How to Develop Creative Thinking

Skills:
Beginner's Guide
Samuel Greenberg
Text Copyright © 2019
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Please note information in this book for educational purpose only.
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By reading this book reader agrees that under no circumstances are the
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 Annotation
Creative thinking and creativity are undoubtedly useful skills of a modern
person. However, it is difficult to find good courses, trainings, schools,
books and textbooks for the formation and improvement of these skills. In
this regard, I wrote the book, which is devoted to methods and techniques
for the development of creative thinking. The book is a full-fledged training
for the development of creative thinking and imagination and contains
lessons, articles, tasks, puzzles and many other useful materials.
What life is more non-standard, the more interesting it is to live. In life, we
often need a creative approach. The ability to think outside the box makes
us witty, resourceful, successful and adventurous. The ability to be creative
can always be useful.
It is often claimed that it is impossible to teach creative thinking. This is not
entirely true. Of course, human innate abilities are very important. But
usually it is adults who really have creative thinking, the ability to which is
not only innate, but acquired with upbringing and experience. The works of
art are made by adults who have achieved a certain skill in thinking and
acting creatively. And if a person does not develop his creative potential,
then he is unlikely to achieve the ability to create, even if in childhood, he
showed any abilities.
So, there is something that creative people know and can do. They acquired
this knowledge and skills not from a genetic route from their parents, but
accumulated them throughout their lives. Let's try to find and unravel their
secrets.
Table of contents:
Chapter 1. What is creative thinking and creativity?
Teaching methodology
Plan of the training
Chapter 2. Lateral thinking concept
Lateral thinking process
Chapter 3. Framing and focusing
The importance of focus and overcoming a creative crisis
Framing and 14 language tricks
Chapter 4. Template break
Lateral shifts
Additional exercises
Chapter 5. Creative imagination development
What is creative imagination?
Ability to find a solution to problems
Imagination development tools
Imagination development games
Chapter 7. Creativity development
Productivity
Flexibility of thinking
Originality of thinking
The ability to solve complex problems
Chapter 8. Creativity development exercises
Recommendations for the development of productivity
Recommendations for the development of originality of thinking
Recommendation for developing thinking flexibility
Recommendations for developing the ability to solve complex problems
Conclusion
About Author
Chapter 1. What is creative thinking and
creativity?

This is quite difficult task to explain and describe what creative thinking is
and what its features are. One of the few definitions of creativity / creative
thinking that has been given by psychologists:
“Creative thinking is one of the types of thinking characterized by the
creation of a subjectively new product and neoplasms in the very cognitive
activity of its creation. These neoplasms relate to motivation, goals, marks,
meanings. Creative thinking is distinguished from the processes of applying
ready-made knowledge and skills called reproductive thinking.”
It is important to understand that creative thinking or creativity is precisely
the WAY to think, a certain PROCESS that leads to the creation of a new
one. Naturally, there are many methods to organize your thinking so that
you can get something new as a result. A number of studies and tests show
that most methods can be tailored to specific logic circuits, which form part
of the lessons in this chapter.
On the other hand, creative thinking is associated not only with logical
schemes, but with developed associative thinking and human imagination.
All this can be developed with the help of special exercises, which are
another important component of this chapter.
This chapter contains methods of developing the ability to think creatively
in yourself: to be able to always find several options in everything, and
choose the best one from them.
Teaching methodology

As already mentioned, there are many approaches to understanding creative

thinking, and, therefore, there are many ways to teach such thinking.
Among the popular approaches to the analysis of creativity can be noted:
the concept of lateral thinking, the theory of solving inventive problems,
synectics, the method of 6 hats and others. Most of these approaches have
similar features, but if you try to deal with all of these techniques at the
same time, you can get confused.
After analyzing many approaches to creativity, I came to the conclusion that
the most universal theory is the concept of lateral thinking of Edward De
Bono (as well as its interpretation by Philip Kotler), which is aimed at
understanding the logic of constructing new ideas. It is the concept of
lateral thinking that formed the basis of this training. Also in this training, a
number of important techniques for developing creative thinking from other
theories were used to expand the concept of de Bono.
In addition, concepts that deserve special attention were introduced in the
last chapter, so that you can try other techniques for developing creative
thinking.
Plan of the training

