|
Cultivate Your Creativity
By Marsha Lindquist
Often we look to others to inspire us to be creative. It’s as if we expect other people to do the hard work for us. Isn’t it similar to the idea that some of us think that other people should motivate us? In reality, the creativity first must come from within you. And there are positive benefits that you can derive from cultivating your own creativity. These benefits not only enhance your work life, but they also affect your personal life and your volunteer life (if you do that). In fact, some of you may not feel very inventive at work, but I’d bet you can be most creative either at home or in a volunteer setting. Take your inspired successes and translate them to the many parts of your life.
So how are you going to cultivate your own creativity? First you have to take your attitude about creativity on a hike. Think about what imagination means to you. Does it mean having fun? It’s not about the beer blast on Fridays but rather having a joy-filled and rewarding experience doing what you love doing. If you don’t love what you are doing and it doesn’t please you, stop doing it or at least begin to seek out what does give you enjoyment. Take a look at your environment. See if it’s set up to encourage inspiration not only for the people you work with but for you as well. An inspiring work environment is free of autocratic supervisors and sterile office surroundings. While you are on this imaginative attitude hike, what do you see? Do you see a place where each and every person can fully utilize their talents for success or do you have a predisposed idea that only certain people should be expected to deliver the bright ideas for the organization?
If you are the leader, you have a special role to set the tone. Sometimes the pressure is on you to deliver it all and inspire everyone. You do set the stage, certainly. But you don’t own it all. Here are six things you can do to ready the scene for inventiveness.
- Accentuate the positive. Your mother always knew best. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Be sure to look for positive signs that inspiration is happening. Mostly, get out your magnifying glass and highlight the good stuff.
- Praise & encouragement. Reinforce all ideas no matter if they are dumb, smart, big, little, good or bad. Your job is not to be the value judgment appraiser. It is to be the cheerleader.
- Stimulate & eliminate. Allow people to break rules. Yes, I said that. It’s because when people are allowed or encouraged to break rules, their creativity is stimulated. They can imagine beyond just the fences you have built and your organization reaps the rewards. Eliminate the roadblocks and make it easier for the people you work with to be creative. Did you ever notice that when there are no barriers, some people run wild? It’s because nothing is holding their physical and mental processes back.
- Craft environment. Creativity doesn’t happen by chance. You have to set up an atmosphere that is conducive to innovation. You may need to change the physical surroundings or simply change one ingredient in the way you conduct business. Some groups have taken to setting up a “play” area where there are tools available to let ideas fly.
- Provide release valves. Create experiences far removed from the usual. People need to let off steam sometimes to allow the fresh air in for new ideas. If your usual meeting space is the conference room, consider having your next brainstorming session in a bowling alley. Giving your team the physical releases can have a profound impact on how and what they come up with.
- Unlikely contributors. Invite outsiders and those with varied expertise to your next idea fest. People who are not part of your normal inner circle will see things differently than you and the group does on an everyday basis. They will bring freshness to your thinking. With their different way of thinking, you need to encourage your own people to let their ideas fly as freely as the people who are visitors.
So what do you do if you are not the leader but a member of the team? You too have a part in encouraging ingenuity. Five bits and pieces you can do to foster originality.
- Diverse ideas. Bring in “foreigners” & cross pollinate. Don’t wait until your boss brings in a consultant. Tell your group you want to bring in some people from a different department to suggest some “starter” thoughts. The new enthusiast is likely to see things from a different angle. Diverse ideas can be just the thing to get everyone else jumping in with new stuff. Hang out with other people whom you think or see are creative. Open yourself up to the ideas and different way of thinking to get your juices going.
- Combine childhood & adulthood. Consider all sources of inspiration – silly & sublime. Often, we judge the ideas that people come up with as being ridiculous. Put your child hat on and go to the playground for your next staff session and watch the ideas flow. Honor your play quotient and I’d bet you’ll have some new ways to tackle the problems that have been keeping your group stumped for months.
- Order from your subconscious catalogue. Ultimate mind games prepare you for success or failure if you let them. Only you have the ability to set your subconscious mind up for the good stuff. Read anything on sports success and you’ll know that 90% of the winning is in the subconscious. Tap into the ridiculous that you have buried deep down.
- Fire your leader. Now, I’m not talking about actually firing that person. But don’t expect your boss to carry all of the responsibility to bring creativity into your group. If you believe you are a born leader, bring it out. Hiding the creative leadership you have isn’t making your environment a better place to spend 8 hours a day.
- Have spaces and tools to scribble. You can’t get creative with white pads and pens or keyboards and screens. Use cocktail napkins to prepare presentations. Did you ever notice how many times you grab a cocktail napkin in a bar to jot notes down? Consider playing jazz (at a low volume) the next time you have a planning meeting. Jazz is very formless and listening to it helps your mind go down very unstructured avenues. Make a sand box and go play in it or build something. I’ll bet you come up with some new dreams you thought were buried.
Creativity starts with you. As a leader you don’t promote ingenious thinking, the environment you foster will be bland. I challenge you to take some of the suggestions above and apply them to you first.
About the Author
Marsha Lindquist, a business strategist for over 15 years, draws on her proven “down in the trenches” experience, creativity, and participative manner to provide real solutions to businesses to assist them in building and growing their businesses. She is an energetic presenter and is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Management Link, Inc. As well as being the author of “Why Are You Still Working Your A** Off?”, she has written and published several professional journal articles on business strategy and negotiations. She can be reached by E-mail at marsha@marshalindquist.com
|
