Burst Through Your Creative Roadblock with the Creative Thinking Process

Has your business's brainstorming session turned into a brainsnoozing session? Have you sat in front of your computer staring at a blank Word Document for an hour? Do you have the itch to develop a new, out-of-this-world, innovative product, but you just can't seem to figure out where to begin? You may have hit a creative thinking roadblock and the only way around, is through. So let's burst through that roadblock by using the creative thinking process—a five-step series that will help you ignite the fires of your imagination.

It's no coincidence that all of the steps of the creative thinking process start with an "I". Because that's exactly what the creative process starts with—you!

1. Insight and Inquire
The first step of the creative thinking is to gain insight and inquire. First and foremost, gain insight from your fellow co-workers, clients, customers, peers, and family. Find out what people want most from your business. This will help you to gain valuable insight on what's hot and what's not.

Second is to inquire. Ask your mentors, competitors, co-workers and customers important questions that you want to have answered. Obtain valuable information from important resources on or offline. Read up on valuable publications that can help you develop your next big idea. Always ask questions, and never stop asking them!

2. Imagine
Let your imagination run wild. This is the best part of the creative process—it allows you to develop whatever idea you want, no matter how whacky it may seem. Generate tens of hundreds of ideas that can make your business grow and succeed. Perhaps it's repurposing a service, tweaking your marketing strategies, or developing a new secret product. Remember that no idea is too crazy.

3. Identify
Identifying gives you the opportunity to narrow down all of your options from the "Imagine" step. Some of the ideas that you have developed when you and your team of brainstormers were imagining may not be reachable or realistic. Be sure to disregard these ideas first. Then, narrow down your top five creative thinking options. Then your top three. Finally, you and your team of creative thinkers will be able to narrow it down to one brilliant, innovative idea.

4. Improve
Ask your team how you could improve upon the new idea. Continue to build new ideas off of the one that you have selected. How can this idea become better? Faster? Smarter? More efficient? Cheaper?

5. Implement
Finally, the "Implement" stage allows you to bring your ideas to life. This is when you can start incorporating more team members into the idea—start developing strategies, key concepts, and how to bring this new product into your defined market. Pull everything together into one cohesive concept and run with it. Your new idea can generate some big results!

So the next time you're stuck in a rut, or have hit that terrible creative roadblock, take a step back and try out the creative thinking process. Big brainstorming, big ideas, and big thinking starts with you!