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Tip 15 - How to unleash your creative nature

Searching for success often means a continuing need for innovation. How do you get those new ideas? What do you do when you are stuck for an idea? Could it be time to explore your creative side even more. As Linus Pauling said “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” And bearing in mind the quote from Marshall Cook,  “Creative people must entertain lots of silly ideas in order to receive the occasional strokes of genius”, here are sixteen ways to find new ideas:

Don't miss the obvious. What are you overlook­ing? What's the most obvious thing you can do? "Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat's ear," says designer Scott Love, "but only the wisest of cats would think to look there." What resources and solutions are right in front of you?

Some of the great ideas of modern times come from nature. Nature has had millions of years to come up with wise solutions to problems, so let nature be your guide. The sticky hooked spine of the common burr inspired the man who invented Velcro fastener. The ‘spinning wing’ feature of the maple seed served as a model for more efficient windmills and helicopters. Bell created the telephone by imitating the ear. Ima­gine that you are an animal (beaver), a plant (dandelion), or perhaps an insect (bee). How would you go about solving your problem?

The more often you do something in the same way, the more difficult it is to think about doing it in any other way. Break out of this ‘prison of familiarity’ by disrupting your habitual thought patterns. Write a love poem in the middle of the night. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Wear red socks. Visit a junk yard. Work the weekend. Take the slow way home. Sleep on the other side of the bed. Such jolts to your routines will lead to new ideas. How can you change the way you think?

Ask the ‘Why’ question. When Leonardo da Vinci was asked where his inspiration came from, he said "I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not under­stand. Why shells exist on the tops of mountains along with imprints of plants usually found in the sea. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it. How circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone. And how a bird suspends itself in the air. Questions like these engaged my thought throughout my life." What are you curious about? What probing questions can you ask?

Look where you haven’t looked before. Even when you feel like you have tried everything, go and look for the areas you don’t know even exist. Each culture has its own way of looking at the world. Often the best ideas come from cutting across disciplinary boundaries and looking into other fields. As Robert Wieder put it "Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport." For example, did you know that World War I military designers bor­rowed from the Cubist art of Picasso to create more efficient camouflage patterns for tanks. In what outside areas can you look for ideas?

Be alert at all times. Finding new ideas is like prospecting for gold. If you look in the same old places, you'll find tapped out veins. But if you venture off the beaten path, you'll improve your chances of discovering new idea lodes. Remember: you can't see the good ideas behind you by looking twice as hard at what's in front of you. Where else can you look for ideas?

There may be an obvious idea or a solution to a problem. Having one idea can be dangerous, the creative equivalent of putting all your eggs in one basket. Two ideas can create a dilemma, so which would be best? Three or more ideas give you options. Emile Chartier said "Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have." Don't stop with the first right answer you find. Dig deeper and look for others. How do you keep a fish from smelling? Cook it as soon as you catch it. Keep a cat around. Burn incense. Cut its nose off. What good ideas are below the surface? What are the second, third and fourth right answers?

Change your viewpoint. Long ago, a curious plague struck a village. When afflicted, its victims went into a deathlike coma, and most died within a day. The problem was that the villagers couldn't tell if a victim was dead or alive. After discovering that someone had been buried alive, an alarmed town council con­vened. The majority - hoping to save lives - voted to put food and water in every coffin. Another group proposed a cheaper solution: implant a stake in every coffin lid directly over the victim's heart. When closed, all doubts about the victim's condition would vanish. What differentiated the solutions were the questions used to find them. Whereas the first group asked "What if we bury somebody alive?" the second group asked "How can we make sure everyone we bury is dead?" Remember, the second assault on the same problem should come from a totally different direction. How can you change your viewpoint?

Change the scope of your thinking. In 1866 an Iowa farmer watched the construc­tion of the transcontinental railroad near his fields. After seeing the track laid and a locomo­tive steam through, he thought "So that's what railroading is all about: tracks and trains." What didn't he see? That he could get his products to more markets more quickly, and that once there they would have to compete against products from many more places; that people could travel from coast to coast in less than a week; that more ideas would be shared; and that different people would meet and get married. He saw the steel and the wheels, but he didn't see the conse­quences. What are the larger implications of your idea? Is there a bigger picture?

Introduce a random element. There once was an Indian medicine man who made hunting maps for his tribe. When game got sparse, he'd put a piece of fresh leather in the sun to dry. Then he'd fold and twist it, and then smooth it out. The rawhide was now etched with lines. He marked some reference points, and a new map was created. When the hunters followed the map's newly defined trails, they usually discovered abun­dant game. So by letting the rawhide's random folds represent trails, he pointed the hunters to places they hadn't looked. Stimulate your thinking in a similar way. Open any book at random and put your finger down on a word: "magnet." How does it relate to what you're doing? What associations can you make? What random ideas can you try?

What are you pre-supposing about a situation or problem? What is really true? Columbus challenged the Spanish courtiers to stand an egg on its end. They tried but failed. He then hard-boiled one and squashed it down. "That's not fair," they protested "you broke the rules." "Don't be silly," he replied "you just as­sumed more than you needed to." What can you let go of? What unnecessary assumptions can you eliminate?

Look for patterns. Poet Alexander Pope said "Order is heav'n's first law." Much of what is called ‘intelligence’ is our ability to recognise this order in the form of patterns. We recognise cycles like the seasons and many more complex phenomena e.g. plankton yields conform to a strict four year cycle. We also recognise sequences, like the order in which you put on your clothes. There are processes we know, like how to convert flour, eggs, and milk into waffles. Sometimes there are tendencies, like cracks in dried mud usually form 120° angles. We can create patterns in many things to help, like the shapes of constellations made up from a pattern of stars. Look for similarities e.g. stellar galaxies and water emptying in a bath spiral in the same way. What about behaviours of people and probabilities such as the likelihood of drawing an ace in a card game. What patterns do you detect? How can you use them to better understand your situation or problem?

Pay more attention to your lesser used senses. If you're visually oriented, focus on the ‘sound’ or ‘smell’ of a situation. If you're ana­lytically oriented, focus on how something feels. If you're intuitive, concentrate on the logic. What other senses can you use to explore your situation or problem?

Ask your subconscious to give you an idea in your dreams. Greek philosopher Heraclitus said "To those who are awake, there is one ordered universe, whereas in sleep each man turns away from this world to one of his own." Your dreams can help resolve conflicts, refresh thinking, inspire solutions, and suggest new approaches. Here’s an example from chemistry: Au­gust Kekule's dream of six circling snakes in­spired his discovery of the benzene molecule ring. How can you relate a recent dream to a current problem?

Has a solution been developed before? History is loaded with creative analogies. Napo­leon marching on Moscow is really just project management. Mao waging a guerrilla war is like launching an ad campaign. Pick a culture from the past. How would someone from that culture deal with your issue? How about from your own per­sonal history? What were you doing ten years ago that might be useful to you now? What ideas from history can you apply to a current situation?

Make more connections. Much of our thinking is associative: one idea makes you think of another - no matter how logi­cal the connection. Use this ability to generate new ideas. Look at something and make associations based on whatever you can think of: function, lo­cation, size, shape, sound, personal, opposite, weird, etc. Here’s an example of making the connections: work - play - actor - star- sun - light - bulb - tulips - kiss - love - tennis - net - profit - prophet - oracle - auricle - heart - life. What things do your list remind you of? What do each of these remind you of? How can you use this cluster of associations to develop your idea?

When getting creative - two heads are better than one. A coach can aid your creative process in many more ways.  Click here to arrange an introductory session to find out more.