The Creative Thinking Handbook

When the world changes faster than your plans, how do you stay ahead? In The Creative Thinking Handbook, Chris Griffiths, along with co-authors Melina Costi and Caragh Medlicott, argues that the essential skill of the twenty-first century isn’t technical expertise—it’s creative thinking. In an era where knowledge alone no longer provides power, Griffiths contends that creativity has become the new currency of success. Yet, he cautions, most people and organizations have forgotten how to think creatively, trapped by rigid assumptions, reactive decisions, and selective biases.

Griffiths’s central claim is simple: creativity can be taught, structured, and applied. Using his method called the Solution Finder, he reveals a repeatable process for producing innovative, logical, and actionable solutions to real-world problems. Drawing on neuroscience, business strategy, and decades of training Fortune 500 leaders, the book argues that anyone—individual or team—can learn to think more creatively, if they first learn to manage their thinking errors.

A Time Machine to the Future of Work

The authors open with a challenge: technology and automation are transforming everything from customer service to leadership. The World Economic Forum lists creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking as the most crucial skills for the modern workplace. Griffiths calls creativity your “personal time machine”—the ability to design your future rather than be displaced by it. He contrasts this creative necessity with what he calls the "knowledge trap": the assumption that past expertise guarantees future relevance. Quoting Henry Ford and NASA studies, he shows that adults rapidly lose their natural creativity over time due to educational conditioning and fear of mistakes.

The good news, Griffiths insists, is that creative ability isn’t genetically fixed—it’s a mental fitness you can rebuild. Like a neglected muscle, creativity revives through training, experimentation, and application. To do this, he introduces tools such as the Decision Radar (for assessing thinking patterns) and the Solution Finder framework for solving complex problems methodically.

Why Creativity Beats Information

Griffiths argues that the information age has made data commoditized. Knowledge, accessible instantly via a smartphone, has lost its exclusivity. What matters now is how you use that knowledge. Companies that cling to outdated methods—like Kodak and Blockbuster—fade, while those daring to innovate—like Amazon, Tesla, or TikTok—thrive by “thinking without the box.” The difference lies in applied creativity: combining logical strategy with imaginative risk-taking to create something useful and new.

Creativity as a Process, Not an Accident

Far from being mystical or whimsical, creativity, Griffiths argues, can be organized systematically. The book divides its approach into three parts:

• Part One – Thinking About Your Thinking: exposes the mental traps—selective, reactive, and assumptive thinking—that sabotage creativity.
• Part Two – The Solution Finder: a four-step framework (Understanding, Ideation, Analysis, Direction) to move ideas from inception to implementation, inspired by design thinking and cognitive science.
• Part Three – The End of the Beginning: focuses on sustaining creative habits, leading with innovation, and embedding creativity in culture.

Across these sections, Griffiths combines psychology with hands-on tools like brainstorming techniques, creativity canvases, and templates accessible through his Ayoa platform. He shows how to build metacognition—the ability to “think about your thinking”—so you can identify biases, interrupt old patterns, and carve new neural pathways for innovation.

From Inspiration to Execution

Ultimately, The Creative Thinking Handbook is a manifesto for applied creativity—turning ideas into action. Griffiths dismisses romantic notions of genius as lightning strikes of inspiration. Instead, he defines innovation as “the marriage of creativity and sound logic.” He backs this with case studies—from Toyota and Pixar to Airbnb and Noom—to illustrate how structure transforms inventive sparks into sustained success. Creativity without process leads to chaos, he reminds us; logic without creativity leads to stagnation.

In a conversational tone, Griffiths invites readers to master both. He promises that by understanding how you think, embracing play and experimentation, and applying structured processes systematically, you can achieve breakthrough results no matter your role or industry. Creativity isn’t a gift—it's a skill. Cultivate it, and it will become your most powerful tool for both problem-solving and personal growth.

Chris Griffiths begins by challenging the core problem of modern thinking: we rarely stop to examine how we think. This self-awareness, known as metacognition, is the keystone of creative and strategic success. He likens unmanaged thinking to running a marathon with one leg tied—you may be moving, but you’re far from efficient. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, frees your cognitive muscles so you can escape habitual patterns and design better decisions.

Understanding Thinking Patterns

Our brains love shortcuts. They use “patterns” to process information efficiently. That’s great for routine tasks—getting dressed, commuting—but disastrous for innovation. Griffiths uses a clever equation puzzle ("Add one straight line to make it correct") to demonstrate how we often impose unnecessary limits on problems because of these patterns. True creativity requires breaking them deliberately—to see problems not as logical puzzles, but as visual, lateral opportunities.

