Look To The Inexeperience Curve

With business audio books an important point needs to really stand out and catch you, because before you know it the reader is on to the next segment. This concept stood out for me the other day while listening to Maverics at Work.

As a leader probably one of the most important things you can do is to walk in stupid every day. You need to keep challenging the organization and yourself to seek out unexpected ideas, outside influences, and new perspectives on old problems. Every day something changes. Look to the inexperience curve. The more you know about something, the more important it is to challenge assumptions and habits that built your success in that area. This will help you think in a new light and drive innovation in your organization.

(By the way - don't confuse leader with manager - they are not related. You don't have to manage people to be a leader in your organization.)

Find Your "Creative Place"

Where and when do you do your best creative thinking? Have you ever thought about it? What type of surroundings put your mind in an open state? A friend once told me that he even had creative 'seasons'. He found that spring was his most creative time of the year. Ben McConnell gets bursts of creativity in the shower, and he attributes it to higher ceilings. For quite some time while I traveled for work, my idea flow was very high on airplanes. Now of course if I am stuck in a middle seat near the back this isn't going to be the case, but more often then not, I get off an airplane with a lot of interesting notes scribbled down based on whatever I happened to be reading about. In this case it can't be the high ceilings, but maybe its looking out the windows? I have even written poetry in airplanes at different points, and believe me I am no poet:)

I do believe that the concept of bigger spaces creating better idea flow has merit. The feeling of openness and freedom somehow transfers to thought patterns, making them less constrained. The next logical question is how to create work environments that will allow the idea flow to increase. Since this will be different to different people, much of this will be tapping into your own sensations of creativity and working with it yourself. In contrast with most places I have worked at in the past, my current office environment is very creative for me. It does have high ceilings buts its more a feeling than any ability to articulate why it works. In addition to the ceilings, I think it's the traditional building materials (exposed brick and wood, and steel) that are part of it in addition to the open atmosphere. In contrast, I find new age materials do not stimulate idea flow, even when working in space age pod like set ups I have seen companies try and pull off. Everything seems too manufactured, and it doesn't matter how high the ceiling is.

Additionally, I need some connection to the outdoors. An ability to look out a window, and connect with the biggest open space of all. This of course isn't always feasible but not all your creative thinking needs to be in a designated work space between 8 & 5. Experiment and find different creative places for you. My front porch (view shown in picture) for instance has become a good idea flow space for me (at least when the weather is good). Open air, birds, wind chimes - not sure what it is, but its not really about the how. If it works, be aware of it, and use it.

What works for you?

Recognizing Creativity

Creativity is a great word but often hard to describe in a business sense and even harder to grow as an skill. Tom Haskins has a very thoughtful post that can help you identify creativity in yourself, and in doing so provides some great direction to help you grow your own creativity skills as well as those on your team or in your organization.

The key points:

• If you're learning from this, you're being creative. Making sense of new information is creating links, frameworks or containers in your own mind.
• If you wonder where creative ideas and inspired actions come from, you're being creative. With a picture of being open to receive what comes to you, you are in a frame of mind to get more creative.
• If you're thinking this experience is like something else, you're being creative.
• If you see learning happening to you, you're being creative.
• If you're feeling fluid, you're being creative.
• If you're moved by what shows up in your world, you're being creative.
• If you're grateful for what you're given to say, see and think about, you're being creative.

Practice you creativity and help others improve their ability to be creative. Creativity will lead to ideas and ideas will lead to new ways to think about your business and how to be successful.

Thanks for a great post Tom. I read a lot of informative blog posts every day, but I love to find those 'golden nugget posts' that keep you thinking well beyond the point when you flip to your next RSS feed.

Creative Thinking + Heart = Success

No matter where you are, there are sporting events that prove that history and longevity don't always guarantee success in a championship game. Underdogs often pull off amazing wins and luck has often very little to do with it. Both teams have skilled players, but often the difference lies with some creative thinking and a large amount of heart and spirit. Take the US College football Fiesta Bowl last night where the Boise State Broncos pulled off an incredible win over the Oklahoma Sooners. After looking like they were about to blow a narrow lead with a turnover, they came back with some amazingly innovative plays to tie again with 7 seconds and then win in overtime. However great the creative play-making was, this isn't what allowed them to take home the win, it was the heart, drive and commitment that allowed them to triumph over the heavily favored competition.

In your company it is important to be innovative, but you also need heart. Trying to build an innovative organization is hard enough - building heart and spirit on a team is even more challenging since there is no guaranteed way to create it, and often you don't know its there until you are faced with a challenge that could make or break you.

Take a lesson from sports and think about building heart as well as creative thinking in your organization.

Think like a child...

I believe the key to creativity is thinking like a child. If we as adults could have the knowledge we have now, but be able to have the unconstrained mind of a child, imagine what ideas we could come up with.

Unfortunately, I think it is often our gain in knowledge of the world as we get older that often constrains our thinking. Here are 101 ways to brew up a new idea (which somehow were printed on a coffee mug). If you notice, many of the items are related to children's activities... Even if the activities on the list don't produce the next great idea for you, I think there is something to be said for keeping your mind malleable to new ways of thinking, which unfortunately, often seems to have a negative correlation with increased age. (see previous post on maintaining the status quo)

Cyclic Creativity

I have found that creativity ebbs and flows like the waves on a beach. Wouldn’t it be great to be creative all the time, but probably even artists and musicians go through creative cycles.

My level of creativity often tends to be inversely correlated with the level of thinking I need to do at work. The more complex thinking I need to do on a topic at work, the less cycles I seem to have for creative ideas.

Airplanes however, are an anomaly for me, since this typically means I am traveling for work, putting in longer days and hours, but for some reason, when I read/think in the air I tend to get better idea flow than if I am reading at work or on my front porch at home – hence I tend to scribble many thoughts in the margins, on drink napkins or whatever I happen to have.

A friend of mine says that he has creative ‘seasons’ – times of the year when he tends to be more creative – typically in the spring and early summer for him. I haven’t been able to find if this is true for me. My creativity seems more sporadic, and is something that I just started to really tap into as I begin to covet entrepreneurialism but I also feel like it is something that can be honed, and improved.

It even seems to change day to day… My business partner often knows when my creative juices are flowing. On a high flow day, he may get half dozen ideas or thoughts emailed to him within the span of the morning. Usually if I get one or two – I get a bunch, by often playing off on previous streams of thought.

Cyclic creativity is a good reason for working on ideas collaboratively, since everyone isn’t always ‘up’ at the same time. When all parties are up, it is truly magic or chaotic, but since this is less likely to occur, collaboration can ensure that progress is still happening.