Creativity can and should be measured quite often in four key ways. In fact, it can be defined as a new way to:

1. Design inventions

2. Solve complex problems

3. Produce relevant art

4. 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

Purpose quite often has two characteristics: it provides meaning and at the same time answers the question “why”. It’s easy to decide on a destination that you want to reach in life. The hard part is providing a sense of contextual meaning or reason to that destination. Without a good compelling reason it’s harder to accomplish anything. Yes, often find ourselves engaging in thoughtless activity simply because someone in whom we have a great amount of respect for asked that we do so. I would submit that keeping up with this course of action, never having a clue as to why your mother for example wanted you to bath five times a day would be difficult. Eventually you’ll have an understanding of how other people behave and begin to question why they can get away with only one or two cleanings a day! You may even begin to resent your mother as you use up more and more body soap in your quest for absolute germ free cleanliness. Anger and disappointment will soon give way to rage and disgust until you simply cease to comply.

But, what if you found out that you carried a highly contagious skin rash that would disappear for exactly four hours after a bathing. You could otherwise lead a very normal life but you simply had to bath every three to four hours to keep everyone around you from grave illness. Well, purpose does put a different spin on things doesn’t it? In fact if you told everyone that you loved that you needed to bath all of the time to keep you from passing on infectious disease your every birthday basket would be filled with”¦”¦”¦you guessed it”¦..soap! They might bring the stuff to you in truck loads. I know this is a far fetched analysis but it does hit quite a few points.

The foundational aspects of purpose and the true reason for any real vision are an absolute thing of beauty. We always know when we are acting from our purpose driven ideas. There is an abiding sense of satisfaction knowing that our deepest convictions and values show up in our everyday behavior. Our sense of destiny is fulfilled and we are aware that every time we experience harmony and balance we are not just “on task” but “on purpose”. We know exactly what we are doing and why we are doing it. This is that absolute perfectly aligned balance between thought and action that leaves no lingering questions, no nagging notion of value. It’s simply good.

Purpose has a concrete nature about it. There’s firmness about conviction that helps others relate to and trust new ideas. Enduring relationships both personal and business are made of this kind of stuff. If you’ve ever had a really good friend that never seems to know what they are doing or why, you may find this idea useful. Ask your friend to engage in a conversation with you around meaning in your friendship. Ask what he or she expects from the relationship and why. Try to create a mutually beneficial system of personal growth that propels you both. If your friends aren’t willing to work with you to help you grow in some way how useful are they really?

It’s true that vision works to direct a company’s efforts and opportunities but with out purpose it’s just meaningless activity that no one really values (see our vision illustration). In fact, without either clear vision or compelling purpose positive change is simply impossible. Imagine moving an entire organization forward on a mission that no one really understands accepts. How hard will people really work? How much creative energy will subordinates actually expend to just blindly follow an organization that seems to be going the wrong way for the wrong reason? Not much. Leaders have to communicate and create purpose along with vision to inspire employees.

The funny thing to me about purpose is that it can actually come from anywhere. The creative mind can look at almost any finished product and assign a purpose to it. Imagine a child’s tricycle in a front yard. From an engineering perspective, it’s clearly a machine that was designed to propel a small child that hasn’t quite yet mastered the subtle art of balance. If you dip this same machine in cement, let it dry and then paint it in vibrant colors it can be a yard ornament or sculpture of some type that reminds the passerby of the fun they had in their own child hood. Add a plant box on the handlebars and you’ve got a wonderful gift for the now adult that use to ride that very tricycle. Pass it down from generation to generation and it becomes a symbolic family heirloom and every two year old in a family can have a picture with it on their b-day. Can you imagine that scrapbook project? See once a project or strategy is actually finished it can and often will take on as many meanings as people will assign it.

