Creative Streak

Bits & Bytes, May 29

Again, some miscellanea from around the Internet.

Adults, Play and Creativity

Two posts on ‘play’ for adults, particularly in business. On one hand, it’s fairly well-known that play is an important ingredient for adults, both in creative thinking and in learning. On the other, I know there's real hesitation from the Regular Person who doesn't understand what we often mean by that statement. A random search on Google has some questionable suggestions by creative experts, such as “Learn to cut loose, even at work!” or “When you’re writing your next report, think like a child!”

I'm not sure this is a good example of playing at work, but a few weeks ago, at a workshop for a financial services company in Melbourne, an executive and I were analysing how to improve her 78-page slide presentation for an upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors. Her immediate supervisor demanded she put all of his slides in the presentation, but then said "But feel free to make it your own." (Talk about Creative Paradoxes, see below.)

After getting our heads around the complex topic, we began to joke about how we might turn the presentation into something playful. “What would the Board of Directors never expect?” And, "What would make her presentation a surprise?” Or, “What if the Board were in control of the presentation, instead of her?”

Innovator vs. Pseudo-Innovator

 A cold, wet wintry day in Sydney is perfect for going through old stuff ... namely 11 boxes (I kid you not) of old articles on communications, creativity and innovation I've kept since I got my first job in 1984. I'm always amazed how some of the principles remain true after 25 years, others perhaps not so much.

One stand-out from this morning's gleaning is entitled "The Innovator vs. the Pseudo-Innovator", from the January 1980 edition of Executive Skills, an old newsletter from the American Management Association. It's interesting to me because the traits of an innovator have a natural affinity to the characteristics of a creative person. I cringe every now and then because I read a trait I don't follow consistently (so it's a good list, sort of like an Eighteen Commandments of Creativity). I'm not 100% sure I agree. For instance, "... prefers complexity." Personally, I prefer ideas which are simple, although I also understand the joy (among us INTPs) to reduce complexity to simplicity.

Anyway, an interesting read nonetheless. Any thoughts? Any others you'd add? HTML

The Traits of an Innovator vs. Those of the Pseudo-Innovator

The Innovator: ... is intellectually curious

   The Pseudo-Innovator ... is cynically curious

I ...is constructively critical

   P-I ...is corrosively critical

I ...seeks to improve the operation

   P-I ...seeks to impress others

I ...has firm convictions but listens to the ideas of others

Creative Jolt: Breaking Habits

The inspiration for this post comes from a well-known quote by American actor Alan Alda: “Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."

Part of out of curiosity, I did a quick survey of (non-creative) friends and colleagues and found a decidedly non-startling fact: most people come and go to work the same way, every time. It's efficient, said one. It saves time, said another. I don't even think about it, said a third. In fact, one person offered a day organised entirely by rote. Same route to work, same coffee shop, same order, same routine at her desk, same place for lunch, etc.

"I'm going to get a lecture now on not being creative, aren't I?" she laughed.

Bits & Bytes, March 23

Nothing like a sinus infection to make you dredge your head into a pillow for most of the weekend. Nonetheless, three inspiring points cut through ...

 A thoughtful post from Scott Berkun's blog which turns into brilliance with this one paragraph.

"The closest thing to a real secret is this: In my years studying and teaching all things innovation, there’s one fact that’s the hardest for people to swallow and it goes as follows – To invent or create is to take a bet against the unknown. No matter what you do, you are still betting you can do well in the face of many things that are out of your control. Don’t like that? Don’t want uncertainty? Then do something else. Comfort with risk and uncertainty is the real secret. Or at least acceptance of the fact you can work your ass off for uncertain rewards. Anyone who wants to create something new is placing a bet that their view of the future is better than everyone elses’, or at least their competitors."

The second post, from Glen Stansberry's blog, "Are You Prepared To Lose Control Of The Idea?"

I've edited together the key points for me:

"One of the most intoxicating aspects of having an idea is having control over the idea. We thrive on building, planning, analyzing, almost anything but actually doing.

