Break the Hot Dog: Hacking Your Creativity
If you are among those who feel utterly lost with the concept of being creative, you may believe the gift of creativity is limited only to art or music.
Perhaps this, then, is your first limiting belief: that creativity is about being the van Gogh's or Bach's of the world.
What Is Creativity?
At the heart of innovation is creativity. It's not just about coming up with the best colors for a marketing campaign or the hottest new slogan to start trending on social media.
To help you break out of your box of the definition of creative, consider Cambridge's definition:
"Creative thinking is defined as the thinking that enables [you] to apply [your] imagination to generating ideas, questions, and hypotheses, experimenting with alternatives and to evaluating [your] own and [your] peers' ideas, final products, and processes."
In short, creativity is about discovering new ideas, concepts, and practices that meet a need or solve a problem.
Have you ever heard of the Solomon Method?
Nathan's world-famous hot-dog eating contest has records dating back to 1972 (although it is rumored to date back to 1916). In 1972, a college student won the contest, gorging on 14 hot dogs in 3.5 minutes. This record grew each year until, by 2000, the record was just over 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
Enter Takeru Kobayashi - small-statured, 23-year-old Japanese contestant who doubled the previous record, eating 50 hot dogs. Not because he was fast or starving, but because he was creative about it.
Rather than eating each hot dog one-by-one, he creatively broke the hot dogs in half, soaked the buns in water, and ate them in what has become known as the Solomon method (named after the famous story of how a wise King Solomon threatened to split a baby in half to reveal the real mother).
Obviously, you're probably not looking at winning a hot-dog-eating contest, but the point here is that Kobayashi dominated the contest because he found a unique way to win.
He used his creativity.
So if you're among those who equate creativity with fine art, lengthy prose, or New York Times Best-Sellers, remember that electricity, telephones, and video games are all borne of creativity.
We All Have A Creative Side
Even the most left-brained individuals have used their creativity. While there are certainly "creative personalities," everyone has a creative side. Consider this: surely you have had an experience where you were stuck in a situation without the necessary tools to complete a task - we have all been there. What did you do?
You likely had to draw on your creative side to find a quick solution. While it may not have been perfect or ideal, it was something you thought of that worked to solve the problem.
Or perhaps you were home after a long day's work and needed to prepare something to eat, only to discover your fridge was bare save a few simple products. But you were so tired and hungry you made something up.
Creativity is a basic human element that, when tapped into, actually leads to happiness, according to experts. And since happy employees are more productive and engaged, it stands to reason that creativity helps us all around.
Bring Out Your Creative Side
If you are still seeing creativity as black-and-white, here are some suggestions to help you tap into the most creative you.
Imagine
"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will." --George Bernard Shaw
Whether you're designing an entire interior or writing up a business proposal, creativity comes in when you develop ways to get things done. One way to engage your creative side is to imagine the task at hand is already completed and is better than you could have imagined.
It might feel a little strange at first but start a narrative with yourself, explaining all the steps you took to accomplish the goal. It can be as wacky as you want it to be - surprisingly, you might come up with some incredibly creative ideas in doing so - but the idea is to toss in things that you may not even think to be possible.
Conversely, imagine a goal - personal or career - and "imagine if" it's already accomplished. What was the first step you took towards that goal? Who did you talk to? What was involved?
This exercise can be a lot of fun if done in a group because it allows for fun brainstorming which can lead to countless new ideas. Give it a try.
Put On Your Overalls
"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." --Edward de Bono
In a business environment, sometimes creativity can become stifled by the regular hum-drum of the day. On the other hand, being okay with getting messy - drop the fancy clothes and designer shoes and put on some overalls - and playing around with alternatives that our preconceived notions might prevent us from exploring can bring up solutions that you may not have thought of before.
Stop Being Perfect
"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things." --Ray Bradbury
While perfectionism has benefits, it is overwhelmingly unhealthy and can also be detrimental to your creativity. Coming up with creative solutions means letting go of preconceived notions of what should be, and considering what other possibilities may be out there. Consider that many of the most successful giants, first failed numerous times before finally coming up with the best.
Steve Jobs
Colonel Sanders
Stephen King
Walt Disney
Albert Einstein
Failure is not the opposite of success; it is a part of it. If you are busy trying to be perfect, you may be missing out on creative solutions and ideas that carry you outside of your comfort zone but lead to new insights.
There are no "right" ways to be creative. In fact, a rigid approach to creativity is the antithesis of it. Instead, embrace your own imperfection and allow yourself to play with your creativity. Try to think in new and different ways!
Be Curious
Do you ever wonder why something is, the way it is, but never take the time to find out why? Work each day to be more curious about life and the world around us. Actively engage in the moments of each day and question things - even seemingly mundane things - to get your mind flowing.
One technique employed by HubSpot is to create an "uncomfortable level of transparency" by letting employees from different departments join other teams for awhile. While an engineer might learn about customer service, a marketer might learn from seeing how things work in engineering. This gives employees different perspectives and insights, promoting creative solutions that help all departments.
With technology evolving as quickly as it is, the future of work is an unexplored playground that is impossible to predict. This means it's an exciting time for us to activate our creative minds and be prepared for whatever is yet to come. It's an exciting time in the world today.
What do you think? Reach out because I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!