Creative thinking: how to look for different solutions

Creativity training means regularly practising a few specific things: gathering material, coming up with lots of ideas for one task, connecting distant associations and checking which idea actually works. You can do it at a table, on a walk and in places in Krakow where you can make something, not just look at it. Below you’ll find three exercises, two suggestions in Krakow and an honest note on what this kind of training doesn’t promise.

There’s no need to label yourself a “creative” or “uncreative” person. Nor is creativity a job for the right hemisphere alone. The popular split of people into a logical left side and a creative right side of the brain oversimplifies what really goes on. For everyday work with ideas, specific activities are more useful than slogans like that.

First, gather material for ideas

A book, a film, a conversation, music or a museum visit can all spark associations. You don’t have to expect a finished masterpiece from yourself straight away. You can note down one thing that surprised you: the way a story was told, an unusual colour or a solution you spotted in an object.

A walk can also be a chance to observe. Try picking a motif you don’t usually look at, such as door handles, shop signs or the stone details on townhouses. It’s not a promise to improve how your brain works, just a simple way of pointing your attention at something new.

Exercise 1: one task, three different ideas

Let’s say you’re organising a get-together and want your guests to find their seats without the usual name cards. Come up with three ways: a symbol to match, a short riddle or a piece of a shared illustration. At this stage, don’t pick a winner yet.

Then check the constraints: how many people are there, will everyone be able to read the clues, and how long should the game take? The simplest symbol may turn out to be the best. Creativity doesn’t have to mean the most complicated solution.

The order matters more than the topic here: first a few options, and only then an assessment of how useful they are. You can apply the same principle to a present, a trip route or how you split the chores at home.

Exercise 2: new uses for an ordinary object

Pick up something ordinary: a paper clip, a tram ticket or an empty tin. For three minutes, write down what else it could be used for. The first ideas will usually be obvious. The more interesting ones come when you change perspective: ask what it would be useful for to a child, a musician, a gardener or someone stuck at a station.

When you’ve finished, count how many different categories of use you came up with, not just how many ideas. Five ways of using a paper clip as a hook are really one idea. Looking at it this way helps you notice where your thinking got stuck on one track.

Exercise 3: your own version of a Krakow legend

The legend of the Wawel Dragon is itself a good example of creative reworking. According to Wawel Royal Castle, the oldest version was written down by Wincenty Kadłubek, in Jan Długosz’s version King Krak deals with the dragon, and Skuba the cobbler only appears in the 16th century. The same story changed its hero and the way the dragon was defeated, because successive authors had different needs and different audiences.

Try adding a fourth version. Change one element: the hero, the place or the way the conflict is resolved. Maybe a child persuades the dragon, maybe the merchants from the Cloth Hall do, or maybe nobody defeats it, because it turns out to be the city’s guardian? Then check whether the story still hangs together and whether you can tell it in a minute.

If you’d rather get to know the legends out in the city, the Krakow Legends app is a city game in which puzzles linked to the tales unlock at successive points in the centre. There’s no time limit, so after each stage you can stop and write down your own version of the story.

Where to make something in Krakow

Observing gives you material, but you also train creativity by making something yourself. Two suggestions in Krakow where you don’t need any experience:

• Workshops at MOCAK. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow runs classes for young people and adults, including the Twórcza pracownia (Creative Studio) series, in which participants work on various creative tasks in a chosen technique. According to the museum’s website (in Polish), you don’t need any previous experience to take part, and the museum provides the materials. Check dates and tickets in MOCAK’s education programme.
• The Krakow Nativity Scene Competition. The competition is organised by the Museum of Krakow and is open to everyone, in categories from children up to the age of 8, through young people, to adults and families. In 2025 it was held for the 83rd time, and the entries (szopki) were brought to the Adam Mickiewicz Monument on the Main Market Square in early December. You’ll find the rules and sign-up dates for the next edition on the competition website (in Polish). Even if you’re not planning to enter, looking at the szopki at the post-competition exhibition is good material for exercise 1: how many different ways of showing the same tradition can you find?

An escape room as practice in changing your assumptions

In an escape room you interpret clues that have been prepared for you rather than creating something from scratch. Even so, it’s a good chance to practise one skill: when your first idea doesn’t work, go back to the material and ask what you assumed without checking. Not every difficulty needs more effort. Sometimes it needs a change of assumption.

Changing an assumption doesn’t mean moving everything within reach, though. Creativity works here within the rules from the briefing: a piece of decor may be part of a task, but it may just as well be decor and nothing more. Time pressure also works differently for different people: it spurs one person on, while another loses the thread or goes quiet. When the team gets stuck, a quick review helps: what do we know, what are we only guessing, and which solutions have we already tried? If you’d like to try this kind of game as a team, you can pick a theme in Gamescape’s room catalogue.

What creativity training doesn’t promise

A review of 70 studies published in 2004 in the Creativity Research Journal found that well-designed creativity training usually improves participants’ results. The programmes that did best were those that practised specific skills, such as generating ideas, on realistic tasks. Exercises based mainly on imagining pictures did less well.

That doesn’t mean a single workshop or escape room will change the way you think. The effect depends on regularity and on whether you practise in situations similar to the ones where you later want to act. If you want ideas at work, practise on real problems from work, not just on puzzles.

Rest has its place too

You don’t have to treat every outing as training. If you’re tired, an intense game or workshop can wear you out even more, however interesting it is. Choose an activity you actually feel like doing, and leave room for simple enjoyment.

Ideas don’t always come on demand. But you can create more chances to observe, try things out and talk about different solutions, without measuring every moment by how productive it was.