‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ thinking are terms often associated with creativity and they reflect the neurological processes associated with different hemispheres of the brain. Research suggests that the right side of the brain is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details (soft thinking). The other hemisphere – the left brain – is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole (hard thinking) …The distinction between hard and soft thinking can be illustrated in the following way. 

Hard thinking	Soft thinking
certain close down one right answer exact fast looking black and white analysis logic differences and categories rational precise serious familiar	doubtful open up many right answers approximate slow waiting many shades of grey hunches intuition similarities and connections dreamlike diffuse playful new

Roger Von Oech (1990) believes that creative thinking must be recognised as a process that involves both hard and soft thinking and that it is important to know when each is appropriate. He argues that every person has a ‘judge’ and an ‘artist’ within, and both are required in order to be creative. Even those who are very inventive, and thrive on spontaneity and uncertainty, also need to seek order and be analytical if they are to be successful.  It is now believed that the most powerful creative thinking occurs when the left and right hemispheres of the brain combine to apply both generative and evaluative processes.  Read more: http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rsfosteringcreativity.asp