As our world continues to evolve and change rapidly, it’s essential to hone our creative skills. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes on more rote tasks, building our creative abilities is critical to staying competitive in a demanding marketplace which requires durable human skills.
We might think of artistic talent when we think of creative ability, but this is only one example. Creative skills go beyond physically being able to build or create something tangible; they are also about being able to think in a diverse and multidimensional way.
In this post, we’ll discuss four different kinds of creative thinking that can help you develop personally and professionally. We’ll also share some ideas for cultivating your creative skills through a newly launched short online course at SACAP Global.
The four kinds of creativity
According to an article published by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) titled “Cultivating the Four Kinds of Creativity,” developing novel responses to ongoing challenges is key. This article discusses four different kinds of creativity, including integration, splitting, figure-ground reversal, and distal thinking.
Many of us might focus on one of these areas, but to stay competitive, we must develop our skills in all of these areas. If you’re managing a team, it is crucial to cultivate a multifaceted approach to problem-solving, which could include incorporating all four types of creative skills.
To get a better idea of what these four skill areas are, we’ll now share a summary of each:
1. Integration
Integration is the ability to bring different ideas together, as the word’s meaning suggests. For example, a smartphone combines functionality split between devices, i.e., a telephone, a camera, and a music player. Using integration skills, smartphone developers combined all these devices into one, which would have been inconceivable decades ago.
2. Splitting
Splitting is the opposite of integration and involves breaking down concepts or ideas into smaller parts. For example, medical researchers make critical breakthroughs when discovering that a single disease is actually more than one ailment, allowing for more precise and effective treatment. In manufacturing, breaking down the production of a single product into multiple parts that can be produced at scale and reassembled was a revolutionary discovery.
3. Figure-ground reversal
Figure-ground reversal is a creative skill that can switch between the foreground and the background of a problem. It comes from scientific studies of human vision. For example, while developing satellite technology, scientists found a more effective way to measure distances on Earth, which led to the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Applications such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the communication platform Slack were originally internal tools to enhance capacity. However, they soon became commercial products as their creators realised their global potential.
4. Distal thinking
Distal thinking refers to future thinking and coming up with ideas that might seem impossible today. A good example of this type of thinking is Elon Musk’s Tesla company, which has taken a once futuristic idea, namely electric cars, and helped them develop into a commercially available product. Tesla’s namesake, Nikola Telsa, is a prime example of a distal thinker. Many of his ideas, while perhaps far-fetched then, have helped to develop now widely used concepts such as the radio, AC power, neon lighting and hydroelectric power.
How to develop your creative skills
From the list above, we can see the opportunity to develop different ways of thinking about problems. If we only use one of these four areas, we may limit our ability to solve problems and drive constructive change. For example, not all ideas need integration, and trying to split concepts too much can overcomplicate straightforward solutions.
In addition, not every idea needs to be analysed from multiple angles, and too much distal thinking can prevent us from coming up with feasible ideas in the here and now. To avoid getting stuck, we must combine various types of creativity. This combination of creative approaches can identify straightforward solutions to problems and intermediary developments that can help us work towards achieving futuristic aims.
But how do you develop these skills? One way is to read more about innovation and past developments, which can help identify specific types of thinking. Another way is to experiment, which many scientists and innovators have done and continue to do. Ultimately, creativity is just coming up with ideas, testing them out, and seeing what works or doesn’t. Many notable inventions have come from supposed “failures”, which, in the end, were all just experiments.
Another option is to learn practical skills to help you develop your creative capacity, such as SACAP Global’s course Cultivating Creativity: Enhance Your Creative Potential. This short course will help you learn more about harnessing your creative potential and identifying opportunities to hone your creative skills.
Related Courses
Cultivating Creativity: Enhance Your Creative Potential
Harness your creative potential and cultivate creativity in personal and professional contexts.
