Indulge in creativity

12 hacks to unlock your creative potential

By Beatrice Bourdel-Grant

For those who have followed our journey in enhancing creativity in the consumer health industry, you may recall that we invited our wonderful partners to share their creative hacks to assist us and our community in further advancing our creative ambitions. Collaborating with the exceptionally talented Brazilian illustrator, Bárbara Malagoli , we brought each tip to life visually and shared them individually, one month at a time, across our social channels. The feedback was immensely appreciated, prompting us to compile the content into this comprehensive source of inspiration on the day dedicated to celebrating creativity and innovation.

These ideas fall broadly into four themes.

Search for an alternative perspective

1 - Step out of it:

Immerse yourself in the creative challenge and relevant stimulus and then go and do something completely different. This is a common solution when you hit a creative block but do this even before you hit a block.? It may sound counter-productive, but this can force you to use different parts of your brain. Doing so can spark connections and unique outcomes when you return to the challenge.

2 - Stay Curious:

Ask questions and lots of them! Before beginning any creative tasks ensure you take the time to interrogate the problem and write down all your questions. Even when you think you’re out of questions force yourself to ask more. Unleash your inner child and ask why, why, why? This will help you get to the root of it and unlock some inspiration along the way.

3 - Through another’s eyes:

Your ideas are great, but what about someone else's? How would a child respond to the problem in front of you? How about Steve Jobs? How about Batman? Thinking like someone else can help remove inhibitions and open up new avenues for thinking creatively. Bonus points awarded if you delve into the dressing up box!

Find the right creative state

4 - Step away from the screen:

Use pen and paper to brainstorm. Not only it is quicker - for most people, writing on a keyboard is 50% slower than by hand - but you’ll have greater freedom to (literally) draw connections between ideas. According to the research, you’ll also retain ideas better.

5 - Stand up!

It’s been proven that standing on your feet boosts productivity, whatever your task may be. The increased oxygen flow from standing up helps your brain to work faster, allowing the creative juices to flow.

6 - Get trendy:

Inspiration is everywhere. Look at what’s going on in the industry. Use Google tools (Trends, Analytics and auto-filled search results) to spark ideas. And more generally, immerse yourself in other cultural stimulus, whether that’s a great book or checking out the latest gallery opening. You never know where inspiration might strike.

Re-framing the problem or solution

7 - Go to extremes:

Boil the problem down to the simplest point/sentence you can, then do the same with your ideas. Having done so, blow it up into the biggest, most extravagant idea you can. The contrast between the most simple and biggest, most ridiculous ideas can help you explore rich territories.

8 - Do your worst:

What are the worst possible ideas you can come up with? It may sound counterproductive but write these down, pick the worst and see if you can flip it into a great idea. This simple method for unlocking right brain thinking can help you to overcome inhibitions and work around creative blocks.

9 - Weakness as a strength:

Think like your adversary and scrutinise your product/service for any and all flaws. Use these flaws as inspiration. The right weakness leveraged correctly can easily become a strength and the start of a great creative idea.

10 - Break the rules:

Look at what others are doing and then do the opposite. Rip up the rule book and see where it leads. Even if the idea wouldn't be viable in the real world it will lead you somewhere interesting.

Shaping and Selling an idea

?11 - Read all about it:

Put your idea to the test in the real world by writing a newspaper headline or press release. It forces you to make the idea as clear as possible and reading it back can help you identify possible questions and holes in the proposition.

12 - Yes we can:

Test your ideas using IDEO’s ‘How Might We’ framework. It removes one of the biggest obstacles to creative thinking (a ‘we can’t do it because of this’ mentality) and helps frame the problem in a positive light. ‘How’ assumes there’s always a solution, ‘might’ says that the ideas could work, and ‘we’ makes it a team effort, relying on different players to improve the idea in front of them.

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