What colour is that barn? It’s a brown barn. Is it really? We can only see one angle. The sides facing us are brown. We don’t know what colour the other sides are.
Observe. Only describe what you can see and ask yourself “Is that really what I am seeing?” How do you know it’s even a barn? Because someone told you it is? Do you believe everything people tell you? What if everything you had ever been told was wrong? Who knows? Who really knows? How do you know it’s not a magical castle that dropped down out of nowhere and inside there are talking roosters?
Use your imagination!
People might call you a daydreamer, they might say you imagine too much. They might even say you are crazy! But they are killing people when they say that. They are killing children. They are killing the human spirit.
Imagination is what allows us to think of solutions and to problem solve. Imagination allows us to think of 2, 10, 20 ways through, ways out, ways up, ways down, forward, backward, whichever way we need to go.
Without imagination, we’ll often feel as though we’re stuck. Whatever you look at consider that there might be more to everything than what meets the eye. There is more than one solution, more than one creative ideal.
Creativity simply means being able to come up with something new. Creative thinking means looking at something in a new way. It is the very definition of “thinking outside the box.” Often, creativity in this sense involves what is called lateral thinking, or the ability to perceive patterns that are not obvious.
Creative people have the ability to devise new ways to carry out tasks, solve problems, and meet challenges. They bring a fresh, and sometimes unorthodox, perspective to their work. This way of thinking can help departments and organisations move in more productive directions. For these reasons, they are extremely valuable to a company.
Therefore, creative thinking is the ability to consider something – a conflict between employees, a way of promoting a business, a group project – in a new way.
Employers in all industries want employees who can do this.
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