"Some people never understand that if they hand over control of the original idea, something better might come out of it.

"Sometimes our idea outgrows us. The trick is to swallow the thick pride and embrace the potential of what could happen."

And last, a quote from Robert Frost which I found in the entertaining book: "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like,' by Dr. Mardy Grothe. "An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor."

Suits vs. Creatives

Maybe you’ve already seen this post – The Anti-Creativity Checklist?  Compiled by Youngme Moon on Vimeo, the list seemed to flood everywhere late last week, for good reason. I don't have more to add without re-hashing the hash. If you don't have time to watch the video, I've included her general checklist at far bottom.

At the same time, Moon’s post reminded me of a list I'd kept over the years of actual comments made by clients after presenting campaign concepts or ideas when I was creative director at Burson-Marsteller. I’d jokingly called the list “Statements To Make A Creative Director Cry.” Some of them are variations on the same theme as Moon's, highlighting the essential disconnect between "the suits" vs. "the creatives."

“No, that idea’s too big. I don’t want a BIG IDEA. I want a Little-Less-Big-Idea.”

“Let’s not try to out-think our customer. He's lucky to have our product."

“I want you think out of the box, not out of the ballpark.”

“That’s interesting. What else do you have?”

“Hmm, no. That’s not right.” (Followed by silence.)

“That's a clever brand execution. But where's the part that talks about our product being cheaper than the competition?”

Creative Jolt: Quiet Time

From Psychology Today a link to a great article entitled Boosting Your Sense of Quiet Force, outlining the benefits of focusing by removing daily distractions. In turn, less distractions often mean boosting creative thinking.

I particularly liked the person's complaint: "I left my Blackberry at home, so I was so bored during my cab ride home. I had just had to sit there." It reminds me of a friend who said she can barely stand to ride public transport if she doesn't have her iPod.

While I have nothing against music devices, it always begs the question: At what point, do you allow yourself - give yourself - the simple luxury of thinking? When I've taught Time Management workshops, I've always found it strange that people will actively fill up their diary with meetings - some of which are totally irrelevant - but they would never think of booking time for themselves to constructively think.

For some - myself included - it's pretty easy to get distracted. For you and me, here's another article in PT entitled Easily Distracted: Why It's Hard To Focus, and What To Do About It.

Both of these articles on 'focus' give me an excuse to re-publish another of my favourite articles from PT - Everyday Creativity - from November 2009.

Thanks to Ralph Kerle for the article. Go here for his blog, Creative Matters.

Finally, if you have any of your own suggestions, please send them here. I'll post each individually in the future, and give you full credit.

Creative Jolt: Flash Cards

It's a fairly common experience: an idea pops into your head, usually out of nowhere and without your conscious knowledge.

In reality, your brain probably had a problem it was trying to solve. As you wandered through your day, your imagination came into contact with some piece of random stimulus, and intrigued, it merged the problem with this new piece of (something),and suddenly you had a new idea. I'm a visual person, so for me, it's usually an image, something I see, a picture in a magazine. Other times it's a piece of music or a lyric. Maybe you're the type who prefers words or reading? Or you're tactile?

Whatever it is, this simple trick of merging the problem with a random concept is the easiest way you can create an idea. If you want to do this more often, then it's simply a matter of creating a series of random images to keep on hand to spark your creative streak.

Whenever I need to brainstorm an idea, either by myself or with a group of people, I pull out different sets of 'flash cards' that I've made or collected over the years. I/We ruffle through them, allowing our imagination to use the visual and verbal stimulation to generate ideas. Next thing I know, my imagination is pouring out ideas - both good and bad, which I can then adapt, adjust, continue to re-merge, until I have a few good potential ideas.

WSJ Interview with George Buckley, 3M CEO

An interview with George Buckley, CEO at 3M, in today's Wall Street Journal entitled Wall Street Journal entitled "Innovation Comes in Tweaks and Snips" . I particularly like the quote "Creativity comes from freedom, not control.

Photo by Mike Ekern