Force your creativity with 2 Rs and a couple of tips …

Sometimes you need to get creative and do things differently. But many people don’t know how to do that, believing it’s “just a knack” that people have or that its not part of their genes. Having had the good fortune to kick-off my working career in a creative branding agency, I am happy to know that this is simply not true. Being creative is process and a skill you can learn. And a couple of tips can take you a long way...

My eleven year old daughter is doing a school project on clothing-design and tomorrow she is going to have to “create” something at school. She just told me she was worried, because most of the time her inspiration comes from browsing around the internet, and the internet will not be available to her in class.

This reminded me of one of my early moments faced with the same problem: How do you “get creative” when you aren’t feeling creative? In my story, it was 2001 and I was working for a small international branding agency in the UK. I had the internet (albeit with a 56k modem connection!) but I was still stuck. My boss told me to “get out of here” and sent me off to a museum. It didn’t take long before some inspiration for my (unrelated) project came. So there’s out first tip… if you want to get inspired, change your scenery.

But we can do better than that with 2 of the Rs I discovered in WhatIf’s book “Sticky Wisdom” at the time :

Find a RELATED world

This means you “go” to a place which has some kind of link or analogy with the topic you are working on. In 2006, I was facilitating a brainstorming session to help a recruitment team come up with better ways to attract young talent in a tight employment market. We created an analogy of trying to catch ants you can’t find in a kitchen. Before we knew it, we were working on all kinds of related ideas (putting down sugary traps, redirecting the ants to another place, having big boots, recruiting predators to suck them up…) before translating THOSE ideas out of the analogy and back to our original problem. I won’t bore you with the results now, but I can promise you: They had more ideas than they had when they sat around the table just hoping someone would come up with something!

For my daughter, she could make things a little more simple. Instead of “designing clothes” she could start thinking about designing houses, or guns, or fantasy football teams. Or she could forget “designing” and think about “stocking clothes”, “selling clothes” or any other related world. It really doesn’t matter. She WILL see things differently.

Of course, she could just go out for a walk around the (inside of) the school and look at the related world of colours and forms and see what inspiration that brings.

Working from something random …

Work from something RANDOM

The second R is the one that has actually led me writing this blog today. Not because its SO amazing, nor because I’ve proven as a coach how it helps people to find new ways to achieve their goals. I am sharing it now because my daughter is STILL inspired and busy at work as I write, 30 minutes after I shared the idea and kick-started her on her way. And since I have the computer, she has no internet 🙂

Random truly means random. You can pick a random object, take a word from a book or ask someone to talk to you about anything they like. That is the way in. Now see where it takes you. It’s a simple as that. Sometimes things just flow out.

I explained this idea to the little one and popped off to the fridge to get a tomato and a knife. She cut it, she looked at it.. and as you can see in the video above, the rest is history 🙂

Before I go, here are a few final tips to help you create creativity when you need to :

• Find a friend. Because friends are awesome. And 2 + 2 = 5.
• Don’t try and get anything right. Creativity is about flow. Selection, correction and perfection can come later.
• Use all your senses
• Have resources available when you need them (even if its not the internet)
• Take a break as soon as you feel like it. Don’t try and force the energy.
• Drink some water. Trust me on that one.

If you read this and it inspires you, please try something or add a comment below. And don’t forget to share your ideas with other people. It makes the world go round!

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe and share the post.

Then go be creative!

D

Facing fear

I will admit it immediately: This post IS inspired by all the Corona mess. But I won’t talk about that any more.

I want to tell you what my 14 year old had to say about being “on hold” and not being sure how to move forward. With the innocence of a child and the natural creativity that goes with it, I think she made a great point : It’s scary to do the things we aren’t used to. And since the older we get, the more get used to, it’s only going to get harder unless something changes. It is time to face up to the fear and dare to do something different. And a change in point-of-view might help …

 

 

It all started with cancelled training: Since no-one is in the office, a trainer like me can’t go in and teach about how to pitch an idea, or how to negotiate a deal, or how to manage people. My daughter asked me “Why don’t you do ‘tele-travail’ (working at distance) like everyone else?”

