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Fluency can have two significantly different meanings, but only one is generally associated with creativity.
 
Fluency in regards to language is the ability to speak a language well. If you say you are fluent in Spanish, it is reasonable to expect that you could go to a Spanish speaking area and communicate accurately with another individual speaking Spanish. The words you use would be intelligible to the other person and your structuring of the language would not identify you as a second language learner. To be fluent in a language would require you to follow the rules and patterns of regular speech. While a word or two that you use might be creative, being overly creative might result in a failure to communicate!
 
Fluency regarding creativity usually references the ability to generate multiple views connected to a given issue or subject. As the constraints fall away, ideas begin to flow. Fluency can also be defined as finding connections or associations between ideas. To see this in action, try a round robin word association activity—a free association process for a group setting. It’s a very basic idea, with one person starting with a single word, and the next individual making a quick, non-judgmental association.
 
Paul Torrence (1979) created a framework for creativity in which fluency was a component. The other elements in his framework were flexibility, elaboration and originality. None of these were of greater importance than the other, but it strikes me that fluency is fun and relatively easy to learn in a group setting.
 
Brainstorming is probably the best-known example of fluency. In brainstorming, an individual or a group generates a quantity of ideas before any judgement is made. As basic as this seems, anyone who has experienced this process knows what a significant challenge it is to just let ideas flow. A simple example would be to generate 101 ways to use a pencil. The use of a specific number of ideas can give a group, or an individual, a goal towards which they will work. Elements of “gamification” can be used as small groups might compete with each other to see which can produce the greatest quantity.
 
Practice makes perfect! Fluency is like any other skill: the more you use techniques associated with gaining greater creative fluency, the more likely you are to view the process as simple and natural. This is due, in part, to the amount of practice put in. When learning new skills or when working with groups to learn new skills such as fluency, be prepared to practice, reflect and then practice some more.
 
For daily practice, set the alarm on your cell phone so that you are cued each day to take five minutes for whatever it is you are working on and think of a dozen different ways to look at the issue or idea. It’s fun and doesn’t have to produce anything outstanding, but as it becomes a more natural process you will find that it broadens your perception and understanding of elements in your environment. Organizations or individuals who only value “the one way to do this” are not the most fertile grounds for exercising fluency, but that does not take away from the value of the skill.
Give it a try and see if you can become more fluent in the language of creativity!