During five weeks of vacation, I got 257 e-mails on creativity, innovation, websites, links. In a word: Oy.
On a cold, wet Sydney winter's Sunday afternoon, here's some of the ones which made me stop and think for a few minutes.
A Definition of an InsightI liked this definition of an insight, from a post entitled “How to Find The Best Insights,” by G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón, CEO and president respectively, of Maddock Douglas.
"An insight — for the purposes of innovation — must embody a penetrating customer truth rich enough to generate significant ideas that can help build your business. Ultimately, an insight seeks to make someone's life simpler, more convenient, more economical, or even more worthwhile."
I Hear Voices In My Head ... and Sometimes They Give Me Good IdeaI wish I could hand a copy of this article to some of my high school teachers. “Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering Mind” (New York Times, 28 June 2010) reveals that “the doodling daydreamer is getting some respect.” It does on to say “A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals. Sometimes daydreaming is counterproductive, but sometimes it fosters creativity and helps you solve problems.” Amen.
Under the category of looking to blogs in other industries for creative inspiration, I found this – from Christine Kane (www.christinekane.com) – entitled "Seven Tried-and-True Ways to Block Your Creativity." Read the post, but here are her key points.
- Check your email first thing in the morning.
- Worry about results before you begin.
- Try to be perfect right from the start.
- Worry about what people will think.
- Require a guarantee.
- Struggle.
- Wait til you're INSPIRED.
The Globe and Mail in Canada often has provocative articles on brainstorming. Not sure this article is one of them – especially the psychology expert who admits he’s never attended a creativity workshop – but I give it points for trying to find a balance. If there’s one constant these “is brainstorming effective” articles seem to ignore, it’s the value of an effective facilitator. Here’s the article, if you’re interested, entitled Battle of the Brainstorms: Should You Be All Business or Be Creative?
Seven Reflection ToolsIn her article entitled 7 Reflection Tools for Navigating the Unknown and Exploring New Territory, Michelle James of the Capitol Creativity Network offers a new twist on creative reflection. Here’s her seven points with a few comments from me. If you have the time, give her article a read. Good stuff.
- Change the lens you use for seeing the unknown. (For me, this is one of the strongest creative techniques: re-frame your problem. Look at it in a new way.)
- Consciously engage uncertainty. (This is a tough one. I’ve seen many left-brained people turn off from this point because it doesn’t make sense to their rational ways of thinking. I recently attended a workshop where the facilitator did a great exercises asking us to list all the things we didn’t know about a particular topic. We looked at each other blankly for a bit, but when we began to talk about we didn’t know about a particular problem – instead of discussing the obvious – we were able to come up with some new ways of looking at the problem, and thus, new ways of solving it too.)
- Allow the process to be messy. (Mess is a big thing. So is seriously plan. I recently went through the first of three days training to be accredited in using LEGO Serious Play methodology, and it continually struck me in the training workshop how few people actually ‘play’ with ideas.
- Actively leave the familiar.
- Use multi-dimensional creative approaches. (Again, looking at the problem from new perspectives.)
- Be the beginner. (Ha! This links to one of my favourite adages: “The more you know about something, the less creative you’ll be.”)
- Accept the human paradox.