Often when a leader designs a new strategy for a group or company, others will attempt to change its purpose even before it’s been implemented. As a leader you then have to ask yourself if your project that clearly can have at least a duel purposes is useful. Will people be able to rally around it with so many different uses or will the message that you want to deliver get so watered down that it loses its power to compel? Will you be able to embrace these multiple purposes and still keep moving forward? If you are the type of person that believes there is only one way to do something or only one reason why it should be done at all then let me know immediately. I’ll create another blog about listening just for you.

Here are a couple of exercises that can help you embrace new initiatives within your teams or committees. Create a list of everything that a new strategy will allow you to do. Who will it affect most positively? How will it move your group forward? When will you experience success? How will you know you’ve arrived? Why is this important to you? What will your group have accomplished as a result of finishing the project? What other groups will feel supported as a result of your success? Add to your list everyday and try to contemplate the questions for fifteen minutes each day for at least two weeks. When you are sure that you’ve exhausted every possible notion that you can think of then take another few days to have some close contacts evaluate your list and have them add their thoughts. Now you are ready to spend about an hour really prioritizing the best ideas. Use your collection of ideas to write brilliant a statement of purpose about your new initiative. I guarantee you will see your vision come to light in a new way. You’ll discover real purpose and drive your own excitement. Finding purpose is the greatest self motivator. Come on in the water is fine!

Motivation is a complex labyrinth of stimuli then response. In some cases the response itself is the very motivation to provide continuous stimulus and then yet again, an additional response. This cycle continues for most of our lives and is in fact the fundamental building block of all human behavior. When we accidentally touch something extremely hot we immediately snatch our hand away to protect ourselves. This is the classic stimulus response example that behavioral scientists have studied for years.

So lets just say its true that we spend our entire lives simply acting and reacting to stimuli and that our responses are the collective achievement sum total of our entire human existence. That would mean that if we knew all of the stimuli and all of the responses, we could predict relatively accurately what will happen in the future assuming of course certain assumptions. How boring! Thank goodness we don’t have computers that are big enough of smart enough to measure all of these variables.

I much prefer Stephen Covey’s idea that between each stimulus and response is our inherent ability to choose, meaning at any given time we have the ability and even the responsibility to choose a response that drives home our greatest values, our most enduring beliefs. Suffice it to say, all the theories of causation when it comes to human behavior are incomplete save those that consider the presence of the basic will of man to choose his own destiny. So what’s vision got to do with this?

If motivation is the very reason why we do anything and is indeed the very building blocks of human behavior then vision is the foundation upon which those blocks rest. Vision creates the correct state of mind required to compel people and organizations forward. It provides a special frame of reference that reverberate a passionate truth. It clarifies and provides the right rational to justify behavior. It’s not simply a destination but has least four characteristics that identify it.
 

Four Characteristics of “Super Vision”

For vision to actually maximize human potential it must contain four basic characteristics simultaneously; it must be intense, re-occurring and include both internal and external stimuli. My favorite characteristic is of course intensity. Because we are all more or less motivated by the constant and incessant urgencies that plague our everyday existence anything that actually gets our attention must be intense. It has to have a resounding urgency and a moving quality that compel us to action now, in spite of the phone calls that need to be returned or the email that needs to be answered. When an idea is presented with high levels of intense stimulation we tend to react with a similar and equal intensity this is the basic law of action reaction. The reaction that we display after intense stimulation is not simply speedy but focused. It’s this focused attention that allows us to drown out all competing stimuli and move our agenda forward.

Of course we must also have re-occurring stimuli to keep us in the game. This can be achieved in a variety of ways but from a vision point of few I suggest that you take a few planned minutes each day to plug into your vision and ask yourself what you can do today to move the needle forward on your ultimate goal. You can use all kinds of tools to re-ignite the passion for your vision; your favorite music or poetry, maybe even quick meditation or deep breathing exercise. Whatever works for you do it…do it again…and then do it some more. Remember, when you lose intensity, you lose the momentum driven opportunities and benefits that can never be replaced. Time is an unforgiving mistress that will never come back when she’s been forsaken.  

