Using your Whole Brain

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Using your Whole Brain

• Whole-Brain Thinking

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Creative Thinking Thorough Thinking

• Skills to create new ideas,
• uncover assumptions,
• solve problems,
• make decisions.

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Using your whole brain
Left Hemisphere

• Logical
• Detailed
• Mathematical
• Identifies categories
• Maintains time clock
• 1,2,3...

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Using your whole brain
Right Hemisphere

• Visual information
• Shapes Sizes
• Colors
• Music
• Rhyme and Rhythm
• Global view

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Whole-Brain Thinking

• Using both hemispheres of your brain
• Generating new ideas through creative thinking
• Checking out creative ideas using thorough
  thinking

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CREATIVE THINKING -- Those Aha! Experiences

• seeking new patterns and new relationships
• combining ideas in a new way
• burst of energy -- exhilarating experience
• spontaneous, effortless, result of luck
• right hemisphere function

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainbloom or Mind Mapping

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Brainbloom

• formulate your issue
• set time limit
• think alone for a few minutes
• Create a Mind Map -- write down every idea --
  dont edit, dont judge -- spiral out from the
  center idea --

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Create a Mind Map
Idea 1
Idea 8
Idea 2
Main Idea
Idea 7
Idea 6
Idea 3
Idea 5
Idea 4
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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go

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Focus and let go

• take a break
• take a nap
• take a walk

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity

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Cultivate creative serendipity

• be alert to see what others miss
• put yourself in new situations, with new people
• explore new books, plays, concerts, lectures,
  movies
• expect new discoveries

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity
• Keep idea files

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Keep Idea Files

• IC-100 -- dont leave home without it!
• Cards for ideas, quotes, insights, notes, jokes,
  etc.
• Journal
• Clip articles, jokes, pictures, etc. and file
• Files of articles for ideas
• Computer data base of ideas

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity
• Keep idea files
• Collect and play with data

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Collect and Play with Data

• Combine data in a different way
• If this were not true, how would the rest be
  different?
• Make pictures, condense info, categorize info
• Re-order the info in various ways
• Look for opposites

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity
• Keep idea files
• Collect and play with data
• Create while you sleep

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Create while you sleep

• ask yourself a question just before going to
  sleep
• keep pencil and paper by your bed all the time
• quickly write down your thoughts, dreams when you
  wake
• see how this might answer your question

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity
• Keep idea files
• Collect and play with data
• Create while you sleep
• Refine ideas and follow through

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Refine ideas and follow through

• This is the MOST IMPORTANT step in Creativity
• Genius resides in the follow-through
• 1 inspiration and 99 perspiration
• Review your Idea File and use it

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HOW CAN I STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING?

• Brainstorm
• Focus and let go
• Cultivate creative serendipity
• Keep idea files
• Collect and play with data
• Create while you sleep
• Refine ideas and follow through
• Trust the process

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Trust the Process

• Dont be impatient.
• Trust that you have the skills and insights to
  find the solution.
• Often the darkest before the dawn.
• Not always a giant AHA! -- just series of
  little aha!s
• Once you get the aha!, you still have work to
  do.

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THOROUGH THINKING

• arranging in step-by-step procedures
• refining and polishing a rough idea into a
  polished creation
• hard work, result of persistence
• left hemisphere function

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THOROUGH THINKING

• about what you read
• about what you hear
• about your creative ideas
• in order to develop concepts
• in order to write
• in order to speak

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THOROUGH THINKING CAN

• uncover bias and prejudice
• consider future impact of present actions
• look for inaccurate, sloppy, misleading
  statements
• distinguish between facts and opinions
• ask powerful questions
• make detailed observations

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SKILLS OF THOROUGH THINKING

• identify assumptions
• weigh evidence
• separate fact from opinion
• organize thoughts
• avoid errors in logic

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Steps to Thorough Thinking

• Admit I dont know
• Define the terms you use
• Consider the source
• Seek alternative views
• Ask questions
• Look for 3 answers
• Be willing to change your mind
• Write out what you think

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Whole-Brain Thinking
Creative Thinking and Thorough Thinking