What do you do if your creative thinking skills are lacking?

Here's how to address a lack of creative thinking skills: Leverage Your Team: Tap into the diverse talents and perspectives of your team members. Encourage brainstorming sessions and collaborative problem-solving, where everyone contributes ideas and insights. Seek Inspiration: Challenge yourself to think differently by seeking inspiration from creative individuals within and outside your field. Engage with innovative thinkers and expose yourself to new ideas and experiences. Embrace Creativity: Cultivate a culture that values and encourages creative thinking. Empower team members to take risks and explore unconventional solutions. Foster trust and openness, allowing for experimentation and learning from both successes and failures.

In my experience, it is a good opportunity to get inspiration from a diversified environment, be it interacting with people, walking in the forest, gardens, visiting museums, historical places, trying different restaurants or travelling to new countries. You get to know various information related to culture, history, arts & crafts, technology etc. This broadens our way of thinking and learning in a different way. Also breaking your routine is helpful in getting new ideas. Current workforces are getting global and diverse and brings learning avenues. Always be ready to grab this as opportunity rather than see as challenge.

Draw on others- You can channel some creative ideas while working collaboratively with other team members. You could jot down the ideas you have- big or small and then get some opinions from people you trust- who can be a great sounding board. Sometimes a seemingly small idea can turn into something valuable. Reciprocate- You could also consider what your strengths are and then leverage on them. Are you good at implementing ideas? Do you specialise in project management? Perhaps, you could offer those within your team as a reciprocal gesture. Practice and stay optimistic- Being in these situations and discussing ideas more often can help you gain more experience and improve your creative thinking skills.

‘Learning Mode’ should be an active and continuous mindset to gain new perspectives and ideas. It’s always good to attend some training & development courses and workshops that are not based on the areas of your expertise and experience. Listening to the instructor and trainer with self reflection brings better understanding of different setups. Such opportunities can broaden the way of thinking similar to ‘out of the box’ scenario. Awareness of different contexts, settings, examples, experiences and perspectives can be a good tool to think about new ideas. This also improves the ability to be more creative.

It’s a great opportunity to gain new ideas and insights whilst working in diverse team settings. People who think differently can be sources of new and creative thinking. Recapitulation of discussion points should always be done as part of understanding different perspectives within such diversified environment. This brings opportunities to rethink and regenerate something different to your own thinking. Collaborative thinking, a better way with openness of mind and understanding of diversity, can also be sources of creativity.

Change your environment or routine, sometimes getting out of your normal surroundings and shaking up your daily patterns can jumpstart new ways of thinking. Go for a walk, visit a new place, or try working in a different location.

Start by engaging in regular creative exercises, such as brainstorming sessions and mind mapping, to stimulate your imagination. Expose yourself to diverse sources of inspiration, challenge assumptions, and take risks in exploring alternative solutions. Collaborate with others to gain fresh perspectives and create a stimulating environment conducive to creativity. Cultivate curiosity, practice mindfulness, and dedicate time to creative thinking activities. Seek feedback on your ideas and iterate on them to refine and improve your creative thinking skills over time. With consistent effort and experimentation, you can develop and strengthen your ability to think creatively and generate innovative ideas.