Creative Thinking Tools for Success and Leadership

Creativity concerns the development of new ideas. Throughout human history, the application of ideas has led to transformations of our daily lives and society. Modern business activity thrives on recently developed ideas, and it is through creativity that we address both challenges and opportunities. In this module, we will help you develop your implicit understanding and skills in creativity. You will be introduced to a series of creativity tools that can be used to augment the ideas you might come up with independently. Specifically, we will develop your skills in list, sticky-note, grid and alphabet brainstorming through an introduction to the principles of the tool, along with examples and an opportunity for you to have a go. A framework called the creativity diamond is used throughout the course to guide which approach to creativity to use and when. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN • The principal facets of creativity • Principles of creativity • A framework that can be used to guide which approach to creativity to use • Metrics that can be used in assessing creativity • The importance of managing our thinking • How to use and apply list, sticky note, grid and alphabet brainstorming SKILLS YOU WILL GAIN • Divergent and convergent creativity • Assessing creativity • Principles of brainstorming • List, sticky-note, grid and alphabet brainstorming

Creativity is a widely acclaimed attribute. A range of creativity tools are available that rely on creativity principles to enable systematic idea generation. This module builds on the first module where various types of brainstorming were introduced along with the creativity diamond framework which provides a guide to which type of creative approach to use. Here we will introduce systematic creativity tools that can be used to provoke a wide range of ideas that might not normally arise and can be used to augment your innate creativity. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN • Familiarity with a range of approaches to creativity • The principles of morphological analysis for generating ideas • the principles of invention • To be able to identify the recommended principles of invention for a given scenario of improving and worsening features • How to use the SCAMPER creative idea provocation tool • Use of the creativity diamond framework to guid what approach to creativity to use SKILLS YOU WILL GAIN • Familiarity with a range of approaches applied to creativity • Systematic idea generation and creativity • Being able to use a morphological chart to develop a range of solutions • How to produce a morphological chart • use of the TRIZ contradiction matrix in identifying principles of invention for resolving contradictions in problem solving • Application of the SCAMPER creative idea provocation tool