Keep your “creativity-cup” full.

Are people born creative or do they make themselves creative? I believe that while some people have an unique way of looking at life that is interpreted as being “naturally” creative, it’s possible for anyone to learn to be creative.

What is creativity? Creativity is simply “having the quality of something created rather than imitated.” (M-W.com). I think it bears expanding to also include the unique adaptation of existing creations. Anyone can design and build a chair, it’s tough to not imitate the base function of a chair in the process of making a chair, but creativity comes in when a new or unique approach is taken. Often creativity has a “I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it” quality.

So what spurs creativity, and if it’s a learnable trait, how can you learn to become more creative?

I think that we usually go about our day with a set of “lenses” through which we filter everything. I think that for most people these lenses are pretty similar. We’ve been conditioned through society, culture and media to see the world a certain way; thus we often have common filters.

When someone comes along who has taken off these filters we tend to call them “creative.” What being creative really boils down to is breaking our normal patterns of how we interact with our environment. So, in theory, learning to be more creative mean we have to learn to look at things differently than we do presently.

That sounds easy, right? So why does it feel so hard to think of creative and new things when we’re forced to be creative? Most people say they’re more efficient, productive and creative under pressure, but that’s not true. Teresa Amabile, the head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School, has shown that creativity doesn’t increase as time-pressure increases (2002). We’re not, in fact, more creative with the pressure of a deadline upon us.

I think this is a fallacy that most people hold. Many people I know - myself included at times - hold the belief that when the pressure is on, the results will be spectacular. We hope and pray our brains will pull out an amazing “Hail-Mary” play as the clock ticks down.

I don’t know about you, but I know that when I’ve gone back and really reviewed and scrutinized the work I’ve done under a tight deadline, I’m never as happy with the result as I am when I have given myself sufficient time. The work is passable, but certainly not my best.

This is one reason I try to keep a “creative buffer” for myself. When I have a paper to write in one of my management classes or I have an article to post to SuccessMinders.com, I try to do the work far enough in advance that I’m not under tremendous pressure. This is one of the reasons I try to keep a queue of 3 or more articles ready to post any any time to this web site; if I have the breathing room to write, and not have to produce an article, I find I’m more creative and more relaxed as I write.

David Allen, of Getting Things Done fame, promotes the idea that our brains can’t truly be creative while they’re stuffed full with details. The major component of the GTD system is to get everything out of your head and onto a list. Allen says the result is a mind that doesn’t have to worry about “stuff.” He also says that once the mind is empty, it can begin to create.

I believe this is true. Have you ever tried to meditate and completely clear your mind? Every time I’ve tried I’ve settled down and worked on making my mind still. It seems that once I sweep enough of my inner voices aside and get the place reasonably empty and tidy, random thoughts - seemingly not under my conscious control - will drift by. The harder I try to stop them and the harder I try to keep my mind empty and still, the more quickly and more frequently these random thoughts invade.

When I clean my head of all the tasks, to-dos, and projects that are usually floating around in my brain I find I’m usually more creative. This is because an empty brain wants to fill itself back up. I don’t follow the GTD system, but I do believe in keeping lists of actions I have to undertake. When I don’t stay on top of keeping my actions on paper and I start to let them pile up in my head I notice a definite slip in the level of my creativity.

Another tool that is important in creativity is old-fashioned paper brain-storming; you might have also heard it called “mind mapping”. There is commercial software as well as free, open-source software available to create nice, neat brainstorm maps, but I personally prefer a pen and a blank piece of paper. When I’m working on a computer I feel like I only get my visual senses working. When I’m working on paper, I get both my visual senses and my “touch-and-feel” (kinesthetic) senses working.

I start with a large sheet of blank, white paper and I write down a central idea in the middle. From there I write down supporting ideas and connect everything together. When everything comes together the results can be very powerful. I created the idea for SuccessMinders.com using this method.

Both of the above mentioned methods are ways to stimulate your mind to produce new ideas…to be creative. In addition, I also use a method I learned about a long time ago. This method involves asking “what if” questions by combining two in-congruent ideas.

What if…peanut butter and jelly came in tubes like toothpaste? - You could make a PB&J sandwich without having to use a knife. Just put some peanut butter on one piece of bread, some jelly on the other piece of bread and presto…you have a PB&J sandwich with no dirty utensils!

Another way to kick-start your creativity is to change your perspective. Perspective is an interesting thing because it’s subjective. Have you ever been laying on the couch or in bed, looking at something nearby on a coffee table or nightstand, and not been able to figure out what you’re looking at? Your brain is wracking itself, unsuccessfully, trying to piece together just exactly what it’s seeing. When you finally change your perspective slightly you realize exactly what you’re looking at - it just snaps into perspective. Because you had been looking at that object from an unusual perspective though, your brain wasn’t able to put it into a recognized context and you couldn’t figure out what it was.

This is the basis for many optical illusions like the famous one to the right. Is it an old woman or a young lady? It all depends on your perspective. It’s extremely difficult to see the other image at first, but once your brain has learned to look at it with a slightly different perspective it’s almost impossible to not see both people!

When I am stuck and can’t think about something creatively, I try to change my perspective. I might lean back in my chair and stare at the ceiling upside down. I might sit on the floor, Indian-style, and look up at my desk. I might try working while standing up. There is no limit to the number of ways you can change your perspective, you just have to get up and do something different.

Finally, I will sometimes find that I am just not being creative. Maybe I have a paper to write for a class, maybe I have a proposal I need to write for a client, maybe I’m just stuck and feel like I can’t move on. When this happens I “sleep on it.” Sometimes its figurative, I’ll go walk around or put my problem to the side and try to get it out of my mind. Other times it’s literal; I’ll literally go to sleep and let my brain mull over an idea to try to get my creative juices flowing. This is a big reason I know I don’t do my best work under pressure. If I’m under such an extreme amount of pressure, I probably can’t walk away for any period of time.

So my five-point approach to creativity is:

1) Get your mind empty!
Make sure there is room to hold your creative ideas; make it a habit to keep your mental clutter on paper and out of your head.

2) Brainstorm and mind map!
Get into the habit of using visual and kinesthetic planning to layout your ideas. When you brainstorm on paper, you’ll sometimes be surprised at the connections - the creative connections - you’ll make.

3) Ask “what if” questions!
Take two ideas and just moosh ‘em together! Then try to imagine what or how your “what if” could be viable.

4) Change your perspective!
Get up, get down, do something to force a perspective change. Make your brain work a little to process incoming information.

5) Sleep on it!
When you’re stuck in a rut, put things aside and let your subconscious mull it over. If you’ve emptied out your head, brainstormed, what-if’ed and changed your perspective and you haven’t yet found your well of creativity don’t beat yourself up over it. Give your brain a break!

1 comment February 2nd, 2006