• Introduction
• CEOs Are Asking for Creativity
• How Do I Find A Creative Expert?
• What Is Creativity?
• Why Is Creative Thinking Important?
• The Creative Thinking Process
• Is Creativity Logical?
• Key Myths About Creativity
• The Paralyzing Power of Previous 
   Perceptions
• How the Mind Works
• How Does Your Experience Affect
  Creativity?
• Why Are We So Critical?
• The Mind Has A Creative Immune System
• The 10 Mental Blocks To Creativity
• 1. One "Right Answer"
• 2. Logic Can Kill Creativity
• 3. Be Creative - Break Some Rules
• 4. Be Creative - Is That Practical?
• 5. Play is Creative
• 6. Make Time To Think Creatively
• 7. Being Creative Is "Not My Job"
• 8. Don't Be Afraid To Be Creative
• 9. Creativity...How Ambiguous
• 10. Is Creativity Wrong?
• Think Creative
• The Sly As A Fox Toolkit
• Brainstorming Rules
• Idea Rockets
• "Senseable" Creativity
• Random Creativity
• WBF
• All Factors Involved (AFI)
• All Possible Alternatives (APA)
• Other's View (OV)
• Challenge Accepted Concepts
• Best Problem Definition
• Provocation
• Combination Creativity
• Conclusion
• About The Author
• The Sly As A Fox Workshop -
   Bring Creative Thinking To Your Company

5. Play Is Creative

When do you come up with great ideas? When you’re under pressure and trying your hardest to solve a problem, you rarely come up with a great solution. You’re concentrating so hard on the problem, you don’t take time to relax and let some new ideas come to you. 

If you’re like most people, you’ve experienced times when you were playing a sport, reading a book, or relaxing at the beach, when suddenly you came up with an idea completely unrelated to what you were doing. Why is that?

You’ve allowed your mind to break its normal pattern process by taking a time out. Your mind can entertain new information, ideas, and concepts that have nothing to do with any of the problems you had been solving.

Another great approach to help you get creative is to “just play with it.”

Let’s take a look at the development of a new product. Studies suggest that people contribute more creative ideas and suggestions when they have a prototype or model of the product to play with. It doesn’t have to be perfect or even the final product. The key is to have something that helps people visualize the product. It allows them to contribute much faster to its development.

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