Apply Strategy to Your Thinking

Most people strategize their diet or fitness but never their thoughts. Griffiths urges you to craft a strategy for mental performance just like an athlete trains muscles. This begins with identifying biases through the Decision Radar, a diagnostic tool that measures five core dimensions of decision-making: Understanding, Ideation, Reasoning, Analysis, and Direction. By assessing each, individuals can pinpoint where their cognition falters—say, overthinking analysis but underdeveloping ideation—and target improvement accordingly.

Trainable Intelligence

Griffiths highlights research from Sternberg and Borkowski to argue that intelligence isn’t fixed—it’s largely determined by self-regulation and cognitive flexibility. In business terms, this means you can train yourself to think more creatively, logically, or strategically by practicing awareness and reflection. Even entrepreneurs, studies show, are distinguished less by IQ and more by their adaptability and cognitive flexibility. The Decision Radar is thus a mirror—not to judge intelligence, but to spotlight areas for creative growth.

“Becoming fitter and healthier isn’t something that happens by chance—it requires strategy, as does your thinking.” — Chris Griffiths

From Awareness to Action

Metacognition, Griffiths insists, only matters if it leads to deliberate action. Once you've mapped your Decision Radar, the goal is balance. Ideally, all areas—Understanding, Ideation, Reasoning, Analysis, and Direction—should be in the “green zone.” Too much logic can stifle imagination; too much ideation can lead to chaos. The book therefore sets the stage for the coming chapters: to teach readers how to strengthen each domain through structured creative processes.

(Note: This approach parallels Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats,” encouraging conscious role-switching in thought, but Griffiths’s model integrates measurement and self-assessment for ongoing improvement.)

In Part One, Griffiths dissects three pervasive mental traps—Selective, Reactive, and Assumptive thinking—that quietly sabotage creativity and smart decision-making. Understanding these isn’t about psychology trivia; it’s about reclaiming your mental freedom to innovate.

Selective Thinking: Seeing Only What You Expect

Selective thinking is our tendency to notice evidence that supports what we already believe while ignoring what contradicts it. Griffiths recounts how Henry Ford’s obsession with the Model T blinded him to market demand for variety and color, ultimately letting competitors like General Motors overtake him. The same bias drives data analysts or executives to over-trust their “pet ideas” and disregard inconvenient facts. He shows through a simple visual task—the “I love Paris in the the Springtime” illusion—how our expectations literally blind us from seeing what’s right in front of us.

Reactive Thinking: Acting Without Thought

If selective thinking filters too much, reactive thinking filters too little. This is our impulsive, emotion-driven reaction system—what Daniel Kahneman calls “System 1.” It’s essential for survival but harmful for strategy. Using memorable examples like the “bat and ball problem,” Griffiths reveals how our brains jump to wrong answers because they prefer speed over accuracy. In business, this leads to first-mover mistakes—the urge to rush innovations without due analysis (he cites New Coke and Microsoft’s early tablet). The takeaway: successful innovators are “fast seconds,” not reckless pioneers. They think slow when it counts.

Assumptive Thinking: Limiting What’s Possible

Assumptive thinking is mistaking habits for truths. We assume “that’s just the way things are.” Griffiths illustrates with a playful restaurant exercise: must a restaurant have food, staff, or even a menu? By challenging these assumptions, new categories emerge—vending-machine restaurants, bring-your-own-food cafés, cat cafés. He explains how companies like Xerox missed personal computing because they assumed their breakthrough technology only applied to copiers. And to hammer home the lesson, he invokes the QWERTY keyboard—a design still used to slow typists, long after typewriter jams vanished. Unexamined assumptions, he warns, are innovation killers.

Collectively, these errors create invisible fences in your mind. The cure, Griffiths writes, is deliberate questioning, reflection, and reframing. As George Kneller once said, “To think creatively, we must look afresh at what we normally take for granted.”

After teaching you to spot mental traps, Griffiths unveils his core methodology: The Solution Finder. This four-step process translates creativity into controlled, repeatable success. It’s structured enough for logic-driven minds and free enough for dreamers—a seamless blend of strategy and imagination.

Step 1: Understanding

The biggest mistake in problem solving, says Griffiths, is solving the wrong problem. Like Procter & Gamble’s infamous Swiffer story—where designers realized they didn’t need a new cleanser but a better cleaning experience—clarity is key. The Understanding stage demands reframing problems, mapping assumptions, and seeking facts. Using tools like the 5W1H Canvas (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How) and reframing statements, teams can transform "increase productivity" into the more empowering "make work easier."

