Class Notes on Creative Thinking Skills

What’s in an idea? Too soon to tell.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

And that’s the point.

Ideation, and particularly brainstorming is well known for generating a lot of ideas. We often think of ideas as lightbulbs, right?! Why is that? Not sure. It has something to do with a sense becoming suddenly alive with something, a thought, a fleeting, random, incomplete concept that flies across consciousness.

So here’s a question: how many different kinds of lights are there? Really, think about it for a second.

There’s quite a few different lights out there, actually!

Ideation is simply about drumming up lots and lots (and we do mean lots) of ideas.

Often this is an out-loud activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Ideas can be written too!

WoC students practice brain writing to generate ideas.

Ideas are so useful. And they are incomplete. Random thoughts, in all their glorious wild and crazy forms at this point are welcome. That’s what generating ideas is all about.

It’s important during ideation not to judge. Oh no - don’t do that. That would be like saying you don’t like liquorish before you’ve tried it. Another (creative) question, in that situation would be more like, “What might be all the other flavors that could be made that might delight the palate?!”