Creative Thinking Skills to Solve Complex Problems

In job advertisements, we always read "creative thinking skills" as a prerequisite for the job vacancy.

We may think about the relationship between owning the skill of creative thinking and work, so we realize through experience that companies looking for employees with creative thinking skills are ambitious companies that seek to break boundaries and routines, aim for excellence, and often succeed in overcoming the difficulties and solving the problems they face thanks to the creative skills of their employees that have been employed in devising solutions that are out of the ordinary.

Creative thinking skills are not limited to solving corporate problems. They can be used to solve personal, social, and academic issues. That is because creativity knows no limits and can be harnessed in all aspects of life. Therefore, based on the importance of creativity and its magical abilities, we decided to devote this article to the details of creative thinking skills and their role in solving complex problems.

What is creative thinking?

Creative thinking is one of the types of thinking used by humans. It means looking at things with a new eye. It is thinking outside the norm or thinking outside the box, as is common in our professional terminology. That does not mean creative thinking is about providing random and illogical solutions or ideas. On the contrary, it is a thoughtful suggestion and logical idea that has not previously occurred to anyone, thanks to a situation called "lateral thinking.” It means the ability to observe things differently and unclearly for everyone.

In an example of creative thinking, we mention musical composition, specifically the four seasons. The musical mark is the same and available to all musicians, but only "Vivaldi" could organize it in this way and get this sweet masterpiece out of the melody. The same applies to poetry. Words in language are limited, but poets such as "Mahmoud Darwish," "Nizar Qabbani" and "Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab" were able to create astonishing pictures from a word that is familiar to everyone, and here lies creativity.

Creative thinking is not only related to the arts; its presence in any field can add a touch of excellence and innovation, in addition to enabling its owners and the parties they work for to obtain intelligent exits for their crises, dazzling solutions to their problems, and new perspectives for their work, which reflects positively on the institutions they belong to, so their productivity doubles, their spread increases, and they outperform their competitors, which explains why employers seek to hire creative thinkers among their cadres.

What are creative thinking skills?

Creative thinking skills are the components of this type of thinking whose use in the technical and practical aspects yields impressive results for creative work. What are the most important creative thinking skills?

1. Analytical Thinking Skill

Analytical thinking is one of the skills of creative thinking, and it means dissecting, examining, and flipping the problem carefully to obtain a comprehensive understanding of it and to see each of its parts that can be a way out of the creative solution or a nucleus for it. It is like solving mathematical problems that we used to do in school. We must read the problem slowly and carefully, know both constants and variables and then realize the processes that occurred to them. After understanding the dimensions of the problem and forming a clear process picture, we start searching for a creative solution.

2. Openness

One of the qualities of creative thinking is openness, which entails considering novel ideas that no one has ever touched before and then examining the conclusions drawn by the logic's criteria and standards. They are adopted if they make sense and are deemed acceptable; if not, they are rejected, and new solutions are looked into. The worlds of creativity will open in front of us when we are open, which is a creative skill that entails letting go of previous biases and assumptions and getting ready to knock on all the doors of the solutions suggested by thinking.

3. Organization

Organizing is one of the most important creative thinking skills. Although it seems to contradict creativity from the traditional perspective of creators being as messy as they are rumored to be, it is a necessary step to come up with creative ideas that are organized and accessible to the minds of others.

Suppose, for example, that a skilled cook noticed a delicious taste that resulted from mixing two flavors that they tasted by chance, then entered the kitchen and began to put the components and ingredients randomly and got a delicious dish. How would they be able to present it to their audience without the skill of organization?

The cook has paid attention to their creativity to the taste and was able to employ it in extracting a dish of candy. Still, they have to organize the preparation method, arrange the addition of ingredients, adjust their quantities, and time their cooking to obtain a formal creative recipe of their own that they present to their audience.

4. Communication Skills

Communication skills are crucial for creative thinking and serve as its foundation. Without it, creativity remains a buried treasure in the owner's head, who cannot pass it to others or benefit them. The creator should have oral and written communication skills and persuasion skills that allow them to acquire the thinking of the opposite person and take their hand among the ideas step by step to reach the result the creative person arrived at.

