Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success

Learn how to apply tools and techniques to better solve problems, generate ideas, and excel in your chosen career.

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Created by: Peter Childs

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Course Description

In today's ever-growing and changing world, being able to think creatively and innovatively are essential skills. It can sometimes be challenging to step back and reflect in an environment which is fast paced or when you are required to assimilate large amounts of information. Making sense of or communicating new ideas in an innovative and engaging way, approaching problems from fresh angles, and producing novel solutions are all traits which are highly sought after by employers. The greatest innovators aren't necessarily the people who have the most original idea. Often, they are people- or teams- that have harnessed their creativity to develop a new perspective or more effective way of communicating an idea. You can train your imagination to seize opportunities, break away from routine and habit, and tap into your natural creativity.
This course will equip you with a tool-box', introducing you to a selection of behaviours and techniques that will augment your innate creativity. Some of the tools are suited to use on your own and others work well for a group, enabling you to leverage the power of several minds. The practical approach of this course enables you to acquire an essential skill-set for generating ideas, with plenty of:
Fun e-tivities and exercises;
Practical lectures and tips;
Video representations of the techniques in action.
You can pick and choose which of these tools or techniques suit your needs and interests, focusing on some or all of the selected approaches and in the order that fits best for you. Whatever you're doing, whether it's work or leisure, if you practice spending time applying these tools to anything you see or imagine, they will help you get into the habit of making space for observation and imagination. No previous knowledge is needed. Join this course and our community of practioners in CREATIVITY!
We look forward to seeing you online!
Module 1
In the first module we focus on the basic principles of creativity and highlight its importance in tackling global challenges. Creativity is explored and applied at two different levels, lower and higher-level creativity. Throughout, we're aiming to provoke your thoughts and develop your creative mind through varied activities and interactions.
Module 2
In this module, we will look at how we can augment our creativity using different methods of Brainstorming, a creativity approach that aids the generation of ideas in solving a stated problem. We particularly focus on the application of brainstorming tools in group activities, with the aim of enabling you to understand, evaluate and apply different types of brainstorming techniques in your own context.
Module 3
We will focus on the principles as well as application of the 6 Hats thinking tool both at an individual level and in a group, under various professional and personal situations, allowing you to develop competency and accelerate proficiency on the use of technique.
Module 4
You will become familiar with the Principles of Morphological Analysis and learn how to apply it in various life scenarios, from design to developing movie plot-lines, whilst developing a more systematic approach to idea generation. Module 5
In Module 5, we continue to enhance your fluency, flexibility and originality of idea generation by introducing you to another creativity tool called the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ). We will particularly focus on application of TRIZ and the TRIZ Contradiction Matrix and how it can be used in problem, both at an individual and in group level. Module 6
This module we will introduce you to the final creativity tool in the course and its importance in generation of ideas and improvement of the existing ones; SCAMPER. You will become familiar with the concepts of SCAMPER and gain proficiency in its application in various unusual, personal or professional situations, whilst inspiring related ideas.
Module 7
Now that you have mastered a wide range of creativity tools and developed competency in their application over a wide range of situations and domains, we will wrap up by asking you to use these tool in combinations and apply these in context and scenarios that are also related to your own discipline or context. This will help you reinforce the concepts that you have learnt so far and enable you to use the creativity tools freely in problem solving and idea generation.

Beginner Level

Time: 7 Weeks - 7-10 hours per week

Instructor Details

Peter Childs

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Peter Childs is Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering and the Professorial Lead in Engineering Design at Imperial College London. His general interests include: creativity tools and innovation; design process and design rationale; fluid flow and heat transfer, particularly rotating flow; sustainable energy component, concept and system design; robotics. Prior to his current post at Imperial he was director of the Rolls-Royce supported University Technology Centre for Aero-Thermal Systems, director of InQbate and professor at the University of Sussex. He has contributed to over 180 refereed journal and conference papers, and several books including the Handbook on Mechanical Design Engineering (Elsevier, 2013, 2018) as well as co-authoring books on rural urban migration, inclusive sports and sports technology. He has been principal or co-investigator on contracts totalling over 30 million. His roles at Imperial include joint course director for the Innovation Design Engineering double master degree run jointly by Imperial and the Royal College of Art, and Design Lead for the Manufacturing Futures Lab. He is also Founder Director and Chief Scientific Officer at QBot Ltd.