​Getting yourself in the right place to start thinking creatively is easier for some than others.

There are many businesses that are crying out for someone who can put forth ideas and innovations, but then they sandwich a meeting or workshop to capture these ideas in-between logical meetings like sales forecasts and sales reviews.  Hardly a great space for creative thinking! It is as though creative thinking can somehow happen as part of a business process.

The same goes in our personal creativity.  We sometimes need a ritual to get us in the right head space.  Just like a painter sets up for work mounting a canvas on an easel, preparing the brushes and choosing the paints, you want to set up your creative stage for best results.

Some people wait until the muse is upon them before they can start to come up with creative solutions.  This is fine if it suits. But what if you need to find a creative solution here and now?  What if the situation won't wait for the muse to find you?

What you need is the mind-set of being in the moment.  The more you search for being in the moment, the quicker you will be able to get yourself in that place when you need to.  You'll also find your ability to concentrate increases as will your ability to filter out extraneous sounds and other distractions.

image by AndrewBernard

​Building personal resilience, or allowing your team members to grow their own resilience has never been more important.

Change is around us more than ever.  We have come to understand and realise that organisations need to be flexible in order to survive and that flexibility often comes in the form of a restructure.

You know the thing...I'm sure we've all been through it more times than we care to mention.  We've worked in a job and produced good results.  That is backed up with a positive annual appraisal.  Your sickness level is good.  If you undertake peer feedback reviews, those are great.  But when it comes down to a restructure, and the need to fight for the job you've been performing well in for a number of years, it often comes down to how you perform at interview.

On a personal level, the ability to be resilient is crucial.  This resilience comes from being flexible, the ability to think creatively and confidence in your ability.

As a business owner or manager it is crucial that you ensure your team members build their resilience, confidence and creative thinking.  Unfortunately I have seen too many businesses immerse themselves in the practical side of a restructure, and forget the well-being of their employees.  For those that remain in the company their confidence can be shattered and they feel the need to conform rather than innovate.

Your business and your success all depends on the creative ability of your staff to innovate...

​One of the key areas of creative thinking is problem solving.

My blog this week was going to be a video on another topic...but I had a problem with it.  Actually I wasn't very happy with it.  I didn't think I had quite got my message across as well as I'd hoped.

Putting the video to one side, I got to thinking that we all encounter problems sometimes and when we do what we need is a creative solution to hand.

There are many different techniques to use but here is one which James Webb Young published in his book A Technique to Producing Ideas.  In it he describes five essential creative thinking steps you can use when in search of a solution.

1. Research what you already know - spend some time looking through the old elements of your problem to gain an understanding of the subject in as much detail as possible.  He held the view that all so called new ideas are essentially recombinations of existing ones.  Which shows that the more thorough your research is, the richer you can expect the outcome to be.
2. Digest the information - after the research stage you should be left with a great deal of material.  There are many ways of sifting through this information. One such way is handwriting the information down onto index cards which can be shuffled and repositioned to make some sense.  Whatever way you decide to analyse the information make sure you give this stage due time for proper analysis.
3. Drop it - having researched the issue and thoroughly digested it so you understand all aspects of it, you now walk away from it completely. This leaves your subconscious mind to process the information whilst you are away from it.
4. Wait for an idea to come - an idea can pop into your head at any time.  Very often it pops into your head fully formed and apparently out of no-where.  This usually happens after your subconscious mind has had time to mull over the situation.
5. Reassess your idea - in the final step you hold up what you think is your fantastic idea to the cold light of day.  This helps you to look at whether yesterday's great idea is still great in the cold light of day.  This is the real moment of truth for your idea.

If you've ever looked back on yesterday's idea and thought that it wasn't all that good after all, then don't despair.  This is part of the creative thinking process...

When you do receive the fabulous solution you are looking for, you will forget the pain of overcoming it along the way.