Because Imagineering is Powerful

For Disney, Imagineering is composed of "Imagineers", who are illustrators, architects, engineers, lighting designers, show writers and graphic designers. They are world renowned for their incomparable creativity. Creativity is a very human skill; everyone can be creative.??

Creativity is often defined as the ability to come up with new and useful ideas. It can also be combinational creativity, the process of combining old ideas to come up with something new.??

Where do creative ideas come from?? While much has been written on the topic of creativity, over the past few years, data science in business, my roots, has taken front and center.? We’ve been strong proponents of solid data literacy across the organization. Even so, it’s important to remember the value of creative ideas in business. From the products, solutions, and services your company offers, to your go-to-market strategy, to brand and demand generation, creative concepts and ideas play a critical role in achieving your business results.??

There are many personal and business benefits of creativity.??

For example, in 2014, Adobe commissioned Forrester Consulting to investigate how creativity impacts business outcomes.? The study found that companies that embrace creativity, outperform peers and competitors on key business performance indicators, including revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition. They enjoy a high-performance working environment, driven by progressive leaders and managers who provide processes, methods, and funding to back creative initiatives. The study also found that at that time, 61% of companies didn’t see their companies as being creative.??

As a staunch advocate of data-derived insights and an active member of what Theresa Kushner calls the data-vangelist movement, I feel it’s imperative that creativity remains on the business agenda. I don’t mean by only adding people with creative talent, such as graphic designers and copywriters.? That’s good too.??

I mean creativity in a larger sense, as having a workforce and partners who have the ability to imagine. Imagination is a central ingredient for innovation, whether that’s innovation to create a new product or to design a new process. Encouraging creativity throughout your organization will help you and your teams avoid falling into the trap of cognitive fixedness.??

How to Boost Your Creativity

All children are creative and imaginative. As children we have no trouble imagining and building castles out of sand on the beach or making up stories around the campfire.? Then we grow up. And for many people, their creativity becomes stifled. Some organizations are beginning to employ design thinking, a solutions-based process to spark more creativity and innovation. The ideation stage in design thinking is a lot like brainstorming. Companies employ brainstorming as a technique to try and unleash creativity.? It can be hard to be creative on demand if you don’t regularly practice it.??

The idea that we can practice creativity suggests that creativity is a skill. In her book, The Creativity Challenge: How We Can Recapture American Innovation, author KH Kim, suggests everyone can be creative with the right attitude and practice.??

What can your organization and you do to build the skills and improve creative ideation??

The first step is to give yourself permission to imagine and create. You have to allow yourself to be creative.? For many of us, this means we will need to step outside our comfort zone.??

Our companies can help by providing an environment where it is safe to take risks, to experiment. It needs to be acceptable to fail.? Failure is an opportunity to improve. Apple’s original personal digital assistant, Newton, failed in the market.? Apple learned a lot and those learning’s gave birth to subsequent and highly successful products, iPhone and iPad.??

The second step entails deliberation. Practice suggests that time is intentionally set aside to repeatedly, or regularly, perform in order to improve or maintain proficiency. People who have participated in sports, theater, or music practice regularly and practice before they show up on the field or stage to perform.? Companies need to set aside time for people to practice creativity and imagination.? Here are three ways organizations can help their teams exercise creativity muscles.??

1. Consider bringing in writers, musicians, poets, and artists for creativity practice sessions. Use these sessions as an opportunity for individual, functional and cross functional team creativity.???
2. Conduct What If? exercises, using real-world scenarios or historical events.??
3. Hold scenario analysis working sessions.?

Being comfortable working together in practice sessions helps to create and maintain a collaborative environment.?

As individuals, we benefit from?developing our creativity skills.? Specifically, creativity improves your mood, self-esteem, cognitive function, social life; alleviates stress and anxiety and makes you a more valued professional.??

To reap these six benefits, put time to practice on your personal calendar. Here are three things any of us can do to facilitate creativity.??

1. Most of us are creatures of habit.?? While they can make us more effective and efficient. Breaking our routines can help see new things or have new experiences that can spark new ideas.???
2. We are often very focused on purpose and completing tasks. Explore how you can integrate play into your life.? Play is active effort without purpose.??
3. Try something new.???

Imagination and creativity are pathways to innovation. Harnessing the power of creativity takes dedication and practice. If your organization would like to outperform peers and competitors on key business performance indicators, including revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition, then it’s imperative to harness the power of creative ideation.??