Most people with ADHD traits are original thinkers and creative problem solvers, but don’t always know how to make the most of these abilities. My own search lead me to the work of psychologist JP Guilford who studied creativity in the 950s, and is based on the notion that all creativity is evidence of divergent thinking.  

Spoiler alert: if you are neurodivergent, you are creative, even if you don’t think of yourself that way.  In this episode,  using Guilford’s model, I will break down the four different types of creativity (aka divergent thinking) and share simple, effective strategies for how to enhance yours, from brainstorming and mind mapping to perspective shifting and role-playing. 

Troubled by your tendency to go off on tangents?   Have trouble making decisions because you can see the benefits of every option?  Feel self conscious about your impulsivity and intuition?  It’s all evidence of your divergent, creative thinking! 

Don't forget to share this episode with a fellow creative and choose one new strategy to implement this week.

Guilford’s Model of Divergent Thinking (aka Creativity) 

• Fluency: generating a large number of ideas or solutions 
• Flexibility: generating ideas that are different from each other.
• Originality: generating ideas that are novel or unique.
• Elaboration: developing, refining, and elaborating on ideas.

We’ll not only cover tools and techniques to amplify your creativity in each of these four areas, but how to protect your creativity through strategic rest, structured downtime and how to avoid toxic productivity and revenge bedtime procrastination.  

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Interview with Jude Star on mindfulness and meditation 
• Q-less Crossword Solitare Dice Game
• Julia Cameron Morning Pages 
• Voxer walkie talkie app 

Time is running out to grab one of my Summer Strategy Sessions. 

These fast and focused engagements are designed for maximum impact in minimum time.  Click on the hyperlink to schedule your no obligation consultation NOW! 

Well, hey, friend, and welcome back to the driven woman entrepreneur podcast. I recently went down a rabbit hole on the meaning of divergence and divergent thinking. You know, I talk a lot about being neurodivergent, and I often refer to the opposite of neurodivergent as neurotypical. But, you know, these terms are really relatively new. So I found myself wondering about their roots. What I discovered helped me make sense of why so many people with ADHD are highly creative regardless of the field they're in and why so many of us are in highly creative fields.

You know, for many, many years, I did my best to hide my unique traits or at least hide them as well as I could. But I am now in an era where I am attempting to fully embrace them, because I've come to believe that neurodivergent people are the source of almost all innovation, evolution, and positive change in the world. But we are also canaries in the coal mine because where there is creativity, there is sensitivity. And sensitivity can lead to increased vulnerability. So I believe it is in our best interest in order to thrive and to make the contributions that we are uniquely able to make.

Doctor Guilford proposed that creativity always involves divergent thinking. I never really thought about it that way, but it makes so much sense. Doctor Guilford argued that creative individuals naturally generate multiple solutions to a problem, which is really the opposite of what most people do. According to Dr. Guilford, there are 4 key components of creativity, aka divergent thinking, fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Now you don't need to take notes because I'm going to break down each of these, go into detail, share how you can notice these in your own business and life, and how to develop these traits so that your creativity can really be leveraged. And, you know, as I'm thinking about it, if this is what creative people do and if being creative makes you a divergent thinker, what does everyone else do?

Well, as it turns out, the opposite of divergent thinking, aka creativity, is convergent thinking. Now, you're probably gonna have flashbacks to elementary and middle and high school, maybe even college, and probably a lot of your previous working environments before you went out on your own, but you need to hear this. Divergent thinking involves generating many different ideas or solutions. It is open ended and exploratory. Convergent thinking involves finding a single correct solution to the problem. It is focused and analytical. I'm literally thinking of all the times I literally was having arguments with teachers and supervisors who said there's one right way, there's one right answer, there's one path to figuring this out.

Just do it. You're overcomplicating things. You're making things too difficult. You're taking everybody off on wild tangents. But that is convergent thinking. And unfortunately, most of the world operates in that way. Now when you apply this model, Guilford's model to adults with ADHD, who typically exhibit traits that align with divergent thinking, understanding and leveraging these traits is absolutely going to be a big help to us, to manifesting our greatest gifts and to be able to make the difference we're here to make. So I wanna break down each of the 4 components and let you know how you can develop them in your own business and life. Okay? So you remember the first one? Yeah, me neither. I've got notes.

