Although CRAFT is considered a creative methodology it encompasses much more than just a set of creative tools. In fact, one of the strenghts of CRAFT is how it reflects sustainable development practices.

In the 1940s ISO started developing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that represent a plan for making a lasting impact while promoting peace and prosperity, and eradicating poverty to protect the planet. SDGs are essential for companies that are looking for building a sustainable future through their actions, products, or services.

While the SDG list includes 17 goals, there are at least 3 that CRAFT methodology aims to contribute to and ultimately achieve. For example, the quality education goal emphasizes the importance of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. CRAFT in its turn provides frameworks and tools that can allow one to continue improving the educational processes and learn anything at any age. For instance, CRAFT allows one to look at different forms of interaction between a product and a customer. Thus, evaluating how and in what form students interact with the subject of their studies can enable the teacher to better understand how to improve the learning process as a whole.

Moreover, CRAFT mirrors the goal of bundling resilient infrastructure and fostering innovation, because as a methodology CRAFT allows its users to discover new solutions to already existing challenges, or reevaluate the most pressing global issues to discover if we are actually solving the right problem.

Finally, with many daunting issues around the planet from climate change to human overconsumption, focusing on sustainable development and growth is crucial. Therefore, as an innovative creative methodology CRAFT promises not only tools to find new solutions and creating improved products and experiences, but also sets out a path for a better, more resilient, and prosperous future where any development is nourishing and not harming.

CRAFT Methodology and Sustainability was originally published in craft.expert on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The methodology was invented by a Russian Entrepreneur when he saw the rising need for effective communication, and new communication tools, realizing that what other creative methodologies are lacking is a strong social base: the understanding of behavior patterns and scenarios, as well as human needs. Thus, a new CRAFT methodology was created. At the core, it has the notion of a «big idea» or a new form of a relationship we can use to build new social structures, new products, and ideas.

Since CRAFT is a relatively young methodology, the majority of research comes from real-world examples. For instance, imagine the following scenario: the so-called «park case» with two groups, both of which were given the same task to design the project of the infrastructure of a new park in the city. One group is not given any instructions, and they approach the challenge in a very traditional way, thinking about what type of benches and decorations to use. Unlike the second group, which is introduced to the basics and principles of CRAFT methodology. They start with trying to understand the opinions and feelings people have towards parks because, in the end, it is for them. In the process, the second group realizes that one of the things that make people enjoy the park is that it can be an ideal place for a first date. Hence, even something as simple as designing the benches should be tailored to that human need, and desire (Lebedev, 2015).

Another advantage of CRAFT is that it allows the person designing the ideas to predict and analyze the external and internal conflicts of the target audience, overcome constraints and strengthen the client’s motivation, as well as encourage the desired client’s behavior.

Finally, although the research and the sample examples of the CRAFT utilization can appear subjective, one can argue that traditional methods organizations and individuals try to use are not always effective. Given that now we need to understand human nature better than before and creative methodology such as CRAFT enables us to do not only that, but also to come up with new ideas, and solutions.

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Lateral thinking is another unique creative methodology that is built around the principle and the process of horizontal thinking, or, in other words, the type of thinking that is not algorithmic (not step-by-step).

Lateral thinking is a way of approaching problems. It deliberately forgoes obvious approaches in favor of oblique or unexpected ones, ignoring perfectly good but straightforward solutions enables us to find hidden innovations we would otherwise miss. Edward de Bono lays out 4 specific lateral thinking techniques: awareness, random stimulation, alternatives, and alteration.

Despite the fact that the Lateral thinking methodology has been invented in the last century, it might be difficult to find much research on it. Yet, one of the American researchers (Clapham, 2003) studied creativity and creative methodologies and discovered that training people on creative methodologies improve their ideation process, as well as has positive effects on both divergent thinking test scores and project performance.

Divergent or in other words reverse thinking involves analyzing what people normally do in a situation and then doing the opposite. For example, if you find yourself only getting so far into a problem and them becoming stuck, you might want to start at the end and work backward. Look at the problem and then describe what you’d ideally like the solution to be. From there, you can begin working backward to find the starting point to your solution.

Take a look a the following scenario: A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, lumper, gloves, and balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

It might be difficult to answer the above question if you try to think “as usual” but if you take an unconventional approach, you will come to suggestions such as that the situations suggest daytime, because streetlights were off, suggesting daytime. Again, the lights of the car are off again suggesting daytime. Or that the streetlights and the front lights of the car might not be working, but the driver is sufficiently guided by moonlight.

