Creativity and Lateral Thinking.

Creativity is a mixture of original thinking, insight, ingenuity, and innovation. It should also make sense and have simplicity. Obviously some people are more creative than others. Or in other words some people are born with a greater tendency to tap in to their creative potential. ay be much of these is the outcome from encouragement and opportunities called nurture. ! negative self image or lack of encouragement can also hold one back from ones creative aptitude. Creativity, like inspiration can come like a bolt of lightning from within anyone anytime. "e have all heard the story of !rchimedes #umping out of the bath and crying $%ureka&'and we all know he was taking bath till that moment for years. (aturally a creative person should have a lot of brain power along with practice and patience. Creativity should have both sense and simplicity. !ll creative people are not blessed with innate genius, or naturally right)brained, by any stretch of imagination, though it may be statistically true that creative people tend to have a more dominant right sided brain. !ll of us can be creative in some way. %veryone has the ability to be creative. %ven if a man used both the sides of his brain, he too can be creative. "e have heard about $lateral thinking' which makes us think in unorthodox ways about a problem. %dward de *ono, the famous psychologist, who coined the phrase, believes that we tend to overuse logic and follow linear paths in our creative thinking, conse+uently ignoring the open spaces that flow out to the sides. Obviously, $logic' then becomes counterproductive because we box ourselves in a frame and produce the same solution to a problem, which isn,t the least bit creative& -e *ono describes lateral thinking with the metaphor, $.ou cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.' Lateral thinking relies on reasoning that is not immediately obvious, and encourages ideas that you may not think of by relying on logic. Lateral thinking is concerned with the perception part of thinking. Trying harder in the same direction, will not lead to any progress, unless you are in the right direction and might even actually hinder the chances of a breakthrough. Lateral thinking asks you to dig as many holes as you can. %ach time you dig a new hole you uncover a new possibility. It might work or it might not. If it does, then great& If not, you simply dig another hole and continue your search. Lateral thinking can be explained in three simple steps/ 0i1 identify the dominant ideas that prevent original ways of seeing the problem, 0ii1 approach the same problem from different angles, regardless of how random the angle might seem and 0iii1 2ut a stop to any doubts, preconceptions, and pre#udices that might dismiss original thought. 3. *y T45.6amanathan, 7reelancer Trainer. anagement 7aculty, Competition Coach and Corporate