Okay, the first one is fluency. Now in my experience, most people with ADHD rock in the fluency. They have so many ideas. In fact, my number 2 strength finder theme is ideation. So I have more ideas than I literally know what to do with. My ideas have ideas and so I don't have a problem with fluency. Some people, they're not as fluent when it comes to ideas, so they need help in other areas. But thinking new ideas, new ways of thinking things, generating new approach, new opportunities, I do that effortlessly as do many other people with ADHD. But if you are one of the people who wants to have some idea about techniques and strategies you could use to enhance your fluency maybe you don't have as many ideas as you like. Maybe you have plenty and you want more.

Hey, we can be greedy with ideas, why not? They are the following. There's three, brainstorming, tried and true, and it always, always works. My suggestion is to set aside regular time for brainstorming literally have a brainstorming date. Some people can do it on their own. Other people need a brainstorming buddy, you do you. I often use Voxer for this and just spitball ideas back and forth with several different people that love to do this as much as I do. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible without self censorship or allowing anyone else to censor you.

A lot of businesses say, oh, yeah, we brainstorm till we get the best ideas, but most environments, there's some sort of censorship, and the most sensitive people in the room will always be able to pick up the microaggressions and the subconscious signals that other folks don't even know they're giving off. But brainstorming when it's safe is fantastic for developing your divergent thinking fluency. You know what else is? Mind mapping software, especially if you are a visual thinker using a mind map to visually explore connections between different ideas and concepts is fanfreakingtastic.

I've known several people who've written entire books, created courses, mapped out business models by using mind mapping software. Because all the ideas were just coming and jumbling up in their head, but transposing them visually onto the mind mapping software allowed them to sort things out and where they could all make sense. Other people, not so visual, don't really like doing the brainstorming technique. These are the folks who do great in generating more divergent thinking fluency with journaling. And some people can do it just open up a blank journal and just start writing like morning pages, but others need prompts. There are so many wonderful journals out there, and every different type is available. So those are the best ideas for generating your fluency.

Ready to move on to number two? Flexibility, this makes me so happy to share this, can I just say. Cognitive flexibility is the tendency to jump between thoughts and it can lead to exploring diverse perspectives and diverse approaches which is considered to be a key to cognitive flexibility. So that ADHD trait that you have where your mind is bouncing all over the place from idea to idea to idea, thought to thought to thought, solution to solution to solution, it can be really hard for other people to follow. So it can't be your one trick pony, you have to be able to lay out a thought in a succinct and coherent way as well.

But the cognitive flexibility that many of us have to just, you know, leapfrog and spitball and ping pong and popcorn from one idea or concept to another almost always leads to a tremendous amount of cognitive flexibility and innovative solutions to problems. Not everybody tolerates it though, I gotta be honest. You kinda have to know who your people are. And if people don't like to be around you when you're doing that, don't let them be around you. It is a gift, it is a skill, and it is a prized attribute of highly creative people. You just kinda have to know who can tolerate that kind of stuff and who cannot. So how do we get better at it? Let's say you are pretty high on your thinking flexibility and you wanna get better, or you're maybe not as flexible in your thinking as you'd like and you want to improve. Three techniques for this, perspective shifting.

Now, if you happen to have been on like the debate team or any if you went to law school, for example, these are skills you learn how to deliberately think about a problem from someone else's perspective. When I was in graduate school for social work, we had to think about things like, contraception, abortion, gay rights. We were taught to think about them from the perspective of people who are liberal, people who are conservative, people on literally both sides of all kinds of fences, and it made me a better thinker.

Absolutely and being able to shift your perspective just naturally opens up your mind and generates more divergent thinking. Now, it doesn't always have to be like a political debate kind of perspective shifting you could for example think alright I'm writing something that I want to share and I want to make it as accessible to as many people as possible. Great, write it down and then think, how would I say this to a 10 year old? How would I say this to my grandmother? How would I explain this to an engineer? How would I explain this to a person with hearing impairment? Shifting your perspective is a wonderful, wonderful way to make your thoughts more flexible.

