Imagine that you’re lying on a sun drenched beach in your favourite spot, sipping pina coladas. While watching the surf and local talent in a lazy daze, every little bit of disproportionate body fat you have starts dissolving away as if by magic.

If you’re a guy, your six-pack and calves magically become super clearly defined (move over Atlas!); if you’re a woman, you rise (sand still clinging to your butt) as the breathtaking goddess pictured in the well-worn story book you had as a child. You now suddenly have a build and looks that will cause dislocated necks, lead to car accidents, inspire Hollywood contracts and birth countless biographies.

Apart from this, you just know your IQ suddenly got catapulted right into the god class, you now also have a singing voice that might make Madonna quit and artistic flair enough to decommission the Picasso’s of this world (and although you haven’t tried out that one yet, you just know it to be so).

You simply can’t believe it. Maybe the one who said that if something’s too good to be true then it probably is, got it all wrong. Maybe this is all due to some fairy godmother or weird enchantment or whatever. Who knows. You just don’t care. Floating off the sand, a Cadillac with a fully stocked bar awaits you as you exit the beach and ride off into fame and fortune.

Yeah right.

Except only, it never happens this way.

Funny how desperately we wish something like this to be true but somehow know it will never be. (Damn…)

Because nothing ever happens in a vacuum.

Just as no fairy is going to miraculously spirit our present away and leave us suspended on a golden cloud of only fluff and happiness, just so the ability to create won’t magically appear over night or descend out of thin blue air, especially if your creative muscle has not been used for some time. You have to work at it.

Relax! Please don’t back button! The word “work” here, does not mean sweat!

Okay, say now that you have been trying your hand at free writing and some of the other ideas mentioned in the previous post to try and get your muse back if it has gone AWOL. If you’re lucky, it’s back already. Say for argument’s sake, it is. How do you keep it right there with you, more so, how do you remain creative for the rest of your life?

This last question is especially important if something like the ability to be creative has a direct bearing on your income and business (if you have one). Not even talking about your happiness here!

Whereas the previous post touched on creativity gone AWOL and how to get it back once it’s gone, this post will highlight the need for exercise in always keeping your creative gift healthy, happy and thriving.

This post will highlight exercise? But, doesn’t the very word “exercise” imply effort, exertion, work… practise (ugghh?).

Wait!

To prevent you from immediately hitting the back button in disgust and trotting off to do some real reading and missing out on what could end up as the greatest, most liberating and exhilarating trip of your life, let me hasten to add: exercise like this is fun! And you don’t need a gym! Or fancy shmancy equipment. Or complex machinery or gadgets.

So stay around…

Creativity is big these days. On the web and off. And it is increasingly understood by everybody who is somebody as the single most have to have item on the shopping list of success. Especially in business.

According to the IBM 2010 Global CEO Study, which says that creativity is the most crucial factor for future success, CEO’s believe that ”more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision – successfully navigating an increasingly complex world will require creativity.”*

Now, there are literally zillions of creativity exercises on the web. Gazillions of links, and even more exercises. To even suggest that I could distil a few of them here and dare to call that a “Guide” would be sheer lunacy, at best arrogance.

No, what I hope at the most to accomplish through this post, is to drive home the absolute non-negotiable nature and importance of exercising your creativity if you have any hope of wanting to keep it functioning and thriving. Take the scene on the beach. Ain’t never gonna happen in a vacuum.

Likewise, you’ll never grow your gift when you don’t nurture it with the right environment and feed it the proper food. That’s where these exercises come in. They’re mostly fun to do and relax both body and mind. Maybe that’s where the whole secret to creativity capture lies.

So consider this post as an intro to Writing your Own Creativity Nurturing Exercise Guide by visiting some of the links to exercises at the bottom and then take it from there. Write your own guide. Follow the unmarked trail. Let your nose guide you. Click. Exercise. Enjoy. Click. Exercise. Enjoy.

Start off by listening to Johann Sebastian Bach. Jeffrey Baumgartner says if Bach doesn’t make you more creative, then “you should probably see your doctor”.^#

Your creativity can only benefit. Do it for you and your business or craft. And everybody else’s as well.

Nobody but nobody, can replace you or your gift. Ever. So get on with the business of being the best you there can be. You’ll do everybody a favour. You, most of all.

And as the well-known quote goes: Just do it!

Until next time,

© Elmarie Bouwer

Some links to creativity exercises:

# The Wonderful world of Jeffrey Baumgartner. 10 Steps for boosting creativity. http://www.jpb.com/creative/creative.php

Kaarina Dillabough Decide2do. 10 Steps to Boost your Creativity to Benefit your Business and Your Life.     http://www.kaarinadillabough.com/steps-boost-your-creativity-benefit-your-business/

Psychology Today. Try Fun, Quick Exercises to Boost Your Creativity. Gretchen Rubin.  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-happiness-project/200911/try-fun-quick-exercises-boost-your-creativity

Entrepreneur. Lisa Girard.  Five creativity exercises to find your passion. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219709

Source:

* Creativity Australia. Creativity is the Most Crucial Factor for Future Success. November 3, 2010. Accessed 1 March 2012.http://creativityaustralia.blogspot.com/

Tell me again – why is the subject of creativity important when all I’m interested in is business success?

