Many people think creativity is an innate talent and that the most creative ideas are the result of creating without any limits. Both are myths. Anyone can be creative and constraints actually help creativity.
In today’s newsletter, I'm sharing three principles for creative thinking that I've distilled from studying thinking tools and research in this space. I also have an update forUntools templates to share.
Principles for creative thinking
One of the biggest myths about creativity is that it’s a personality trait or talent that only certain people have. The truth is, everyone has the capacity for creative thinking and it’s very much about having the opportunity and the right environment to show our creative abilities.
Creativity is also a process. And we can identify principles to follow during that process. Just as creativity has many different definitions, there are also different sets of principles formulated out there. One of them defines three principles that all creative thinking tools follow in various combinations: attention, escape and movement.
Principles this abstract and wide can be hard to apply, though. So here is a set that I distilled from studying different creative thinking tools and researching the topic of creativity.
1. Force lots of connections
Many people consider an idea to be creative when it's completely original, unique. When we examine such ideas, though, we'll find that they're always composed of existing things. The creator of that new idea just thought of connecting the existing in a way that's new.
Steve Jobs has very accurately described it in this quote:
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
But you typically don't want to wait around until you "just see the connection." The key isn't waiting for natural associations to emerge - it's actively forcing connections between ideas, experiences, or concepts that don't normally go together. The more connections you force yourself to make, the higher your chances of finding truly innovative combinations.
A good thinking tool that uses this principle is the Zwicky box. It forces you to connect lots of ideas across different attributes in ways you may never have considered.
2. Combine diversity with domain expertise
The best foundation to make lots of different connections is to have a wide range of knowledge and ideas.
Generalists, people with diverse experience and skills from multiple fields, have an advantage because they have a broader set of ideas to draw from.
I quoted Steve Jobs above and the full quote is actually longer and talks about diversity:
“And the reason they were able to [synthesize new things] was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
On a personal level, learning about things from other fields beyond your area of expertise can greatly enhance your ability to generate creative ideas.
On a team level, this is about bringing together people with different experiences and perspectives. When conducting workshops with the goal of generating creative solution ideas, you want to have a diverse group in the room – cross-functional with mixed backgrounds where everyone brings a unique set of ideas and perspectives. The same holds true for building teams in which people solve problems daily (e.g. design and engineering teams).
There’s an important nuance, though. Research by Dr. John Baer shows that creativity generally requires a certain level of domain expertise. So while diversity of knowledge and experience is valuable, you still need foundational knowledge in the area you’re trying to be creative in. The most effective approach seems to be to combine focused expertise with more diverse knowledge.
3. Embrace constraints
Constraints are at the heart of creativity, even if that feels counterintuitive. They don’t limit it but actually enable it. Those are key insights from Catrinel Tromp’s research on the role of constraints.
When we have infinite possibilities for creating, we get paralysed. Constraints are like walls that we can bounce our ideas off of. They provide structure and direction to our creative thinking.
There are two ways we can work with constraints:
Exploration: Looking at different constraints and their combinations to find the best overall approach.
Exploitation: Working deeply within chosen/established constraints.
Research shows that creativity often follows a exploration-first, exploitation-second pattern. And some people are naturally better at exploration while others thrive in exploitation.
As an example, an industrial designer might be exploring a new chair design through different constraints: sustainable materials only, optimise for maximum comfort, fit small spaces or a low-cost product. Once they choose to work further within one or more of those constraints, they can exploit by finding all possible solutions within those constraints.
Putting these principles into practice
Specific thinking tools can help us apply these principles systematically. Some creative challenges need rapid exploration, others require methodical analysis, and sometimes you need to transform what already exists.
Vault members get 3 thinking tools today - each designed for different stages of creative problem-solving, with step-by-step guides and templates to put them into practice immediately.
Miro templates update and lifetime membership for Untools Vault
When I started writing for Untools again earlier this year, I wanted to create something for people who are serious about improving their thinking: practical templates and deeper dives to really put thinking tools to work. That's why I created Untools Vault.
I initially experimented with a subscription model, but your feedback showed that a different model would be a better fit.
So I made the switch: Vault is now a lifetime membership with immediate access to all templates and premium posts, including everything I create in future. It’s a fairer model without any recurring charges. Thanks to every supporter, I can keep creating useful content while keeping this newsletter and website ad-free.
I have recently published a big update to Untools Vault:
3 new thinking tools templates: Zwicky box, Six Thinking Hats and Ishikawa diagram
Miro versions of all the 13 templates so you can use them more interactively and in workshops.
Preview of Untools templates in Miro
Get access to all of that together with a growing library of member-only posts, all PDF/Miro/Notion templates and future updates.
Vault is $99 for lifetime access with a 14-day money-back guarantee. The price will increase in the future as Vault grows.
Coming next: Matching a decision type to the right approach
In the next edition coming in a couple of weeks, we’ll look at a model to help you see what type of a decision you’re making and point you to the right approach to it.
Have a great week, Adam
P.S. I’d love to get your feedback on what you’d like to read more about in this newsletter. Hit reply and tell me what areas of thinking tools interest you most.
