We often consider quality to be better than quantity. And in many cases it is. But when it comes to developing and applying creative skills, quantity always come first.
When you practice in the seempli Creativity Gym, the more Insight you capture for each challenge – the better. Don’t be judgemental and don’t hold back. Just capture anything that comes to mind. In time, this is what makes your mind more flexible, and that’s the essence of creativity. Overthinking before you capture an idea and trying to see if “it is good enough” routes your brain to a different path. We’ll get to that in a moment.
The same approach applies when you apply creative thinking and ideation to real-world challenges. Overthinking and analyzing does not promote idea generation. Important as the analysis is, it comes at the next step. Ideation should always start with gathering many ideas from various domains and contexts. That’s the essence of divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking does not stand by itself though. Choosing the best idea among the pool of ideas you gathered is of course essential. That is where convergent thinking comes into the game. But without having a big and diverse pool of ideas, we might not have enough raw material for the analysis and refinement phase.