The Only Secret to Creativity is Really NOT Secret

Would you be surprised to learn that you already know what it takes to be innovative and creative?

 Sure, you can learn new and effective techniques, and you should! How to do brainstorming differently, how to suspend judgement and force yourself and your selected team to really massage an idea and talk about how to make it work, rather than discussing why it will not work. How to make sure you examine the box you are in first, before quickly trying to think outside it.

 But, as more and more contemporary research that I read is pointing to, the real catalyst of creativity is the courage to develop something different. This is beyond suggesting a new product or service, but making a prototype, creating some support, and being open enough to have your suggestion change and improve.

 I mean both personal and institutional courage.

 To have a healthy enough self-esteem so that when you are told "No" many times, you learn from the Nos and refine your idea; you improve the way you communicate your idea. You push ahead and find out why it would not work according to the No-ers and adapt.

 The institutional courage to not bury a good idea that comes from a rival; the courage to foster crazy notions that seem outside the scope of your company or at odds with prevailing SOPs; the courage to tolerate employees discussing ideas from different industries and spending thinking time on, seemingly, non-product related issues. The courage to invest time and money into certain concepts without knowing if it will work.

 In his successful 2009 book (the cover of which is my opening photo), Hugh Macleod writes that "Everybody is born creative" and that "Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity". Oh, and the book is titled “Ignore Everybody”. * And to do that, to hold fast to your idea, your solution amid lots of Nos, that takes lots of courage. Courage which all the icons that business points to as creative and innovative have.

 And courage is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. And if you do not risk, if you do not exercise your courage, it will shrink.

So, time to begin?

 *Reference: Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod, 2009, the Penguin Group.