Sharpen Your Creative Thinking With Random Words
Sharpening the ability to think creatively and originate unique but practical solutions to problems is time well spent.
Creativity is always in short supply. No one has too much of it. So, learning how to develop creative thinking skills is of critical importance to leaders and decision-makers.
No one has thought more about creativity in a lifetime than famed psychologist and physician Edward de Bono.
The author of more than 80 books on creative thinking published from the 1960s until the end of his life in 2021, de Bono invented exercises to expand lateral thinking and to help people become more creative.
He believed creativity is a skill that can be learned, developed, and applied. His word exercises were once hugely popular around the world but have since been largely forgotten.
De Bono relied upon random words to teach creativity and designed exercises that trained the creative mind. At the back of many of his books was a Random Words List for use in his games and exercises. Your smartphone can generate such a list in a matter of seconds.
Here are three of his most popular exercises.
Exercise One. Select five random words. Choose the one word of the set that suggests a problem, crisis, or challenge. Be specific in your head about this issue. Now, suggest how one of the four remaining words could manage, resolve, or rescue the situation. Strive to find a solution from one of those words. Explain your reasoning.
Exercise Two. Select five random words. Describe how each of these random words might influence the other words in some way. Articulate this influence.
Exercise Three. Select a single random word. Think about it. Now, draw another random word. See if there is any kind of connection you can make to the first word. Keep going by drawing yet another word and see if you can find a connection to either of the first two words. So long as you can keep describing a strong connection, keep drawing random words. Explain your connections.
De Bono designed dozens of similar exercises that formed a mental gym for developing creative thinking habits and skills.
It’s no coincidence that many of the world’s most popular internet games involve words and the meanings they convey. Find a way to use words, random or not, to sharpen your creativity.
Words are full of possibility, and possibility is the key to creativity.
Words are powerful and must be harnessed carefully. I love the consideration of creativity based upon random words but I agree with Alex HM Smith that you cannot declare that you are creative by saying so, you must show me something that I have never seen before.
POETRY AND PROSE: A CONUNDRUM
Would've, Could've, Should've
Pepper Miller
Jan 05, 2025
In the quiet hours of dusk, when shadows whispered soft and low,
A task was handed down to me, a challenge I had yet to know.
“Go forth,” they said, “and do this deed. It’s yours to see it through.”
Yet there I stood, in silent thought, with time’s constraints and fear’s taboo.
I could’ve seized the moment then, with courage in my heart.
I would’ve woven wonders. I would’ve crafted art.
If only I should’ve braved the storm and dared to take the leap.
Instead, I watched the minutes fade, as dreams and doubts did steep.
I could’ve scaled the heights unknown and touched the stars above.
I would’ve danced with destiny, I would’ve cherished love.
If only I should’ve faced my fears and let my spirit soar.
Perhaps I’d find the strength within, to open every door.
I could’ve harnessed fire’s light and shaped it in my hands.
I would’ve spun a tale of hope on life’s vast shifting sands.
If only I should’ve walked that road, and left regret behind,
I’d find the peace in knowing, that life is undefined.
Now here I sit in quiet thought with lessons carved in time.
I could’ve chased the fleeting dream. I would’ve made it mine.
If only I should’ve held the pen and wrote my story clear.
Instead, I linger in the past where “if onlys” reappear.
But life is not a tale of woe nor chains that bind my soul,
For in each moment here and now, I still can play my role.
I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve learned that time is always new.
And every task and every dream, begins with what I do.
So let me rise with strength reborn and cast aside my fear.
I will embrace the tasks at hand, with purpose strong and clear.
For in the echoes of the past the future’s seeds are sown.
And in the journey here and now, true growth is always shown.
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I'm an eighty-year-old white man, married to my lovely wife for 56 wonderful years. I teach two Poetry and Creative Writing classes at the Senior Action Center in Greenville, SC.