Thus, Lateral Thinking help thinkers be more proactive and confident in their thinking. When solving a problem that is not yet known lateral thinking can help you choose your starting point.

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There are many strengths of TRIZ as a methodology. From its ability to make ill-defined problems more structured to its power to eliminate contradictions. TRIZ also allows for the generalization of problems and solutions, which is essential for innovation as a whole. In addition, one of the advantages of using TRIZ in any given process is its basis on past knowledge and existing research which ensures not only the validity of a problem solution but also the lack of redundancy.

Because of the systematic, and logic-based nature of TRIZ methodology, the overarching number of research has been done on its applications in engineering and related fields. Yet, it will allow us to get a full picture of how creative methodologies can be used for business growth by providing a different perspective on creative processes. Researchers from several US universities (Hernandez, Shmidt, Okudan, 2013) found that using TRIZ methodology is not only effective for problem-solving but also for ideation and, in fact, can allow people to generate a wider, and a more diverse set of solutions, compared to when there is a lack of a formal creative methodology. Therefore, when businesses experience challenges when aiming to grow, using a structured, logical, yet innovative and creative approach like TRIZ can lead them to better results, than, for instance, hours of traditional brainstorming.

However, despite TRIZ having many strengths, it also has weaknesses that impact the frequency of its usage. For instance, unlike design thinking that can be used in quite a broad variety of cases, TRIZ is best and most effectively used in science, or technology. Given that many of the technological processes are now becoming automated, the question of further applicability of TRIZ becomes more prominent. Another potential weakness of TRIZ is a generalization. With increasing global diversity, people, projects and ideas demand more and more differentiation; from personalized products like engraved iPhones to diverse communities in the workplace. Hence, the common usage of TRIZ could start to further decline, as new generations do not find the significance of such a methodology given the difficulty of applying it in modern challenges.

Finally, although, TRIZ can appear as a controversial and complex methodology, it can potentially strengthen other existing methodologies, and such «collaborations» will be discussed later on.

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Unfortunately, design thinking is often perceived as a fancy buzzword business professionals use, rather than a complex creative methodology it actually is. In some cases, people inspired by innovations will be brainstorming, learning creative tricks, but not giving new products or strategies to the world. Design thinking, on the other hand, uses the opportunities almost every person has, that standard problem-solving methods do not take into consideration. Unlike, TRIZ that is logical, Design thinking is based on our human ability to be intuitive, express ourselves with emotions, and symbols.

Over the years, research has proved many design-thinking tools to be effective. For example, one of the tools is design-metaphors or, in other words, how to see one thing like a different thing. Research (Schon, 1979) showed that using metaphors can lead to opening many new solutions, generating new points of view, or learning new information, that could be critical. For instance, if you have a food delivery company, and think of it as a hive, you will notice that this metaphor emphasizes the collaboration between the agents and the parallel approach to work.

In the early 2000s Shimano — the largest Japanese bike manufacturer was faced with the decrease of growth in some market segments, and in the situation of constantly changing global markets, the company needed new approaches to solving the given problem. Thus, they consulted IDEO (global design company), and together they utilized various design thinking tools, that in the end brought them to the realization that Shimano was communicating with the wrong audience, and actually they ended up opening a whole new market segment with many potential customers.

Finally, although, design thinking was proven to be an effective, and impactful tool for individuals and organizations, there are still some limitations to it. Hence, in the next articles, we are going to discuss not only other creative methodologies but why synthesizing them all is essential to make a lasting impact.

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Yet, it is evident that with the rise of technological progress human and creative skills will be even more valuable, and might be the solution to many unsolved challenges.

For a long time, design, creativity, and the usage of creative methodologies and tools have been considered very limited to specific areas of application, such as art, and were thought to have a very narrow focus. However, like many other industries, the creative industry has been developing, growing, and revolutionizing. Besides, as the world and society have been evolving, we are now faced with challenges that were not evident less than several decades ago, for example, mass urbanization, population growth, climate change, etc. The need for the constant creation of new products and ideas is now apparent in almost every industry. Thus, today, creative methodologies are more than tools for art industries, they can be used to solve complex, nonlinear challenges, that cannot be necessarily solved with technology or science.

In the next series of articles, we are going to discuss several creative methodologies in detail, their advantages and disadvantages, compare them with each other, as well as share why synthesizing methodologies can be powerful, and how that synthesis can be applied in our everyday lives.

The evolution of creativity was originally published in craft.expert on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.