I'm headed to the annual QRCA conference in October, and am particularly looking forward to hearing a presentation on creativity from Dr. Joanne Brunn, who studies this sort of thing, and also has a lot of practical, real-world experience.
Fortunately for you, this particular presentation will be webcast (free). Here's the topic description:
Why is it so hard to get to that Aha moment? Creativity is often misunderstood and may seem overwhelming to put into practical use. However, we all naturally follow the creative stages of preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Through understanding these research-based stages of creativity, you will learn how to identify and manage the stages to encourage creativity. The stage that often gets neglected or outright prohibited is incubation – yet that is the major factor in getting to that Aha moment of illumination. Come and learn practical and fun ways to best take advantage of everyone’s natural creative flow.
To find out more and register for this Q-Cast, click here. These sessions are archived and can be viewed later if you miss the live session.
This event is unusual in that we don't allow a lot of veiled "pitching" -- presentations are usually excellent. So if you can't be in Vegas at the conference having a great time, you can take in some of the cool learning, and it's even free.
I'll be speaking as well, so will have to contain my partying. [I have a 9 am slot on a Friday, so wish me luck!]
Even better, it meant I discovered the charming writing of the MyFashionSales blog. And I also checked out a site which you simply must investigate -- submitinfographics -- which has a lot of terrific infographics -- including many user-generated graphics. Another veritable hub of creativity.
We are just surrounded by creativity everywhere -- new ways to communicate, new ways to share ideas, new chances for everyone to participate. Someday the era we are now living in will be called the Age of Creativity [unless someone thinks of a better name. Maybe you?]
And aren't we lucky to be living in this time? The Age of Creativity.
Approaches to creativity and innovation have mostly come from individual hypothesis and craft -- people studying what they think works based on personal observation. Now, scientific research is starting to validate many of these approaches.
When working with a team trying to come up with new ideas, one very useful method involves taking the problem into another framework. (There are many ways to do this -- one example: ask people to imagine Steve Jobs or Bill Gates solving the problem instead of themselves.)
Scientists Evan Polman and Kyle Emich found students who were asked to solve problems requiring creative thinking did better when they were solving the problem for someone else, instead of themselves. One example: they were more likely to solve a "tower escape" puzzle, and created better aliens for a story when they were solving these challenges for another person, not for themselves.
The practical implications of our findings are striking in the extent of their reach...That decisions for others are more creative than decisions for the self is not only valuable information for researchers in social psychology, decision making, marketing, and management but also should prove of considerable interest to negotiators, managers, product designers, marketers, and advertisers, among many others.
The theory, called construal theory, is still being developed.
Resources:
Polman E, and Emich KJ (2011). Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self. Personality and social psychology bulletin PMID: 21317316
Looking around online to see what I might buy as a new carry-on luggage bag, I came across this gem from Heys. It's called DOTS, and the case is designed to let you put your own design on it.
Consumers do not want boring black in anything anymore. They want color, design, style and personal statements.
If you love all things personalized, you can get a regular feed from MilkorSugar, the blog of all things customizable.
During difficult economic times, lots of people take the opportunity to "reboot" by going back to school. Of course now, you need serious dough to do that.
Book retailer Indigo is positioning to tap into that trend by offering "the 12 month MBA" featuring "24 books, 12 months. $0 student loans." The additional pitch is an opportunity to discuss the books on the Indigo Community.
Very clever idea. And not a bad selection of books, either. (With the exception of Who Moved My Cheese, which surely must be added by way of contrast.)
Who else do you see that is doing some clever recession marketing?
When I saw the way my cold beer arrived on a very hot day, I actually squealed in delight.
Now what clever thing can you do that doesn't require new technology or big expense and will show your customers you are actually thinking about them?
What's your clever thing?
[Extra credit if you observed that this was another Marriott, surely among the best managed front-end experiences in the hotel biz. I blogged on these guys once or twice before. Here's one, and here's another]
Human beings are by nature creators and builders. The evidence of this surrounds us. We have created many, many tools to support this enduring enterprise, ranging from oil paints and violins to concrete and laser-cutters.
