Vision is the Essence of Creativity (Vision 6 of 6)
18 March 2009 in Vision SeriesWe’ve discussed several aspects of vision so far and now we’re turning the corner towards the home stretch to really expose vision for it’s greatest characteristic; that of creativity. You see people need that special creative spark of innovation to persist and continue to see projects through to the end. Yes the end in and of itself is a huge motivational focus point but today in order to maintain focus we need to be constantly reminded of relevance as we have fun doing even the mundane tasks assigned to us. Creativity gives real teeth to vision so much so that not only does it spark movement, it keeps us pushing forward for the long haul. We can tap into our highest sense of self and our ultimate possibilities with various forms of creative thinking.
Creativity can and should be measured quite often in four key ways. In fact, it can be defined as a new way to:
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Design inventions
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Solve complex problems
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Produce relevant art
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Develop meaningful ideas
The most powerful word in this definition is of course the word “new” but don’t get confused. It doesn’t mean that you throw out the rule book or start from a position of ignorance. Creative thinking demands both divergent thinking and a masterful understanding of tradition. My recent client after performing some of the exercises that I suggested exclaimed that he’d had a “break through” in his thinking process about his business. After he explained his new idea, I suggested that this wasn’t a “break through” but rather a “break with” the old ideas of his profession. These ideas had been developed from years of training and practice. He didn’t need to throw out the old to embrace the new he just had to make sure that the new was useful and didn’t damage others.
Studies show that everyone can engage in creative thinking. There are absolutely no barriers to this process. No cultural or religious baggage, no body image or style issues can stop human beings from tapping into their own personal creative muse. It’s not IQ driven nor will technology or the lack thereof be a crutch. It’s our last bastion of freedom. The very definition of our humanity rests on our ability to choose and create our own destiny.
Well if this is so important why does it seem that very few people engage themselves creatively in the work place or within organizations that they belong to? The answer my friend is simple. It’s buried in the details of life and can only be exposed through the careful study of highly creative individuals that have achieved great success. There have been many such studies of this nature over the years and they’re all directed towards some very interesting points about creative leaders. Often you’ll find “creatives” to be highly impulsive. They can’t stand to be hemmed in when it comes to letting not ideas not simply be exposed but be acted on right away! Often fearless in their approaches to business challenges, “creatives” will risk whatever they feel they need to in order to reach their goal and grab the brass ring. People that don’t feel their passion and feel their vision can easily get trampled under the sheer weight of a “creative’s” focus. So self-reliant is the creative leader that it’s difficult for him or her to conform to the ways of others. You may catch them thinking out loud or pacing in their offices as the mull over a new concept or idea. Rarely do they seek the validation of others as their self awareness and intuition works so well together that they move right in to pursue whatever course of action that they intend.
If nurturing and developing creativity is a part of your business growth (by the way it’s always a part of any growth) you are going to have to embrace a few very important ideas. Because creativity is much easier to stifle than to develop you must be careful to nurture an extremely supportive environment at all times. Don’t let the rush to meet deadlines or to have tangible results force every ounce of creativity out of your team. Instead give them as much time as you can to brainstorm and bring new ideas out. Help them to try and explore new areas. Give them opportunities to fail in a safe environment so that they perform well when the stakes are high. I know that this is easier said than done but the alternatives are unthinkable.
You’ll also want to dismantle all but the most essential rules and procedures for your team. These are often a stifling crutch to creativity that instead of profitable productivity creates tremendous expense in the way of time wasted and people devalued. It kills me to ask a person why they engage in some work activity only for them to say “because it’s our policy” or worse yet, “I don’t really know, we’ve done it this way for years”. Invariably you’ll find that the reason the procedure was created in the first place doesn’t exist now and won’t in the future. The speed of business demands that we be better.
Nickerson suggests that there are at least twelve direct methods to foster creativity within individuals. In this writing I will only cover three because I think that they are most relevant. From my experience, I’ve taken the liberty to add my unique spin on the following challenges: master your time, create your own personal score board, and make lists, lots of lists. If you master these three ideas, you are well on your way towards helping yourself and others release their creative potential and develop unstoppable personal and corporate vision statements.
Master your time!
No I’m not suggesting an all out time management system or course (some of you I know could really use it!). If you would simply create a few more minutes in your daily life you can begin to grow into any new areas that you’d like. I know that you can’t make time; I’m suggesting however that you can compress the things you have to do and carve out a fifteen minute appointment with yourself everyday to be creative. Make sure that your creative time is when you are at your sharpest mentally and have the ability to think without distraction. Some of you can take a fifteen minute coffee break in your office while others may use the commute home on the train. If you are like me, your best time is in the late evening when the house is quiet and you are all alone in the basement. You’ll need a nice notebook to write on and your favorite pen. No pencils! You won’t be erasing. No matter what, quit after fifteen minutes.
