Change your hat to change your mind

Leadership creativity is more than generating novel ideas. It is the thought work behind effective choice-making. In this Lesson for Effectiveness, Kate Johnson shares three practical activities leaders can use to strengthen creativity, examine problems from different perspectives, anticipate challenges, and make better-informed decisions. 

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Key takeaways

• Creativity grows when leaders make room for imagination without requiring an immediate practical outcome.
• Putting yourself inside an unfamiliar image can help you disconnect from everyday constraints and exercise creativity for its own sake.
• A pre-mortem uses prospective hindsight to identify the problems that could cause a project or event to fail.
• Imagining future success can help teams define meaningful achievements and translate them into action plans.
• Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats provides a structured way to consider facts, emotions, risks, benefits, alternatives, and the thinking process itself.
• A personal decision audit can help you examine choices, consequences, and lessons without creating a record of regrets.

Timestamps

00:03 Leadership Creativity and Critical Thinking

01:18 Put Yourself in the Picture

02:55 Conduct a Pre-Mortem

04:25 Try Corporate Time Travel

05:01 Change Your Hat to Change Your Mind

06:29 Evaluate the Quality of Your Choices

07:18 Conduct a Personal Choice Audit

07:55 Use Journaling and Regular Reflection

08:38 Seek Guidance From a Mentor

09:31 Rational, Reasonable, and Empathetic Creativity

Keywords

leadership creativity, creative thinking, critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, pre-mortem exercise, Six Thinking Hats, perspective-taking, leadership development, reflective practice