Your vision must invoke internal as well as external stimuli. Which comes first? Actually it doesn’t matter. For instance, you may have a vision to be absolutely the best at what you do. This intense desire may drive you to study harder, produce more and make a truck load of money. Along the way you may be recognized with a very welcome honor or opportunity that you hadn’t predicted. It’s at this moment you realize some external motivators and then become re-motivated to be even better next time. This means a further adjustment to behavior and may even spur competitors to enter YOUR race! On other occasions you could be trucking along mindlessly doing what you do and bump into a tremendous award or bonus. Shortly after that there is an opportunity to mentor someone else and you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. You’ll be immediately motivated to be a better role model and of course increase your production. Some rewards will come faster than others or even be more predictably, never the less, it doesn’t matter which comes first; the chicken or the egg, you still need both to make a chicken and spinach quiche. So start working on your personal vision today.

Challenge-

Answer today’s blog with your own personal vision statement. Let’s all enjoy some mutual accountability.

Decision making is the most critical cognitive skill that we all have. Our ability to reason and make informed conclusions help us decide how, if and when we are to act on anything. In fact, decision making by definition contains the ability for us to make a purposeful selections from amidst a set of alternatives. We have to constantly negotiate mental objects and concepts to arrive at our process of living. Our ability to do this and do it well affects us on every level; personally, within our relationships and as leaders of organizations. Without well honed decision making skills there is no accurate planning or coordinating, no ability to control situations as we experience them. It’s like being adrift on a stormy sea with no sail or rudder.

The blistering pace of our society makes decision making harder than ever. We have information bearing down on us like a weight that only increases in intensity over time. The phone, the e-mail, the faxes and the text messages alone are the sources of continuous disturbance and tremendous time gaps in our day. Not to mention magazines, newspaper and internet surfing. When are we ever actually productive? When do we have time to sit and think and make personal decisions that lead us to finding our own voice? Why does it seem that most of us are lost?

The very roles that each of us play in our lives are continuously changing and making it extremely difficult to move forward in a meaningful way. Today the very idea of the “good father” has so many angles and gets confused with so many varying and opposing ideas that it’s not a far stretch to say that no one actually knows what “it” is. It’s the same with every other role that we play in life. In fact the child raising strategies and basic life skills of our parents are not likely to work for us in the current age. We need to get back to basic and timeless principles and away from the media driven frenzy that has taken over the very way that we live today. We all need to focus on a vision driven decision making model.

Key characteristics of vision based decision making (VBDM)

There are three key components of VBDM. Each of these three components are absolute. If any one of these components is missing then you have a broken decision making model that will drain resources from you and your organization. I know that your waiting so here goes. Each VBDM that you’ve made or will make has these three components speed, focus and truth.

You will find that as you engage more and more in mission based thinking, it becomes easy to make decisions quickly and improve the accuracy of your outcome predictions. Most would agree that the quality of life itself rests heavily on ones ability to make good choices about beliefs and how to actually conduct the activities of daily living. That being said, it stands to reason that being able to negotiate a fast and accurate decision making model will quicken the pace towards achievement of all kinds. What actually happens is that your decision making muscle gets stronger and more toned the more you engage it correctly. You’ll naturally become more confident and comfortable as you move yourself forward. Decisions will become easier and easier as your vision moves into ever clearer focus and see yourself reaching the finish line with an increasing energy and intensity. You’ll find that when you come to a cross road along life’s journey and a legitimate decision has to made as to which way to go, you’ll have the intestinal fortitude and confident resolve to move on through or to make the appropriate turn more often than not because your final destination will be in focus.

When you engage in VBDM your reticular activator is trained to pay attention to that which needs attention and not the things that take you off track or drain your resources. The universe of your own making will actually call into focus more often things that you should pay attention to and help you navigate the shark infested waters of this age of information. You’ll be so focused that every step you take towards your goal is a rewarding and empowering action that you see as success every time you engage. I call this “righteous action” and it’s how we all should move and negotiate life. It guarantees focus and creates the reason for much needed momentum.

