Improving Creative Thinking through Narrative Practice

Abstract

Military leaders must poise subordinate leaders to predict future states. By appreciating clues presented in environments, leaders must predict what will happen next. Such prediction requires acute creative thinking skills. Army leaders plan for future operations using military planning processes including the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). These processes entail a means of developing courses of action, testing those courses of action for viability, and publishing an order directing subordinate units to execute the selected course of action (Department of the Army, 2014; Department of the Army, 2012a). Also included is testing courses of action for viability also known as the wargaming step of MDMP. The focus of this study is to conduct a mixed methods study of the Creative Thinking Class C122 at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and document the observed effects on student creative skills, to determine two different methodologies to teach creativity. The current C122 is a lecture and practical exercise method to teaching creativity. The proposed test in this mixed methods study to improve creativity among CGSC students through narrative perspective taking follows the Ohio State University Project Narrative (Fletcher, 2021c).