I had a whole load of answers from “Its not the same thing” and “My clients prefer ….” to “I need to be careful with my brand” and “I like to be WITH the people” and, importantly “I’m not sure I want to do that”.

Next daughter question (where does she get this stuff from??) : “Give me one idea of what you DO want to do today” to which I replied that I planned to work on fitness and fix a few things in the house. And then came the magic.. she said “Thats because you know how to do those things and you know what you will get” (!!)

Now, I’m not the guy who tends to, or likes to, think “It’ll never work” but this did strike a chord with me : If I’m truly honest, I have no idea what the future will bring and yes, like many a 42-year old, I may well be getting stuck in my ways. Underneath my “wait and see when this all stops” attitude, there has also been quite a bit of “… and I can’t do anything about it”. I felt silly. I know too much to act like that. (Or maybe I act like that BECAUSE I know too much!)

 

At this point in the story, I was already feeling inspired to get out there and make things happen. “Focus on what you CAN control” and all that. But I didn’t have a chance before she doubled-down and threw her next point into the mix. She said :

“Imagine you were a 25 year old just starting out and you wanted to help people get better at the things you teach. You’d be in THIS reality from the start and you’d be asking yourself ‘How can I set this up?’… So, ask yourself that: ‘How can I set this up?’ ”

What did I get out of all this? What do I really want to say? What is the lesson to be learned ?

 

Our experience and knowledge and “the way things are” puts us in the box. And when the box starts to change form or get broken, it CAN be scary. Looking outside IS hard. Being fresh IS hard. Not KNOWING how things are going to go means trying something new, taking risks, and the possibility of failure. And so its easier to just stick to what you know and hope for the best.

But if you can admit that MAYBE you don’t know everything and MAYBE you have a few assumptions, then MAYBE you can entertain a new point of view, even if only for a moment. It might be scary and it might not work, but there might be a chance for some new results.

 

9 competences you need in your workforce today and tomorrow

If you are looking to hire someone to join your company or to develop existing people who will regularly bring added-value (in the long-term), you need to think about more than technical or functional skills. In my opinion, the 9 following competences are absolutely key to sustainable success in today and tomorrow’s business environment…

 

THE CONSTANT LEARNER

It has been said for decades that the only constant is change. Clearly that hasn’t changed. If we cannot be sure about what tomorrow looks like, then the following three competences are important:

• Open-mindedness is the ability to receive and treat new information without overbearing prejudice. Many of us spend the majority of our waking lives on autopilot, doing things just like we did yesterday, set in our ways and thoughts. Open-minded people are able to put their own convictions on hold and see things differently in order to deal with new ideas. They are conscious of their own habits and convictions, they listen well and they tend not to mix up their own perception with reality.
• Self-learning is the ability to define, follow-up, deliver and evaluate learning goals in an autonomous way. Today’s workers must be able to acquire and assimilate knowledge, learn new skills and question their own attitude without the necessary intervention of a learning department or teacher. Specific skills here include goal-setting, self-coaching and identifying infinite learning opportunities.
• Problem-solving skills and scientific reasoning are required in order to figure things out where no answer currently exists. Workers must have the ability to correctly assess and define a problem. They must have a minimum of business acumen and creativity to propose multiple hypotheses and a sufficient scientific process to create “experiments” that will allow them to isolate, test and understand problem causes and potential solutions.

