The Art of Thinking Differently: Enhancing Creative Problem-Solving Skills*

Maggie Macnab reminds us that “you can’t help but think because you’ve been blessed with consciousness, and there are ways to optimize the thinking process to take advantage of the more natural flows and rhythms within and without you. Problem solving doesn’t have to be all work and no play. In fact, the best solutions often come as a result of the two.” Below is and adapted version of Macnab’s list that offers “thinking approaches you can take to create more efficient, more relaxed, and more pleasing solutions.” These are borrowed from a wide variety of “wisdom-based sources”:

  1. Open mind: Absorb. Take in any and all information when you’re thinking about the problem. This is an uncritical and unfiltered state of mind that doesn’t censor anything.
  2. Multiplied mind: Allow a full experience. Record all you can about the problem. Allow emotion, allow senses.
  3. Connected mind: Relax the focus. Begin to make connections with the information you have gathered intellectually and viscerally. See the big picture. More connections provide an opportunity for more solutions.
  4. Divided mind: Design divergent solutions. Get a timer and set it for 3 minutes. Think of how many ways you could use a third arm coming out of your back or tongues in the middle of your palms. What else could you use a paperclip for? Make up your own ideas. They can be totally silly. No judgements allowed! Use the full 3 minutes. Set the timer again for 3 minutes. Think of a problem you are having with an assignment or a class or an instructional scenario. Perhaps the class is less than inspiring, or maybe its important to create a connection, but you can think only in abstracts. Again without judgement, list anything that comes to mind. Find a few gems in the ideas you came up with that might actually present a new perspective on the problem’s solution.
  5. Linear mind: Use reason to support you – define the problem (what is it and what caused it?); set a realistic goal to solve it; brainstorm solutions (see step 3 above); evaluate – what are the pros and cons of each idea?;choose the most effective solution suing the one with the least cons rather than the most pros (efficiency optimizes the process, so start with the short list); plan your approach (what the steps to implementing it?); assess (did your solution work? If not, try another approach); persistence (don’t give up, even if problem solving isn’t working using a linear method, remember that there’s a lot going on behind the scenes).

*Adapted from Maggie Macnab’s 2012 book Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design (Berkeley, CA: New Riders)