Create your own personal score board
The key to doing anything repetitive for long periods of time is to make it fun. Creating a weekly score board that rewards you for using your creative time wisely can make all the difference. Make sure the reward is worth your sweat equity here. There’s nothing worse than working hard to earn something that you don’t really want. Give yourself ten points a day for your time. No, you can’t cheat and cram yesterday’s time into another day. Break your daily ten points into small scored activities; maybe you get five points for creating a list, our two points for coming up with a little jingle or limerick. You might assign a certain number of points for coming up with a quick sketch or design of an idea. It doesn’t matter. The choice is yours so make it fun. It’s important to try to get better at this everyday. It will be tough at first but keep at it. Try to ponder different and better ways to do what you do. Look at a problem that’s been perplexing you or someone else and create possible solutions. Try to use up more and more ink everyday. During my creative time, I read and think about famous quotes and poetry. Sometimes I draw little doodles but mostly, I write lists, lots of them. Oh, that’s next!
Make Lists; Lots and Lots of Them
Making lists is an extremely useful tool when engaging your creativity. You can write anything and its all fair game. In fact, encourage yourself to get out of what ever box that you are in; I mean way out! There’s no risk in writing down your thoughts and intellectual musings. Try to go as fast as you can. Don’t ponder any particular idea too long. Just open your stream of consciousness and start writing. Pretend that you are Leonardo Davinci or Batman or Martin Luther King Jr. It doesn’t matter who, the point is to think from as many perspectives as you can about your ideas. What would you oldest ancestor think about your ideas? What will your grandchildren many years from today think about your ideas? The possible perspectives are endless. You can’t get it wrong and no one will judge you. Just do it.
That’s all I have to say about vision. Stay tuned for the next great blog. In fact, if there are ideas that you want to explore. Feel free to submit them here. I might just choose the next series around you!
Welcome to the revolution!
-Coach Powell
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Well I’ve been meaning to get a binder to put my many lists into so now you’ve forced my hand!
Creativity…right brain, keep the left brain in balance, huh? Schmart! I am used to doing only productive activities during my focused fifteen so now I will add the balance and engage my imagination for an equal duration. Stand by……
I like this one……”Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way”. by Edward de Bono Thinking outside the box – hard to do, but so rewarding!
I agree that having a set time to allow your creativity out is fantastic: your minds will know that they have an outlet and will be able to perform and provide at that time every day. As crazy as it sounds, a scheduled time to be creative helps. As has been said of writing “True creativity takes inspiration. And I make sure that I am inspired every morning at 9 AM.”
But I also have to say it matters greatly to appreciate others creativity and try new things. Go to an art museum. Read a different type of book. Cook a new style of food. Go to a different park on the weekends. Drive home a new route. Try new things. These little activities can add much to your unconscious mind and give you a great pool to pull from during your creative time each day.
This is a great exercise….it’s great to be as open-minded as a child?
While I understand the need for creativity and thinking outside the box, developing the right side of my brain is tough for me! Having been confined within the boundaries of left-brain structures and thinking for so long, branching out and wondering if “I’m doing it right” is a little stressful….I’m almost embarrassed to admit that!
I like the ideas of lists and spending 15 minutes of concentrated time focused on stretching that side of my personality, and am going to set up my calendar to incorporate that into my daily routine. While I’ve always been a puzzle person (crossword, Sudoku, Math puzzles) I’m going to try working with different ones.
It is interesting tho – I reflect upon your blog and realize that I have no problem with brainstorming in a group situation, setting up new routines and procedures when it comes to a work/classroom setting. Working with others to think outside of the box is inspiring and exciting.
Now if I could just figure out how to do it when it’s just me!
I think many businesses and corporations are desperate for more creativity! I like Coach Powell’s idea of carving out 15 minutes of creative time a day. I do something similar with my executive clients around visioning and planning–often times leaders in businesses are so drawn into the little details of the day, putting out fires, and interruptions, that there is very little time for creativity. I really believe that in many organizations, if the leaders (mainly CEO’s) fostered and encouraged more time for creativity, that businesses would run better and develop better solutions to problems. The issue is that results often get the rewards. I would love to see more organizations really encourage creativity and reward it.
Creativity lends itself to helping you develop that vision that is beyond boundaries! You have to believe it can happen, and I believe creativity is integral to this. I agree with Coach that you do have to free you mind to do it properly. I am the queen of the list! This helps me stay organized, but it also allows me to see all my tasks in front of my and I gain synergies in problem solving or task management. Call it what you want, but I call it creative!
I love the idea of dedicating 15 minutes a day to just flow and let the creative thoughts locked up inside you free! Writing down your creative thoughts is essential – how many of you have had a great idea, didn’t get a chance to write it down and then completely forgot what it was. How frustrating! So setting aside 15 minutes seems ideal to me.
Finally something that I’m already doing right
Since school started, I noticed I didn’t always get my quiet time each morning unless I did it before my daughter got up – after she gets off to school, I’m off and running! So I started getting up 45 minutes early, so I could get a cup of tea, get settled, meditate and be filled with gratitude for about 15 minutes, then consider my day, my goals, my dreams, and see what inspirations came my way. It is amazing the things that will come up, organize themselves, or that you “all of a sudden” remember – when you are quiet and let them come.
Namaste’
For me, the list created in the evening is the place to put all the ‘to-do’s’ on for tomorrow. With it comes the release from worrying about all those items. This allows me a few minutes to wander freely, to relax and refresh my dream space.
