By Chris Thomason, Author of ‘Freaky Thinking; Thinking that delivers a dazzling difference’

Today, we recognise Creative Thinking as a vital skill in many fields, including business, science, and the arts. Organisations encourage employees to think creatively to foster innovation and adapt to a rapidly changing world. Schools and educational institutions are increasingly incorporating creative thinking into curricula to prepare students for the challenges of the future.

Brainstorming has been a popular creative thinking technique for quite a while. The word brainstorming was originally introduced by Alex F. Osborn in his 1953 book Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. As it turns 70 this year, it is time for it to be retired.

Why brainstorming fails us

Given the rate of change of practices in business today, how come a seventy-year-old process is still the tool of choice? What other management practices from the 1950s are still in use today?

Let’s look at some of the basic rules of the brainstorming process.

• There are no dumb ideas, so encourage wild thinking: There are plenty of dumb ideas. Wild ideas aren’t intentionally stupid ideas, they’re just totally impractical.
• Quantity counts at this stage, not quality: No, it doesn’t. Quality is always important.
• Don’t criticise other people’s ideas: If someone is consistently being way-beyond the realistic, then wouldn’t a little constructive guidance potentially help them?
• Every person and every idea has equal worth: No! Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute something useful. How they use that time is up to them.
• Only one person talking at a time: This brainstorming rule ensures that there may only be one person talking at a time – but also that there’s always someone talking.
• HiPPOs rule the waves: The highest paid person’s opinion (HiPPO) openly and sub-consciously influences what success will look like.
• False anchoring: Early in the session, somebody puts up an idea that gets a supportive comment like ‘that’s brilliant’. This idea acts as a false anchor or a black hole for thinking.
• Accepting the lowest common denominator: A group often promotes the idea they feel most comfortable with. This ends up being the lowest common denominator of agreement.
• Voting on ideas: Unless the team are all responsible for the success of the outcome, the choice of what to do next should be left to the owner of the issue.

The future of creative thinking

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) recent Future of Jobs 2023 report looks out to the skills that business leaders believe will be needed by 2027. Their view is that creative thinking is the top skill on the rise. Close behind are analytical thinking in second place and curiosity in fourth place.

The recent changes in work practices due to Covid have meant more people working from home permanently, or sharing work time in the office in a hybrid manner. This permits us greater freedom as individuals in where, and when, we might perform our creative thinking. This is one consideration that all the creative thinking processes developed to date don’t focus on. When they were developed, the default situation was that all participants would be in the same room or office. Even the greatest of artists can’t paint a thing in the dark.

So new methods of creative thinking are coming to the fore, that work in our modern hybrid world. They are based on the science of how our brains work creatively and they overcome some of the shortcomings of the brainstorming approach. For example, Freaky Thinking’s approach of posing, and brilliantly answering, Killer Questions individually in your best thinking place and time is a radical change to the past thinking practices. It integrates this with the three types of thinking from the WEF’s view of future skills required. The convergence of the need for these types of thinking skills with hybrid working practices, is the way of the future.

What’s next?

Creative thinking is an innate human ability that has evolved and adapted over time. It’s played a crucial role in our progress as a species, enabling us to solve problems, innovate, and find practical solutions. In a rapidly changing world, no matter how fast new capabilities and technologies are developed, there will always be the need for creativity to think how to apply them in interesting and unusual ways for the benefit of individuals and society.

Given that thinking in groups in the workplace by brainstorming is proven to be inefficient, we need to promote individual thinking to really boost creativity in addressing key business issues. The future of your thinking starts today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Thomason is the author of Freaky Thinking, a process that helps individuals in organizations to think differently about important topics and issues. Chris’s clients include UPS, Canon, O2, Vodafone, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Touchnote, Lloyds Bank, Toyota, HSBC, Scottish Widows, South African Airways, American Express, and many more.

Web: www.ingeniousgrowth.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhomason1/