look for the second right answer – concept of continuing the brainstorming of ideas beyond the first right answer or solution
- Don’t settle with the first solution
- Keep brainstorming
- The best way to get a good idea is to generate a lot of ideas
- Backtracking or working backwards is an effective strategy for creative thinking
- Work backwards to move forward in the creative process
Work Backwards
Backtracking is one of the tools I use at work, and I agree that it can be a useful strategy in the creative process. Working backwards can help answer these questions:
- What do you want to do?
- What do you need to get done to get there?
- Are there any new learnings or insights along the way?
I often use a work back schedule to plan deliverables in my day job. For example, as a risk manager I facilitate multiple executive meetings each month and drive the presentation content for each one. The final presentation is the deliverable, and I plan backwards for the various deadlines. The process involves several stakeholders across business groups with multiple moving parts to funnel into a cohesive presentation. The work back schedule would look like this in a simple format:
- Deadline of first draft of content
- Period of editing
- Final draft of content
- Deliverable – Meeting presentation
A rough illustration would look like this:
Some may think operational work or a repeatable process is boring. How can you find creativity in a boring process?
Opportunities are everywhere. Creativity is a matter of perspective and mindset. Knowing the landscape of what needs to be done can facilitate the creative process. Creative thinking can help you see opportunities for improvements in your work, in how you collaborate with others, and in your personal goals to be better.
Work backwards with an explorer’s attitude. No matter what you do in life, seek the ideas waiting to be discovered.
What do you want to do in life? What do you need to do to get there?
I welcome your comments.
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