Techniques to develop thinking

Techniques to develop creative thinking play a very important role in our time, since creativity is one of the most demanded skills.

Depending on the company, or person, creativity is the first or second most in-demand skill in the world, with cloud computing topping some lists.

Skills are usually separated into soft skills and strong or hard skills.

The soft skills that are most in demand by companies according to Paul Petrone are the following:

Creativity.
Persuasion.
Collaboration.
Adaptability.
Time management.

On the other hand, the strong skills most in demand by companies are the following:

cloud computing.
Artificial intelligence.
analytical reasoning.
People Management.
UX design.
Mobile application development.
Vídeo production.
Sales leadership.
Translation.
Audio production.
Natural language processing.
Scientific Computing.
Game development.
Popular media marketing.
Animation.
Business Analytics.
Journalism.
Digital marketing.
Industrial design.
Competitive strategies.

Therefore, as we have already seen, creativity is one of the most demanded skills.

Now, you may be wondering… whatwhat is creativity? Well, it could be said that it is the “ability to solve problems with relevance and novelty”

The previous definition tells us that creativity is not something only related to music, or painting.

In fact, what companies orinan by wanting creativity is that they are able to really solve a problem (relevance) and that they perro do it in innovative ways, perhaps with disruptive thinking.

Therefore, a company wants you to be able to abstract knowledge from different disciplines and apply it to the problem that comes your way.

Some techniques to develop creative thinking are:

Brainstorming or Torment of ideas

How many times have we heard that two heads are better than one? Good, the brainstorming consists of a group of people beginning to give ideas about the way in which a certain situation (problem) could be solved.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but you’ll see that when ideas start to come up, you’ll be able to see things differently and maybe even complement the ideas.

You have to consider that the basis of brainstorming is that there is an environment in which people feel safe.

This will allow them to feel comfortable and be able to express all their ideas.

Use of analogies

An analogy explains one thing in terms of another to highlight the ways in which they are alike.

It perro be seen as a comparison.

So how does that help us? Easy, basically it helps us gain new knowledge by finding unexpected similarities.

The similarities between different things will give you different ideas or approaches about how you perro deal with a problem.

Does it sound familiar to you? Yes, that is something that companies look for.

In fact, pure mathematicians use this technique a lot without knowing it, for example, let’s say they are put to prove the Pythagorean theorem.

So, they begin to think of all the principles, theorems, or statements that they know of and begin to prove it.

Many obviously deal with geometry, or some do with algebra.

The steps you have to follow are the following:

1.
Generate the analogy

The first step is to choose which aspect we want to compare, you cánido make a list of different things with which we want to compare our problem.

Maybe you perro use “go to the gym”, “go swimming”, “use your móvil”, etcétera.

Something that you have to consider is that you have to make sure that the similarity you choose does not lead to an obvious match with your problem.

Otherwise, you won’t get as much inspiration from the ideas generated.

2.
Find similarities

Well, now it’s time to write down all the similarities you cánido think of between the two things.

Use your imagination and have fun with it.

You will see that it is much easier than it seems.

3.
Use similarities to generate ideas

What you have to do is use the similarities you find to find different and interesting points of view.

What cánido you use to start generating ideas? Look for new ways to see your situation.

You will see that in this way you will be able to discover new ways of dealing with your problem.

problem reverse

It is a creative thinking technique that is based on the fact that to change the perspective, sometimes it is necessary to change the question.

By changing the order of the words in your problem definition, you will be forced to look at the situation differently.

While a “reversed” challenge sometimes sounds strange and illogical, it often leads to much more creative solutions.

How you change the order of the words in the problem statement doesn’t matter much, as long as the palabras clave are reversed.

For example, imagine that you want to limit traffic congestion in your area.

Your challenge is: “How do we make sure that fewer people drive to work? Swapping the palabras clave, you could rephrase this challenge as “How do we make sure fewer cars take people to work? Where the first statement will make you think of alternative means of transport, such as metro improvements or bicycles, on the contrary, the second statement will probably make you think of solutions such as car sharing (fewer cars for the same number of people).

There are many techniques that will help you further develop your creative thinking and in fact, I plan to continue uploading more techniques so that you cánido achieve your goals.

Something that I would like to convey with the article is the importance that we have to give to developing our creativity, and of course, to all our abilities (soft and strong).

We are capable of breaking our limits and keep improving every day.