Creative Thinking Skills

· Substitute
What else instead? Who else instead? Other ingredients? Other material? Other power? Other place?

· Combine
How about a blend, an alloy, an ensemble? Combine purposes? Combine appeals?

· Adapt
What else is like this? What other idea does this suggest? Does past offer parallel? What could I copy?

· Minify
Order, form, shape? What to add? More time?

· Magnify
Greater frequency? Higher? Longer? Thicker?

· Put to other uses
New ways to use as is? Other uses I modified? Other places to use? Other people to reach?

· Eliminate
What to subtract? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature? Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Understate?

· Reverse:
Interchange components? Other pattern?

· Rearrange
Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and effect? Change pace? Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it backward? Turn it upside-down? Reverse roles?

Using Metaphors and Analogies

Among the most powerful tools in creativity are metaphors and analogies. Their use can be considered a mechanism for divergent thinking because it can produce many varied ideas, but it generally is focused more on the types of ideas produced than on the number. In this kind of thinking, ideas from one context are transferred to another in a search for parallels, insights, fresh perspectives, or new syntheses.

Direct Analogies

Direct analogies are the simplest type of comparison. In a direct analogy, individuals look for parallels between one idea, object, or situation and another. Direct analogies start with simple comparisons between similar objects and progress to more abstract processes. For example, compare how a bird is like an airplane or how a kite is like a balloon. Beginning comparisons are most likely to be successful if they are based on clear similarities in either form or function.

Direct analogies also are powerful tools for creating visual images. Direct analogies can be made between emotions and a variety of objects: a twisted ribbon to signify laziness or a broken mirror glued over a photograph to signify anxiety.

Personal Analogies

For personal analogies, the challenge is to be the thing. Do not physically act out the object or situation, as you might in creative dramatics, but imagine you are those things in specific situations (a cell splits, or a rock is subjected to increasing heat and pressure), and you will gain greater understanding and new perspectives.

There are four levels of involvement for a personal analogy:

1. First-person description of facts. At this level, the person describes what is known about the object or animal, but shows no empathetic involvement. In describing a porcupine, you might say, “I feel prickly,” or “I feel my tail bump on the ground.”

2. First-person identification with emotion. At the second level, the person recites common emotions, but does not present new insights. In describing the porcupine, you might say, “I feel happy walking through the woods,” or “I feel protected by my quills.”

3. Empathetic identification with a living thing. At this level, you show more insight into the life, feelings, and dilemmas of a porcupine. For example, “It’s confusing. Sometimes I like my quills; sometimes I don’t. I feel safe with quills around me, but no one can come near. Even other porcupines don’t come close because we might hurt each other. I wish I could take them off.”

4. Empathetic identification with a nonliving object. At the highest level of personal analogy, you are able to make the same type of empathetic connection with nonliving things. You might express a plane’s feeling of exhilaration on reaching the speed for takeoff or the sadness of skis being put away for the summer.

Source: Material for this page was adapted from Creativity in the Classroom, by Alane Jordan Starko, How to Think like Leonardo DaVinci by Michael Gelb, Design Synectics by Nicholas Roukes, and You Tube