Because creativity underlies all successful business functions! And what you believe about creativity is directly going to influence that very success you’re so interested in! That’s why.

 *****

  “All he ever does is practice, practice…”

One of the myths surrounding creativity, is that concerning talent. We believe we have to have talent in something to be able to do it. Not so! says Prof. Howe and other researchers at Exeter University. A study done there records that “[t]he notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Mozart and Picasso were “gifted” or possessed innate talents is a myth,” Howe et al… concluded that “opportunities, encouragement, training, motivation, self-confidence and – most of all – practice determine excellence.”*

Nay, says…

David Feldman and Tamar Katzir of Tufts University, Massachusetts.  ”[P]ractice and other factors were no doubt important contributors to outstanding performance, but not enough to explain great creative works.  “Talent is essential…[i]f anyone can prove that the works of these individuals can be explained without…natural talent, we will concede that talent does not exist:  “Mozart, Picasso, Shakespeare, Martina Hingis, Pavarotti, Ramanujam, Judit Polgar and Micheal Jordan. Practice indeed…”* (Naysayers are good. They help us to think for ourselves…)

It seems clear though…

…that talent only plays a role to some extent. Other factors like “encouragement, training, motivation, self-confidence and – most of all – practice”* seem to speak as loud as innate talent. Mozart, for instance, had to work hard and was immersed in music for 16 years, practicing, before he produced a masterwork.

Other myths…

…we tell ourselves says Prof. Robert Harris of Virtual Salt,^# is to believe that:

1. Every problem has only one right answer or solution. People discover different solutions to the same problem, none of them are ‘wrong’ simply because they differ. e.g. ”What is THE solution to putting words on paper? Fountain pen, ball point, pencil, marker, typewriter, printer, Xerox machine, printing press?”

2. The best answer/method/solution has already been found. A study of any solution / method …will tell you that’s baloney. Just look at human transportation. Was the car the best and last? “What about pneumatic tubes, hovercraft, even Star Trek type beams?”^#

3.  Creative answers are technologically complex. That is only true of a very limited number of problems. Most problems only require some thoughtful thinking, some action and simple tools. For example, “when hot dogs were first invented, they were served with gloves to customers so they could hold them. Unfortunately, the customers kept walking off with the gloves. The solution was not at all complex: serve the hot dog on a roll so that the customer’s fingers were still insulated from the heat. The roll could be eaten along with the dog.”^#

4. “Ideas either come or they don’t. Nothing will help.” ^# Now, this is just not true. Although creativity is not an add-and stir exercise, there are many thoughts and exercises available for idea stimulation and we will in some future post focus on some of them.

Linda Naiman of Creativity at Work well refers to a study done by George Land that says that developing your creative muscle is like that of any other muscle. It takes…yup… exercise! “…we are naturally creative and as we grow up we learn to be uncreative. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. Learning to be creative is akin to learning a sport.  It requires practice to develop the right muscles, and a supportive environment in which to flourish.”⁺

The word here that seems to recur with annoying regularity, is practice.

Now, lest it seem that we can just park ourselves, stare into vacant space and let some creative genius wash over us out of sweet nothingness, there are some characteristics of the creative person that we have to share before that artistic spark will ignite into flame (plus of course, practice of whatever… ):

Prof Harris again:

• “curious
• seeks problems
• enjoys challenge
• optimistic
• able to suspend judgment
• comfortable with imagination
• sees problems as opportunities
• sees problems as interesting
• problems are emotionally acceptable
• challenges assumptions
• doesn’t give up easily: perseveres, works hard”^#

Finally, a quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes will put the cap on what it all comes down to. “They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,” he remarked with a smile. “It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.”^$

 Taking pains, sound an awfully lot like … practise.

*****

Well, next week we look at something that is called “creative unblocking.” Like blocked sinuses. There is something that helps for that too. See you there!

In case you have missed some of our previous posts on creativity and how that links to business, here are they:

• When sales are sluggish

http://ebschool.com/2012/01/when-sales-are-sluggish%E2%80%A6/

• Why being creative matters more to your business than you think

http://ebschool.com/2012/01/why-being-creative-matters-more-to-your-business-than-you-think/

• Creative?  Who me?

http://ebschool.com/2012/02/creative-who-me/

• Why creativity is so much like show jumping

http://ebschool.com/2012/02/why-creativity-is-so-much-like-show-jumping/

© Elmarie Bouw

Sources:

*  Practise and Training, not talent, key to genius. Accessed 14 Feb 2012      http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/harrison/624/practicetalent.htm

^#  Harris, Robert. Introduction to creative thinking. VirtualSalt. 1 July 1998. Web.  Accessed 16 February 2012. http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook1.htm

⁺ Creativity at Work. What is creativity. Linda Naiman2010. Accessed 16 February 2012. http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/whatis.htm

$ Quotes from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, page 1 of 11. Para 8.  Accessed 16 February 2012

http://quotations.amk.ca/sherlock-holmes/

 Yes, you are.

Even if you deny it, don’t feel it, can’t really care or maybe accept the fact but can’t be bothered with it. Even…

The boring bits…

Mountains of research indicate that everyone is creative. For example, well known creativity guru, Kobus Neethling^1, quotes research done on toddlers wherein 98% tested superior in creativity. However by the time they reached 22 years of age, only 2% still tested as such. Why…? In our next post, we will get to some of the reasons people bury or submerge their creativity.