The whole training is divided into several lessons, which are designed to
reveal in you various aspects of creative thinking. After completing all the
lessons, you will receive a handicap in order to be able to apply and
constantly improve your creative thinking.
Lesson 1. Lateral thinking
In order to think outside the box and really create something new, it is
useful to understand how, breaking a template, come to a new idea. This
lesson will describe the lateral thinking pattern of Edward de Bono in the
interpretation of the famous marketer Philip Kotler. Awareness of the
creative thinking process will help you understand how to make your
creative process more productive.
There is such a misconception that creativity is the antipodes of logic.
Unconventional thinking is often compared to intuition, sudden inspiration
or an autogenous state of a person. However, creative unconventional
thinking is not pure chaos in the mind. As the founder of the concept of
lateral thinking, Edward de Bono, notes, the main difference between
unconventional thinking from chaos and mental thinking of patients is that
the process of creative thinking is controlled. And even if unconventional
thinking prefers to work randomly, then this chaos can be controlled.
Lesson 2. Framing and focusing
To create something new, you must definitely choose the direction of
creative search. Without such a starting point, it is simply impossible to
move on. No matter how strange it may seem, but the clearer the framework
is defined, the easier it will be to create something new. This lesson shows
the importance of the choice of focus, and examines the patterns of focuses
of the Robert Dilts language (framing), based on which, you can begin the
process of lateral thinking.
Lesson 3. Break a pattern
Now that we already know the algorithm of how to purposefully look at
things from different angles, we can find the most suitable focus (frame) in
any situation. But something new has not yet appeared, since we simply
changed the angle of view without changing the object itself. The process of
lateral thinking has just begun. To continue this process, we need to
implement what is called a “lateral discontinuity” (template discontinuity,
displacement). It is the break of the template that will help us break the
logic of thinking in order to come up with new ideas.

To create this shift, we need to build a statement about the object of our
focus, which will somehow change the object itself. In other words, we
need to think about how you can change an object or its individual
characteristic. There are many methods for creating such changes, but most
of them can easily be reduced to six basic ways to change anything.
Lesson 4. Development of creative imagination
After the lateral rupture was made, we had a lot of mostly illogical (lateral)
judgments. Now we have to take a step aimed at eliminating the resulting
template gap. The upcoming stage is connected with the work on the
development of creative imagination for the search and creation of full-
fledged creative ideas from metamorphoses obtained in the previous stages.
In other words, in this lesson you will learn how to learn how to most
effectively bridge the lateral gap. This lesson describes the techniques,
principles and features of the development of creative imagination, and also
contains useful techniques and exercises.
Lesson 5. Creativity development
At the last stage of “Bridging the gap” of the lateral thinking algorithm, in
addition to the creative imagination, human creativity also plays an
important role. Creativity is the ability to accept and create fundamentally
new ideas that deviate from traditional or accepted patterns of thinking. It is
important to note that human creativity is a heterogeneous property that has
several characteristics. The most common are the characteristics highlighted
by the famous American psychologist Joy Guilford in the 60s of the last
century. There are only four of these characteristics.
Lesson 6. Creativity development recommendations
You will be given recommendation and exercises regarding development of
four major creativity characteristics such as: productivity, flexibility,
originality and ability to solve complex problems.
Chapter 2. Lateral thinking concept

The main difference between logical and creative thinking is that in the case
of template logical thinking, logic controls the mind, while in the process of
creative thinking it only plays a serving role. Indeed, logic is not central to
the creative process, but, nevertheless, it is necessary for the correct search,
selection, adaptation and analysis of new ideas.
There are many attempts to describe the creative thinking of a person.
However, it is simply impossible to build a single training that helps to
learn creativity on the basis of all known concepts. In this training, we will
use the most popular and practical lateral thinking scheme, adapted by
Philip Kotler and Fernando Tris De Bes. This scheme overlaps with other
concepts in many respects, and if you want to learn TRIZ (abbreviation of
Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), synthetics, or the theory of 6 hats,
the knowledge gained in this course of lectures will certainly come in
handy.
Lateral thinking process
How can one shift or redirect thinking? Edward de Bono identified many
ways to describe the process of lateral thinking. However, one of the most
interesting is the technique, adapted by marketer Philip Kotler and
consisting of 3 stages:
1. The choice of focus. To create something new, it is necessary to choose
the field of creative activity and the direction of the search, in other words,
a well-known idea on which we will build on. Without such a starting point,
it is simply impossible to move on, and the better you focus on this idea, the
easier it will be to create something new. In the third chapter, we will
consider the problem of focusing on an idea, which should become the very
starting point for the future creative process.
2. Generation of lateral rupture. After choosing the direction of creative
efforts, we must make a gap in the framework of the established focus,
which is the main stage of lateral thinking. From some logical idea
formulated at the first stage, it is important to make a certain bias that
violates the logic of this idea. In other words, we need to modify our focus
and break the selected template. How to make this lateral gap will be
described in the fourth chapter.
3. Establishing a connection. After at the second stage we broke the
template and got a changed (most often absurd) proposition, we need to find
something logical in the new proposition. This can be a pretty difficult task,
but the result will pay off. It is at this stage that real creativity takes place,
and we get something new. Read about the closing of the gap, the
development of imagination and the last stage of lateral thinking in the fifth
chapter.
Thus, passing through the 3 stages of the lateral thought process (focus -
break - connection), you can create many new ideas and concepts. And how
this process works will be described in detail in the next chapters.
Chapter 3. Framing and focusing