Finally VBDM represents the fundamental truth of who you are. It defines your very existence in many ways and is at once all encompassing, like the air that we breathe and the same time it radiates from us influencing and helping others. You’ll find that the truth of your positions and their inherent wisdom will attract and assist others in their own personal walk of life. People around you will begin to see you as a leader as you model the behavior that your vision dictates and experience the success that comes from the synergy of needs and desires fulfilled.

So great will be your experience of winning that you will feel your sense of self and mission growing with each stage as you achieve your goals. This boost of confidence acts like the initial thrusters of a rocket ship as it helps to break through the atmosphere into outer space.

Finding your real vision can be extremely easy or painfully difficult. The choice is yours. Creating your own vision gives you the gift of inspired change. This gift is a continuous source of motivation and encouragement. You never have to worry about where you should aim your career or personal life. You’ll understand without a doubt where you are going and why you believe you should get there. Your vision is at once an effort of destiny that has to be found and simultaneously an exercise of creation that emerges only with real focus and practice.

One of my favorite authors and training experts Stephen Covey says that you should begin everything you do with the end in mind. How often do you ask yourself “where am I going?” or “why am I going there?” Keeping the answers to these questions in front of you regularly and making the commitment to move in the direction of your highest goals and aspirations everyday. I promise, this will help to transform your life in a positive way. Think of yourself in the future. What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want to be doing most often? Spend some scheduled time on this and don’t worry about possibilities or “so called” realistic thinking. Just let your mind roam free. Spend the next few days working on lists of ideas that support the answers to these questions and keep them in your journal or some sort of notebook for review.

Now turn your attention to the whys. Spend the next few days writing exhaustively about the reasons why you want to achieve these goals. Remember to only spend a small amount of time each day on this no matter how much you are tempted to do more. It’s important to pace yourself and not try to rush to the finish line. The whys will help you really explore your deepest feelings and heart felt values. You’ll need to stay in touch with these to implement any meaning strategy for self development and change later on.

Finally you are ready to actually begin the process of actually capturing your vision. I’ve seen people use various tools and techniques to capture and record this information. Some prefer to write vision statements while others prefer to use images in pictures or paintings. You may even find yourself wanting to use music or poetry to capture your vision. It’s important to remember that whatever medium you choose, it is essential that it be personally empowering and motivational. It should make you happy to reflect on your vision, maybe even give you a deep sense of spiritual satisfaction. If not your work is not done.

Relationships both for business and personal reasons can only bloom with vision. In order for people to find true synergy and really move relationships forward there must be a unified vision of where the relationship is going. Both people will find ways to compliment each other suggest meaningful ideas for growth and devise unique strategies that support the development of the relationship. In business we tend to be hesitant for no reason. If you really believe in the quality of your product or service why not show people what you are all about, not in a pushy salesman sort of way. Try having meaningful conversations that build connections between you and your prospects. Focus on who you really are and what you really mean. It will make all the difference when people can see the real you and grow to trust that person.

Institutions and major organizations totally revolve around vision. True leaders are responsible for providing and managing vision with conviction and consistency. There is nothing more special than when team mates truly understand in fact develop a passion around the organizations mission. Belief and trust runs high and people feel plugged in to success and productivity. Less bureaucracy and regulations are more the norm as trust runs high while quality service is delivered exceptionally with blinding speed and accuracy. The bonds created by a solid well thought and well communicated vision are incredible.

You can tell when vision is really working. There is a clarity that begins to define each moment. There’s no second guessing and people are able to give each other the benefit of the doubt in a big way. Mistakes are tolerated and rebounded from quickly. Organizations with real vision don’t have the time to play the blame game with team members. No one would even think about getting involved with petty politics or try to one up each other. There’s only constant innovation and creativity as everyone strives to make a relevant advances toward the ultimate vision. Everyone knows where the team is heading.