Another example is Prof. Robert Harris^{2 of} Virtual Salt, a writer and educator with more than 25 years of teaching experience at college and university level, who says everybody is creative to some degree. And so we can quote instance after instance…

The fact however is undeniable… every single human being that is born into this world is creative.  That includes you.

So what?

 Well, consider this…creative urge is what initially generated the swarm of enjoyment avenues we so eagerly embrace; from parachuting, canoeing, rock climbing and going to the movies to country fairs, culinary fests, restaurants, the whole art, literature & music shebang etc. Without that our lives will be incalculably poor let alone boring.

 What does this have to do with any kind of business success? My success…

 Getting the point is the point…

 Firstly, it is only a truly creative idea that is going to furnish you with that much needed Unique Selling Point (USP) or competitive edge that will enable you to sell your products / services successfully. We live in a crowded corner, no matter what your niche is. Everybody is copying everybody else. Only truly innovative products & services will successfully make it out there and only creativity will birth them.         

 Nobody can ever successfully copy your personality, individuality or the creative impulse in your innermost being! All of this sets you apart from everybody else and this fact is one of the winning ingredients in a USP or competitive edge.

Plainly put – the way you cook your food, play with your dog, conduct your family affairs and run your business, is totally unique to you.

It is this creative dynamic in business that will set you apart from everyone else.  Sure, generic business principles will always apply.  But creativity is still the underpinning principle in their successful implementation.  This is ultimately what will send a buyer to you and not the competition.

Creative thought is an expression of the individual. Individuality is what will ultimately sell your offerings…

The foundation that every business function rests on, is paved with just one magic element: creative thinking.

 A USP…? No way around it, period. Crank those lazy creative wheels into motion!

Don’t know how? Your creative impulse buried somewhere or forgotten? Or not quite operating at full throttle?

Don’t worry!  If you find yourself in this category, watch this spot for an upcoming post on exercises and tips that are designed to liberate the rusted cogs of your creative thinking apparatus and help your creativity-wings take flight in the form of barrier-busting ideas.

Because you are twice the debtor, maybe even more…

 Secondly, because you owe it to your Creator. He made you with a complete set of individual skills that just had to be nurtured and developed to flesh you out into the human creation He had in mind. To be any less than that, is to not only live half the life He intended for you, but to seriously short-change yourself and everybody else in the process.

Thirdly, because only you can live your life, nobody else can. You owe it to yourself and everybody else around you to be the best yóú that you can be. That includes all the parts that make up yóú, including the creative impulse that you were born with. Only you can be the best at what you are, do and aspire to do everyday. Your life counts even if you at some point thought, or still think, it doesn’t. Even if there are about 8 billion people on this planet, every single life counts.

A simple, but not necessarily easy, option

It is not optional to live creatively if you want all the mileage out of life’s ride. It is the only rational course of action left open to a human being that wants to feel fully alive. Granted, becoming and remaining creative (the subject of yet another upcoming post) is somewhat like learning to ride a horse, or parachuting, daunting but exhilarating. Those in the know will tell you there’s little else quite like it…

Funny thing about creativity…it never really goes away. It is worth reviving to its full blown glory. Life is simply not much fun without it!

© Elmarie Bouwer

1. http://www.kobusneethling.co.za/
2. http://www.virtualsalt.com/index.htm

*****

 Watch out for our next post on why people bury or submerge their creativity. See you there!

Slowly the lump of brown wet earth forms into the recognizable limbs and torso of a manikin. With every caress, the deliberate pinches and touches of the artist morphs into the image of a child. When fully done, she takes a patina knife and deliberately starts slashing multiple crisscross gashes into the limbs and heart of the clay figure’s smooth sheen. Silently, the marble eyes and mouth scream out the pain of this brutality.  The artist’s theme? Abuse.

******

By the aroma wafting from the open windows of your neighbour’s kitchen, you know he’s making his special lasagne. Not following the steps in some recipe book, but the one cooked up in his head first and thereafter the saucepan. Your mouth waters…

******

In the pre-school centre around the corner, a mud besmeared boys’ huddle ages 5-6, is closely clustered around a lunchbox lid & inner sheltering a make-belief village of “aliens” built of sticks, tinfoil and dried dirt. On it and populating the immediate ground round about it, are multiple plastic animals, some shrouded in capes of aluminium, a Tyrannosaurus Rex the warlord of this ‘fearsome’ army. Excited voices ring out as they impersonate the fake animal’s commands and moves in the mastery of his subjects and the mechanisations of a war fought with a neighbouring planet.

*****

You have just witnessed creativity in the cases above. In every instance.

So what you say, what does this have to do with my business? Hang on, getting there…

There are many definitions of creativity all of them more or less saying that it is the act of creating something new. For John Young, a psychiatrist interested in the field of creativity, it is the imagination “that makes up something new and valuable, thus transforming what is [now] into something better”¹

I however like the way Ilse Turnbull of Rousing your Muse fame puts it: ‘to produce through imaginative skill’…”creating something that you have allowed to be infused with your personality so it becomes a unique expression of yourself in whatever form you have chosen to use… [creativity is]… making stuff up.” ²

Prof. Robert Harris of Virtual Salt, sees creativity both as an ability and an attitude taking shape over a the process of time. He defines it as the “the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing idea[s]… to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities…”

However, “…contrary to the mythology surrounding creativity,” he says, “very, very few works of creative excellence are produced with a single stroke of brilliance or in a frenzy of rapid activity… “³

But again, you say,  just what has all this got to do with my business?