To create something new, you must definitely choose the direction of

creative search. Without such a starting point, it is simply impossible to
move on. No matter how strange it may seem, but the clearer the framework
is defined, the easier it will be to create something new. This lesson shows
the importance of the choice of focus, and examines the patterns of focuses
of the Robert Dilts language (framing), based on which, you can begin the
process of lateral thinking.
The importance of focus and overcoming a creative crisis

The famous proverb says that "everything new is well forgotten old." There
is a sound grain in it, because nothing is created from an absolutely clean
slate. There are always preconditions for any new idea that is born in a
person’s head. Even the well-known chemical elements table, dreamed of
by Mendeleev, was the result of his long concentration on the problem of
structuring chemical elements.
In order to understand how important it is to be able to choose the right
direction of thought in a creative process, we give an example from a
scientific article.
According to this article, the first ten words will come to mind immediately.
Then we will begin to search and list objects around us. Then we recall
some unusual words from our vocabulary. And then we are likely to have
difficulties.
But these difficulties are easy to overcome: just focus on some object or
phenomenon. Words easily come to mind. Even a person who does not have
a large vocabulary can name a lot of words, much more than in the absence
of a given topic. The paradox is that by creating limitations for our thinking,
we force it to think deeper and create all the prerequisites for creativity.
Framing and 14 language tricks

