In the fast changing environment of the modern world, creativity is a key trait in order to adapt and stay ahead of the game with innovative solutions that might concern your business, workplace or personal productivity.
Here are five practical steps that you can do to enhance your creativity:
1. Get into a positive mood
Get your creative juices flowing by doing something you thoroughly enjoy…listening to music, going outside for a walk, taking a long bath, tasting a delicious meal or just daydreaming. Avoid doing anything that requires tough mental concentration. Gardening, playing ball games with the kids, watching a funny show or hugging the dog ….whatever does the trick for you. At all times, do have a little note pad handy. When ideas come flowing in, often at unexpected moments, make sure you can jot them down somewhere before they are forgotten again.
2. Get outside opinions
Gain perspective. Talk with your spouse, friends or work colleagues about the issue you are thinking about. Seek out moments during which you can relax and have a chat, during lunch or over a glass of wine, and exchange ideas without forcing anything. Or call an old friend and ask him about his opinion; of course you can do this with a number of people in different occasions, to look at the matter at hand from different angles; then zoom in on those ideas that seem to hold the most promise. Beware of people who are judgmental, mentally rigid or that will destroy your creative endeavor from start by focusing on “nope, can´t be done”.
3. Mindmapping
Mindmapping is a technique using mental association, starting out with writing down a key concept and then branching out by noting down related (sub) concepts, in the form of a tree diagram. To get started quickly, this can be done on a simple sheet of paper. You can always come back to a mindmap and continue developing it, on paper or using different software solutions that come with all the bells and whistles for advanced editing, linking and rearranging concepts, as well as presenting them in an intuitive manner. The advantage of this approach is that you can mature your ideas over a longer period of time, involve others as you go, and fine-tune the details as the solution crystallizes. It is an excellent technique to „connect the dots“ when dealing with complex problems. Have a look at the video below for more information about the benefits of mindmapping.
Tony Buzan: How To Use A Mind Map
4. Meditation
Meditation will help you to quieten your mental chatter, or the “monkey mind”, and focus on the issue at hand – or should we rather say, letting go of it for a little while – in a relaxed state. If you are not familiar with meditation techniques, a quick online search will lead you to guided meditation videos specifically designed for boosting creativity. But even entering a calm meditative state without any outside guiding will help you. If you´re not into meditation, you can simply think about a situation you would like to resolve in a moment of tranquility, posing the question but leaving open the answer, and then detach for a while. Simply don´t think about possible options anymore, delegate the creative process to your subconscious mind and dedicate yourself to other things, ideally pleasurable or playful activities. Eventually, you´re likely to experience an Eureka moment with a new idea that you could not have come up with initially.
5. Brainstorming in a group
Many complex problems are not solved individually but through teamwork and synergy. Correspondingly, boosting the creativity of the entire team will be much more effective than having just one creative element among a majority of people who continue to stick to their established routines and mindsets; for example when managing multi-faceted projects with a high degree of interdependence. A simple way is to do group brainstorming using cards to write down each idea and in a second step, structure the ideas according to pertinence, relevance, and usability. As with any creative process, it is important to clearly separate the steps. A group moderator can facilitate the process by carefully preparing items to brainstorm on, using open questions that pave the way for creative flow. An additional possibility would be, in a second step, to transfer the group´s results into a mindmap that reflects the collective thinking process.
Becoming more creative is really not that hard and should always come with a healthy dose of playfulness and lightheartedness. Just avoid getting stuck, staring at your computer screen, work document or white sheet of paper all the time without being able to come up with anything.
You may also like:
A much overlooked marketing principle: Establish a new category
Paradigm shift: From destination management to destination leadership
Three paradigms of leadership
Innovative destination videos that will inspire you
The extraordinary Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia