Creative Thinking Skills: What They Are, Importance And Examples

Creative thinking skills are those mental abilities and cognitive processes that allow a person generate original ideas, solve problems innovatively and think creatively. Some of the creative thinking skills include:

• Divergent thinking: ability to generate a variety of ideas, solutions, or responses to a problem. It involves thinking beyond conventional options and exploring multiple perspectives. Discover more about Divergent Thinking: what it is, characteristics and examples in this article.
• Mental flexibility: being able to change perspective, adapt to new circumstances, and consider different approaches to addressing a problem.
• Originality: the ability to produce novel and unique ideas, moving away from conventional solutions or predictable answers.
• Elaboration: develop and expand ideas in detail. This involves delving deeper into ideas to enrich them and make them more complex.
• Analog thinking: relate seemingly unrelated concepts to find creative solutions. The association of ideas from different domains can lead to innovations.
• Critical thinking: reflectively evaluate ideas, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. The ability to question and analyze deeply is essential for informed creativity.
• Intuition: the ability to rely on intuition and instinct in making creative decisions. This involves connecting with the right “feeling” beyond logical reasoning.
• Tolerance of ambiguity: Being comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, allowing you to explore different possibilities without feeling the need to have definitive answers right away.
• Openness to new experiences: the willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and concepts. Open-mindedness to new perspectives fosters creativity.
• Collaboration: the ability to work effectively with others, combining and building on different people’s ideas to collectively generate innovative solutions.

What is the development of creative skills like?

The greater or lesser presence and development of these skills in people will depend on the following factors:

• Analysis and discrimination capacity
• Enthusiasm
• Fearlessness
• Eternal curiosity
• Depth in analysis
• Patience and permanence when solving problems
• Tolerance for frustration
• Inner strength

These personality characteristics are the breeding ground that promotes the development of creative abilities in people. Discover in this article what creative intelligence consists of: characteristics, examples and how to develop it.

Creative thinking skills They are fundamental in various aspects of life and they have significant importance in different contexts, since they provide multiple advantages, both on a personal and social level. Here we present some of the main reasons that highlight the importance of these skills:

• Problem resolution: Creative thinking skills allow you to approach problems innovatively, find unique solutions, and overcome obstacles effectively. Creativity is essential to face complex challenges and develop original approaches.
• Adaptability: In a rapidly changing world, the ability to think creatively makes it easier to adapt to new situations, technologies and environments. Mental flexibility and openness to new ideas are essential to excel in a constantly evolving environment.
• Self-expression: Creative thinking skills allow people to express their ideas, emotions, and perspectives in unique ways. This is crucial in art, writing, design, and other forms of personal expression.
• Effective learning: Encouraging creativity in education promotes a more participatory and active approach to learning. It allows students to explore, question and understand concepts in deeper and more meaningful ways.
• Success at work: In modern work environments, creativity is increasingly valued. Creative employees can come up with innovative ideas, solve problems efficiently, and contribute to the overall success of an organization.
• Development of interpersonal skills: Creative collaboration involves working with others to combine and build on diverse ideas. This improves interpersonal skills, effective communication and the ability to work as a team. In this article you will see How to maintain good interpersonal relationships.

Portilla, C. & Rugarcía, A. (1993)⁽¹⁾They specify several indicators that are an example of creative thinking skills. In this article, we will classify these indicators according to the five phases of the creative thinking creation process, as indicated in the “Critical and Creative Thinking Skills Workshop” by López, M. (2000)⁽²⁾:

1. Perception of the problem: Intuition and sensitivity are essential requirements for the creative thinking process to begin. Based on sensitivity and intuition, the person will feel driven to start this creative process.
2. Delimitation and definition: defining the problem and elaborating it clearly is another fundamental aspect for the creative thinking process to develop correctly. Clear delimitation of the problem will allow it to be addressed much more effectively. Creative people have a high capacity to delimit and define problems
3. Deep analysis: For a correct analysis of the problem, the ability to concentrate, fluidity is necessary, which will allow you to move easily in the middle of this deep analysis, and the regression ability to collect the data, knowledge, and processes necessary for the correct analysis of the problem.
4. Reconstruction of internal thinking: This reconstruction is what initiates the creative response. To do this, the skills of originality, flexibility, imagination and correct evaluation and transformation through the use of metaphorical thinking and the ability to synthesize will be necessary.
5. Issuance of the most appropriate response: as a final part of the creative process, the issuance of the response will be classified as creative to the extent that it involves the prediction of solutions that expand the established limits.

The list of creative thinking skills presented will be those that, depending on the strength and intensity with which they are manifested in the person in question, will lead to the final creation of optimal solutions that will benefit all the people involved. Additionally, in this article we analyze the Types of conflicts and their resolution.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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