The choice of focus as the starting point of creative thinking also has its
difficulties. One and the same phenomenon can be looked at differently.
The ability to vary focus and diversify your view of things helps you find
the right directions to create new ideas.
In neuro-linguistic programming, there is a special concept for finding the
desired focus, which is called framing. Frame is the context of the
consideration of anything, with which you can change the hue of perception
of this thing. One of the most popular areas of framing are the so-called
"language tricks" by Robert Dilts. In an attempt to identify all possible
interpretations of the same phenomenon, Dilts found at least 14 different
ways to change the focus of our vision. To demonstrate these tricks in the
work, we consider their action on a specific example:
Suppose a student is late for an important seminar, enters the audience, and
the teacher asks the reason for this delay? How can a student explain to a
teacher his lateness if the teacher can think that the student considers his
subject unimportant? How to return a good teacher attitude?
Let's look at being late from different angles, trying to change the frame of
the situation:
1. Redefinition: replacing one of the words used in the formulation of a
belief with a new word with a different subtext (for example, euphemism).
I was not late, just the bus did not arrive, I had to walk.
2. Analogy: replacing a given phrase with another one similar to this one,
but the new phrase should change the meaning of the original judgment.
Blaming me is the same thing if a late girl on a date were accused of not
loving her young man.
3. Intention: switching attention to a task or intention hidden behind a
conviction.
I am very pleased that you care so much about my education and perception
of your subject.
4. The opposite example: the search for an exception to the rule behind
belief.
And if I was late to bring you coffee (marker, group list, learn about the
exam in the study section, etc.)?
5. Model of the world: reassessing (or strengthening) beliefs from the
perspective of another model of the world.
It is likely that the problem is not my delay, but that you want to improve
the discipline in your lectures.
6. MetaFrame: assessing beliefs from a frame of a continuous, personality-
oriented context - creating beliefs about beliefs.
If you are so worried about my being late, then you are convinced that I can
learn something. Thank you, this is very nice.
7. Consequences: attention is directed to the consequences of this belief,
allowing you to change or strengthen the belief.
If I hadn’t been late, who knows, maybe we wouldn’t understand how much
your subject matter to me.
8. Another result: switching to a goal different from the one stated in the
belief, in order to shake or consolidate the basis of the belief.
True, I was in such a hurry that a car could hit me.
9. “Separation”: changing or reinforcing the generalization defined by
belief by breaking up the elements of belief into smaller parts.
Does a slight delay really determine my attitude to your subject? I
appreciate your subject, and being late is a coincidence.
10. “Generalization”: a generalization of a part of a belief to a higher level,
allowing you to change or strengthen the relationships defined by this
belief.
Is it really that any delay at once overturn the fact that we all at the
University strive for knowledge?
11. Change in frame size: reassessment (or strengthening) of the subtext of
persuasion in the context of a longer (or shorter) time frame, from the point
of view of a larger number of people (or an individual), in a wider or
narrower perspective.
When a little time passes, we will perceive this delay and our conversation
with a smile.
12. Hierarchy of criteria: reassessment (or strengthening) of a belief
according to a criterion superior in significance to any of those on which
this belief is based.
Despite all the difficulties, I came, because your subject and, however, I
take it very seriously. I did not come to the previous “math” at all.
13. Reality strategy: reassessing (or reinforcing) beliefs based on the fact
that beliefs are created using the cognitive process of perceiving the world.
Why do you think I was late, because I do not consider your subject
important? Have you been accused of this somehow too?
14. Self-application: evaluating the very formulation of a belief according
to the relationship or criteria defined by that belief.
It sounded from your lips as if you doubted the importance of your subject.
Of course, not all of these frames will help convince the teacher, but some
of them will provoke him to look at the situation differently. For each
situation, you always need to look for the most suitable frames. But often
our task in creative thinking is not to convince someone, but to choose the
right frame for the phenomenon itself, which will be the starting point of
the further creative process.
Good focus on an object often requires us to understand in detail everything
related to this object. As already mentioned, the sudden insight to
Mendeleev came as a result of a long and painstaking work on the subject
of his research.
Proper focusing requires the development of attentiveness, which you
should master yourself. For example, you can take a children's book that
suggests you find differences in two similar photographs. This will help you
to develop attentiveness.
Thus, with the help of accents from any idea, you can form new options by
choosing the most suitable frame. And the fourteen methods presented will
help you always have several options for arranging focus - which will make
your mind more flexible and creative. But the creative process, of course,
does not end there...
Chapter 4. Template break

Now that we already know the algorithm of how to purposefully look at

things from different angles, we can find the most suitable focus (frame) in
any situation. But something new has not yet appeared, since we simply
changed the angle of view without changing the object itself. The process of
lateral thinking has just begun. To continue this process, we need to
implement what is called a “lateral discontinuity” (template discontinuity,
displacement). It is the break of the template that will help us break the
logic of thinking in order to come up with new ideas.
To create this shift, we need to build a statement about the object of our
focus, which will somehow change the object itself. In other words, we
need to think about how you can change an object or its individual
characteristic. There are many methods for creating such changes, but most
of them can easily be reduced to six basic ways to change anything:
• Addition.
• Removal.
• Replacement.
• Inversion.
• Hyperbolizing.
• Reorder.
All these methods, their modifications and combinations, in fact, can
describe almost any change that we can make with anything. A description
of each method, for clarity, will produce on the example of a change in a
simple statement, which we take into our focus.
Each of us at school or even in kindergarten must have been given the task
of drawing a still life in watercolor. We took brushes and paints, put fruits
and household utensils on the table, and set to work. Let's see how you can
be creative in this process using the template break techniques described
above.
Lateral shifts