Before we get to that, let’s clarify the meaning of being creative even more by quoting from the Idea Sandbox: [because it is so relevant to our discussion, the quote is a rather lengthy one]:

“Sometimes we confuse artistic ability with creativity.

If I can’t paint or draw, I’m not creative.

Artistic ability includes skills and talent to create fine works of art: painting, drawing, sculpting, musical composition, etc. [first example above]

Creativity ability is the skill and talent to use our imagination to create and solve.

A better artist is creative. But, you don’t have to be an artist to be creative.

We’re creative all the time and don’t realize it.

• When mom or dad ad-libs lunch for the kids, pulling together something yummy when it seemed there were no ingredients in the fridge.
• When the radio announces traffic is stopped on our route home and we figure out a route taking the back roads home.
• When the company Christmas Party invitation had a typo and you added the missing punctuation with a Sharpie – and no one knew the difference.

Each of these examples required use of imagination and experience to apply a creative solution to a problem or challenge…”⁴

Okay. Now for the reason behind this post.

“Creativity is the most crucial factor for future success” says Linda Naiman who is ”founder of Creativity at Work, and recognized internationally for pioneering arts-based learning as a catalyst for developing creativity, innovation, and collaborative leadership in organizations. As an innovation consultant, Linda advises senior leaders and managers on how to develop creativity and innovation in employees, to improve business performance, as well as how to foster an organizational culture”⁵

The long & short of what she and everybody else who is anybody at all is saying, is that it is going to take a whole new way of doing business to be successful in this increasingly complex world of ours. And creativity is the underpinning of every successful business function imaginable, except maybe financial management. Even successful financial planning requires creativity.

So, where does that leave us?

When we realise what crucial role creativity plays in the success of any business set-up and continued successful operation, the obvious next question(s) to ask would be:

Who says I am creative & how does creativity or the lack of it, impact my business?

© Elmarie Bouwer

********

As promised last week, we had a brief look at just what creativity is. The next post will attempt to bring you answers to the above questions. Be sure not to miss it!

1. http://www.adventuresincreativity.net/2mag1.html

2. http://www.rousingyourmuse.com/about-me.html

3. http://www.virtualsalt.com/think/

4. http://www.idea-sandbox.com/blog/2011/11/difference-between-artistic-creative-ability/

5. http://www.creativityatwork.com/CWServices/aboutus.html

You ability to think strategically is of utmost importance in order to grow your business from small to big. The ability to think strategically is not rocket science; it is simply something you have to do, if you know how to do it.

Strategic thinking is, simply, the process of looking at the bigger picture surrounding your business. You must make a habit of scanning the various “external environments” (economic, political, social, legal and technological) by looking for opportunities, as well as for threats. You will be amazed how many new opportunities you’ll see when you start focusing on the various external environments. In this exercise you must get rid of old and vested paradigms. You should therefore always challenge your assumptions, as they present your current belief system (Paradigm). You will, as a matter of fact, also become aware of possible threats, which will enable you to make plans to counter them before it is too late. In countering threats, it could be necessary to change direction and/or diversify by adding new related products/services.

If you have to change direction and/or diversify, always remember to do it within your domain of passion and interest. You will also see when you start focusing that there is never a shortage of new opportunities.

You must also remember that business opportunities are viable solutions to problems, and as you know, problems are everywhere, begging to be solved.

The second part of strategic thinking will be driven by a focus on your business and business processes, as well as on your competitors. In this focus, you’ll be looking at strengths and weaknesses. Always search for possible ways of building on your strengths and eliminating your weaknesses in relation to your competitors. You must also never forget to do the same exercise with your customers in mind. Always strive to eliminate the weaknesses of your products/services and to build on their strengths. You’ll have to do this on a continuous basis in order to provide a better solution for your customers.

If you wish to learn more about the exciting world of the successful entrepreneur go to courses.

- Compiled and written by Entrepreneurial Business School -

New ideas and initiatives are part and parcel of entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship.  As a matter of fact, a person can only be called an entrepreneur if he or she is actively involved in one or more of the following kind of activities:

v      The introduction of a new or improved product or service to the market.

v      The introduction of a new or improved production or service delivery process.

v      The identification and/or opening of a new market.

v      The introduction of new raw materials or components, or sources of supply.

v      Finding and implementing new solutions to problems.

v      Finding and implementing better solutions to problems.

New ways of doing things do not always have to be revolutionary.  The wheel and the printing press were great inventions, but so were the paperclip and the hamburger.  In fact, even a slight adjustment to an existing product or service can qualify as an innovation.  Selling insurance by mail rather than through a broker is also an example.

