The Art of Creative Thinking

How to be Innovative and Develop Great Ideas

John Adair

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780749454838
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780749460082
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

The Art of Creative Thinking provides clear, practical guidelines for developing your powers as a creative thinker. Using examples of entrepreneurs, authors, scientists and artists, John Adair illustrates a key aspect of creativity in each chapter. Stimulating and accessible, this book will help you to understand the creative process, overcome barriers to new ideas, learn to think effectively and develop a creative attitude. It will help you to become more confident in yourself as a creative person.

The Art of Creative Thinking gives you a fresh concept of creative thinking and it will guide you in developing your full potential as a creative thinker. New ideas are the seeds of new products and services, and this book will open the door to them.

Index

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ambiguity 93–96

and courage 94–95

key points for 96

and perseverance 95

analogy 9–14, 16–17, 19, 72–73

as modelling vs copying 13

and existing models 13

and motorcycle example 13

and nature 10, 12

of bees 95, 96

of unknown idea 17

quiz 10–12

analysis 75, 88, 92

and evaluation 46, 49, 68–69

of problem: checklist 119–20 see also checklists

analytical skills 83–88

and clarity of thought 86

and defining/redefining problems 86

and germination of ideas 83–84

key points for 88

answers to quiz questions and exercise 125–27

art and artists 39–40

Art of Thought, The 84

assumptions 61–66

and common sense 66

exercise for testing 63

key points for 66

making conscious 62

and preconceptions 62

and received opinion 63

and thinking vs guessing 64

unconscious 64

belief, suspension of 93

box, thinking outside the 66

chance and the prepared mind 29–32 see also serendipity

and clues, seeing and recognizing 31, 32

and curiosity and open-mindedness 32

key points for 32

chance discoveries, examples of 29–31

galvanometer (Thompson) 30

glass-making (Pilkington) 29–30

offset printing (Rufel) 30

penicillin (Fleming) 30

vulcanized rubber (Goodyear) 30–31

chaos and birth of ideas 28

checklists

anal...

Table of contents

• About the author
• Introduction
• 01 On human creativity
• 02 Use the stepping stones of analogy
• 03 Make the strange familiar and the familiar strange
• 04 Widen your span of relevance
• 05 Practise serendipity
• 06 Chance favours only the prepared mind
• 07 Curiosity
• 08 Keep your eyes open
• 09 Listen for ideas
• 10 Reading to generate ideas
• 11 Keep a notebook
• 12 Test your assumptions
• 13 Make better use of your Depth Mind
• 14 Do not wait for inspiration
• 15 Sharpen your analytical skills
• 16 Suspend judgement
• 17 Learn to tolerate ambiguity
• 18 Drift, wait and obey
• 19 Sleep on the problem
• 20 Working it out
• 21 Think creatively about your life
• Appendix A Checklist: Have you analysed the problem?
• Appendix B Checklist: Are you using your Depth Mind?
• Appendix C Answers to quiz questions and exercise on pages 10–12 and 63
• Index