Creativity is important not only for artists, inventors or designers. It’s key in our daily life, both in work and personal areas. It helps us to find better solutions for the challenges we are facing. Enable us to think broadly about ourselves and our future. It simply gives us more opportunities which can shape our life.
What is interesting, is that being creative it’s not something one born with or not. Although children tend to be more creative than adults (see this article), creativity is a skill that can be developed quite easily.
Let’s look at 4 ways of increasing you creativity:
1. Use your environment
Your desk is a good place to start, regardless whether it’s in your office or at home. Place objects on it that you really like or those that can bring some good memories. Pictures of family, friends or some interesting event you had in the past will definitely work. Souvenirs from you past travels or even toys can help as well. Be creative on choosing what you will be looking on a daily basis and pick objects you really like. Feel free to change it from time to time, to keep it interesting.
Now let’s go beyond desk area and focus on where you work. Wider environment is very important. Many companies invest significantly in ‘relax areas’ and provide to their employees things like hammocks, table football or Lego bricks. All to make sure that employees stay creative when they have a break. You can do very similar things, if you work at home. What would give you a joy and stimulate your brain to think differently for a short period of time. Then do it when stopping work for a few minutes.
Even if your office is really cool, it’s good to avoid routine. To stimulate thinking out of the box, simply move and go with your team for a meeting somewhere outside. Nice park area or coffee house can make the difference, change your environment from time to time.
Finally, the people we surround ourselves are key. Spend time in a group of people that will help you to think creatively. Open-minded approach, challenging our view and diversity within the group always help!
2. Mindset
Think simple! We do have a tendency to over-complicate from time to time. If you have new idea try to describe it in one or two sentences to get it clear. Once you have it in that form, it is worth to write it down. Use your notebook or smartphone notes quite often. People generate many ideas, but forget most of them. Routine to write them down as they come and look at full list, let’s say, on a weekly basis will ensure you capture most interesting things.
Another important point is not afraid to be wrong. Creativity is all about spotting opportunities. Some of them will turn out to be not the best ideas, but feel confident in looking at new solutions. Ultimately, even if one of ten ideas will become great, you fill forget about nine that were poor or average.
When thinking about innovation, you do seek something new. In that regards try to avoid being influenced by general trends. That may limit your perspective. At the same time understanding what solutions are already available, will give you ground to build on them. In a way it’s easier to be creative if you do have a certain amount of knowledge. With greater insight in some area you can connect solutions that has been already established. Nowadays that might be a challenge as many people prefer to google information when needed, rather than to memorize it in advance. Although that gives good flexibility, constant searching may interfere with the creative process.
Finally, stay open-minded. Do not disregard any idea, because it is initially looking silly. That approach will allow you to widen your perspective and spot new opportunities.
3. Practice
Although brainstorming yourself can be good exercise, it will never replace the group’s work. Do collaborate with people that can share a different perspective. True creativity is a result of synergy and building win-win relations with others.
Not every idea is perfect, especially when you started to think of it. Try not to be perfectionist and allow area for mistakes. Overall, if you are aiming to be creative, it’s better done than perfect in theory. As a result, you see many good solutions that can be improved once initially implemented.
Borrow ideas and improve them! The world is full of great ideas that were never implemented. If you spot something interesting, build on that and find your own way! Make sure all is done appropriately and remember that synergy can bring amazing outcomes.
Finally, leave the comfort zone! Try something new: hobby or responsibility in your work area. Keep your reality changing and learn from new experiences. If you already tried that, you can go to the next level: put yourself in challenging situations. It can be very positive surprise how much creative we can become under such environment. All in all, leaving comfort zone can always offer us new opportunities.
4. Games and Exercises
Start with using visualization techniques. That basically means using our imagination more and keeping it in good form. Moreover, if you try to visualize something you are working on (future meeting, new project, new product or relation you are building), you will spot more details that can be a ground for new solution you were looking for.
Another approach might be playing 30 circles game. Start with drawing 30 circles on a blank sheet of paper. Then, within 1 minute try to create something from them. Do not focus on quality, but on quantity. It is a great warm-up for the creative part of our brain.
Use collaboration to do role playing. In a way it’s similar to visualization, but thanks to another person, it has elements of brainstorming as well. You’ll see you will not only prepare for upcoming situation, but also see it from many different angles. To make sure it happens, change roles and person with whom you perform that.
Hope you found this article interesting. If you did, please forward it on to someone who could share your view. As always, looking for your feedback and more ideas on boosting our creativity in comments section.
Thanks!
Tom