Now let's see how we can change this focus using six lateral displacement
techniques.
1. Addition. Addition consists in adding one or more elements to our
object:
• Add other fruits to apples.
• Arrange apples in several vases.
• Come up with a vase pattern.
• Draw a crawling worm on an apple (a flown bird, a lying cat, a hand
reaching for apples).
• Add any other elements, properties or details.
2. Removal. Deletion is associated with the exclusion of a specific element
(s) from our object:
• Still life with an empty vase.
• Still life with apples on the table.
• A vase of apples falling on the floor (table removal).
• Draw an empty table and name the picture "there was a vase with apples."
• You can also delete any object, element of an object or a specific property:
remove the vase and leave halves of apples (removing the integrity
property).
3. Replacement. Replacement consists in changing one or more elements
of our object. Replacement, in fact, is a combination of "deletion" and
"addition":
• Instead of apples, draw pears or other fruits.
• Instead of a vase, put fruit on a dish.
• Use a chair, floor, window sill, or other surface instead of a table.
• Instead of watercolors, use pencils, felt-tip pens or oil paints.
• You can also change any other properties: colors, shades, materials and
much more.
4. Inversion. Inversion (coup) consists in finding the opposite of an object
or its individual elements:
• A vase can lie on apples, hiding them from insects.
• Instead of apples in a vase, there are only stubs.
• The vase is not white, but black.
• You can draw a still life only in black and white without using color.
• An inversion can also be a picture of an empty table (as it was with the
“delete”).
• You can draw how the writing artist looks from the side of the still life.
5. Hyperbolizing. Hyperbolizing consists in increasing or decreasing one
or more properties of an object:
• Still life with a mountain of apples or, conversely, with one apple.
• The vase or apples may be of a different size.
• Still life can be drawn from afar, and the table can be made large.
• Make all apples bright red.
• You can also increase or decrease the brightness, colors, and other
properties of an object.
6. Reorder. It consists in changing the order or sequence of one or more
elements of an object.
• A vase stands under the table (this can be considered as an “inversion").
• A vase stands separately, apples are nearby.
• A few apples on the table, a few in a vase.

Combining with each other 14 types of focusing and 6 methods of

transforming an object, you can create a gigantic amount of
metamorphoses.
Many of the resulting ideas at first glance seem pointless and illogical. For
example, what can a vase with apples under a table do, or why paint a view
of an artist from a still life? Lovers of avant-garde art will probably give
you an answer. But if it is not about art, but about invention, then our
creative process should be continued with the last stage - bridging the
lateral gap and creating a new useful and easily interpreted idea. For this
stage, the key skill is creative imagination, the development of which is the
subject of the next lesson.
The following are some useful exercises for training the pattern breaking
skill.
Additional exercises

To learn these techniques to create a lateral gap, you can perform several
useful exercises.
Exercise 1. The Stroop effect
So that you can learn to think outside the box when breaking a template, we
suggest playing a game based on the Stroop effect.
In psychology, the Stroop effect is called the delay in the reaction when
reading words when the color of the words does not match the written
words (for example, the word "red" is written in blue). The effect is named
after John Ridley Stroop, who first published this test in English in 1935.
Prior to this, this effect was published in Germany in 1929. This study has
become one of the most cited studies in the history of experimental
psychology.
Now I offer you to go through modification of this test.
Exercise 2. Changing a statement
Try to select any statement and change it in the 6 ways described above. For
example, you can take following statements:
• To earn a lot of money, I need to work hard.
• The Internet will soon replace television and the press.
• Everyone should get higher education.
Exercise 3. "9 points 4 lines"
To better understand how important it is to be able to build a lateral gap, we
will consider the well-known problem for many with nine points and four
lines. Try to find a way to connect the dots so that through four dots draw
only four straight lines without lifting the handle from the sheet of paper. To
solve this problem, you need to apply the knowledge described in this
lesson.

If you cannot solve it, you can easily find solutions on the Internet.
Chapter 5. Creative imagination development

After the lateral rupture was made, we had a lot of mostly illogical (lateral)
judgments. Now we have to take a step aimed at eliminating the resulting
template gap. The upcoming stage is connected with the work on the
development of creative imagination for the search and creation of full-
fledged creative ideas from metamorphoses obtained in the previous stages.
In other words, in this chapter you will learn how to learn how to most
effectively bridge the lateral gap. This lesson describes the techniques,
principles and features of the development of creative imagination, and also
contains useful techniques and exercises.
What is creative imagination?
Creative imagination is a kind of imagination in which a person
independently creates new images and ideas of a certain value. These ideas
can be embodied in specific products of creative activity.
Also close to creative imagination and useful in the process of creative
thinking is recreating imagination. A recreational imagination is the
creation of images of objects that were previously not perceived by a person
in their finished form, although he was already familiar with similar objects
or with their individual elements. In this case, the knowledge already
available for a person about these objects is used, which determines the
predominantly reproductive nature of the created images. At the same time,
these images are distinguished from the representations of memory by the
great variety, flexibility and dynamism of the elements. Simply put, the
recreating imagination, in contrast to the creative, is more consciously
based on previous experience.
The peculiarity of the imagination in the creative process is that it is the
imagination that is difficult to control when creating something new. If at
the previous stages it was possible to describe an almost exact algorithm of
actions, then the last stage should be based precisely on a person’s ability to
creative imagination and associative thinking.
Ability to find a solution to problems

