7 Tips to be more Creative At Work

Creativity is one of the most important criteria for success at the workplace of today. As changes happens at dizzying speeds, the ability to solve problems by thinking out of the box becomes critical in determining an executive's speed of carrying out his job. As new technologies, methods and attitudes of the new workforce is presented in front of the executive, he is also inadvertently faced with new problems that requires unconventional methods of thinking. This issue will explore a few menthods of thinking critically and creatively to enable one to come up with new solutions.

  1. Always challenge conventional and accepted wisdom. Assuming what was right in the past is still right today is a dangerous path to take because the level of thinking that created things in the past are most of the time irrelevant in the current time.
  2. Always be in the process of learning, unlearning and relearning. This is especially true because of the ever changing world of technology. Whoever can agree that the software that can do the job well last year can still function today. Accepting the fact that we must continously learn, unlearn and then relearn will allow our minds to be nimble and adaptable to changes around us.
  3. Never stop at the first right answer. Mot people are too lazy to think and stop thinking when they think they have found a solution. Creative people are always willing to give their thinking the extra mile in thinking as always rewarded with solutions beyond what the average people can think of.
  4. Always activate both sides of your brains befor starting your work. Solving puzzles, soduku or even playing a round of  scrabble can do wonders to activating both sides of your brain. Once activated, you can then start working on your work problems and you will be amazed at how your brains can "see" many more solutions than before.
  5. Engage in conversations with the left brainers (systematic, planning and methodical) as well as the right brainers (spontaneous, dreamers and outgoing) to give a balanced perspective in your solutions. Get ideas from both sides so that you can be a "whole brainer" problem solver. Afterall we need those who dare to fly as well as the engineers to build the machine to do it. In the same way, a lot of inventions are just dreams pictured on movie screens but the ideas are picked up by engineers who later build them to become a reality.
  6. Pay attention to children and how they produce creative ideas at play. We were the most creative at childhood but somehow as we live through adulthood, we seem to lose this quality. Paying attention to how children think and act will give us back some insight into the creative side of our brains.
  7. Change your sources of infromation on purpose. We are the product of our environment. In my mind, all sources of information are somewhat biased in their own ways. So do not allow your minds to be "programmed" by a limited type of thinking. Creative people like children are free from assumptions and prejudices. Listen to different radio stations read all kinds of newspapers, change your favourite tv channels, get new hpbbies, take up new sports, the list goes on but always renew yourselves by renewing your sources of information.

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