- It is no secret to anyone that creativity turns out to be elusive for many people. Fortunately, it is possible to turn it into a permanent attitude, applicable to the most diverse areas of human activity.
Creativity is today the condition that constitutes the main competitive advantage of companies.
This is especially true in such sensitive areas as advertising, creating promotions, finding business opportunities, customer service, and decision making.
Some people cultivate techniques and skills that allow them to create different businesses, different solutions to everyday problems or much more complex problems… while others are amazed and just keep asking: “ Why didn't it occur to me? ”
To expand our ability to conceive ideas and solutions, we must begin by identifying what the barriers are to preventing it. Let's see some of them.
Reasons that prevent us from being more creative
- Low self-esteem
People with low self-esteem also have creative ideas. However, his low level of self-confidence makes them think that his idea is not worth it, that it will not be taken into account, that they will make fun of him and his idea, etc.
These people are often amazed when they discover that someone else is expounding the same idea that he thought was insignificant and surprise! Everyone celebrates the wonder of the idea that they have just expounded!
- Fear of making mistakes and making a fool of yourself
Two reasons for the price of one. The absence of a culture of assertiveness and ignorance of our rights lead to fear of making mistakes. Our culture led us to the pleasure that “being always right” produces and excel for it. We do not know the right to be wrong and the power of error.
The sweet pleasure of making mistakes and contributing with the error to arrive at what is possibly correct.
- Keep the first idea
Believing that the first idea is always the best is limiting. Marrying the first answer that comes to mind weakens the other options. When this happens, subsequent ideas are compared with the first and are discarded.
- Take for granted what is known.
Have you ever heard the phrase "it's always been done like this "? It is perhaps the most effective phrase to kill creativity and the desire to contribute ideas in companies. Other phrases that go in the same direction:
"That is the norm", "that has already been tried and did not work", "that works in other types of companies", "the system does not allow it", "that costs too much", "if that were possible, someone else would I would have invented ”…
Let me share the following reading:
A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, in the center of which they arranged a ladder that led to a bunch of bananas, so that each time one of the monkeys climbed up to reach them, the scientists launched a jet of cold water over those left on the ground.
After some time, when one of the monkeys tried to climb the others, they pounded it, until the time came when none of the five dared to give in to their instincts, despite the temptation of bananas.
Then, the experimenters replaced one of the monkeys with another novice who, as you can imagine, the first thing he tried was to climb the ladder, an action that was prevented by the four old ones, who forcibly took him down and gave him a beating, the one they kept administering every time the upstart monkey tried, until the day when the lesson was learned, he did not want to go any higher.
Having achieved the above, a second monkey of the old ones was replaced. The same happened with the enthusiastic participation of the first rookie. And so a third and a fourth, until none of the top five group remained.
The scientists were then, in front of a group of five monkeys that, even though they had never received a cold water bath, continued to hit anyone who tried to reach the bananas.
They then concluded that, if the monkeys were asked why their behavior was unnatural at all times and were given an answer, the answer would be, without a doubt, “we don't know. Here things have always been like this. ”
Sound familiar?
I invite you to unmask what are the killer phrases of creativity that you usually use in your company and in your environment.
- Limiting Beliefs
The set of ideas that people have intimately and unconsciously of themselves defines their beliefs, their behaviors and their results. Phrases like "I never think of anything", "I am not ingenious" "creativity is not given to me" and others of that kind speak of the beliefs that govern a person's behavior and therefore their achievements.
How many times do we believe that we cannot do something and in the long run the only impediment to doing it is ourselves!
- Contempt for difference
The healthy confrontation of ideas allows you to find creative options. Therefore the difference is convenient, necessary and, going a little further, desirable.
The search for unanimity generally occurs when people do not want to appear conflicting or when there is a boss or an authoritarian leader, who always believes he is right.
The most creative work teams are those that maturely face the difference and summon it for the sake of creativity.
However. What are the techniques that we can use to develop creative thinking?
How to encourage creativity in the company
Ask a person who specializes in saying "can't" why something would not work and you will hear the most "creative" reasons you can think of.
Creativity, it seems, is not necessarily purposeful. However, here we propose to present techniques for the development of creative thinking for its proactive use. Let's see some:
1. Create a climate conducive to creativity.
Inform your team that you have this or that problem and that you are looking for a solution. Don't forget that solutions can appear from where you least expect them; so much so that creative solutions sometimes come from the company's management team
2. Encourage the creativity of others
Always express public appreciation to people who offer your creative ideas, whether they have worked or not. This is essential to encourage other initiatives.
When they bring you a problem for you to solve, before asking an answer, get used to asking: "What do you think should be done in this case?"
Be receptive to ideas, even if they are apparently absurd.
If 120 years ago someone had raised the idea of creating a device that would fly through the heavens even if it was heavier than air, that carried 300 people and traveled at a speed greater than that of sound, we would surely have said that this was a absurd idea… it is better not to discard ideas!
3. Set up an Idea Incubation Program in your company.
I use the term "Incubation" in order not to discard ideas but to save them, mature them, cultivate them, merge them and manipulate them until they germinate. The conditions of the program for the incubation of ideas are open to your creativity.
It is a valuable contribution to people's initiative and I guarantee that it impacts the company's culture and purpose.
4. Eliminate killer phrases from creativity.
Identify what your killer phrases are and which ones you hear around you. Replace them with phrases that promote creativity:
- "Every problem has a solution" "It is possible. It only remains to find out how "" Everything can be improved "" We are doing it well and we can improve it "and others of his own harvest.