Okay, so the next one is challenge your assumptions. Now, we can develop a more open mind by questioning our thinking. This is something I learned, through my meditation and mindfulness training, through the years of studying, Tibetan Buddhism, learning to challenge my assumptions naturally led to more flexibility in my thinking because it exposed me to my biases and blind spots. Honestly, I'm convinced the world would be a better place if more people would challenge their assumptions and get a little bit more cognitive flexibility with the things that they believe to be true. But anyway, I'm going off in a tangent.

The third one is role playing. Now, I learned how to role play when I was in therapy school, and I was learning how to, like, take turns from different people's perspectives to be able to facilitate family therapy and group therapy. But it's really a fantastic exercise where you argue from someone else's perspective. It's kind of an extension of the perspective shifting and challenging the assumptions, but actors need to do this. Actors who play a part and need to be convincing have become experts at role playing. And I don't have to tell you, there are a lot of wonderful actors who have ADHD. So I think this may becomes a little bit easier to them.

Okay, the third one, my personal favorite is originality. Now, it is said that the impulsivity and risk taking behavior that is associated with ADHD can lead to unique and unconventional ideas. I mean, how many times have you just blurted something out and in the times when it wasn't obnoxious and people weren't looking at you, like, what the hell? You might just blurt out something that's absolutely freaking brilliant. And I honestly have forgotten way more times than I can remember, that I just blurted something out that was completely original and a perfect solution to the problem that was being discussed with a group of people. And others would literally just stare at me slack jawed with amazement or shake their heads and say, where did that come from?

This was years before I understood my brain, my mind, and how it worked, and I used to just kind of give a little awkward smile and sort of embarrass and say, I don't know. But now I just smile and give thanks to my ADHD brain, because I understand the impulsivity of just blurting something out. Yeah, it's not always good, I'll be honest with you and a lot of it isn't. But I do blurt out really original and very creative thoughts that are the absolute right solution to the problem. So for anyone listening who wants to enhance the originality of their divergent thinking, guess what? There are 3 ways that I recommend to do that. I love threes. My brain just naturally generates threes.

Okay, free writing. Free writing like morning pages is fantastic. Just spending a few minutes every day. I know, Julia Cameron says you gotta do it in the morning, it's gotta be 3 pages. You do it the same way, same day, same time. I don't think we need to be that rigid with ourselves, and most of us really resent that much rigidity, so we just say, no, I'm not doing it. But if you just commit to spending a few minutes every day, and maybe it doesn't even have to be at the same time of day. It's like whenever you fit it in, whenever it feels comfortable for you and you're in the mood to do it. But don't stop yourself and don't sense yourself. That is how you tap into your more original thinking. And many people will say, you can do this on your typewriter or your laptop. I am a big fan of doing this freestyle, old school pen and paper. I really, really believe it works better, and there are a lot of neuroscientists who agree.

Okay, second technique, the use of creative constraints. Now I talk a lot with my coaching clients about intentional constraint as the key to freedom. We have so much going on in our brain, so we can’t afford to free ranging everything. So using constraints, meaning, you only allow yourself certain materials or certain words will actually force your creativity and originality. Isn't that fascinating? Like, not giving yourself access to every possible means of expression, but, I mean, limit yourself. I only get to write a page, or I only get to write in an alliteration, or I need to make a algorithm that organizes my thoughts around one specific concept. It doesn't matter how you do it, it matters that you do it. Use creative constraints it literally forces your brain to come up with more original stuff instead of the low hanging fruit which is what it's going to offer you when you don't do this or learn how to do it.

The third technique is exposing yourself to new experiences. Now, I probably don't have to sell this to you because most people with ADHD are very much adventure and novelty seeking. So you have my permission to travel, to read, to try new activities, to broaden your perspective, to take on new hobbies, to meet people from different cultures, whatever floats your boat, exposing your brain to new experiences, new perspectives, new opportunities, new environments, new cultures, absofreakinglutely creates more originality in your thinking, guaranteed.

