Ask any leader what they want more of from their team and “creative thinking” is near the top of the list. Ask them what it actually is, and how you build it, and things get a bit vague.
So let’s un-vague it. Here’s what creative thinking skills are, why they matter more than ever, and how to train them in your team – practically, not with a once-a-year away day and a beanbag.
What are creative thinking skills?
Creative thinking is the ability to come up with ideas that are both new and useful – and then to develop them into something that works. Both halves matter. New but useless is just random. Useful but not new is just business as usual.
It isn’t a personality trait that some people are born with and others aren’t. It’s a set of skills: things you can learn, practise and get better at. I’ve trained more than 50,000 people over the years, from Netflix to the UN, and the pattern is always the same – people who think they “aren’t creative” usually just haven’t been given the tools.
Why creative thinking matters now
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 lists creative thinking as one of the top core skills employers need, alongside analytical thinking – and it’s one of the skills they expect to become even more important by 2030.
That makes sense. AI can churn out a hundred average ideas in seconds. What it can’t do is frame the right problem, spot the unexpected connection, or have the judgement to know which idea is worth backing. That’s the human bit. And it’s trainable.
The 7 creative thinking skills your team needs
1. Curiosity and asking better questions
Great ideas start with great questions. Teams that jump straight to answers usually solve the wrong problem. Try a question storm – generating questions, not answers – or borrow the CIA’s Phoenix Checklist.
2. Reframing the problem
The way you phrase a challenge decides the ideas you get. “How do we cut costs?” and “How might we do more with what we have?” lead to very different places. The one-word method is a lovely way to get to the heart of a messy brief.
3. Generating lots of ideas
Quantity breeds quality. The first ideas are almost always the obvious ones, so you need tools to push past them. SCAMPER is a brilliant place to start.
4. Making unexpected connections
Most “new” ideas are existing ideas combined in a fresh way. Looking at how other industries, nature or culture solved a similar problem is a shortcut to originality – try the related worlds technique.
5. Challenging assumptions
Every category has rules nobody remembers agreeing to. Listing them – then breaking them – is where breakthroughs live. Thinking the opposite is a fun way in.
6. Judging and developing ideas
Creativity isn’t just divergent thinking. You also need the discipline to evaluate ideas fairly, build on the promising ones and let go of the rest. Here’s how to judge a creative idea without falling back on gut feel alone.
7. Selling the idea
An idea nobody buys into goes nowhere. Being able to tell the story of your idea – simply and with conviction – is a creative skill in its own right. It’s why we run storytelling training alongside our creative thinking courses.
Can creative thinking be taught?
Yes. Absolutely. And I’m living proof.
When I became responsible for driving creativity in a 100-strong WPP-owned PR agency, where ideas were its lifeblood, it dawned on me that despite being labelled “creative” myself, I didn’t know a single formal technique or process. For 15 years I’d used my intuition and just got on with it. So I read everything I could find, and started learning and practising the creativity tools I hadn’t even known existed. That’s what became my book, In Your Creative Element – the handbook I wish I’d been given back then.
Like any skill, creative thinking improves with the right tools, regular practice and an environment that makes it safe to try. I’ve written more about whether you can really teach people to be more creative if you need to convince a sceptic.
How to train creative thinking in your team
- Start with an honest audit. Where is your team strong, and where do ideas get stuck? Use these 10 ways to assess your team’s creative thinking.
- Agree a shared process. A simple structure – understand the problem, generate ideas, then choose and develop them – stops meetings going round in circles. It’s the heart of our Problem Solving training.
- Give people tools, not just permission. “Be more creative” isn’t an instruction anyone can act on. Teach two or three techniques they can use on Monday morning. The best ones are what I call “subject neutral” – they work on any challenge, from a product launch to a process problem.
- Practise little and often. A one-off workshop fades fast (blame the forgetting curve). Build short creative exercises into the meetings you already have.
- Make it safe to be wrong. When we surveyed almost 200 UK marketers with creative agency Unity, 44% said fear of failure was the number one reason they avoid creative risks – followed by fear of looking foolish (33%) and fear of judgement (30%). Only one in five said they’re creatively brave all the time. Watch out for groupthink and make room for the quieter voices – here’s how to include introverts.
- Lead by example. Teams copy what leaders do, not what they say. If the boss shoots down the first odd idea, there won’t be a second. Creative leadership is a skill too.
Creative thinking skills: quick FAQs
What is the difference between creative thinking and critical thinking?
Creative thinking opens up options; critical thinking narrows them down. You need both – just not at the same time. Generate first, judge second.
How long does it take to improve a team’s creative thinking?
You’ll see a difference after a single well-run session, because people leave with tools they can use straight away. Lasting change comes from practising those tools regularly over a few months.
What’s the best way to start?
Pick one real challenge your team is facing and use it as the practice ground. Learning on live work sticks far better than learning on made-up examples.
Want to build these skills in your team? See our Creative Thinking training or book a free 30-minute call with Claire.