Creative Thinking Definition, Examples How to Boost Creativity

Creative Thinking Definition, Examples How to Boost Creativity Creative thinking skills are important to master in many professions and workplaces.On the face of it, creativity seems like a skill useful only to artists, designers, writers, or marketers.Truth iscreative skills are indispensable for all professionals.Creative thinkers are able to look at things in new, unorthodox ways and come up with solutions no one previously thought of.Creativity is what drives innovation and progress.And you came to the right place to learn all you need to know about creative thinking!This guide will show you:Examples of the best creative thinking skills.What is creative thinking and how to use creativity skills to boost your career.A list of the best jobs for creative thinkers and how to land them.Creative thinking exercises to help you become more creative today.Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. Its fast and easy to use. Plus, youll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and cr eate your resume here.Sample resume made with our builderSee more templates and create your resume here.One of our users, Nikos, had this to say:[I used] a nice template I found on Zety. My resume is now one page long, not three. With the same stuff.Create your resume nowIf you want to learn more about listing all of the most in-demand skills on a resume, see this beast of a guide: Best Job Skills You Should Put on a Resume to Land Interviews in 2020And if you want to learn more about individual skills, we've got you covered! Check out our dedicated guides:Key Hard Skills to Include on a Job-Winning ResumeTechnical Skills for Resume Daily JobComputer Skills Employers Want in 2020Soft Skills vs Hard Skills for a Job: What Employers Look for1Creative Thinking Skills Definition ExamplesWhat are creative thinking skills?Creative thinking is the ability to invent and/or create something new: be that a concept, a solution, a method, a work of art, or an actual, physical device. Creative thinking is based on looking at things in a new way that hasnt previously been considered. Thats why its often described as thinking outside the box.Now, lets have a look at some examples of creative thinking skills.The Best Creative Skills: ExamplesProblem SolvingTackling unexpected problems requires a lot of creativity. After all, employers want to hire creative thinkers not because of their creativity as such, but because they can use it to solve problems in an innovative way.Creative WritingOne of the most typical yet in-demand creative skills. If you are able to write in a compelling, creative way, it will help you a great deal in marketing, sales and, obviously, journalism. But it will also come in handy in all other positions that require writingeven if youre just drafting emails, reports, and presentations.Open-MindednessWhen youre open-minded, you oppose stereotypes and look for new solutions and methods of doing things, instead of sticking to good ol ways which might be n o good after all.AnalysisIf you can gather information and data, thats great but without creative thinking skills, you wont be able to analyze it properly. Creativity in analytical thinking helps you extract meaning from sets of raw data.See more: Analytical Skills: Definition Examples for the WorkplaceCommunicationNo matter how great your ideas are, if youre unable to communicate in an engaging and creative way, youll never get to implement them.And there are different types of communication skills. Check them out here: Communication Skills for Your Resume Workplace SuccessActive ListeningHow can listening be considered creative? Wellthrough active listening you process ideas better so that you can challenge and refine them later during a creative brainstorming session.Sales and MarketingSelling and marketing require a great deal of persuasion. But first, you need to put together a creative message that will enhance your sales pitch.Heres all you need to know about marketing skil ls: Marketing Skills: Examples and How to Use ThemGraphic DesignWhere creative thinking meets art. Artistic craftsmanship is important in graphic design but without fresh, creative ideas, even your most beautiful sketches and projects will be dull and lifeless.LeadershipLeadership is all about inspiring others. But when you have great leadership skills based on big and creative ideas and visions, you are able to connect teams and motivate them to work together towards the end goal.Before we move on to examples of how to use creative thinking skills in your workplace and how to show them off in the job search, one thing to keep in mindTwo terms that people often conflate are creative and critical thinking skills. But these are not the same.Creative vs. Critical ThinkingCreative thinking means you can come up with new ways to think about the surrounding world in order to make something innovative.Critical thinking can be described as thinking about thinking: it means you can understan d the way your perception works in order to identify flaws in your reasoning and avoid biases.3How to Use Creative Skills in Your Job SearchNow that youve seen the best examples of creative thinking skills, think about how you can use these skills to better your career!There are many great jobs that involve creativityweve listed some of the most popular ones below.If youre interested in landing one of them, just click on the position name and youll see a dedicated guide on how to write a job-winning resume for your next creative gig.Heres a list of creative careers you might want to consider!Jobs for Creative ThinkersAcademic CareerActingBartendingCulinary Career (Chef or Cook)Data AnalysisData ScienceGraphic DesignInterior DesignManagementMarketing and Marketing ManagementProgrammingPublic RelationsSalesSoftware EngineeringTeachingUX/UI DesignVisual ArtWeb DesignWritingAnd what sorts of creative gigs are hot right now? Lets see some statisticsRecent research by The Creative Group r evealed that the top 10 areas for creative hiring in 2019 will be:Web and mobile developmentWeb productionUser interface and interaction designCreative developmentVisual designUser experienceDigital marketingUser researchArt directionSocial media / marketing strategy (tied)Creative Thinking Skills on a ResumeIf you dont want to read whole in-depth guides but just need some inspiration for putting your creative skills on a resume, see some examples below.Creative Thinking on a ResumeWriter/PR SpecialistSkilled at writing all types of Public Relations texts: press releases, blog posts, bulletins, emailing campaigns (outreach emails, sales emails, engagement emails).Able to produce up to 1,500 words of great, unique content on a daily basis.Creative Thinking on a ResumeGraphic DesignerCollaborated on a project to create layouts and images for written online content.Contributed to a customer site that won a 2016 Shopify Ecommerce Design Award.Creative Thinking on a ResumeUX/UI DesignerS pearheaded all design elements, templates, and brand consistency.Boosted UX scores by 25% above average