Doing things in new and better ways is known as innovation. According to Dr. Edward de Bono, who enjoys worldwide recognition for his work on thinking processes, the intrapreneur needs a good mix of two thinking processes, namely

v      Intuitive, creative thinking (lateral thinking). This kind of thinking is exploratory and generative and tries to find many ways of solving a problem as possible, even improbable solutions in an attempt to break the existing pattern of forced thinking.

v      Systematic, logical thinking (vertical thinking).  This kind of thinking is logical and sequential and tries to figure out the best way of solving a problem with existing knowledge.  This kind of thinking is relatively rigid as there is a strong emphasis on the practicality and correctness of each step in solving the problem.  Subjects like mathematics, engineering and bookkeeping play an important role in this kind of problem solving.

Creative thinking without logical analysis is unlikely to result in useful innovations.  For example, organising a sightseeing tour to the bottom of the ocean is a creative idea, but you will need a number of logical solutions to make it happen.

Likewise, analytical thinking without the accompanying creativity is also unlikely to result in a great new business opportunity.

In order to be successful, the manager of any business has to rely on logical thinking processes to assimilate, understand and manipulate a lot of information for example, information about consumer needs, markets, competitors, technology, legislation and the economy.  But an intrapreneur has to create something new and different from this information and therefore also has to rely on creativity and intuition.

Innovation therefore is about bringing in new ways and methods of doing things.  It is a managed process to create new products or services or new uses for existing products or services and then to make it work in practice.

Finally, the ideas generated by these skills, must be put into action through initiative and a strong driving force.  Just generating and playing with ideas is not enough.  The proof of the pudding lies in the eating.  Innovative people thus have a good mix of creative and logical thinking skills, together with the initiative and driving force to push it through in practice.

In this process creativity and logical thinking have to complement each other.

The Role of Lateral Thinking

Of all these phases, creativity is the one that seems to lack most. The reason for this is that focusing on the others (something that all responsible and hardworking people should do) tends to suppress creative thinking.  That’s why creative ideas and solutions often pop up outside the working environment.

To illustrate this statement, here is something to amuse you, but at the same time make you think:

Two men were walking in the African bush when they met a very hungry cheetah that eyed them ferociously. One of the men immediately fished out some running shoes from his knapsack and bent down to put them on. ‘Why are you doing that?’ cried his companion in despair. ‘Don’t you know that cheetahs can run at over sixty miles per hour?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ the first replied as he finished tying the laces. ‘But I only have to outrun you’.

The Role of Logical Thinking

Lateral thinking is a very important first step in innovative behaviour.  However, without logically organising and implementing your creative ideas, most of them will probably end up in the trash bin.

Barriers to Creativity & INNOVATION

A good angle to start looking for creativity is to ask: “What prevents people from being creative? What are the barriers to creativity”?

The following are examples of typical barriers or mental roadblocks to creative thinking:

1. Negative attitude

It’s a tendency to focus on the negative aspects of problems and expend energy on worry, as opposed to seeking the inherent opportunities in a situation.

2. Fear of failure

It is the fear of looking foolish or being laughed at. Yet Tom Watson, founder of IBM, said: “The way to accelerate your success is to double your failure rate.” Failure is a necessary condition for success.

3. Excessive stress

Not having time to think creatively. The over-stressed person finds it difficult to think objectively at all. Unwanted stress reduces the quality of all mental processes.

4. Overwhelmed by rules

Although rules are necessary, it tends to encourage mental laziness. A tendency to conform to accepted patterns of belief or thought – the rules and limitations of the status quo – hampers creative breakthroughs.

5. Over-reliance on logic

Investing all your intellectual capital into logical or analytical thinking – the step-by-step approach – excludes imagination, intuition, feeling or humour.

6. Not challenging assumptions

Failure to identify and examine the assumptions you are making about any situation or problem can prevent you from even trying to find a new way of doing something.  Many of these assumptions are often at an unconscious level and if not challenged deliberately, will block your willingness to be creative.

7. Lack of starting point

No problem can be solved if you don’t start somewhere.  The starting point may not be obvious, but this in itself should not become a problem.  Many people tend to proportionate a problem because they are not sure where to start.

8. Lack of perspective

What is the objective?  Being too close or having struggled too long with a problem may blur the actual problem.  One needs to move away for a while or attack it from another angle to break the “vicious” cycle and regain perspective.

9. Lack of motivation

The goal must never be out of sight.  The problem should not become the main objective.  Why is there a problem in the first place?  Why does it need solving?  What was the motivation in the first place for attacking the problem?

10. Lack of consultation

Never rely only on yourself or your own inner-brain.  Others have brains (conscious and subconscious) too – learn to use them as well!  The more people you talk to about your problem, the more creative ideas you’ll get.

11. Criticism

It destroys ideas if it is given too soon.  If an idea has not been thought over and criticism is given, the thinker may abolish it too soon. Constructive criticism will challenge the thinker and will lead it on the right path, while destructive criticism will kill it or hurt the feeling of the thinker – which may inhibit him in further innovations.  The ideal is to surround yourself with the right people whose criticism will be uplifting and inspire you to work on your ideas.

12. Believing you are not creative

The biggest barrier, however, is BELIEVING YOU ARE NOT CREATIVE! A legacy, often from poor teaching at school, this barrier really stops people in their tracks from even trying to think creatively. This is in fact a restriction or assumption we impose on ourselves. Whatever may or may not have been your self-image in the past, this is an unproven hypothesis about you as far as the future is concerned.