And the 4th, elaboration, this is the one that I actually struggle with, because my idea generation comes easily, but elaboration requires focus and persistence. And that can be challenging to people like us, including me. So the analogy that comes to mind, like, when you first open a can of carbonated beverage and it goes phh you get that fizz, but you put the can down, and unless you keep picking it up and putting it down and picking it up and putting it down, which kinda shakes it up a little bit and maintains the carbonation, it tends to go flat pretty quick. And that is how I think about my brain and my ideas. Because I have so many ideas, they come quickly, they come easily, they come frequently.

But if I don't make the effort to elaborate on them, they fizzle, they go flat. And that's unfortunate and I didn't use to even value the fact that I had so many ideas because I thought, oh, easy come, easy go because I didn't understand how to enhance elaboration. I just thought of my thoughts as fireflies. You know, they're bright, they're shiny, they're fast, but they die quickly. Now I'm working to capture them and extend their lifespan by doing 1 or more of the 3 following techniques. These are the ways to enhance the skill of elaboration, detailed outlining. I know I know I know you probably wanna cringe, but breaking down an idea into a detailed outline can really guide the elaboration process.

It's kind of like break it down a level, break it down another level, break it down another level. So you keep getting deeper and deeper and deeper into the idea. There are apps that can help you with this, and I will link to my favorite one in the show notes. Because sometimes your brain just isn't trained to do this. I don't want you to get frustrated. I want you to be able to develop the skill. So I'm gonna link to one of my favorite free tools to help you learn how to elaborate more. And then once you get going, then you stop using the app and you let your brain take over.

Next suggestion is incremental development. That I know that sounds really clinical or technical, but, basically, it just means you develop the idea incrementally by setting small achievable goals. So you don't get overwhelmed, you don't get bored, and you don't lose focus. So you develop the idea a little bit at a time. I used to do this with one of my clients in LA who was a screenwriter who found that he had these terrific ideas, but he was only able to write short plays, and he wanted to work towards a feature film. He needed to develop the skill of elaboration. So we developed it incrementally a little bit at a time.

And the third is feedback in iteration. It's why most writers are in writing groups, most poets are in poetry groups, most screenwriters are in groups of their peers because nobody has all the answers. And being able to regularly seek and receive feedback from others allows most creative people to iterate on the ideas. Now I know it's really scary to expose your work to other people, especially if you're not used to doing it. But every creative has to do this. If you're an improv, you do it. If you're a comedian, you do it. If you're an actor, you do it. If you are a writer, like, whatever your skill is, exposing your work to feedback is absolutely necessary to grow. So if you're just getting started with it, just be gentle with yourself, but don't opt out of this. It's absolutely a must.

So after listening to this, are you convinced that you are not only the owner of a very special brain, but that it would probably be a really good use of your focus and attention to develop your divergent thinking. I hope so. I really do hope so because beyond the suggestions that I've made, there are some other like, sort of like bigger picture ideas that will really help you develop all 4 of these and then some. Are you ready, alright. Create a stimulating environment, especially if you work from home. You can do this even if you're working out of a closet. Surround yourself with stimulating materials, books, art, puzzles, these things inspire creativity. Now if you go to the point where it's super cluttered and you feel completely overstimulated and overwhelmed, obviously, you've gone too far.

But having things that are stimulating around you helps to stimulate your creativity. To this point, I recently ordered and received, a little, crossword solitaire dice game called Qless, because the only letter it doesn't have is q. And I use it to reboot my brain when I realize I've been staring at my screen for too long, and I'm starting to fog over a little bit. I will link to this in the show notes too because if it sounds like fun, you probably should get it. I'm really, really enjoying it. It's it's almost like scrabble for one. For adults with ADHD surrounding ourselves with a variety of stimulating materials can ignite our imagination and simply foster our creative thinking, whether that's art materials, craft materials, music, whatever floats your boat. What we're after is inspiring curiosity and inspiration. Maybe it's nature magazines. Maybe it's complex puzzles. Maybe it's like innovative gadgets. You know, it's whatever inspires you. The key is to create a space that encourages exploration and generation of new ideas.

