The Creative Thinking Handbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Problem Solving in Business

Description

Creativity directly impacts results and productivity, yet few of us understand how it happens or how to put it into practice. This book shows you not only how to get things done, but how to do them better and more creatively. The Creative Thinking Handbook provides the correct application for creative thinking and action, by offering clear, practical tools and strategies so that you can develop creative thinking skills and help find brilliant solutions for any professional challenge. Based on research and proven-to-work creative thinking models, Chris Griffiths and Melina Costi present a clear introduction to what creative thinking is, explain why we all need to do it and will help you generate ideas and make better decisions. The Creative Thinking Handbook gets you to think differently by thinking creatively. Contents About the authors Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction: Why do we need new ideas, really? Part One Thinking About Your Thinking 1 The Decision Radar Mind-numbing patterns Metacognition Put your thinking under the radar Take action on your results References 2 Common thinking errors: Selective thinking Killing creativity and smart decisions That’s the idea! The bias that binds References 3 Common thinking errors: Reactive thinking System 1 vs System 2 The need for speed In the heat of the moment Letting information overload you References 4 Common thinking errors: Assumptive thinking They’re everywhere! Challenging assumptions Bad assumptive moves Rules are made to be broken References Part Two The Solution Finder 5 The context for creative problem solving Are you market-driven or market-driving? A winning process Divergent and convergent thinking The Creativity toolkit References 6 The Solution Finder Step 1: Understanding Define the challenge The Understanding toolkit Understanding checklist: dos and don’ts References 7 The Solution Finder Step 2: Ideation Generative thinking Brainstorming: does it work? How to be better at brainstorming The ‘correct’ brainstorming strategy References 8 The Solution Finder Step 2: Ideation toolkit Creativity on demand The Ideation toolkit Ideation checklist: dos and don’ts References 9 The Solution Finder Step 3: Analysis Evaluate ideas The Analysis toolkit 1. Sort 2. Screen 3. Select Analysis checklist: dos and don’ts References 10 The Solution Finder Step 4: Direction Turn ideas into action The Direction toolkit Direction checklist: dos and don’ts References Part Three The End of the Beginning 11 Commit to ‘thinking differently’ Putting it all together Decision Radar v2 Commitment Making time for creativity References 12 Creative leadership Innovation is a core leadership skill The end game Freedom to fail… and learn Make play a priority Innovate with optimism Supportive systems References Conclusion: Where do you go from here? Appendix: activity answers Index