Just look around the room now and you will see evidence of human creativity all around you. Why not assume that creativity is present in you too? Try to concentrate on removing the barriers, dams or blocks that prevent your mental energy from producing new ideas, new ways of working at things.

THE HABITS OF CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE PEOPLE (from the book Effective innovation by John Adiar)

Basically your habits are ways of acting that become fixed through repetition. So much so, that we use the word habit to imply the doing of something unconsciously or without thinking of it in advance.

We all develop habits of thinking as well as of behaviour – some good and some not. They are our settled dispositions or tendencies to approach problems in certain ways. By frequent use they become second nature to us. Together these habits constitute what might be called your prevailing disposition or mental makeup. The following habits are some of the characteristics of the more creative or innovative thinkers. Of course not all such thinkers exemplify all habits. But you do need a critical mass of them.

1. Going Beyond The Nine Dots

People with a narrow span of relevance are thinking within the tramlines and boundaries of their own experience or field of work.  What is needed, is to go beyond imaginary boundaries.  In living out this habit, you should:

v      Redefining a problem:  To get to the right solution often demands more than one definition of the problem.  The more definitions of the real problem, the better the chance to get to the right answer.  It is very important to define the problem and not the symptoms.  If problems are diagnosed incorrectly, no solution will be the right one. (Think of the story of the hungry cheetah again!).

v      Challenging assumptions:  Do not except every assumption on face value.  Always be willing to challenge your assumptions and new working methods can flow from this or prove the old ones still to be true.

v      Widen your span of relevance:  Get interested in things outside your frame of reference by collecting information – theoretical or practical.  This will indicate the possible link between your area of operations and obvious diverse areas and often generate usable new ideas.

v      Have freedom from fixed ideas: It is best for the creative person not to follow rigid curriculum’s and set ideas.  Creative ideas are easier to come by if this is the case.  It is less so if the person is exposed to a fixed school of thought that limits the borders of his frame of reference.  Move outside your paradigms (thinking patterns)!

2. Welcome Change Intrusions

Change can be a wonderful and needed happening, forcing the receiver to find new answers to questions or problems. This can only be fully enjoyed and appreciated if the recipient is open-minded, always on the lookout, utilising unexpected events and being able to spot potential in such happenings.  The transfer of knowledge and technology from one field to another is one way to find creative solutions to old problems.  An intrusion should always be welcomed, because the subconscious mind will continue to seek the answers to problems or will always play around with ideas.

3. Communicate with your Sub-Conscious Mind.

The sub-conscious mind is the main storage place for all our thoughts, experiences and knowledge.  This part of the brain has the ability to help us deal with problems by sorting things out when our conscious mind goes into a loop.  The major step that needs to be taken is to learn to listen and to observe what the inner-brain gives us.  Only when you learn to listen to your inner-brain you will find the solutions it has to offer.  The inner brain has the ability to shuffle “puzzle pieces” and to make them fit.  It is for the observer to listen and to take notes of the reply the inner-brain gives and then to use the conscious mind to place the puzzle pieces where it belong.  The inner-brain never stops working, as it never sops absorbing facts/events/problems, etc.  On the grounds of what it has absorbed it will always try to fit the puzzle and solve the problem.  But if there is no ability to listen to the message, clue or answer, then the whole process may be for nothing.  It is vital to be alert and to always feed the inner brain with knowledge, experiences and awareness and then give your sub-conscious mind a chance to fit it all together in new creative ways.

4. Using Analogy as Stepping Stones to widen your Frame of Reference

The process of understanding any unfamiliar problem / situation is best began by relating it by way of analogy to what we know already.

v      By looking at existing ‘answers’, taking them and adapting them to become a solution or innovative idea.

v      By taking something that already exists and applying some of its attributes to solve a problem or to become an innovation in itself by looking deeper at existing things and finding other uses for it, or for some of its characteristics.

v      The reverse process of making the familiar strange is equally valuable for creative thinking.

v      Two techniques are very useful to accomplish such analogies:

• Metaphor:  Figure of speech, making use of pictures to describe something
• Analogy:  Relate to something that may have the same attributes, but differs in total.

5. Willingness to Tolerate Ambiguity

v      This is important because if more than an option / answer is available, one tends to become intolerant because too many options are often confusing.  By not being hasty when it comes to choosing the right option, but to sieve through it and make an intelligent choice means to tolerate ambiguity.  To be able to tolerate, one must be courageous and have perseverance because the wrong choice may lead to total destruction or set you back a few paces.

v      Because a problem may be seen to be unsolvable, one tends to think harder about the solution, which is likely to distract you off your path to the goal.  In such a case you may need to step back and give the problem over to the mind’s depth.  Because the answer often already exists in the mind’s depth where every experience and every bit of knowledge is stored, you only need to give your sub-conscious mind a chance to continue to try and make the connection.  This is why it’s so important to be able to listen and recognise when the answer surfaces.  It is also important to make time to relax the mind to enable it to register when the message comes through from the mind’s depth.  Always expect the ‘knock’.