The next morning, I prioritize the list to help manage my time and at the end of the day, I ‘keep score’ by removing those items that I completed.
Allowing the list to hold this data gives me the freedom to not worry what I’m forgetting to do, and more clearly focus on the task at hand.
(And now that I have completed this juggernaut of an assignment, I get to scratch a big to-do of of my list!!!!!!)
All the best!
This blog both inspires and kind of confuses me. I can see that creative thinking can move mountains, whereas “˜status-quo’ thinking says that a mountain is immobile and can never be moved. The best and brightest minds, leaders who have inspired me over the years, all are creative thinkers. All of them think “outside the box”, and can completely enroll me in their vision.
I love the idea of giving myself 15 minutes of “me” time. Creative thinking time, dream space, vision space, gratitude and such. I am confused about the “˜lists’ portion, though. Lists to me help me focus my day and the myriad tasks I have to do at my day job. There is absolutely nothing “˜creative’ about those lists I write; they are simply a list of “˜to do’ activities. They do not inspire me.
Hmm, wait. In re-reading the blog, I see that lists can be more than that. It could be a list of brainstorming better ways to do something. Write possible solutions to a problem that has been eluding me. Sketch an idea. A poem even. Draw doodles. I also like the idea someone had about games to stretch one’s mind. Hmm. I will start to make some 15 minute creative times for myself, and see what happens. Don’t knock it till I try it, right?
I agree with Marvin to set aside fifteen minutes each day for creativity. I also know the importance of setting aside fifteen minutes each day for proper planning. Both are necessary and hopefully, you can accomplish them within thirty minutes. Creativity is asking “what if” and proceeding to determine if it can be done. There is noting more self satisfying than having an idea, creating a plan to implement the idea and watching the idea come to fruition. It is the best form of accomplishment.
I am never without a notebook and a pen. I have one next to my bed, at my desk, in my car, and a small one in my purse, just in case. I tend to get distracted very easily, and if an idea, a to-do, or something pops into my mind, I’ll forget it within 2 minutes if I don’t write it down. I LOVE lists. I have been a list maker my entire life. Like Michael said, keeping lists allows me to feel secure that I’m not going to forget to do anything, and my mind can be clear. I often have ideas that race through my mind at night when I’m trying to go to sleep, and I can’t even rest until I’ve written it all down. I love the satisfaction I get from crossing things off the list each day.
As far as creativity, I consider myself to be creative within certain limits. I’ve never considered myself to be artistic, but I do like to challenge the status quo (much to my former employers’ chagrin) and am always looking for a better way to do things. Setting aside time to be creative comes naturally to me”¦ I’ve always kept a journal for that exact purpose. But stopping at 15 minutes!?! That will be my true challenge. I’m looking forward to it!
I used to do this every working day in the morning in the 90’s. Great idea to keep the juices flowing.
Being a planner and organizer making lists and lots of them, well LISTS is my middle name. My husband says I have “lists for my lists”. Being creative, not an issue (my job requires it). Now, mastering my time, that will be the challenge. I seem to think everything is urgent and important (which we know is not true). And for me to take 15 minutes a day for focusing on my needs is harder than it sounds. I am quickly learning that if I don’t set time out for focusing on me and not the needs of others, my vision will not come to fruition.
As Coach Powell is fond of pointing out the Nike ’swoosh’ and its meaning of ‘do it’, that notion has to be applied to our lists. We cannot just leave on the paper what we have written down. We need to ‘do it’ as well.
Lists absolutely help with productivity. Working “creativity” into them is going to be very interesting, and I think the process will be fun. I’m looking forward to this, but not so much working on mastering my time…that’s going to be a hard one.
I need to take time to work on my creative skills. I am very comfortable in the box; I know I need to think outside the box sometimes.
I love my lists. Now I have to add “creative list” to my lists. I used to do this a long time ago…it will be nice to do again.
I think it will be great taking 15 minutes a day being creative. Life is so hectic, we forget to take time thinking about ways to make work better, more fun and more productive. And I love making lists. Sounds like a win-win situation.
My creativity checklist~
master my time
brainstorm & problem solve
explore new designs
plan it & organize it
make more lists and just do it.
Easy enough!
Creative thinking demands both divergent thinking and a masterful understanding of tradition – I really liked that sentence and agreed with it completely.
I guess the question is since we are encouraged to exercise for 30 miuntes a day, what device can I creatively come up with to enable the safe use of a pen for half of that time?
If there’s one thing I’ve tried to utilize in this business it’s creativity. It may sounds stupid, but I’ve always kept a “Chalkboard” folder on my laptop where I can write down business ideas or concepts that could be beneficial one day. A lof of these concepts I find out have been used before or may not exactly fit my business, but if nothing else, it’s helped keep my mind loose over the years.
I have journaled for a long time, but seldom on a daily basis except for a specific project. I love this idea! It puts form to the musings, a built in reward system, and a record of all those random thoughts that can turn out to be the ravings of a maniac day or a moment of pure brillaince when looked at from the perspective of time.