 

FUNCTIONING WELL IN TODAY’S UBER-SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

In today’s working environment (the “New World of Work”) the possibilities are endless. We can gather and share information from and to everywhere in a click. We have unprecedented access to other people. We are mobile within markets and across functional and geographical lines. The following three competences are all about getting and giving the best in that environment:

• Personal Knowledge Management is a collection of processes that a person uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve, and share knowledge in his or her daily activities. Faced with the enormous noise of information coming in from everywhere in multiple formats, today’s workers need to be able to make sense of it all and put the noise to effective use for herself and others, today and in the future.
• Networking skills allow workers to effectively analyse, evaluate and improve their own networks in order to receive and give more value. With a clear long-term mission and good social skills, effective networkers can assess, create and maintain well-functioning networks. They know the right people (who know the right people..) and can establish trusting useful contacts over a variety of face-to-face and virtual platforms in order to achieve their goals.
• Commercial communication and personal branding. As businesses become more “intrapreneurial” and workers get involved in more cross-functional, multinational projects, the ability to understand the situation, values and needs of other people and position oneself and one’s work “commercially” in terms of benefits is key to being accepted and being useful. No-one can sit back and say that “sales” is for someone else. As Daniel Pink has said, to sell is human and we’re all doing it, whether we know it or not. The product/service branding approach of matching key messages to target audiences can today be equally well applied to individuals – effective personal branding helps other people to see your own value more easily.

 

BRINGING VALUE TO THE BUSINESS

A constant learner who is able to function well in an uber-social environment is not worth anything if he doesn’t really understand how business is happening and what can be done to achieve goals. He needs three additional competences:

• Business acumen or business intelligence is the first foundation for adding value to an organisation. In the past, only the management needed to worry about the universal drivers of cash, profit, growth, people and assets; everyone else could “just” focus on his job. But as environments, people, projects and processes change rapidly, there is more need for workers who truly understand their own work and how it influences the bottom-line and delivers on company strategy. If you don’t understand the core factors that make your business successful, you will not be able to identify opportunities, solve problems or articulate solutions that bring any value.
• Strategic thinking is the ability to identify priorities based on current position in relationship to the end-goal. Technical or tactical experts tend to have a good grasp on which is the best way to achieve a certain action, but strategic thinkers more easily identify those actual actions which really need to be taken at this time. Although top-management may be responsible for defining the company strategy, each individual needs himself to be able to regularly and effectively assess their own position (in terms of S/W/O/T etc..) and look for recurring themes and priorities. In this way, they can strategically choose relevant action and next concrete steps.
• Proactivity is the ability to stop, think and choose, rather than simply reacting to circumstance. A close-cousin of both strategic-thinking, open-mindedness and problem-solving ability, proactivity requires self-knowledge and a specific attitude, in addition to specific knowledge of the environment and mission. Faced with unacceptable results, the proactively-reactive person will assess the situation and processes/programs in order to create change which he or she believes he can orchestrate. And the truly proactive person will “in advance” take the initiative to assess risks to the mission and think about how to do things differently and how to have a maximum impact.

 

Read also:

• “The Respect Effect” by Paul Meshanko – some important concepts on open-mindedness
• “Before all that self-learning, one last little training for everyone” – ASTD blog post about helping people get better at learning
• Learn about the “6 thinking hats” of Edward De Bono for ideas about problem solving and creativity
• Read Harold Jarche’s “PKM” blog
• “Analysing and evaluating informal learning networks” – blog post from ASTD2013 ICE
• “The only 3 questions that count” and “Be FAB to be heard” for ideas about commercial communication
• “Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand” on Mashable blog
• “If you want to show value, you’ve gotta have business acumen” blog post
• “Creating strategic action in 4 steps” blog post
• Read Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”

 

 

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Ken Robinson on your element, education and unique extraordinary life

“One of the most influential thinkers in creativity today” says FAST Company
“Knight of the royal realm” says the Queen of England
“Keynote speaker to kick off the ICE” says ASTD2013

According to Ken Robinson, it is early. Too early. Having spent the night trying to remember how to sleep, he is not sure it’s actually a pleasure to be at ASTD2013 today. But he is here. And he’s got a message to share.