The absence of vision is simply the opposite. It’s like being lost, with no focus or direction. There is absolute confusion and chaos. People tend to create mounds of paperwork and reams of regulations to try and justify their very existence. Rationalized behavior takes the place of inspired movement while people seem to stumble around as if they have no real purpose, no real mission.

I’m really interested in your thoughts on this particular aspect of vision. Feel free to share any of your ideas or feedback in the comment section below.

As a business coach I’m often shocked at how many business leaders and business development specialists take this topic for granted. I mean some people don’t even consider having a well articulated vision and mission statement a priority. What they don’t know is that their lack of a clearly defined vision is just as powerful as having one in the first place. In fact, if you don’t know where you are going, you are likely to get there faster. Where is that you ask? Well nowhere of course! You can’t create something from nothing unless you have an idea.

Vision is the absolute most important creative force in the known universe. It’s the beginning of everything. It clarifies our decision making, helps people to understand where we are going and defines the very purpose of every major initiative. Vision helps us to not only understand the destination of others, of companies and organizations but it aligns people with the motivation needed to be of assistance toward the fulfillment of mission with a sense of purpose and passion.

As I say, most of us take vision for granted and let others define how, why and what we do instead of taking the time to do it for ourselves. Our employers define professionalism for us. Our professional organizations define our existence in the organization with the “code of ethics”. Our parents may have molded us into the “good son or daughter” and helped to cast our sights on the “type” of parents we would be. It’s important to understand that everything that you do and everything you are is driven by and requires vision. Everything from your self-concept to how you will perform within each roles of life is dominated by vision all of the time.

As I pontificate this idea, I realize that the question can only be answered from many different perspectives and there are simply too many ideas to bring out in one setting if hope to do myself or you the reader any kind of justice. So, I’ve decided to share these ideas with you over the next few weeks with several different posts that will highlight the very essence of the vision idea hopefully in an illuminating and refreshing way. We’ll cover the topic in this order:

1. Vision sets and determines destination

2. Vision helps others to buy-in and create true understanding

3. Vision clarifies decision making

4. Vision creates and sustains motivation

5. Vision defines purpose

6. Vision is the essence of creativity

Vision sets and determines destination

Ok, let’s discuss this first topic. One of the greatest characteristics of vision is its unique and distinct advantage of providing a sense of destination or destiny if you will. When you absolutely know where you want to go in life there is a peace that is almost infectious. Imagine not having to ask “what is this all about?” or “why am I doing this?” When your vision is clear not only do you know where you are going but why you are going there. You are in tune and in touched with a deeper sense of self with more meaningful insight into your particular contribution in life.

There is no lack of direction or focus. There’s only increasing clarity as you pursue your idea with passion and complete integrity. I use the word integrity because your vision actually defines the most authentic you that there is. Way before Shakespere asked “to be or not to be” the ancient civilizations posed questions like “who am I?” and “what is?” Vision brings answers to the greatest questions of all time. The answers are yours and they yours personally. When it’s right, it’s whole and complete and that’s exactly how you feel. When your vision is correct, you no longer wander the earth to quote the great Zig Zigler “wandering generality” instead you become a “meaningful specific”.

Yes, vision sets you and your company on solid ground. Corporate and organizational leaders use vision so that both clients and employees alike know where they are going. This helps everyone begin to have solid and firm definitions of their place in the organization. Remember the biblical phrase “without a vision people perish”. This is even true today.

Here are some useful exercises to try.

Write a list of everything that you know that you are good at? Think about the sets of skills that you’ve had to master in order to accomplish all that you’ve achieved in life so far. What did you have to do to get your spouse to say yes? What did you do to get your last promotion or position in the community?

No take a hard look at your skills. What do they tell you about you? Which skills do you enjoy using the most? What could you do all day every day without getting tired or being bored? How can you leverage these skills to propel your future?

Next time we’ll get into topic number two: “Vision helps others to buy-in and create true understanding“

Welcome to the revolution!