Cultivating Creativity

For the third time in a week I heard my friend grumble, “If only I were as creative as you, I could take my business to the next level.” I finally sat her down, looked her in the eye, and shared a savory secret. 

Creativity is not an intractable part of your DNA; it is an asset that can be carefully cultivated. Having quieted her complaints and piqued her curiosity, I proceeded to explain the keys to unlocking creativity.

First, you must stimulate your brain domain. In case you need a quick refresher, the left domain is devoted to logic, experience, knowledge, and skills. The right, conversely, is relegated to intuition, imagination, and emotion. One side is your dominant domain; like comfort food after a bad breakup, it is your instinctive go-to.

To unleash your creativity, try inciting your recessive domain. Left brainers, that means prior to making a decision or generating alternatives, expose yourself to stimulating colors, listen to mood-boosting music, or think like a child-free of inhibition, consequences, and condemnation. Right brainers, research stats, consider workflows, and review prior successes and failures.  

Regardless of your domain, open your mind to new possibilities and unencumbered options by trying something new. Rearrange your desk, reroute your trip to work, meet clients in a novel spot, wear your watch on the opposite wrist, or listen to music outside your usual purview. However you choose to stoke your creative embers, be disorganized when generating your ideas and organized in developing them into workable solutions. Whether brainstorming independently or as a group, refrain from judgement during your formulation stage; capture every idea, knowing you will analyze it with due diligence later.

Sparking your creativity takes some practice.

To unleash your imagination, try these techniques:

• Improve rather than invent: There’s often no need to start from scratch. Some of our most notable inventions were upgrades to existing products or services. Case in point, one of warm weather’s wildly popular accouterments. Nothing says summer like a crisp white pair of Keds. True, they are the perfect match to most any light-weight outfit, but now the old classic is also available in a variety of solids and even fun, flirty patterns.
• Leverage synergy: Combine two existing things to create something exponentially better. Take pocket-sized computers and wrist watches; their ingenious union gave us the Apple Watch. Or consider vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. Individually they are quite tasty, but perfectly blended into chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, they are, inarguably, one of our finest culinary delights.
• Go wild: One great brainstorming technique for individuals and teams alike is called Wild Ideas. When presented with an issue, each person states five ideas to resolve it. Ideas should be doable, but need not be practical or even permissible. Select the wildest idea from the pool and develop it further. Allow this crazy idea to springboard you to more feasible solutions. For instance, say you’ve challenged your team to propose an incentive for increasing sales, and one member advocates sending top sellers and their families to Disney Land for a two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation. While not realistic as-is, the idea spurs a peer to suggest sending the employees and their families to a local showing of Disney on Ice with dinner to follow. Now you have both a desirable and doable reward.
• Change your perspective: If you are trying to better serve customers, assume THEIR point of view. What do they value most? Low prices? Extended hours? Personal service? During the COVID19 quarantine, what would it take to make your customers feel safe? If they are fearful of your waiting room, your collection of communal magazines, and your dirty door knobs, perhaps you institute a new process that bypasses the waiting area by texting customers when you are ready to see them in your office. To alleviate fears of germy door handles, place sanitizer by each door. When you return to some semblance of normalcy, reassess. Do customers value the safety of waiting in their cars or do they prefer to interact with your receptionist who brightens their day with her warm smile and answers their coverage questions with clarity and confidence. How could you give your customers both? Regardless of your solution, view it through the lens of your customers.  

Cultivating your creativity opens endless possibilities for generating new ideas, improving upon existing ideas, and catapulting your business to greater success. 

Sending you tons of good vibes energy.

Be well.

Sophia

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