In the not-too-distant past, the act of creation was highly stratified. There were fine artists, or those striving to be. There were craftspeople, like Gepetto the shoemaker (aka Pinocchio's father, who dreamed of having a real son). There may have been many stonemasons, but there were few Berninis, and they lived in an elite place.
This segregation of high and low creation has been pervasive throughout the world of work and in recent times too. I recall being told in no uncertain terms by a senior executive that I was not a creative person, only some people were creative, and that when creativity was needed, it would be hired, thank you very much. I doubt that was an isolated conversation. Even in creative industries, the true creatives were housed in special cages.
This is all changing.
Crafts used to be denigrated as "low art", somehow a lesser act of creation. The same was true of graphic design -- if it was produced for commercial reasons, it shouldn't be framed an hung on a wall. There is a shrinking community of people who actually care about these distinctions now. Case in point: Etsy, an online craft market and community. Yes, some of this stuff is perfectly hideous. But much of it is charming. Anyone can get in on the act here, including children.
Although many strive to make a living with their shops, I suspect that many more just want to share their creations with the world. This motive is surely part of what drives Instructables, a place where you can share your approach to making Lego shaped gummy candies.
In fact, these communities have their own ideas about what makes something wonderful.
Customized manufacturing is another sign on this creation highway. You can go questing for amazing sneakers in your local hip neighborhood, or you can quest for them online, or you can design your own. And it's not just sneakers anymore. (Levi's tried to pull off something like this more than a decade ago, but they didn't quite get it right, or perhaps were also a bit too soon. It was custom fit, not custom design, for one thing.) If you are an actual designer in the sneaker world, keeping your job may depend on being at least as good as the free stuff coming in.
And it's not just sneakers. The tools of big-time industrial creativity are fast becoming available to people. 3D scanners and printers -- and the aforementioned laser cutters -- are now within the range of affordability, just as desktop printers became affordable. And they are going to get more affordable. The real question is whether you'll buy these things in the tool corral at Home Depot, or in the electronics section at Best Buy.
Today, I discovered another wonderful sign of these times in Hackerspace.
Here's how my local Hackerspace describes itself -- "a community space with a diverse membership, including artists, computer programmers, web designers, and hardware hackers. It is inspired by the philosophies of the global hackerspaces movement which encourages people to socialize, share knowledge, and work together on their projects."
Hackerspaces reminds me of the unconferences that have sprung up all over the place -- loosely organized groups of people getting things done.
New communications technologies is what has made all of this possible, in many ways, but it is as much a servant as a driver of the change we are seeing. Tools, access to people, and now access to physical space, are all becoming liberated from their place in the stratification.
The change is the great democratization of creation.
Resources
3D Printing and scanning: Wikipedia has a good overview here, Jay Leno wrote for Popular Mechanics on this topic, and there is a delightful YouTube with a demonstration.
I love a weekend when it is not jam-packed with activity. For me, that is a pleasure in itself -- having the space and time for exploration without a pre-set plan. But it also means that there will be a fresh surge of ideas by Sunday morning.
On a recent weekend, I took in The Madonna Painter at Factory Theatre. This warrants comment on it's own, as it is the kind of play you can't honestly say you "enjoyed". It's more of an experience that has value, but the creation of joy is not really part of the value. Reminded me of ancient Greek philosophers trying to figure out why tragedy works. [You see, already the creative connections were flowing!]
The play prompted conversation into the small hours of the next day.
Even better, I'm just back from a well-deserved holiday paddling my heart out in the warm waters of Baja. An experience pretty-much guaranteed to clean the cobwebs from the mind.
And then the joy of Sunday morning. Waking up with ideas bubbling. Ideas for client projects. Ideas for blog articles. E-mails I wanted to send. Enquiries to make. Things to read.
This kind of state has a very joyful feeling associated with it. It is the joy of a mind at play.
How to be an idea person
People tell me all the time that I am a good idea person. But whatever you feel your natural talents are, you too can become an idea person. You have to cultivate that space for your subconscious talents to have room to play. And give that subconscious some thing to work with - like a few new ideas and new experiences.
How do you help free up your creative thinking?
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