Creativity does not emerge from the ether. It comes from the many rarely used corners of your brain, and from the collective brains of your networks.
It comes from not accepting the status quo automatically. You look for the edges, the unexplained, the outliers. You ask better questions of customers, suppliers, science, and you are aware of the trends and problems in your surroundings.
Creativity is a process, not a miracle. It takes practice, refinement, and a preparedness to see alternatives where others do not. You need to accept being wrong, understand why you were wrong, and build on the lesson.
Creativity is also a word that means many different things to different people.
To a painter, creativity will most likely be entirely different to the creativity expressed by a mathematician, musician, or entrepreneur.
However, all ‘artists’ no matter their domain, and often not even consciously, ask themselves the same three questions:
Why?
What if?
How?
Issac Newton can only have come up with his theory explaining gravity after the apple bonked him on the head by asking himself ‘Why?
George de Mestral must have asked himself ‘what if I can replicate and manufacture the natural ‘stickiness’ of these burrs on my britches after I walk across the paddock, to come up with Velcro?
James Dyson did ask himself ‘how can I replicate the industrial cyclone technology used in sawmills in a household vacuum cleaner? In fact, he asked himself that question 5,127 times before, on the 5,128th prototype, he cracked it.
Next time you are faced with a challenge, no matter how big or small, I suggest you try asking yourself these three questions.
You might surprise yourself and discover you can be quite creative!
Header cartoon: Obviously comes from the late, great Charles Shultz.
