Creative process

The Creative process - How it works

7 STEPS TO CREATIVE THINKING

3

4

5

Combine

Try to combine possible solutions to come up with new and better solutions.

Evaluate solutions

Use convergent think techniques to explore and evaluate the possible solutions.

Show & Share

Present your most promising solutions to other people and get their honest and open feedback.

2

Look for solutions

Use divergent thinking techniques to brainstorm possible solutions.

6

Reflect

Evaluate the feedback and try to decide what feedback is useful and actionable.

7

Produce

Time to create and solve your problem.

1

Understand the challenge

Interrogate the challenge ask lots of questions and research the challenge to make sure you understand it.

Evaluate Solutions At this stage, you can start to evaluate the solutions from your brainstorming stage. You could do this by putting the ideas into various groups or you could start dismissing ideas that you don't think have any value. Be sure to keep a record of the ideas you dismiss. You may want to come back to these at some point.

Combine ideas Think about whether you can combine ideas. Sometimes combining ideas can lead to new and more innovative and creative ideas.

Show and Share Showing, sharing and explaining your ideas to other people can help you to clarify them for yourself and you can get valuable feedback from people with a different view of the problem and your solution. Try to gather feedback from a diverse range of people. Be open to feedback on any aspect of your ideas, don't limit the feedback to specific aspects.

Look for Solutions When looking for solutions, don't accept the first thing you think of. Try to brainstorm a number of ideas. Brainstorming works best if you do it as quickly as you can and simply focus on getting ideas out as quickly as possible. Don't stop to judge the ideas. There is no bad idea. Aim for quantity not quality.

Reflect Once you've collected your feedback, start to evaluate it and try to decide what's useful and what you can change based on the feedback and what parts of the feedback you want to discard.

Produce Now it's time to start creating. Plan how you will produce your solution. Who will do what and when? Then get started. Once you have produced your creative output you can go back the feedback stage and see if people think you can improve it. Remember that creativity takes time and you may have to produce a number of iterations before you finally find the best one.

Understand the Challenge Whether it's a creative project or trying to solve a problem, it is essential to understand what it is you are trying to achieve. Ask questions to dig deeper into the challenge and develop your understanding of it. Here are some possible questions that may help you do this.

• What do you need to achieve?
• Who will it impact?
• How will people be impacted?
• What do you know about the problem/challenge?
• What do you still need to know about the problem/challenge?

Director - PeacheyPublications

Role 1

Online Course Designer

Role 2

Content Author

Role 3

Learning Technology Consultant & Trainer

Role 4

Nik Peachey