Creative problem solving through sharing

I’m surrounded by colorful post-its, dry-erase markers, whiteboards, and creative people - just another day at work. I didn’t realize it when I signed my offer letter, but I signed myself over to a dream.

Over the past decade, I’ve lived my dream of helping people become creative problem solvers. And I’ve learned that being a creative problem solver isn’t about coming up with the most amazing and unique ideas or somehow having an air of creativity around you. It’s actually a lot simpler than that. 

It’s all about your mindset.

We’re programmed (at least in the U.S.) in a particular way because of our education system: there’s a right answer, learn to the test, explain your ideas thoroughly. All of this has its place in society but not in creative problem solving.

Creative problem solving involves not jumping to solutions, not focusing on how an idea will work, and not trying to come up with the best idea. It involves being open to ideas, being curious, being willing to try and fail… or more accurately, learn. It involves not assuming you have all the answers and instead looking at problems from perspectives other than your own.

There’s a humility to this type of problem solving and it requires a bit of letting go of control. It can be hard to get started because it’s counter to a lot of the ways we’ve been taught. But that’s why it’s so powerful. 

When you embrace a creative problem solving mindset, the world begins to open up, new possibilities arise, you feel less constrained to the way things “should be” and can focus more on how you want them to be. 

Image generated through AI

So how can you start embracing a creative problem solving mindset? Let’s travel back to preschool where we learned to share with others. 

Except this time instead of toys, it’s all about sharing ideas with someone else. More specifically, sharing them with someone else before they’re fully formed ideas. Ideally they are half-baked, thoughts-in-progress, and questions you haven’t quite figured out yet. 

Instead of thinking through them on your own until you feel like your idea is in a good place and you finally feel comfortable to share it, bring someone else into the part where you’re still figuring out your idea -  the messy part where you don’t have all the answers and aren’t sure where it will end up. 

Sharing ideas with others can be intimidating: What if you don’t have the idea fully fleshed out? What if you think it’s a bad idea? What there’s a question you don’t know the answer to?

Those are all valid concerns. But they don’t have a place in this kind of sharing. 

Sharing your not-fully-formed ideas allows you to learn, to get another perspective, to uncover something you may not have considered. 

But there’s a trick when sharing an idea with someone. Instead of worrying about convincing them about the merits of your idea or trying to “sell” your idea to them, simply share your idea and then ask:

What do you like about it? 

What do you have questions about? 

What other ideas come to mind?

Then comes the really hard part. Listen to what they have to say. That’s it. Don’t get defensive. Don’t justify anything. And certainly don’t try and answer their questions. Instead, respond with phrases like, Say more about that, Hmm… that’s interesting, and I’m not sure.

If you can do that, then you’re one step closer to being a creative problem solver.

Sharing ideas means sitting in the problem space, giving them oxygen and space to breathe. With some time, space, and perspective, those ideas might even morph into something more interesting.

But it can be really hard to do that – to sit in the problem space. I’ve taught this for years and I still struggle with it in my personal life, usually erring on the side of quick, solo decisions.

Like the time I decided to plan my family’s entire summer vacation late one night as I browsed the internet for great vacation deals. Late at night seems to be the time when most ideas pop into my head. 

Convinced that I found the best deal possible, I almost booked the flight and hotel without a second thought or second opinion… Door County here we come! But before finalizing the booking, I decided it probably wasn’t the best idea to book a vacation while I was struggling to keep my eyes open. 

In the morning, as my husband fought against opening his eyes in the early morning light, I regaled him with all of the details of the amazing vacation I was ready to book for us. Eventually sitting up and accepting his fate that, yes, we were going to have a very detailed conversation about our summer vacation at 7am on a Saturday morning, my husband stopped me and shared that he liked the idea of going to Door County (yay!), he wondered how well the kids would do with a flight plus a long car ride afterward (I hadn’t thought about that…) and if they would enjoy a hotel without a pool (...no…). 

Then he shared his own vacation ideas and we talked through them. We ended up planning a completely different vacation at a place with an amazing pool, lots of fun activities for everyone, and no flight or long car ride. 

So, in sharing my idea with my husband, we now have a summer vacation planned that our kids will definitely enjoy without the hassle of extensive travel.

And I realized my misstep in sharing a fully formed idea with him instead of working together through the messy part of the process – I wasted time and missed sleep because of it. But I learned and now my husband won’t have to worry about enduring any more early morning pitches of my ideas. Instead, I’ll keep him up late at night to hear my half-baked ones.

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Thank you

Emma Dorge

for encouraging me to write this one.