When Analytical Thinking Does Not Go Far Enough: All Hail Creative Thinkers!

Logical, analytical thinking only leads us so far in problem solving. Our finite processes and fixed thinking enables us a limited scope in our solutions. According to a recent Global CEO Survey, creative thinking is one of the top skillsets CEO's deem 'hardest to find' for the problems of tomorrow. Creativity opens the door to new ideas, new opportunities, new profits.

But are creative people really that hard to find? Many people consider highly creative people as unique and especially talented. We tend to want to emulate creative geniuses (think Steve Jobs) to break through our fixed thinking and to hope for new possibilities in creative agencies, consultants and technology when our organizational creative capacity is perceived as limited.

What the world is uncovering, however, is that creative thinking is not as mysterious as it would initially seem. In the research by Dr. Jacob Goldenberg and popularized in the book 'Inside the Box', the results of highly creative ideas are often based on counter-intuitive patterns of thinking. Many creative people don't even realize they are using these patterns to come up with their ideas. Over the last 23 years, we have identified the most successful patterns that lead to creative new ideas and have been able to replicate them across industries and business issues. Many products, services and processes we enjoy today come from this way of thinking.

Join the team of Propelle Leadership at the San Jose conference Innovation Circles to learn how to bring a systematic approach to creative thinking into your next "brainstorming" session.

www.witi.com/conferences/2019/summit/

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.