Challenge the creativity of your team. Provoke a culture of creativity in your organization. Ask questions that “force” people to question themselves.
I want to share this experience with you: After explaining some techniques in the Creativity Workshop that we carried out in a five-star hotel, I proposed the following topic: “The hotel currently provides excellent service to customers.
What can we do to improve it without incurring costs? ” Still today I am amazed at the quantity and quality of responses we got from a motivated team in a supportive environment.
5. Don't marry the first idea
Don't settle for the first answer that pops into your head. Find alternatives. Write as many ideas as you can without judging them.
Or better yet, deliberately aim for a minimum number of possible responses. In the end evaluate, add, lengthen, merge, disaggregate, mix, rejoin, put together the best answer to the problem you need to solve.
The search for alternatives is undoubtedly one of the most effective techniques both for the development of creative thinking and for finding solutions.
As you know, weight lifting serves as preparation for a weightlifting competition and also for moving a heavy desk. In the same way, creativity training is useful to apply it in various fields.
Therefore training creativity through games, dynamics and other resources is useful for creativity in any other field. There are many useful exercises to train your brain in the search for alternatives.
For example: You travel by road. Suddenly, she sees a family on the roadside picking up medium-sized stones to throw in the back of her truck. People who pass by on the road look and ask themselves: Why do they collect these stones? Write a minimum of ten responses.
6. Call meetings to build creative ideas
Brainstorming sessions, also known as uncritical brainstorming sessions, are based on the principle of "deferred judgment." It is about stimulating responses to an issue without those responses being evaluated immediately.
The basic rules of an uncritical brainstorming session are:
- All criticism is prohibited. Every idea is welcome, even if it seems wrong or absurd. Gather as many ideas as possible. Presentations should be very brief. Associations of ideas are important in the process.
The evaluation of the ideas should preferably be done in a later session, before which a photocopy of the notes is sent to all the participants.
Curiously, many specialists recommend doing uncritical sessions with 10 or maximum twelve participants. I always wonder:
Why? That is "taking for granted what is known." It is possible that a more enriching contribution of ideas will be obtained in a group, but I can attest that when this procedure is done individually it also gives excellent results.
7. Don't let ideas get away from you
Always have a tape recorder, an agenda, a pocket computer, a notebook or any other resource that allows you to save an idea.
Haven't you woken up at midnight with a brilliant answer to a difficult problem? The next morning she has forgotten the idea and never captured it by any means. Don't let ideas slip away.
Maria G. Agnesi, one of the foremost figures in eighteenth-century mathematics, is said to have often woken up at midnight with the answer to a problem that had been torturing her. I wrote the solution and went back to bed.
Prepare yourself not to let your ideas escape.
8. Consider the "opposite solution"
Often the "opposite solution" is the answer we are looking for. An example of "opposite solution" is "distance education", progressed today with "virtual education". Instead of waiting for the student to go to the educational center, it is the student who "reaches" the student.
The service of "home delivery" is another contrary solution. To remove the wine from the bottle we usually remove the cork stopper, but we could also put it in, right?
Here is a problem that has been widely spread with your answer:
In the Middle Ages a man of recognized qualities was unjustly accused of having murdered a woman.
In reality, the true author of the crime was a very influential person from the kingdom and, therefore, from the first moment an “scapegoat” was sought, to cover up the culprit.
The man was brought to trial already knowing that he would have little or no hope of escaping the terrible sentence of hanging.
The judge, who had been bought, took care to give all the appearance of a fair trial and said to the accused: “Knowing your reputation as a man of a just man and devoted to the Lord, we are going to leave your destiny in His hands.
We will write on two separate papers the words 'guilty' and 'innocent'. You will choose and your destiny will be defined ”Of course, he had prepared two papers with the legend 'guilty'.
The judge ordered the man to take one of the folded papers. The room was silent.
The question is: How could man get out of the crossroads?
We will omit the answer so that you appeal to the technique of seeking the opposite solution.
9. Consult an “incompetent”
Discuss the problem you want to solve with a competent person in a completely different activity than yours and ask for a suggestion.
The more dissimilar their profession, occupation, hobbies, political affiliation, etc., the better.
Take advantage of your ability to understand things differently. We do much better when we think with several brains working from different angles than when we do it with ours alone.
Also ask a child. It's great to discover the results of this suggestion. Firstly, because you will be obliged to simplify the problem in order to explain it to them and that is already a benefit.
Second, be amazed by the answers you will get. Remember: Don't discount ideas. Collect alternatives.
10. Break the routines
Breaking routines is an opportunity to see and do other things or the same things differently. It is giving us the opportunity to see the world with different eyes and broaden our horizon of possibilities.
Explore activities that you don't regularly do. Change the reading type.
If you usually drive to your office by car, take a bus or taxi and look at the city as if you were a tourist. Change the type of movies you usually watch.
If you are a regular viewer, stop being television for a few weeks and spend that time on reading or another activity. Go eat at a vegetarian restaurant, read a book in company, make dinner with your child, practice a strange sport for you.
In short, do things you usually don't do. Allow yourself to see things from a new point of view.
We can all practice techniques and habits to cultivate the development of creative thinking. Now you have 10 tips for easy application in your business and in your life. You can start putting them into practice or keep asking yourself, "Why didn't it occur to me?"
