Creative Thinking Skills: Problem-Solving, Narrative Writing, and a Technique for Producing Ideas

 




I am an artist and consultant who writes and delivers Art Clubs, bespoke creativity, and problem-solving art clubs for corporate organisations within the creative industries. Recently, I developed a session on critical thinking and digital fatigue as a creative skills training module for new recruits at an international digital marketing and communications company.

The aims are: 
  • To learn about, apply, and integrate creative problem-solving, narrative writing skills, and techniques for producing ideas into your work/life 
  • To have learners think about what creativity means and how creative thinking skills apply to different media channels (i.e., PR, Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, social media, Web content, cyber security)
  • To inspire thought-provoking, big picture thinking, and ask learners to think about the stories they tell audiences and clients (research and analysis implied, but creative skills needed to tell engaging stories)

The objectives are: 
  • To learn about creative problem-solving, narrative writing methods and techniques for producing ideas with examples
  • To complete 3 practical exercises, each on a specific creative thinking skill
  • To focus learning on digital fatigue symptoms and solutions as an easily relatable work/life problem
  • To ask learners to think about a similar or unrelated work/life problem for the practical exercises 
  • To reflect on the creative thinking skills and practical exercises by discussing how to apply creative thinking skills to work/life problems 

The outcomes are: 
  • Learners become more aware of creative thinking skills and methods
  • Learners engage in practical exercises, which require them to apply these skills to work/life problems, i.e., PR skills training, media pitching, writing by-lands, digital content development, and delivering PowerPoint presentations
  • Learners being to use creative thinking skills to meet work/life challenges
  • Learners discuss how technical creative thinking skills apply to different channels, i.e., PR, Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, Social Media, Web content
  • Learners begin to use big picture, thought-provoking thinking to tell stories by combing research analysis with creative skills to tell engaging stories

Session materials: notepad, and pens/pencils

Pre-session resources: Read A Technique for Producing Ideas (1940, 1970) by James Webb Young. PDF or hardcopy. 









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