Use your brain for a creative change

When we hear the word “Creative” our senses changes right away we remember seeing a creative paining, hearing a creative use of a musical tool or maybe Feeling a deep unexplainable emotion due to a creative pieces of work.

We have a lot of cognitive associations to the term creative, we might think of ourselves as creative, we might have creative friends or we might have a long list of creative people that we look up to or at least we respect and appreciate their creative contribution to a specific field of work or era of art.

Yet the ultimate normative question remains, what is creative?

Some dictionaries might think they have the answer to that question.

cre·a·tive

Having or showing an ability to make new things or think of new ideas

Using the ability to make or think of new things : involving the process by which new ideas, stories, etc., are created (merriam-webster).

Creativity

Noun

The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness: firms are keen to encourage creativity.(oxford dictionary )


these are the dictionary answer yet somehow they might be not  efficient for a leader or an entrepreneur, because the question is yet it be answered what is creative ?.

What does it take to be creative? How to measure creative? And what to do in order to be creative? Is there a thought process or any specific tools that can help increase creativity?

I would like to invite the respectful readers to engage in a conversation answering all these questions, and I would like to answer the last question.

Of course there are tools of creativity either based on modeling best practices, patterns of successful individuals and successful organizations and last but not least my personal favorite by recognition of cognitive behavior.

In this article I would like to share 3 of the tools that did show effective in meetings – brain storming session – writing essays among other creative processes.

1-The linking technique:

this is the most interesting mental work outs for your cognitive ability the idea is very simple list at least 10 ideas 5 in each row and there is the task try to link those ideas together. Here is an example

idea 1A : chess                                                                                 ideas 1b : martial arts

creative link : the book samurai chess

the writer made a creative link between the martial arts techniques and common philosophies like the art of sacrifices and the how to weaken the enemy physically and mental and applied such techniques to a chess board which resulted in what became a very interesting read and some revolutionary concepts

note: we can also make the same link through the book art of war by writing a book titled the art of chess war for example

2-  UN-familiarize technique:

In this technique a number of tasks or daily routine are listed, this could be any normal day to day activity, and list different un familiar usage for them. For example while using your toothpaste try to think of 15 different uses for it which is non medical.

On the toothpaste matter some of the findings on the internet are pretty interesting.

This technique could be done just for 10 or 15 minutes a day yet it will have very efficient and effective impact on both personal and business life

3- Normalize technique:

this technique is the exact opposite of the last technique in this one you get a technology , a tool or maybe a method that is used for a specific or a professional purpose and normalize it to an everyday use.

a very good example would be the Egyptian engineer (hitham al desowkey) and his project vivifi which is a technology that transform any surface into a touch screen,
some of the applications are transforming a bath room window into a touch screen that helps to control your sound system, converting a jacket  into a touch screen phone.

In this project he got a very specific IT or electronic engineering field and he transformed it into a day to day use of technology.

I would love to hear or read your applications for these tools please write back to me or tweet back @fouad_khafaga with your thoughts, ideas and your creative applications

Written by :Fouad  Ahmed

Twitter:@fouad_khafaga

Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk