The Discipline of Creativity

By Dr. Peter Chee & Brian Tracy

This is the 7th chapter of ITD World's 12-part newsletter series: 12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence.

Creative thinking is critical to business success - one new idea/ insight can be enough to change the direction of an entire company. The profitability, income, and future prospects for your company depend on your creative contribution. Fortunately, this is a skill that can be learned with practice and repetition.

Defining Creativity

The best single definition of creativity is "improvement". Every single idea that improves the way we live and work is an act of creativity. The more you look for ways to improve your work, the more creative you become.

Everyone has the ability to improve what is going on. Success in business is directly proportionate to the number of new ideas that you come up with on a daily/ weekly basis. Someone who comes up with a continuous stream of good ideas - even average ones - is destined for great success. Those who do not are usually stuck where they are.

The Root Source of Creativity

Creativity is a natural, spontaneous characteristic of positive individuals with high self-esteem. Companies that create positive corporate environments receive a steady flow of ideas from their staff.

There are 3 factors that influence the number of creative ideas a person generates:

• Past experiences. If you've been environments where ideas have been encouraged, you'll probably have a positive attitude and aptitude for coming up with new ideas.
• Current situation. Do you find a lot of encouragement for new ideas in your present circumstances? Do people laugh and get involved, or do they ridicule and criticize?
• Self-image. Do you consider yourself to be a creative person? According to Howard Gardner's research at Harvard University, each person is a potential genius in at least one area. Therefore, the starting point of unlocking creativity is to think of yourself as a highly creative person.

Move out of your Comfort Zone

A major barrier to creativity is the "comfort zone". People naturally tend to resist new ideas. Does your company encourage people to take risks and suggest new ways of doing things? Do you as a manager?

Everybody is inherently creative. The only difference is that some people use a lot of their creativity, while some use very little - because they don't believe they could be of any value. Your job is to accept that you really are a genius - and that ideas come to you naturally and in abundance.

3 Triggers to Creativity

Normal creativity is stimulated by 3 factors:

• Intensely desired goals. Intense emotion is a stimulant to creativity. The more you want something, the more likely you are to find creative ways to accomplish it.
• Pressing problems. If a problem is stopping you from achieving something important, you'll be amazed at how creative you become in your ability to remove it.
• Focused questions. The more precise and focused questions you ask yourself and others, the more likely you are to generate workable answers.

Testing your assumptions can be a more specific way of asking questions. Whenever you are facing a problem, ask yourself "What are my assumptions in this situation?".

Problem Solving Made Simple

Below are the 6 steps to effective problem solving:

• Define the problem clearly - in writing.
• Read, research, and gather information.
• Look for answers from informed people, experts, and the Internet.
• Try consciously to solve the problem. If you don't get an answer, let it go, and turn the problem to your subconscious mind.
• Review the problem just before sleeping, and ask your subconscious for a solution. You may wake up in the middle of the night with the answer, the "eureka factor".
• Write it down - otherwise, you may easily forget it.

The Mindstorming Method

Often called the "20 idea method", mind storming has become one of the most powerful ways to solve problems. It provides a way of using focused questions for concentrating the power of your mind.

Take a clean sheet of paper. Write down your most pressing problem/ goal at the top of the page. For example, if your goal is to increase sales from $250,000 to $350,000 in the next 12 months, you would write "What can we do to increase our sales to $350,000 in the next 12 months?".

You then begin writing answers. Keep writing until you get to 20 or more answers. You can do this on your own or with a group of people.

The first 5 answers will be fairly easy. The next 5 will be more difficult, and the last 10 will be really challenging. As a general rule, the 20th answer will be the breakthrough idea that changes everything.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a powerful technique for developing synergy in an organization. The ideal number for a brainstorming session is 4-7 people, and the session's length should be 15-45 minutes long.

The process of brainstorming is simple:

• Define the question/ problem clearly - so that everyone knows and agrees.
• Write down the idea - so that everyone can see it.
• Strive for the highest number of ideas - without evaluation. Don't stop to judge or question them; just try for as many solutions as possible in the time allocated.
• Accept every idea without comment, except to say something like "That's a good idea!" to encourage more ideas and make people laugh.
• Appoint a recorder to write down every idea - no matter how wild it may sound.
• As a leader, let everybody contribute, while you remain as the facilitator. The less you speak, the better.
• If you are also the recorder, silently add your ideas to the list.

Lateral Thinking Methods

Pioneered by Edward de Bono, lateral thinking forces the mind out of conventional ways of thinking. It is a way of breaking the tendency to keep doing things the same way.

You can reverse keywords/ phrases. For example, instead of saying "Sales are down", say "Purchases are down". It's not that we are not selling enough - instead, our customers are not buying enough. This twist changes the whole focus of the discussion.

Random association requires that you select words and force them into a particular situation. Take a word such as orange and then describe your business/ product/ problem as that word. "Our business is like an orange because ..."

Identify the dominant idea. If the dominant idea is that "we have a problem here", maybe it should be that "we have a real profit opportunity". Rather than saying "We need to sell more", say "Our customers need to buy more". Maybe a loss that you're suffering will enable you to make a profit by doing/ changing something else.

Look at the other person's viewpoint and try to describe the situation through that person's eyes.

Finally, fantasize. Imagine that you had a magic wand you could wave to remove all obstacles to your objectives. If that were to happen, what would your situation look like?

Evaluating Your Ideas

80% of new products fail after research and testing, and 99% of ideas are impractical. Therefore, before falling in love with your ideas, subject them to rigorous evaluation. Is your idea effective? Will it make a meaningful difference? Is it compatible with human nature, with the way people like to shop? If it is not, maybe you should pass it on to someone else.

Is the timing right? Sometimes, an idea is too soon or too late. A great idea for a luxury product is likely to have trouble catching on in the middle of a recession. Likewise, a discount item may flop in a boom time.

Is it feasible? What other opportunities are available that will require the same amount of time and money to develop and test?

Finally, is it simple? Almost all great innovations can be explained in 25 words or less. The customer can hear a description of the innovation and say "Yes, that's good. That's what I want. I'll take it. That's what I need."

Now it's time for some Action Exercises

1. Write down your 3 most important business goals right now.
2. Write down your 3 biggest business problems, challenges, or obstacles to greater sales and profitability right now.
3. Practice mind storming on one of your problems by defining it as a question, and then generating 20 answers.
4. Assemble a group of 4-7 people in your business to brainstorm on one of your problems/ goals for 15-45 minutes.
5. Complete the sentence "We could double our sales (profitability) over the next 12 months if we ..." - with as many answers as possible.
6. Identify your limiting factor to greater business success. What one factor sets the speed at which you achieve your most important business goal, and how could you remove it?
7. Identify your assumptions about yourself, your business/ products/ services/ markets, and then ask, "What if these assumptions were not true?". What would you do then?

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Stay tuned to our upcoming newsletter to delve deeper into the 7th discipline: Courage.

Wish to scale up your Leadership skills for Sustainable Growth? Get for yourself a paperback handbook now - written by Dr. Peter Chee & Brian Tracy.

More opportunities for Leadership Excellence

At ITD World, we believe that leadership is a competency that can be learned and mastered. We also believe that leadership is influence and through the behaviors and habits developed in our training programs, you may have a better chance of increasing your influence and leadership effectiveness.

This September, we are hosting a special once-in-a-year event - Global Leadership e-Summit (GLS). At this conference, leaders from all over the world are gathered together to network and share insightful experiences in leadership during crises.

In collaboration with ITD World, 5 MEGA GURUs will be there to host the event and help attendees scale up their leadership skills.

Learn more about the Global Leadership e-Summit (GLS) 2020 here: https://itdworld.com/global-leadership-esummit-2020/

For more tips on leadership and management during crises, explore our in-house leadership & HR solutions - provided by the TOP GURUs in the world.

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