by Đào Khánh Huyền

One of the best decisions I made last year was to enroll in this Master Program of Innovation by University of Nantes, currently being offered at FTU campus. The Program brought me a wind of change in the mindset. Previously, I have always believed that creativity, let alone innovative ideas, has not been and will not be my thing.  However, this started to change since my first subject: “Creativity and Design management” facilitated by Mr. Patrice BONNEAU and followed by many other useful and interesting subjects providing tools and guidance to help me turn my ideas into reality. 

“Creativity is a process, not an event”. As the saying goes, if you want be more creative and innovative, you have to spend time and efforts to practice. In this article, I would love to share with you some of the tools and techniques that I gained throughout Program to practice and improve creativity. 

• Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a method for generating ideas to solve a design problem. It usually involves a group, under the direction of a facilitator. The strength of brainstorming is the potential participants have in drawing associations between their ideas in a free-thinking environment, thereby broadening the solution space.

One of the effective brainstorming methods introduced by Mr. Stéphane JAOUEN that I found extremely useful is Ishikawa diagram method. This method is a 6-step method to find out the root cause of a problem from which we can come up with a well-rounded solution.  

• Mind-mapping

This method must sound much more very familiar to you compared to the abovementioned. It is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain, a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas. Mind-mapping is an extremely useful visual thinking tool to structure information to help analyze and create new ideas.

One example of mind-mapping for the MPIE program:  

• The six thinking hats 

Often, the best decisions come from changing the way that you think about problems, and examining them from different viewpoints. “Six Thinking Hats” can help you to look at problems from different perspectives, but one at a time, to avoid confusion from too many angles crowding your thinking. It forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and to look at things from a number of different perspectives. This allows you to get a more rounded view of your situation.

Each “Thinking Hat” is a different style of thinking. These are briefly explained below:

Managing Blue – what is the subject? what are we thinking about? what is the goal? look at the big picture.

Information White – considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?

Emotions Red – intuitive or instinctive, reactions or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification).

Discernment Black – logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and conservative. Practical, realistic.

Optimistic response Yellow – logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony. Sees the brighter, sunny side of situations.

 Creativity Green – statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes. Thinks creatively, outside the box. 

• SWOT analysis

To understand well yourself and the surrounding environment means you already win the half way. This SWOT analysis helps you to do this. What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well-placed to exploit with your strengths. And by understanding the weaknesses of your business, you can manage and eliminate threats that would otherwise catch you unawares.

I believe that the tools and techniques introduced in this article will be very useful for you to brainstorm, structure, shape and reflect your ideas in a clear and logical way. Should you spend time to practice with the tools, your creative mind will be fostered and improved gradually.