Inspiration Fosters Creativity Manifesto

Originally published at Aegis Zoom News

Rethink, Redesign, Refine

We are challenged daily to solve plentitude of problems and issues. We strive to find new ways, new ideas that will make a difference, stand out and bring the success. It is demanding and tough work. We are stuck behind computers trying to crack problems, uninspired by the killer application, so called excel.

We fear intuition as it has a hard time to fit into power point slides. Inspiration has a hard time to break through the thick walls of silos of competences we’ve build around. Who said we can’t be creative?! It is time to rethink, redesign and refine the concept of being creative.

Rethink

Photo via Your Super-Ego

I wonder how often you speculate why some people can quickly and easily solve their everyday problems while you sit in front of the computer screen asking yourself how to conceive the new and brilliant idea. You think all I need is a stroke of creativity and out of the sudden the ghosts of the past and their genius paralyzes you. Dealing with a genius makes you think about the exceptional and non-ordinary skills to which your mortal don’t have access. You tend to believe creativity is not your cup of tea, so you have to leave it to “the creative people” in funky glasses and with messy hair 

Wait a minute! Have you ever wondered how many issues you face throughout your day and how may problems you solve every day.

Get back to your childhood. How did you manage to deal with thousands of small problems while you were a kid? You had neither the experience nor knowledge. You had a great, creative and reliable mind. And you know what you still have it. We all have brilliant brains that are able to be creative and innovate. Being able to create is the part of our human nature, it just requires moving from the owner of the brain state into the user of the brain state.

The challenge is also to rethink what creativity means. We tend to perceive it as the act of creation, as a form of artistry. In fact creativity is breaking the routines, merging the old elements into something new, breaking the structure of our thinking in order to get a new perspective, the fresh look on the problems. Creativity is problem solving that leads to novelty and utility.

Redesign
How thinking outside the box killed creativity?

Photo by Moriza

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s think outside of the box. Now. Thinking outside the box is like a cherry on a pie, add on to problem solving rather than way of thinking itself.

Thinking outside the box is what kills creativity. Stepping out of the routine in the conference room without windows and no fresh air for 45 minutes will not bring anything new.

Good ideas don’t appear by themselves. Thinking outside the box is not the magic spell that will bring creativity in us. Good ideas are the result of hard work, redesigning the way we approach problems, our motivations and inspiration.

The road to creative problem solving and ideas is through experimentation, acceptance of variety, taking risks and having open mind, eyes and ears. Sometimes the tiniest and the least expected thing like a movie, an article, a scene on the street can inspire us and lead to unexpected solutions.

It’s a bit like getting back to being a kid and stop believing in “one right answer”.


(photo via wordboner.com)


Redesign your approach to problem solving:

1. Don’t sit still. Get out. Talk to people. Despite what many may believe Google doesn’t have an answer to anything.

2. Bite your pencil. Think with all of your senses…and write down all your ideas.

3. Ask. Be 3 years old again. Wonder and keep on asking why over and over.

4. Color outside the lines. Find inspiration other places.

5. Play with matches. Take risks. You may be surprised.

6. Imagine. If you let yourself, there will be nothing you can’t do.

7. Have fun. Laugh.

8. Take a nap. Nothing triggers creativity more then rested brain.

9. Put the hours in: “Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. 90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.”*

10. Ignore everybody: “The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.”*

Small changes that will make the cracks in daily routines will help you on the way to being creative. Those small cracks will make the room for inspiration to leak through.

Refine

Photo via DaphneeMarie


This is process. Let the flow take you. Keep on adapting and improving. Have your daily inspiration fix. Don’t be afraid of making the mistakes. Accept that it will never turn up, as you would wish. So adapt and question. The chances that you will be right are much higher this way…

And if you ever have the slightest doubt, watch this:



Inspired by:
*Ignore Everybody, Hugh McLeod
The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelly
Thinking for a Living
Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young
My lovely “kids’ gang”