Step 2: Ideation

Once a problem is understood, the goal is to generate as many ideas as possible without judgment. Griffiths revives Alex Osborn’s classic brainstorming rules—quantity over quality, defer judgment, combine ideas—but modernizes them. He advocates combining solo and group ideation: individuals think first to avoid groupthink, then small circles build upon results before reconvening. Case studies like Crocs’ unconventional success and Pixar’s creative culture show that even wild ideas can work when followed by refinement. Tools like the Metaphoric Thinking Canvas or Reverse Brainstorming help stretch your imagination beyond logic.

Step 3: Analysis

Ideation produces chaos; analysis brings clarity. Griffiths teaches a “whole-brain” approach that weighs both data and emotion. The Heart/Head Pros and Cons Canvas lets teams score ideas using both intuition and logic—balancing feasibility with excitement. He reinforces the role of emotion in reasoning, citing Antonio Damasio’s research showing emotionless people struggle to make decisions. Then, he introduces the Force Field Evaluation Canvas to map driving forces and obstacles, ensuring solutions are resilient and realistic.

Step 4: Direction

Analysis narrows choices; direction brings them to life. Here, Griffiths emphasizes applied creativity: turning insights into action through SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) and execution plans. Examples like Airbnb’s journey from near-bankruptcy to billion-dollar success reveal that persistence and belief—not just ideation—drive innovation. The book’s canvases for SMART Goals and Action Plans guide readers from “good idea” to tangible outcome.

By the end, creativity becomes a disciplined art: dream widely, analyze wisely, execute relentlessly.

Every creative act balances two opposites: expansion and contraction. Drawing on J.P. Guilford’s model, Griffiths divides creative thinking into divergent (idea generation) and convergent (evaluation) modes. Mistaking one for the other, he warns, is like driving forward and reverse at the same time—you’ll burn out your mental gears.

Divergent Thinking: Letting the Mind Roam

Divergent thinking is imaginative and free-flowing—ideas scatter in every direction. This is the stage of “what if” speculation and play. Griffiths encourages fun, emotion, and metaphor at this point, citing the methods used by scientists Crick and Watson who visualized models of DNA before proving anything. Divergent tools include brainstorming games, the Combinational Creativity Canvas, and metaphorical role-play (e.g., “What would Einstein or a six-year-old do?”).

Convergent Thinking: Bringing Focus and Logic

Convergent thinking is disciplined and logical—the process of narrowing, testing, and deciding. Here, rationality meets intuition. Using real-world examples from Toyota’s Design Thinking process, Griffiths shows how convergence turns creative chaos into actionable strategy. He draws attention to maintaining equilibrium between your left and right brain hemispheres: logic anchors emotion; imagination enlivens logic.

“You can’t create and evaluate simultaneously—you’ll wreck your mental gears.”

The essential lesson is timing: diverge first, converge later. Mixing them prematurely—like critiquing an idea during brainstorming—kills innovation. Once you can consciously switch between these two modes, Griffiths says, creativity becomes a powerful cognitive dance: expanding possibilities and then sculpting them into solutions that work.

Griffiths insists that creativity doesn’t count until you do something with it. The transition from inspiration to implementation separates dreamers from innovators. In Step 4 of the Solution Finder—Direction—he provides a roadmap for this transition, blending psychology, strategy, and discipline.

Building Solutions Through Action

An idea, Griffiths says, is like clay—it only becomes art when worked. He encourages readers to refine, test, and prototype their ideas. For instance, Innocent Smoothies began by simply asking festivalgoers to vote with empty bottles. This scrappy “pilot” proved their market before they quit day jobs. Using the Building Solutions Canvas, readers are guided to strengthen pros, fix cons, and anticipate resistance before launch.

The Power of Self-Belief

Borrowing from psychologist Albert Bandura, Griffiths frames self-efficacy—belief in your capability—as critical to execution. Citing research showing strong links between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial success, he emphasizes that confidence fuels persistence through setbacks. The Airbnb story—where founders sold cereal to survive before finding their market—is proof that belief sustains creativity through doubt.

SMART and Strategic

Execution thrives on clarity. Using the SMART Goals Canvas, Griffiths helps readers define goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Clear targets transform vague ambition into measurable progress. Combined with the Action Plan Canvas—a practical tool for sequencing tasks, allocating resources, and reviewing progress—ideas evolve from abstractions into accountable projects.

