Are you a Creative Thinker?

While dealing with various challenges and opportunities at workplace, we are expected to don various hats as a “problem solver” – the most common being that of a “Critical Thinker” which is frequently described as “Thinking about Thinking” to help bring CLARITY to a situation at hand. Having tested assumptions and clarified goals, the next hat to wear is that of a “Creative Thinker”.

Here is a nice Introduction to Creative Thinking, which lists various Creative Methods like Evolution (incremental improvement), Revolution (dramatic change), Reapplication and Changing Direction. Here is another good resource: Critical and Creative Thinking.

From another perspective, Dr. Amantha Imber conducted a study and discovered “The top 6 predictors of creative performance in the workplace“:

1. Openness to experience
2. Creative self-efficacy
3. Resilience
4. Confidence in intuition
5. Tolerance of ambiguity
6. Cross application of experiences

So, if your work involves heavy “Creative Thinking” then these are attributes that your team members must have!