6. Ideas Banking

v      Ideas banking means that you should always be alert to absorb new ideas, otherwise the inner mind will not have sufficient ‘funds’ to withdraw from.  Curiosity is the desire to learn and to become knowledgeable about something.  To be a creative thinker you have to be curious or wonder ‘what will happen next’.  Curiosity is an important key to making yourself knowledgeable and able to gather information.  Curiosity will add to the savings in your ‘idea bank account’ to withdraw from when needed.  You can enlarge your ideas bank substantially by applying the following techniques on an ongoing basis:

• Be an Active observer

When observing, one must forget what you were programmed with before and experience it without preconception.  To be objective when observing is of utmost importance, because it will allow you to experience things in a totally different way and let you have more to store in your ‘bank account’.  To be able to observe to the fullest extent, one must preferably employ all senses.  Learn not only to see the obvious, but also what is hidden. To draw or sketch an object will teach one to observe more closely and then store this detailed information.  You can enlarge your idea bank substantially and continuously by reading, travelling and listening a lot.

• Be an Active Listener

Always listen with the hope of finding something you’ve never heard before. Don’t be analytical or critical and have an open mind.  You can finish listening to someone without accepting the facts laid out but you will also learn from it if you didn’t know it already.  Listening gives you the idea of how minds work.

• Read as much as you can

Good reading material will stimulate you to think or dwell on something taken from the reading material.  Reading may enable you to generate ideas or make discoveries or solve problems by putting you into contact with things that are not possible to experience in your current life or modern living.  Reading also allows you to think for yourself without the interference of other human beings or objects.

• Travel a lot

Travelling allows you to receive a cultural shock – to experience other cultures and enable you to view your culture differently upon your return.  It also gives you a chance to gather new ideas/technologies that can be adopted to become a new innovation in your own environment – because things rarely are new innovations.

• Record your ideas

Keeping a notebook is a very useful habit.  If you don’t jot down creative ideas immediately, you will forget them most of the time as fast as they appeared. Imagine that your notebook is like a kaleidoscope.  It allows you to play around with new combinations and inter-connections of ideas.  Record entries by date and title in the order that they happen.  Let your instinct or intuitive nature decide what’s worth recording and why  (what stimulates or interests you about the entry or what makes it worth remembering.)  If you record events by date and title, you are actually filing important information in such a way that it will be much easier to recall it again.

7. Suspending Judgment

v      Suspending judgement means erecting a temporary artificial barrier between the imaginary, synthesising and analysing faculties of your mind on the one hand and the valuing, evaluating, criticising and judging skills on the other hand.  Premature criticism from others or yourself can kill the seeds of creative thinking.  Some social climates in families, working groups or organisations encourage and stimulate creative thinking, while others repress it.  The latter tend to value analysis and criticism above originality and innovative thinking.

“Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” - Anonymous

THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND AND CREATIVITY (from the book Technology of Achievements by Andrew and Faulhner)

We have mentioned earlier that a lot of our creative activity takes place in the sub-conscious mind.  Intuition and dreams are activities of the sub-conscious mind you can use with great power to solve problems in a creative manner.  By this time, you should be aware of the fact that the sub-conscious mind works best for us when we are in a relaxed state.

All the creative exercises in this section are thus built on the foundation of relaxation.  It is only in a deep state of relaxation that you will be able to activate the brilliance of the sub-conscious mind.

Stimulating the Sub-Conscious Mind

You can reach the centre of a circle from any point on the compass.  Similarly, you can reach into your sub-conscious mind from a variety of different starting points.

One starting point is hypnogogic imagery.  This technique produces autonomous inner images that can be captured just before you fall asleep.  It’s a somewhat difficult technique to master, but when mastered it often provide string images.

The images produced by hypnogogic imagery either visual or auditory – it cannot be controlled or directed.  Some people are even able to envision fantastic surreal imagery in colours that appear deeper and plusher than seemingly possible.

The painter, Salvador Dali, used this technique to conjure up the extraordinary images in his paintings.  He would put a tin plate on the floor and then sit by a chair beside it, holding a spoon over the plate.  He would then totally relax his body; sometimes he would begin to fall asleep.  The moment that he began to doze, the spoon would slip from his fingers and clang on the plate, immediately waking him to capture the surreal images.

Hypnogogic images seem to appear from nowhere, but there is logic behind it.  The unconscious is a living, moving stream of energy from which thoughts gradually rise to the conscious level and take on a definite form.  Your unconscious is like a hydrant in the yard while your consciousness is like a faucet upstairs in the house.  Once you know how to turn on the hydrant, a constant supply of images can flow freely to the faucet.

These images give rise to new thoughts as you interpret the strange conjunctions and chance combinations.

The following steps will help you to tap into your creative sub-conscious mind:

Step 1:  Think about your challenge. Consider your progress, your obstacle, your alternatives, and so on.  Then push it away and relax.

Step 2:  Totally relax your body.  Try to achieve the deepest muscle relaxation you can.

Step 3:  Quiet your mind. Do not think of what went on during the day or your challenges and problems.  Clear your mind of chatter.

Step 4:  Quiet your eyes. You cannot look for these images.  Be passive.  You need to achieve a total absence of any kind of voluntary attention. Become helpless and involuntary and directionless.  If you fall asleep easily, hold a spoon loosely in one of your hands.  You can enter the hypnogogic state this way, and, should you begin to fall asleep, you will drop the spoon and awaken in time to capture the images.