Before moving on to the means of developing a productive imagination, it

is important to note that everyone has the ability to creative imagination.
The human mind has an important property, which consists in the presence
of an incentive to eliminate logical contradictions.
For example, many smokers, knowing about the serious dangers of
smoking, always know how to explain to themselves and others around the
reason why they do not give up this addiction. It turns out that smokers are
faced with the internal contradiction “smoking is good - smoking is
harmful”, which in psychology is called cognitive dissonance. This
contradiction causes psychological discomfort, and people are forced to
think of all possible ways to eliminate this contradiction, and some of them
reflect a person’s high creative abilities: smoking can be harmful, but nice,
smoking helps creativity, sets the mood, helps train breathing, and reduces
weight etc. Almost every smoker has his own excuse, which was caused by
a logical contradiction.
It turns out that the person was originally programmed to fight with
contradictions and seek a way out of the prevailing difficult situation. In the
previous chapter, we had a lot of changed judgments about the object in the
selected focus. At the stage of breaking the template, we broke the logic,
and came to a dissonance, which will have to be corrected with the help of
our imagination, life experience and a natural predisposition to a certain
kind of thinking. Moreover, the ability of people to effectively search for
solutions to logical contradictions is the stronger, the more experience a
person has, ideas about various patterns of behavior and other knowledge
about the world around him.
Imagination development tools

One of the main ways of developing the imagination is to obtain a

multilateral life experience. The more we communicate with different
people, participate in various events, do different things, the more sensual,
emotional and intellectual experience we get. As a result, all this experience
is involved in eliminating the logical dissonances that arise with lateral
thinking. Naturally, there are no universal recommendations for obtaining
life experience, but you can pay attention to such things as the expansion of
world models and reading.
Expanding the number of world models. The term “model of the world”, as
well as framing, which was discussed in the third chapter, is popular in
neuro-linguistic programming to describe various approaches of people to
interpret reality.
A variety of models of the world proceeds from the fact that reality is
perceived by people differently, and no one is able to be an objective
interpreter of reality. To understand the essence of the process of creating
something new, you need to realize that all the ideas expressed by us are
perceived differently by each person. For example, some pieces of music
that you like can cause negative feelings in other people. The problem of
interpreting music shows well the difference in people's perceptions: what
seems beautiful, original, or even ingenious to some, to others may not
seem to be at all.
For the development of creative thinking it is necessary to use
representative features of various models of the world. In other words, the
more we communicate with different people and try to understand them, the
better our creative thinking will be.
Reading. Reading books and other sources of information, including using
the speed reading technique, is a very effective way to develop creative
imagination. While reading, there is an active visualization of what you are
reading. Since, in addition to the letters that make up the words and
sentences, you do not receive any additional information, you inadvertently
have to imagine a picture of what is happening. It is especially useful for
the development of creativity to read fiction, adventure, detective stories
and, of course, poetry.
However, the effect of reading books on the ability to think creatively is not
entirely clear. For example, Schopenhauer in one of his works noted that
excessive reading is not only useless, because the reader in the reading
process gets ready someone else’s thoughts and assimilates them worse,
than if he came to them on his own, but also harmful to the mind, because it
weakens him and accustoms him to seek ideas in external sources, and not
from his own head. To this I can only add that although reading extends our
models of the world, the habit of searching for truth in books impairs the
ability to search for creative solutions.
Imagination development games

The peculiarity of any creative game is that it helps to develop creative

thinking and imagination in an atmosphere of competition and excitement.
It is the game form that often helps to concentrate and effectively study the
necessary material not only for children, but also for adults. Today on the
Internet there are many classifications of creative games: computer, online,
group, intellectual-creative, role-playing and many others and you can find
games of various kinds, independent online games, as well as group games
and creative tasks for training creativity without using a computer. I found
one site with plenty of games for developing your imagination, logic and
creativity. You can search for more games on the Internet.
https://www.turtlediary.com/
Shape games, word games and puzzle games are the most suitable for
imagination development.