for the company.Creative Thinking on a ResumeMarketing ManagerSupervised all stages of digital marketing, creative and operational.Introduced an incentive-driven A/B testing competition among team members which resulted in increasing landing page conversions by 114% in 4 months.When making a resume in our builder, drag drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.Create my resume nowWhen youre done, Zetys resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.Already landed an interview for a job that requires creative thinking skills? Be prepared to face some...Creative Thinking Interview QuestionsRecruiters and hiring managers wont automatically believe everything you put on your resume. Especially when it comes to transferable soft skills such as creative thinking.Be prepared to prove your creative prowess during an interview.To get ready for whats ahead of you, see these sample creative thinking interview questions and answers.Describe a time when you had to think outside the box to solve a problem. How did you handle it?My coworker let a big order of defective parts get all the way to shipping. That was bad and created a lot of scrap. After, I suggested we install mistake-proofing so it could never happen again. We created some dies with pins in them so the parts can only be put into the machines one way. We havent had a single defect since.Tell me about a presentation youve created that youre most proud of.We had to convince a big client to go with a costlier alternative that would ultimately make them higher profits. I put together a demonstration based on 10 real-world applications. They not only went with our suggestion, they became a long-term client.Tell me about a time you used writing and communication skills.I wrote reports as part of my daily shift. I chose to prepare the reports based on single case studies and examples to better illustrate data. My department head frequently commented that my reports were the shortest and easiest to understand of all the officers.Interview questions that test creative thinking skills are usually situational interview questions. You can learn more about them here: Situational Interview Questions and the Best Answers (30+ Examples)3How to Be More Creative: 5 Tips for Increasing Creativity TodayMost people tend to think that creativity is a gift. Something youre either born with or just have to accept living without.Truth it, there are ways to become creative. And creative thinking skills are one of the most fun skills to learn!Heres what you can do to boost creativity:1. Step outside of your comfort zoneResearch has proven that one of the biggest obstacles for creativity is working or thinking within ideas were already familiar with.In an experiment, a group of college students were asked to ima gine, sketch out, and describe extraterrestrial animals. As it turned out, most of the animals they initially created were very similar to the earthly ones.ButThe more limitations researchers imposed on students (e.g. animals have to have feathers and be able to survive in certain conditions), the more creative the students ideas became.When youre facing a creative challenge, try to constrain your work to a certain level (for instance, when making a presentation, force yourself to begin each slide with a verb in active voice, or set a more stringent word count limit on your writing assignment).This way, youll encourage your brain to come up with creative solutions to work around the limitations youve set for yourself.2. BrainstormBrainstorming is a perfect combination of creative thinking skills and teamwork.Its based on thinking about a solution to a problem or a creative task, and jotting down all ideas any member suggestsregardless of how preposterous or out-of-place these might seem.Out of all the ideas, some will most likely be both possible and innovative. But you can add an interesting twist to brainstormingInstead of picking the best ideas and trying to develop them further, pick the worst ones. Then, focus on these ideas and try to find their good features. Or try to come up with solutions to transform a terrible idea into a good one.I guarantee, youll find out something creative youll be able to transfer over to the good ideas.3. Force yourself to work when youre feeling uninspiredAs a professional writer, I have to find ways to overcome writers blockotherwise, there would be weeks when I wouldnt write a single word.Even when you feel like creative work is the last thing youre capable of on a given day, commit to doing it anyways, but work in limited, short periods of time (for example, 20 minutes).During these periods, dont let anything distract you, dont try to do anything elsejust work on the thing youve committed to do.If you write only 5 words, draw just two lines, or note down a single idea that doesnt even make sense, its fine. Once the 20 minutes are over, take a break. Whenever you feel ready, start another 20 minutes.After a few iterations, youll notice that you get more and more done within the set chunk of time and youll no longer feel relieved when its time for a break. Soon, youll be back to your creative best.4. Work, daydream, workMany studies have suggested that disconnecting mentally, daydreaming, dancing, or even simply napping helps enhance creative thinking skills.But theres only one study I found that highlights a very important aspect of daydreaming: it only works once youve already invested a considerable amount of time in a given project.The deeper you are in the creative process, the more unplugging for a while or daydreaming can help you further.(So keep that in mind the next time youll feel like taking a nap as an excuse for leaving your workspace!)5. Think about love (or sex)A fascinating study has shown that thinking about romantic love helps enhance holistic thinking, thus, enabling us to be more creative when it comes to understanding a grander scheme of things.Thinking about the experience of sexual encounters, in turn, boosts the perception of present, concrete details, letting us see and analyze patterns more sharply and quickly.Key TakeawayHeres a quick recap of everything you need to know about creative thinking skills:Examples of creative thinking skills include: problem solving, writing, visual art, communication skills, and open-mindedness.Top areas for creative hiring in 2019 will be: web and mobile development, web production, user interface and interaction design, creative development, and visual design.To show your creative thinking skills on a resume or during a job interview, dont just list them: provide real-life examples of how you used them.The best strategies to increase creativity are: leaving your comfort zone, brainstorming, forcing yourself to overcome a creative block, unplugging mentally after youve begun working on a project, and... thinking about romantic love!What creative thinking skills do you think are most important today? Do you have any questions about how to put creative thinking skills on a resume or discuss it during a job interview? Drop me a line in the comments and Ill get back to you straight away!