Creativity is defined as the productive use of ideas and imagination.
Unfortunately, because of widespread preconceptions about creativity,
people tend to go about it the wrong way. Here are the three rules of creativity—two
of which are counter-intuitive—that will improve your approach to creativity. I
realize that “creative rules” may seem like an oxymoron, but the first rule
will put that idea to rest.
Rule #1 – Limit Your Options & Narrow Your Focus
A false definition of creativity is “considering all ideas.” It sounds
appealing to consider all possibilities, but it’s also impossible. And even if
we could do it, which ones are we to use if there are an infinite
number of them?
Don’t aim to “be creative,” either. That means nothing. Aim to write a
creative storyline. Set out to design a creative business model.
Be specific about what your aim is, and it will constrain your creative ideas
in a way that’s useful. It’s counterintuitive to consider fewer options, but
being specific is a boon to creativity.
To be creative, you need hard constraints within which to work. And there’s
even a study to prove it.
A study on knitters of equal skill
found that those who had moderate yarn choices—as opposed to a significant
number of choices—created more creative scarves (as determined by impartial
judges). The scarves made from more yarn choices look rather dull and
uninspired in my opinion, and they are all “scarf-shaped.” The scarves made
from fewer choices, though, have more dynamic patterns and shapes, and one was
even made to look like a snake! See for yourself which scarves you think are
more creative.
Narrowing Your Focus: A Creative Marketing Example
One of my favorite examples of
creativity was what Mark Hughes, former Vice President of Marketing at Half.com, did to get the company national
media attention. Under Hughes’ guidance, the company struck a deal with the
city of Halfway, Oregon to rename the city “Half.com, Oregon” for one year. It was the first city to ever
be renamed to a website, and a unique enough story to get the attention of
national media (a major marketing success).
But how would you come to a
creative idea like this? I don’t know his exact process, but it may have gone
something like this:
- Creative marketing idea needed for website.
- Something that’s never been done.
- Renaming something else with the company name, Half.com
- What sounds close to Half.com? Halftime, half and half milk products…Hmmm…maybe something bigger and more noteworthy? What would shock everyone? Renaming a road wouldn’t be noteworthy. But a city? That would be something.
Again, his process was certainly
different than this, but notice how the narrowing and specifying actually lead
to greater and greater creativity.
When they got to this crazy idea of
renaming a city to Half.com, they wrote down
several cities with “half” in their name. After making calls, and gauging
interest, they continued to work to make it happen, and offered Halfway, Oregon
compensation and perks in exchange for the renaming to make it mutually
beneficial (as well as the perk of being “put on the map” with such a unique
story).
Six months after the story got Half.com an invaluable amount of exposure
through national media, eBay bought them for $300 million. This story is found
in greater detail in Hughes’ excellent book, Buzz Marketing.
The takeaway from this story is
that in order to come to a highly creative idea like this, thinking must get
narrower and narrower. Don’t be afraid to narrow down early on in the
process—you can always zoom out again if you don’t like where it’s leading you.
The problem many people have when
trying to be creative is thinking so broadly that they won’t commit to explore
an idea. This KILLS creativity. Set some limits (even time limits) and remember
that limits help, not hurt, your creativity.
Rule #2 – Believe You’re Creative
Creativity is largely defined by
your self-perception. A group of psychologists were hired to come into a
corporation and determine the difference between creative and uncreative
employees. The only difference they found was belief—the creative ones
believed they were creative.
Some people believe creativity is a
mysterious and magical thing, and that you’re born with it or not. These people
are wrong; and they would have trouble explaining how the “uncreative” people
at the aforementioned company became “many times more creative” than the
creative ones. They became more creative through a creativity program,
suggesting that creativity is a learnable skill. I read about this story
in Michael Michalko’s book, Thinkertoys.
Believe you’re creative and that
you can improve further. It’s essential for creative success.
Rule #3 – Embrace “Bad” Ideas
The idea of a “bad” idea is bad.
Ideas aren’t bad because they’re just ideas. When a bad idea is acted
upon, of course it can be harmful. Counterintuitively, bad ideas are a boon to
creativity because they can easily combine with another idea to become a good
idea.
Jumping off a tall bridge is a bad
idea—it kills people. But if you discard it because it’s a bad idea, you might
never think of bungie jumping, which adds a tether to the “bad idea” to give
you a rush while keeping you safe. Bungie jumping is a multi-million
dollar per year business for thrill seekers.
Bad ideas often turn into the best
ideas. Since bad ideas are avoided by most people who try to be creative with
“only good ideas,” there’s less creative competition in bad ideas, and you’re
more likely to come up with something truly creative and unique. Just ask Ed
Debevic, who didn’t even change his bad idea, he just made it into a good one
by reframing it in our minds.
Ed Debevic’s restaurant in Chicago
is rude to customers. That’s a bad idea because we all know the customer comes
first and is always right, right? But this exact bad idea is what makes Ed
Debevic’s a very popular tourist destination; it’s one of the few places where you
can get servers so rude that it’s comical. I’d like to go someday because it
sounds hilarious, but I hear the food is average at best (sorry Ed).
When you limit your options,
believe you’re creative, and entertain “bad ideas” as viable starting points,
your creativity will improve. Try it!
Creativity is defined as the productive use of ideas and imagination.
Unfortunately, because of widespread preconceptions about creativity, people tend to go about it the wrong way. Here are the three rules of creativity—two of which are counter-intuitive—that will improve your approach to creativity. I realize that “creative rules” may seem like an oxymoron, but the first rule will put that idea to rest.
Don’t aim to “be creative,” either. That means nothing. Aim to write a creative storyline. Set out to design a creative business model. Be specific about what your aim is, and it will constrain your creative ideas in a way that’s useful. It’s counterintuitive to consider fewer options, but being specific is a boon to creativity.
To be creative, you need hard constraints within which to work. And there’s even a study to prove it.
A study on knitters of equal skill found that those who had moderate yarn choices—as opposed to a significant number of choices—created more creative scarves (as determined by impartial judges). The scarves made from more yarn choices look rather dull and uninspired in my opinion, and they are all “scarf-shaped.” The scarves made from fewer choices, though, have more dynamic patterns and shapes, and one was even made to look like a snake! See for yourself which scarves you think are more creative.
Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/three-rules-creativity/#wcm5pkGbU37Zub9J.99
Unfortunately, because of widespread preconceptions about creativity, people tend to go about it the wrong way. Here are the three rules of creativity—two of which are counter-intuitive—that will improve your approach to creativity. I realize that “creative rules” may seem like an oxymoron, but the first rule will put that idea to rest.
Rule #1 – Limit Your Options & Narrow Your Focus
A false definition of creativity is “considering all ideas.” It sounds appealing to consider all possibilities, but it’s also impossible. And even if we could do it, which ones are we to use if there are an infinite number of them?Don’t aim to “be creative,” either. That means nothing. Aim to write a creative storyline. Set out to design a creative business model. Be specific about what your aim is, and it will constrain your creative ideas in a way that’s useful. It’s counterintuitive to consider fewer options, but being specific is a boon to creativity.
To be creative, you need hard constraints within which to work. And there’s even a study to prove it.
A study on knitters of equal skill found that those who had moderate yarn choices—as opposed to a significant number of choices—created more creative scarves (as determined by impartial judges). The scarves made from more yarn choices look rather dull and uninspired in my opinion, and they are all “scarf-shaped.” The scarves made from fewer choices, though, have more dynamic patterns and shapes, and one was even made to look like a snake! See for yourself which scarves you think are more creative.
Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/three-rules-creativity/#wcm5pkGbU37Zub9J.99
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