Okay, concept number two, embrace nonlinear thinking. Now you've probably already aware that people with ADHD are nonlinear thinkers, but I'm inviting you to fully embrace that, to fully allow yourself to follow your tangents, explore your unrelated ideas, go off on your wild ass, you know, adventures in your mind. Now as I mentioned before, not everybody is able or willing to indulge you in this way, so you kinda have to know who you can take these adventures with. But I highly recommend finding at least 1 or 2 people who also have this kind of mind and enjoy doing the same thing.

This is what I mainly use Voxer for, and some of the most creative, innovative, original, and frankly, humorous, hilarious even, back and forth conversations I have with some of my friends on this because it just helps sort of flex the nonlinear creativity muscle. It's like taking a winding path through a dense forest. You know, one idea leads to another, to another, to another, and they may be completely unrelated, but totally intriguing. It stimulates your creativity. It stimulates your curiosity. Adults with ADHD naturally excel at this form of thinking, but we don't always allow ourselves to do it.

Most of us have been, you know, put down and criticized for our tangential thinking, and I am actually encouraging you to embrace it. Not with everybody, not everywhere, but following these tangents of unrelated ideas will lead you to making novel connections in gaining unique incredible insights so do not shut this down on yourself. This process is called free association. Psychiatrists used to use it back in the day of Freud because it would lead to creative problem solving and breakthroughs in thinking. People who were stuck in depression, who were stuck in anxiety, who were stuck in their obsessions would free associate, and it would lead to creative solutions and creative problem solving.

So not all who wander are loss lost, and I think we need to give ourselves the freedom to wander intellectually, to wander creatively, and trust that the journey will lead to something valuable. Next on my must recommend list, I cannot stop talking about this enough. Maybe you think too much, but bear with me. Mindfulness and meditative practices, they improve focus and self awareness. They help us learn how to manage our distractions, and they also enhance our ability to develop and refine our ideas. The mind of someone with ADHD can feel like a bustling city at rush hour, full of energy, constant activity. So practices like mindfulness and meditation can help us calm a little bit of the mental chaos and can provide a feeling of, like, an oasis in the storm.

By narrowing our focus and increasing our self awareness, mindfulness and meditative practices enable individuals with busy brains to be more creative and manage distractions more effectively. It's kind of counterintuitive, but trust me when I tell you I've been doing this for 20 years and it really, really works. Because the enhanced focus we gain from mindfulness practices and meditative practices allows us the sustained attention we need to develop and refine our ideas. I think there's a direct correlation between mindfulness and meditation and the elaboration skill that we need to develop. If we can't stick with an idea long enough, we can't develop it. And mindfulness and meditation are the best ways I know to create this creative elaboration.

I'm going to link to a recent episode I did. If you didn't hear it, you definitely want to, or even if you did hear it, revisit it. I interviewed a gentleman who's a psychotherapist, an entrepreneur with ADHD, and a meditation teacher by the name of Jude Star. And he had some really, really practical insights for how to embrace mindfulness practice as an entrepreneur with ADHD. So I'll make sure I link to that. Couple more, collaborative creativity. Oh my gosh, this is one of my favorites. Engage in creative activities where you can collaborate and exchange ideas with others, this is just the best. I mean, I'm not a musician, but we have a lot of musicians in my family. And seeing them get together and have jam sessions, each one of them contributing their own unique sound to create harmonious energy.

It's just so exciting and any form of collaborative creativity works the same way. Working with other artists, working with other writers, working with other crafts people, even content creators. The exchange of ideas in a collaborative setting is so stimulating and so rewarding. Oftentimes, leading to some of the very best friendships and business collaborations. Whether it's brainstorming, a team project, a workshop, working with others can amplify your own creative potential and lead to solutions you could have never come to on your own. But do not burden yourself with the expectation that you need to monetize every one of these or it's not worth doing. It's worth doing.