Learning Through Feedback and Reflection

Finally, he stresses reflection as the secret to improvement. Drawing on studies from Harvard Business School, he notes that employees who reflect daily outperform by 22%. Review isn’t just about error correction—it’s creative renewal. The cycle never ends: act, reflect, repeat. Innovation, like art, is continuous practice.

In Part Three, Griffiths moves from technique to mindset. Once creativity has been sparked, the challenge is sustaining it. He reframes creative thinking as a lifelong practice of reasoning differently—questioning assumptions, balancing logic with emotion, and managing time for imagination.

Reasoning as a Daily Habit

Good reasoning, Griffiths argues, is the conductor that orchestrates every other cognitive skill. His “Reasoning Checklist” nudges you to stay objective, seek disconfirming evidence, balance intuition with logic, and embrace imperfection. Like mindfulness, reasoning is a practice—you adjust your mental focus repeatedly. Completing the updated Decision Radar v2 helps visualize progress, turning creativity into a measurable competency.

Make Time for Creativity

Time, Griffiths says, is the oxygen of innovation. Most professionals claim they “don’t have time” to be creative—but data shows we waste nearly half our day on low-value tasks. His advice: schedule creativity like a meeting. Identify your peak creative hours (“morning larks” vs “night owls”), and protect them from distraction. Just as John Cleese booked 90-minute blocks for writing, you should plan intentional “oases of thought.”

Daydream on Purpose

Unlike mere distraction, purposeful daydreaming—what Einstein called “thought experiments”—recharges the unconscious mind to connect seemingly unrelated ideas. Griffiths recommends alternating focus and rest (similar to Tony Schwartz’s energy cycles). Purposeful daydreaming bridges deep thought and creative insight. Activities like walking, gardening, or even showering can unlock breakthroughs—if done with intention.

Creativity, Griffiths concludes, isn’t about spontaneity—it’s about conscious cultivation. The more you train to question, play, and reflect, the more natural inventiveness becomes. Treat creative thinking like a muscle, and your mind, not luck, will drive your most innovative wins.

Leadership, Griffiths concludes, isn’t about having the most ideas—it’s about creating an environment where ideas can thrive. Innovation, he reminds readers, is “everybody’s job.” In the book’s final section on creative leadership, he shows how leaders can build systems, trust, and optimism that turn creativity into an organizational habit.

Purpose Before Profit

The most innovative companies operate from meaning, not just money. He cites firms like TED (“Ideas worth spreading”) and 3M (“Improving every life”) whose purpose inspires creativity more than quarterly targets. Leaders must articulate both their mission (why we exist today) and vision (what future we’re creating). A clear “why” aligns creativity with direction, turning everyday work into contribution.

Freedom to Fail—and Learn

Innovation demands risk. Griffiths champions a “no-blame” culture where failure becomes data, not disgrace. Pixar’s President Ed Catmull, he writes, calls failure “a sign that you’re trying something new.” He suggests renaming failure as a “glitch,” echoing Four Seasons Hotel’s daily “Glitch Reports,” which treat mistakes as opportunities to innovate service. By depersonalizing error, leaders invite boldness and experimentation.

The Power of Play and Optimism

Fun isn’t frivolous—it’s fuel for creative flow. Griffiths points to his own creative workspace, Tec Marina, filled with light, colors, and whimsical design elements to invite daydreaming. Science backs him: positive moods expand perspective and problem-solving capacity (Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden and build” theory). Leaders can implement play through humor, playful meetings, or inspiring workspaces—even remotely via creative collaboration tools like Ayoa or virtual brainstorming games.

Optimism as a Leadership Strategy

Optimism, he argues, is contagious. It counteracts corporate pessimism—the “dinosaur speak” that says “it’s too risky” or “we’ve always done it this way.” Drawing on Carol Dweck’s research, Griffiths encourages a growth mindset culture where creativity is seen as developable, not innate. Leaders who celebrate small successes and encourage experimentation become catalysts for sustained innovation.

Sustaining Collaboration

Finally, Griffiths stresses systems over slogans. Set up networks, suggestion platforms, and cross-department “collision points” (like LinkedIn’s idea walls or Toyota’s Kaizen programs) to keep ideas flowing. At its best, creative leadership blurs hierarchy—anyone can pitch an idea, test it fast, and learn faster. When creativity becomes everyone’s routine, innovation stops being an event—it becomes culture.

In short, the creative leader’s role isn’t to think for people, but to create conditions where people think creatively together. That, Griffiths says, is the ultimate measure of leadership in the innovation age.