I’m told with great regularity that I am an extremely creative guy. I usually just shrug my shoulders, largely because I don’t know how to be any other way. As Jessica Rabbit once said, “I was just drawn that way.”
I thought I was just born that way. But now I have found that I was wrong. I wasn’t born this way at all. Everyone out there – you included – can get the same creative chops.
I only know this because I happened upon a really interesting article in the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago. I profess, I initially read How to Be Creative because I wanted to reject its many premises. But as I read it, I could see a lot of myself in it and it seems, according to the latest research, that we can all be more creative, that it’s not rooted in our DNA, but in the way we conduct our lives.
If you don’t have time to read the article, here’s the Reader’s Digest version. But do scroll down to the bottom of the article on WSJ and read the tips for being more creative. It’s well worth it.
I must say that this is pretty freaking cool stuff. Basically, creativity is a learned skill. It’s something anyone can get better at with practice. There are no mystical voices from beyond giving the likes of Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan their amazing powers of creation and no muses. It’s a skill, folks.
This has only come to light in the last decade, by the way. For centuries, creativity was mystical, even magical. As such, it was often looked upon with suspicion, particularly by grade school teachers who wanted you to know that there was only one right answer to a question! But I digress.
So, how did I become so creative? And how can you? Here’s what the research shows, and as I said, it’s pretty cool stuff.
First, big breakthroughs most often come in areas that are outside your area of expertise. If you want to be creative, you need to become curious about the entire world around you. Cross pollination is essential. For instance, Post-It notes came about for one reason only – an engineer at 3M had watched a presentation on a very weak glue. Useless. Then, one day in church, he noticed that he was continually losing his bookmarks, pieces of paper slipped into the hymnal. Right then and there, during a very boring sermon, the idea of Post-Its suddenly came into his head.
Science has found that insight comes from a specific part of the brain, the superior anterior temporal gyrus, or aSTG for short. It excels at drawing together information that is only distantly related – the very thing that leads to creative breakthroughs.
How do you access it? Humor is one way, such as watching comedy. Alcohol is another pathway. How? Both diversions allow you to relax. Creativity comes when you check out of the world for a moment and the most surprising revelations – creativity – come when you’re not paying attention to the world around you. That’s right, coming up with a creative solution requires you to stop focusing on the problem.
Want to be creative? Change your routine. Do something silly. Take a long shower. Have a couple beers and then nap. Sing. Daydream. And once something comes into your head, edit it mercilessly. Creativity is hard work. The initial answer you come up with won’t usually be the final one.
Case in point. Milton Glaser designed for a living. If it hadn’t been for his merciless editing, he may have never come up with a symbol that is the most mimicked in the world. He originally came up with the slogan “I Love New York.” He did it in a stylish font that everybody loved. But he kept editing his idea. One day, in the middle of gridlock in downtown NYC, it came to him. He wrote out the slogan, substituting a heart for the word Love with his ever present notebook.
Here’s another secret. Fill your head with everything you can. Become a good student of the world. Engage it. Soak it up. In order to be creative, you need lots of raw materials in your head. The more you have available, the easier it is to connect the dots.
I was touched that Steve Jobs described the creative process just as I have for years. Creativity doesn’t come out of thin air. It’s all about “connecting the dots” of what you already know. For example, the Gutenberg’s printing press didn’t just appear one day out of thin air. Gutenberg knew a thing or two about making wine and used the principles of a wine press to make a printing press. Take what you know and connect it to things you also know, even if they seem totally unrelated.
Oh, and your friends? Get to know a lot of people from different walks of life. If all you know is accountants, you’re only going to get an accountant’s answer. Get to know engineers, artists, musicians, doctors, lawyers – learn their world as well as yours and you’ll start to see your own through a different set of eyes.
As you may have noticed through my own writing, I eschew conformity and normalcy. These are the breeding ground of routine and routine is the antithesis of what is needed for creative pursuits. If you indulge in routines, then you never step out of your comfort zone to see things in a new light.
Case in point. There’s a site called InnoCentive. It is the place where organizations post their most difficult problems, ones they haven’t been able to solve internally. Almost 30% of these vexing problems are solved within six months by InnoCentive members. How? Because they can do something those inside an organization can’t – see the problem from the perspective of an outsider, a newbie. They aren’t saddled with the preconceptions and limitations of a homogenous environment.
And that is one of the biggest secrets of being creative. You have to become a student of the world again – the 7 year old where 2+2 doesn’t necessarily equal 4. Wander the world, fall in love with it all over again. Expose yourself to things that are new and perhaps even a bit uncomfortable to you. Challenge your brain to make new connections. We all have the capacity to be extremely creative. But it takes practice.
OK class. Time to get to work. Pull out a piece of paper and your finger paints and start on your assignment. Trust me, it’s a blast!!!!
Out on the Treasure Coast, dreaming of things that never were and maybe never can be,
– Robb