Creativity & me - 7 ways to hone your Creative Confidence

I am convinced that everybody cannot be creative, though there are bodies of research that say otherwise (Everyone can be creative – TED talk by Shane Curry). People would call me creative person – and I would feel slightly happy about it – well only slightly. They would tell me – Ramya, you are creative because you draw so beautifully, you keep your room so colorful and decorated, you can make such lovely pieces of craft, etc., Well you can call these things as creative, and they are not far off the mark. But creativity is more than making beautiful things and making things beautiful. Creativity as dictionary defines it is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.

Imagine an amazing aluminum body smart phone, with full front glass display, weighs remarkably lesser than other phones, has appealing colors, well placed camera, and so much more packaged in a sleek and professional cardboard box. One might be tempted to call it a well-designed phone. If the phone last just four hours on a single charge, isn’t compatible with most popular operating systems, the app store access is real bad, and screen responsiveness is so slow. Would you keep this phone? I guess not. You want every single feature of the phone to be better or in par with your expectation. The design team, the engineering team, the application team, the software team, the circuitry team, and every possible team in that manufacturing facility has to put their creativity hat on to make the phone a likable one, leave alone a lovable one.

If there is a small way in which I can edit that definition I would say – creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something useful and of value. I have tried this experiment with a lot of folks and all I get in return is a no way, I don’t think so, you are just saying that to make me happy sort of responses. What do I tell these people – I tell them “You are a very creative person, I love the way you presented that piece of information…” or “I loved the way you solved that conflict with him, I think you are very creative…”

Well in most of these situations people are creative. They found a new and different way to tackle the situation. They solved a problem or conflict. They came up with a new way of doing things like it hasn't been thought or done before. They are creative without realizing it. That is why I really like to start any topic on creativity by talking about creative confidence (How to build your creative confidence? – TED talk by David Kelly). One may define creative confidence as - Having the freedom and courage to fail or take creative risks and the knowledge that all of the ideas you create have value. That of course will take practice and time.

Below are 7 tricks I have learnt to keep my creative confidence high…

#1 Observing and Reading diverse topics: The most fascinating thing happens when you have many topics of interest. If you haven’t already heard of the concept of connecting the dots by Steve Jobs he talks about how things seem to come together in retrospect. So learning diverse topics helps you do the same. You suddenly start seeing connections between what is happening in diverse fields and can come up with some really interesting ideas.

#2 Looking at feedback as ideas: It might sound so hard to begin with. Criticism is usually hard to take, especially when we have put in a lot of hard work into creating something. If you start visualizing a feedback into an idea suddenly you will see there are areas for improvement. “Your presentation is very wordy.” Well it is also be converted into an idea “Your presentation can be made more visual, your delivery will look powerful with less words and more talk points…” and you can do that by thinking – they said it is wordy, why did they think so, how else can it be, what-if I can do it this way, and suddenly there will be an idea flow – from being stuck we get unstuck. So removing love and attachment for the work, adding a bit of objectivity, and seeing it like they saw it, helps you have ideas that are likable instead of just having ideas you like.

#3 Creating mindmaps: It sort of puts in everything that is needed into a canvas right in front of your eyes. I have tried to draw mind-map of problems, ideas, processes, goals, and anything for that matter can be mind-mapped. If you want to especially tackle a problem I would put the problem statement right in the center – say I am thinking about improving student’s creativity – I would right How might we improve my students creativity? Around it I will first draw six bubbles – Why, When, What, When, Where and How? (5 W and 1 H) and then from there I list the answers. It is easy to explain your thoughts and ideas to others, and also helps you see what is missing. Make mindmaps on whiteboards and take photos of it, or use a digital mindmapping tool. Always try to do it as a group as that makes it even more powerful.

#4 Talking to people of every kind: One thing I have learnt is we all talk to people and feel good when they echo what we are thinking – in a way validating our own thoughts. Have you imagined talking to people who don’t support your point of view or absolutely have no idea on what you are talking about? It opens up so much dialogue, even when it is conflicting at times. Try it especially for new product or service ideas. Don’t just talk to customer, talk to non-customers too.

#5 Stimulating your brain or calming it: Both an overloaded and bored brain doesn’t forge creativity. Sometimes we are so much stuck in a routine that breaking out of it helps. Sometimes we are in information overload that just weaning off it and relaxing helps. Looking at a Pinterest page, Instagram feed, old photographs, even simply Google image searching a topic really helps. Else shutting down, going for a run, doing an hour of yoga, sitting in a beach or meditating helps. You are simply letting your mind wander and make its own connections. No wonder Eureka (a-ha!) moment happened in a bath tub.

#6 Dreaming big: Imagine running an entire fleet of Boeing flights, managing the global warehouse system for Amazon or Walmart, being head of operations of say Four Seasons hotel chain, being in charge of children’s experience at Boston Children’s hospital. Dreaming and imagining big things helps your mind think of the different possibilities. It will let you explore the different facets of running a business. Give you a big picture view of things. Then zoom in and out to smallest details, like how do they maintain a clean and hygienic visitor’s washroom in the neonatal care wing. You will see how your mind switches between left brain and right brain thinking and gives you a great stimuli to handle complex problems and come up with creative solutions.

#7 Creating hobby projects: It is so much fun to learn new things. Curiosity to explore, study and master a new subject gives you more than a sense of accomplishment. Imagine you took up gardening as a hobby, can you make it a serious hobby which you dedicate an hour a day, study about soil, seeds, climate, flowering patterns, the pollination ecosystem, and so on. Suddenly you would notice that learning related topics helps you not just master a subject, but also create and combine new things. I used to game a lot, then I started learning about mobile app development, gamification, which I would later use as part of my job to device motivation models. So you can find your inspiration anywhere. Just take a hobby. See how Itay Talgam speaks about leadership lessons from his experience as a music conductor – Lead like the great conductor. Your inspiration can be from gardening, fencing, golfing, playing a guitar, surfing or travelling.

I am going to contradict myself – I think anyone can be creative, it is just that they need to understand what creativity means, and device some ways to hone their skills as a creative person. Do you think you are creative? What ways have worked for you?