Imagination is a key factor in the last element of our pattern of creative

thinking. The better the imagination is developed, the wider the worldview
of a person, the faster he is able to find the necessary associations in his
head, the more creative his ideas.
Imagination develops with us constantly. The more we learn the world - the
better our imagination is developed. However, contemplation of the world
alone is not enough. It is important to think about what we see and analyze
what is happening.
Chapter 7. Creativity development

At the last stage of “Bridging the gap” of the lateral thinking algorithm, in
addition to the creative imagination, human creativity also plays an
important role. Creativity is the ability to accept and create fundamentally
new ideas that deviate from traditional or accepted patterns of thinking. It is
important to note that human creativity is a heterogeneous property that has
several characteristics. The most common are the characteristics highlighted
by the famous American psychologist Joy Paul Guilford in the 60s of the
last century. There are only four of these characteristics:
1. Productivity
2. Flexibility
3. Originality
4. Ability to solve complex problems

You will learn below how to develop these of the four qualities of creativity
(according to Guildford).
Productivity

The concept of "productivity" initially was used in agricultural and

livestock farming in order to identify the most prolific and giving offspring
specimens. As industry developed, this term began to be used in production.
At present, the term "productivity" is used to assess the creative potential of
a person, reflecting his ability to produce objects of creativity.
In addition, the concept is applied in the field of personal growth. Here it
can be characterized as follows:
Productivity is a person’s ability to create a certain amount of something or
to perform a certain amount of actions for a specific period of time.
Typically, productivity is measured in numerical terms, but there are often
cases where it can be given an emotional assessment.
It is also worth noting that productivity is not an innate personality trait, but
acquired, which means it can be called a skill that can be developed and
improved. Moreover, if a person is productive, then this will manifest itself
in all his activities.
High productivity is the basis of high results, achieving which a person
receives satisfaction and joy from what he is doing.
Flexibility of thinking

Flexibility of thinking is the person’s ability to find new solutions and the
ability to effectively use the available source material, as well as quickly
change their thinking and behavior, depending on the situation.
The flexibility of thinking suggests that a person can see any particular
situation in the development process and predict its probable outcome.
Thanks to the flexibility of thinking, a person has the opportunity to quickly
find a way out of difficult situations and the correct solutions to difficult
problems, as well as eliminate intrapersonal conflicts. A person with such a
quality can think objectively and adequately perceive what is happening
around.
Of particular importance is the flexibility of thinking for creative people,
because allows them to constantly draw new ideas. If we talk about
scientific activity and the learning process, then the quality we are
discussing makes them many times more effective. The same applies to
business: if a person does not have the ability to think quickly and flexibly,
then success will be unlikely. And, together with such qualities as
diplomacy and accommodating, a flexible mind allows you to avoid any
kind of confrontation, conflict situations, as well as resolve disputes and
competently negotiate.
Originality of thinking

Originality of thinking is a person’s ability to put forward new, unusual and

unexpected ideas, which differ significantly from the already known, trivial,
generally accepted.
Originality of thinking can be manifested in activities, communication,
interaction with other people. A huge number of specialists consider
originality to be one of the main features of creative people.
It is important to say that the originality of thinking allows not only to
generate new ideas or create interesting projects, but also to develop and
develop existing ones. And this, in turn, provides invaluable help and
support to a person both in creativity and in scientific, educational,
technical, entrepreneurial and any other activity.
But we should not forget that the originality of thinking is often associated
with a critical assessment of new ideas by others. Often you can observe
situations when original ideas are “hostile” by other people. Therefore, a
person with original thinking should also develop other qualities of his
personality, such as the ability to convince and argue his point of view,
withstand stress and pressure from the outside, non-conflict, sociability, etc.
The ability to solve complex problems
Under the ability to solve complex problems should be understood as a
special skill that includes two components - analytical and practical. The
analytical component is responsible for the analysis of the problem, its
assessment, development of possible solutions. And the practical
component is responsible for, in fact, the implementation of the decision,
and the transition from theory to practice.
The nature of the solution to any problem always depends on the
characteristics of each individual situation. But the most important thing is
to initially collect information about an urgent problem, and only after that,
already having the actual knowledge, proceed directly to the solution. In
individual cases, which, by the way, are now becoming more and more, the
most suitable solution can be found only with a creative approach.
The ability to solve complex problems has a unique property - given that
this is a skill, it can be developed and cultivated in every way. Moreover,
the more complex a task a person sets for himself, the greater potential in
terms of solving problems he begins to possess.
The skill of solving problems, like the others discussed above, is very
important for a person in his daily life, because problems systematically
arise in absolutely any area of life: creativity, science, business, social,
technical work, etc.
I remind you that the productivity, flexibility and originality of thinking, as
well as the ability to solve complex problems are amenable to development.
Accordingly, each person striving to increase his personal productivity and
effectiveness and develop his personal qualities, including creative
potential, can make efforts to develop the above qualities.
Below we invite you to familiarize yourself with a number of
recommendations and a list of several effective games aimed at developing
each of the qualities we have examined.
Chapter 8. Creativity development exercises