Referring to the chainsaw juggling duo The Passing Zone who introduced Tony Bingham’s speech this morning, Sir Ken reminds us that we each have deep talents and you have to work to find them. When The Passing Zone were at school, neither of them had an idea that they would spend the rest of their lives juggling. They didn’t get taught it at school and they would never have said it would be their future.

The Passing Zone love what they do. They have passion. What is your passion? Sir Robinson says that every person IS something. Every person has talent that speaks to them, that animates them. When we find that something, we will never work again. We will do what we love and get paid for it. It will change everything.

But if you want to discover that passion and talent, you have to create the right environments. He adds that many organisations do not do this. Schools neither.

The school system created during the industrial revolution is supposed to get everyone learning the same things in the same way. As Robinson said in his famous TED talk, the school system was not designed to help a young child discover the joy of juggling, or to feel the wonder of balancing accounts. Or to help a top-class concert pianist realise that, in fact, she wants to be an editor.

Ken Robinson tells us that we are facing an education and happiness crisis. In the US, more money is spent on education (per head) than any other country and class sizes are smaller. Yet more people drop out than anywhere else and less people graduate. And if that wasn’t worrying enough, Robinson also tells us that in the US more drugs are sold for depression and psychological issues than anything else. People are unhappy. And people NEED to be happy.

Why is this? Why are we not making it through school and coming out awesomely happy, working in line with our passion and talents? What can we do about it?

TWO THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND TO FIND YOUR ELEMENT

Firstly, Ken Robinson wants to remind us that we are unique. Since the beginning of time, there have probably been around 100 billion people on Earth. And they have all been different. No-one on Earth has ever had the same life you are leading right now. And never will. As the Dalai Lama said to Ken Robinson at a recent Vancouver conference on world peace through inner-peace: “The fact that you are alive at all is a miracle. So what are you going to do with it?”

Secondly, you have to realise that you are responsible for making your own life. You are given life …but you are not given your CV when you are born. Your own story, successful or not, is a result of your own talent, personal disposition and circumstance. Ken Robinson underlines the importance of this last point and says that we need to create circumstances in which people can flourish, discover their talents and make them grow. We can all be creative, we can all do something special and people need to be given opportunities to explore.

As the folks at the BlueMan Group say “If ordinary people can find their element, extraordinary things can happen.”

Think about it.

DANs closing questions:

If you are in learning and development, what can you do to create learning environments that stimulate real creativity and drive people to flourish and bring out their element?

If you are a parent, how you do the same for your children?

And if you are not awesomely happy yourself doing what brings you strength, fulfilling your own personal quest and working in line with your own personal element, what are you going to do about it?

ps Check out my Daily Dallas Weather Reports on http://www.youtube.com/dansteerchannel

Thanks for reading.
Please come to session TU306 and share this article.
D

Neil Young on leadership, creativity, performance and people styles

I’ve been watching the special features of Jonathan Demme’s excellent capturing of Neil Young in”Heart of Gold”. These words from Neil reminded me of the ASTD2012 session of John Kao on innovation and jazz improvisation …and also got me thinking about leadership skills, changing environments, the way we manage people, creativity, the differences between people etc… I won’t make an attempt to deconstruct each of Neil Young’s sentences. Just read and see for yourself….

“These are songs that I’ve never performed before, so I have to remember all the words and keep on top of the band playing all the parts.

Remember, these are people that live in the moment. I mean, that’s why I play with these people. They’re not “reproducers”. They are creative people and creative musicians. They are not really supposed to do the same thing every time. So you have to give them room to be creative and still perform the same song in a way that’s reminiscent of the original record, kind of representative of the arrangement that we did on the record.

Some of the musicians are better at reproducing their parts within a framework and doing it very freely and feeling very good about them. Others can never do the same thing twice.

So you have to get them all together and that’s what happens… …you’ve got one shot… ..as soon as you start the songs you have to feel second nature about the song.. ..and that’s not easy to do with a song that you’ve never played before.. …it’s all new at that point.

These are all first time performances.”

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