Step 5:  Record your experiences immediately after they occur. The images will be mixed and unexpected and will recede rapidly.  They could be patterns, clouds of colours, or objects.

Step 6:  Look for the associative link. Write down the first things that occur to you after your experience.  Look for links and connections to your challenge.

Ask questions such as:

v      Is there any relationship to the challenge?

v      Any new insights?

v      What’s out of place?

v      What puzzles me?

v      What disturbs me?

v      What do the images remind me of?

v      What are the similarities?

v      What analogies can I make?

v      What associations can I make?

v      What do the images resemble?

A restaurant owner once used hypnogogic imaginary to inspire new promotional ideas.  During his exercises, he kept seeing giant neon images of different foods:  neon ice cream, neon pickles, neon chips, neon coffee, and so on.  The associative link he saw between the various foods and his challenge was to somehow use the food itself as a promotion.

The idea:  He offers various free food items according to the day of the week, the time of day, and the season.  For instance, he might offer free pickles on Monday, free ice cream between 2 and 4 p.m., free coffee on Wednesday nights, free sweet rolls in the spring, and so on.  He advertises the free food items with neon signs, but you never knew what food items were being offered free until you went there.  The sheer variety of free items and the intriguing way in which they are offered have made his restaurant a popular place to eat.

Another promotion he created as a result of seeing images of different foods is a frequent-eater program.  Anyone who hosts five meals in a calendar month gets R50 worth of free meals.  The minimum bill is R20 but he says the average is R30 a head.  These two promotions have made him a success.

NB. The images you summon up with this technique have an individual structure that may indicate an underlying idea or theme.  Your sub-conscious mind is probably trying to communicate something specific to you, though it may not be immediately comprehensible.  The images can be used as handles on which to hang new relationships and associations.

Treat the images as fact, but make no assumptions about them except that you experienced them, and that somehow they must make sense.

Creativity and Dreams (from the book; Dreams – Tonights answers for tomorrows questions by Mark Thurston)

Dreams are a rich source of ideas, as they often contain combinations and rearrangements of objects, challenges, and events that would be almost impossible to come up with while awake.

Many dreams are so bewildering, so crowded with bizarre details that they seem impossible to interpret at all, but often, ideas twinkle in dreams like bicycle lights in the mist.

On November 10, 1619, during a freezing winter in Germany, a young aristocrat dreamed throughout the night.  When he awoke, he recorded his dreams in a now-famous dream diary, which detailed a new system of thought.  His dreams that night changed the course of science and Western civilisation. Still today, much of the contemporary scientific method is based on the dream journals of that young aristocrat, Rene Descartes.

Robert Louis Stevenson dreamed his novels before he wrote them.  Physicist Niels Bohr conceived of a model of the atom in a dream.  James Watt revolutionised the ammunition industry with his dreams of falling lead.  Dmitri Mendeleyev dreamed the solution for the arrangement of the elements.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge dreamed the poem “Kubla Khan” before he wrote it.

Psychologists, working on the topic of sleep, claim that we have approximately six dreams each night, but we tend to forget most of them.  You can learn to initiate a productive dream state, choose the subjects of your dreams, and remember them clearly.

The following steps will help you to solve problems or create new ideas/concepts through your dreams:

Step 1:  Formulate a question about your challenge.  Write the question several times and then, before you drift off to sleep, repeat it to yourself several more times.  If necessary, do this several evenings in a row.  The mind must work consciously on a challenge before the sub-conscious becomes employed.

Step 2:  If you don’t remember your dreams, wake up thirty minutes earlier than normal.  This increases your chance of waking during a dreaming period rather than after one.  When you awake, lie still.  Prolong quiet as long as possible as you reflect on the dream.  Do not allow daytime interests to interrupt your ruminations.  Dreams vanish like boats sailing into a fog bank; so record the dream after you’ve thought it over.

Step 3:  Record the dream in a dream journal.  Keep the journal next to your bed, and record as many details as you remember.  Sketch the vivid portions of the dream.  If you can’t remember a dream, record whatever is on your mind – these thoughts often come from the dream and provide a first clue to retrieving it.

Step 4:  After the dream is recorded, ask yourself the following questions:

v      How were the people, places, and events in the dream related to my question?

v      Who were the key players in the dream?

v      How does this relate to my question?

v      Does the dream change the nature of the question?

v      What elements in this dream can help solve my problem?

v      What associations does the dream conjure up that might help with my problem?

v      What is the answer from the dream?

Step 5:  Take one or two dream images or ideas and free-associate from them.  Write down whatever comes to mind, and do it day after day.  Soon the next dream will come along and your interpretation will go further.

Step 6:  Keep the diary current.  Record your dreams daily.  After you begin recording dreams you will remember more dreams, in greater detail.  You will begin to see patterns and themes unfolding and repeating; your dreams will become richer and richer with metaphorical meanings.

You will find that your dreams are based on a body of experiences, both past and present that have some influence on you and your challenge.

Dreams reveal things you did not know you knew.  It is reported that Elias Howe, struggling with his design for a sewing machine, dreamed how savages, carrying spears with holes in their tips, captured him.  Upon awakening, Howe realised he should put the hole for the thread at the end of the needle, not the top or middle.  This minor modification made the sewing machine a reality.