I believe that the most creative, "out of the box" thinkers are information sponges. They are always open to learning from anything and anyone.They are constantly absorbing information from a variety of sources such as books, blogs, newspapers, seminars, conferences, friends, family, TV, movies, and so on. Not only do they absorb information from different sources, they also focus on a variety of topics. Once they take in this variety of information, they are able to transform the unrelated material into something new and refreshingly original.
The genius of all geniuses, Leonardo Da Vinci, was a big believer that "everything connects." Even though a number of different things may seem totally unrelated, somehow they are all connected to one another. Making these kinds of connections is the number one creative thinking skill.
We can see an example of this in the movie Working Girl. An executive assistant named Tess, who is played by Melanie Griffith, assimilates the following unrelated material: a Forbes article about how Trask Industries is looking to expand into broadcasting, an article in the Post on radio talk show host "Bobby Stein," and a picture of Mr. Trask's daughter helping to organize a charity ball. From these three pieces of information, Tess formulates a plan for Trask Industries to launch out into radio in order to expand into broadcasting.
So, try it for yourself. Take different sources of material from every day life such as a TV commercial, a blog post, and your favorite book. Then see if you can make various connections between these different sources and create something new and unique. Expand your mind to a whole new level.
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