Thinking Outside the Box – 3 Ways on How to Approach Business Creatively in a Post-Pandemic World

As we begin to slowly come out of the other side of what has been an extremely turbulent few years in the business and economic space, it is important now more than ever to take creative and innovative risks that will be disruptive and thrive in a post-Covid 19 marketplace. Marketers must approach their strategies, campaigns and methodologies with creativity, innovation and design thinking at the forefront of mind.

Recognising the link between the three processes; creativity, innovation and design thinking is incredibly important in order to increase market share profitability, improve upon services and products to actually solve meaningful problems and ultimately translate to revenue growth for your business. Marketers and small business owners must adapt their approach to business to be far more user-centric than ever before in order to provide desired and needed solutions to real-world problems.

1. Creativity is a State of Mind that you Can Develop;

It is important to unlock and foster your own creative mindset. Although you may think that not everyone is born to be naturally creative, it is easier than you realise to harness your own innovative and disruptive solutions to real-world problems that we encounter. This can be done by developing your own creative state of mind by following the creative process model.

The creative process model follows stages of preparation, incubation, illumination and then finally verification. Preparation involves one developing a detailed understanding of the issue or problem faced and research on information that is relevant to the issue. Then the incubation period, involves a stage of reflective thought on the issue and utilising the active divergent thinking process. Suddenly, one would encounter the illumination stage, in which there is sudden awareness, a possibly vague idea entering one’s mind. Finally, the verification stage involves a detailed experimental evaluation of the illuminated idea and then even further creative thinking.

2. Creativity Does Not Mean to be Entirely Original;

Not all new ideas and solutions are entirely original. This concept refers to what is called adaptive creativity. Adaptive Creativity is all about improving upon an already existing product by solving or refining its current problems or practices. This can be seen in Apple constantly updating and upgrading both their iOS software and devices, although not an entirely new concept but rather constantly new adaptations of these products and services. To survive even after this pandemic, it is important to think creatively, but also in a manner that is constantly improving on some of the systems, services and products that are already integrated into our lives.

3. Creative Thinking Styles – Convergent and Divergent Thinking;

Divergent Thinking is the process of thinking that explores multiple possible solutions in which allow for the generation of creative ideas. This type of thinking focuses on the exploration of possibilities. Whilst convergent thinking involves the process of figuring out a concrete solution to any problem. This type of thinking predominantly focuses on deciding what to do. Creative solutions can be found in either type of thinking approach.

How will you think outside the box in a post-pandemic world?