Many people try to describe creativity as a process. I don’t think we can (or need) to formalize it using a process language. There isn’t any predefined list of steps we can follow that will guarantee creative results. But creativity does share one important attribute with processes: without input, there won’t be any output.
Creativity relies on our ability to collect raw material. You might wonder, how should you select and filter such raw material. As any chef knows, the quality of the materials directly affects the quality of the dish. But this is where the raw material for Creativity differs. The more material you have – the more things you observe and notice – the higher your chances are to come up with surprising and creative connections and associations. Any creative act starts with taking some existing things and change them, take part of them, or simply associate based on them. So the more stuff you have in your bag – the better starting point you have.
The raw material for Creativity does not need to be physically collected. You just need to be aware, observe, and be able to imagine its potential. Look around you. It’s there.