For a more convenient perception of the material, I divided the list of

recommendations and games into subsections. So, you can begin to develop
a certain skill and bypassing the rest, if you have such an intention.
Recommendations for the development of productivity

You can increase your productivity by following these guidelines:

• Set clear goals
• Constantly monitor the results of your actions
• Operate in a suitably organized space
• Skillfully manage your time
• Always do important things first
• Remember that 20% of the actions give 80% of the results, and vice versa
• Fill your free time with useful activities
• Do your planning
• Improve your professional skills
• Pay sufficient attention to rest

Productivity quality development games include: Mafia (a word-based role-

playing game), Poker (a famous card game), Monopoly (one of the most
popular economic games) and others. In addition, productivity development
is closely related to your associative thinking.
Recommendations for the development of originality of
thinking
You can influence your thinking by making it original and unlike the
thinking of other people by resorting to the following tips:
• Get rid of any prejudice in your mind
• Develop your creativity and creativity
• Strive to constantly learn new information
• Work on your productivity (follow the recommendations above)
• Develop associative thinking
• Chat with interesting and unusual people
• Always look for multiple solutions to problems and solutions.
• Systematically solve special challenges for thinking outside the box
• Learn biographies and autobiographies of famous people
• Use the “Brainstorm” method in your activities.

Games developing originality of thinking include games such as “Write the

words”, “Droodles brain games”, as well as all kinds of charades, puzzles,
puzzles, labyrinths, etc.
Recommendation for developing thinking flexibility

The following tips will help you make your thinking more flexible:
• Give up any stereotypes and patterns that limit your thinking
• Review your own beliefs, attitudes, and principles regularly
• Do not focus on past defeats, victories and results achieved.
• Read more diverse literature.
• Apply different behavioral strategies in everyday life
• Use special techniques to activate thinking
• Strive for new experiences, emotions and experiences
• Learn from mistakes
• Broaden your horizons
• Learn to look at things and problems from different angles

Games that develop thinking flexibility include various puzzles, rebuses,

crosswords, logical and psychological games, etc.
Recommendations for developing the ability to solve complex
problems
As for the development of the ability to solve complex problems, here it can
be given the following recommendations:
• Do not ask the question: “Can I?” - instead, ask yourself: “Do I want to?”
How can I solve the problem? ”
• Look for positive aspects in each issue
• Think of problems as an opportunity to develop and grow personally
• Dig deeper - look for the essence of the problem
• Be open to new opportunities, even the most extraordinary
• Develop creativity and thinking creativity
• Solve problems as they arrive, one by one, prioritizing
• Cultivate a positive outlook
• Lead a healthy lifestyle
• If you don’t know what to do, just go to bed.
Among the games that allow a person to develop their ability to solve
problems, there are economic, psychological, and intellectual and any other
games that are as close as possible to reality. These games include:
"Monopoly, "Activity", "Millionaire", etc.

In conclusion, I just want to add that with the information presented in this
lesson, you can not only develop your creative thinking, but also improve
many of your other personal qualities, which will undoubtedly be useful to
you in your life and work.
Conclusion

The ability to be creative and interesting is partly acquired with upbringing

and depends on our innate features. But believe me, that this ability can be
acquired and developed, the main thing here, as usual, is desire.
About Author

Samuel Greenberg, writer, teacher, educator, researcher and practitioner

with interests in astrology, NLP, psychology, human health by natural
methods and other fields.
For questions and contacts, please use e-mail: [email protected]
I will glad to answer your questions and use them in my upcoming books.