Just enjoy the brain-based benefits and the dopamine, of course. I can't say enough about scheduled downtime, so many people I have met and worked with in the last few years are complaining about being on the edge of burnout, and I think this is something with our ADHD brains, we're just not very good at is remembering to rest. And I think because it doesn't come naturally to us, we need to put it on our schedule. We need to ensure that we have regular downtime so that our minds can just unwind and wander. This can oftentimes lead to some really spontaneous insights. Many of which have come to me when I was not trying to force them out.

As a matter of fact, trying to figure out a creative solution to a problem under pressure has never worked for me. It's when I had some scheduled downtime and I relaxed the grip I had on my mind where I was trying to force a solution. I let my mind unwind. I let it wander and that allowed the creativity that's within me to surface naturally. Hey, we are in a very fast paced world and we have fast paced minds. So taking time to relax may seem counterintuitive. It may not even feel like something you can do or want to do, but I believe it's absolutely essential. Just imagine it like a gardener allowing a field to life fallow and just not doing anything with it, just allowing it time to rejuvenate.

During periods of rest, our mind can process and integrate information. Things that we have learned need downtime to be able to develop deep roots in our mind. Otherwise, we just forget them and I happen to be particularly forgetful, so I definitely need structured downtime to consolidate the things I'm trying to learn. Structured schedule downtime also allows time for mental and emotional rejuvenation and gives our dysregulated emotions some time to create peace and solitude. For some of us, maybe many of us, especially those of us with trauma histories, we have a tendency towards what's now being referred to as toxic productivity during the day and then revenge bedtime procrastination at night because we felt like we hit it so hard during the day.

Now we have to stay up and do things that are fun to kind of get that in. This is a really vicious cycle and if this is you, no judgment, but I really wanna encourage you to consider scheduled downtime on a regular basis instead. So to wrap this up, integrating Guilford's model into a commitment to develop your ADHD creativity through fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. I just love thinking that our natural tendencies offer us so much that if we make a commitment to doing a little bit of shaping, doing a little bit of, you know, formal practicing, and giving ourselves time to integrate these things into a powerful transformational routines, everybody benefits. We benefit. The people around us benefit. Our clients benefit. The world benefits.

Now I have included links in the show notes for this episode to everything that I've mentioned, including the dice game, the interview with Jude Star, and so forth. So you don't have to remember anything, it's all right here. And an outline of the 4 different types of divergent thinking and all the strategies for developing them are all in the show notes. So now that I'm coming to the end, if you loved this episode, I wanna ask you to do 2 very simple things. One, share this episode with your favorite creative with ADHD traits. I've put a link in the show notes to make it super easy. And two, choose just one of all the wonderful strategies that I've mentioned to start implementing this week I know I know I know your ADHD brain is all pumped up and under the influence of novelty and dopamine and excitement right now, and you're telling yourself, I'm going to do all of them forever starting tomorrow.

No, you're not. And you know what, it's not even necessary. Because even if you tried, it might last you a couple days, 2 weeks tops, and then you're gonna feel bad. I would so much prefer that you pick one. You can pick it at random. You can eeny, meeny, miny, moe it. Just pick 1 and do that. And do it for a few days when the thrill is gone, it gets a little boring, pick another. Over time, you will add them to your repertoire and you will come back again and again and again to the ones that serve you best. Hey, speaking of coming back, you can even come back and listen to this episode again. They're evergreen, it's gonna be here forever.

You can listen to it again whenever you want. And if your ADHD memory is anything like mine, like, my life is like 51st dates, I kid you not. You can come back and listen to it all over again, it'll be just as exciting as it was the first time. And lastly, you know, you can only get so far listening to advice from a podcast. I mean, even if it's an awesome one like this. So if you are a neurodivergent entrepreneur and you are ready to implement ADHD friendly strategies for creativity, for productivity, for consistency in your business? I would love to have a conversation with you about how I may be able to help. There's a link in the show notes to book a free consultation with me and that's a wrap, now go out and get creative.