Communication skills require emotional intelligence, which enables the management of an effective communication process with others, allowing the creator to gain their confidence and reveal their inner beings to them. The creator analyzes them, devises creative solutions, and then presents them to them in a way that ensures their acceptance.

For example, a primary school teacher wanted to teach her students the five senses. However, the new vocabulary and information were intractable, so she turned the lesson's words into a song. She sang it to them and pointed to the senses with her hands, so the children only memorized the song and understood the lesson in record time, and it was a lot of fun.

5. Problem-Solving Skills

One of the most crucial creative thinking skills is problem-solving, the secret weapon that guarantees a person's access to prestigious job opportunities. It is the most sought-after skill in employees who are sought by employers whose mention in the CV is a letter of recommendation and a nomination that enhances the chances of acceptance.

If we ask why there is a high demand for problem-solving skills, we answer that it is the way out of the total collapse in the face of the problems that companies face. How often has the company supervised bankruptcy before one of its employees created a novel solution? How often have competitors succeeded in swallowing the market and winning the bet to be another creative idea, which is the lifeline that brought the company back to safety?

Creative Thinking Skills to Solve Complex Problems

We have discussed problem-solving as one of the creative thinking skills, but how can creative thinking be used to solve complex problems? This is done by following these steps:

1. Identify the problem

The first step to employing creative thinking skills in solving complex problems is identifying the crisis and acknowledging its existence. We will never be able to solve the issue that we do not admit exists, so if you own a clothing store, for example, and you suffer from low revenues, you will not be able to find a strategy to solve this problem and improve income if you do not acknowledge your crisis.

2. Problem analysis

The second step in using creative thinking skills to solve complex problems is problem analysis. Because complex problems frequently involve several overlapping issues, taking a deep breath and conducting analytical thinking about the problem can be very helpful in coming up with solutions.

According to the store's low sales, it is possible to think about the value of the income, compare it with costs, expenses, and the percentage of profits, calculate the logical level of this value, and then reconsider the pricing strategy, or perhaps be guided by thinking about another reason for the low income, such as the employees' misbehave with clients, the presence of the store in a remote area, the disproportionate quality of the goods with the standard of living of the residents of the zone (such as selling expensive international brands in a poor popular neighborhood), the lack of sufficient promotion of the store and the goods on the Internet, and other reasons that may be the cause of your problem, the combination of two or more reasons.

3. Brainstorming a solution

After analyzing the issue and determining its causes, the next step in applying creative thinking skills to solve complex problems is brainstorming potential solutions and selecting the most suitable and distinctive ones. Returning to our stagnant store, which we found that the reason for its stagnation is people's ignorance of it, we brainstormed to create advertising solutions that contribute to its fame rapidly, such as creative television or road ads or hiring a social media expert to promote the store on social media pages, made significant offers, such as presenting a red flower and wrapping an elegant gift with every piece of clothing purchased on the occasion of Valentine's Day, for example, or suitable sports shoes with every sportswear purchased.

It is necessary to consider the logic in adopting the creative solution. In the case of applying the sports shoe solution as a gift with the sports dress, the price of the sports dress must cover its cost and the cost of the shoes with a profit margin to avoid losses. The store will unquestionably go out of business if the value of the dress is insufficient to offset its expenses.

4. Briefing the work team on the plan

That is the last stage of employing creative thinking skills in solving complex problems because good fruits are due to many concerted efforts. A member of the team can propose another innovative idea that improves the solution, such as one of the employees in your store offering to communicate with the sewing operator who produces sports clothes to produce suitable sports hats that are added to the previous offer while raising its price in a way that covers costs and provides a profit rate. Thus, the client benefits by buying a consistent and complete sports uniform without shopping and searching.

In conclusion

Though it may come naturally to some people, thinking creatively can also be learned, developed, and honed through practice, intensive brainstorming, or team brainstorming. The best method for producing imaginative and astonishing results when tackling complex problems is to use creative thinking techniques.