Just imagine how creative you can be

I came across 2 pieces of information which both cover creativity and it really occurred to me that people in today’s stressful and busy life might just be forgetting the basics of creativity.

 The first one was a book review on “Imagine”, subtitled how creativity works by Jonah Lehrer. The philosopher David Hume, Lehrer notes, argued that invention was often an act of compounding an idea or transposing it from one field to another. As an example, Johannes Gutenberg transformed his knowledge of wine presses into an idea for a printing machine capable of mass-producing words;

 The http://www.innocentive.com/ website has shown that solutions to tough scientific problems are often solved by people working at the margins of their fields, which are able to think outside the box. In other words, Lehrer says “Chemists didn’t solve chemistry problems, they solved molecular biology problems, just as molecular biologists solved chemistry problems. Being able to step back and view things as an outsider, or from a slightly different angle, seems to promote creativity, Lehrer says and I couldn’t agree more.

As a consultant, I always promoted the idea of my “view by an outsider” to clients who were wondering why they should choose to work with me instead of trying to solve a management or marketing issue internally.

 The second half of the book is devoted to “group creativity”, examining what sort of collaborative dynamics tend to maximize innovation.

 In a section on “Pixar”, Lehrer recounts how Steve Jobs designed that studio to force employees to visit the building’s main atrium: mailboxes were shifted to the lobby, meeting rooms were moved to the centre of the building, followed by the cafeteria, coffee shop, gift shop and bathrooms. Jobs believed that the “best meetings happened by accident, in the hallway or parking lot”.

 I encourage group creativity as Coach and Mentor for start-ups as bouncing ideas is the only way to make an particular business idea a business success. Bringing together young talented entrepreneurs with financial, management and marketing consultants as well as lawyers and other specialists makes it possible for a business idea to be both scrutinized by “outsiders” and within a group. The synergy and collision of cultures and knowledge makes it possible to develop a business plan at a faster and more efficient pace. The networking created as a result is also part of the future success as both are critical to finding the Business Angels and other resources which make an idea “fly”.

 In the later pages of this engaging book by Lehrer, there is, to me, an important message to us all. “Instead of sharing links with just our friends, or commenting anonymously on blogs, or filtering the world with algorithms to fit our interests, we must engage with strangers and strange ideas”.

“The internet has such creative potential, so full of people eager to share their work and ideas. What we need now is a virtual world that brings us together for real.”

 The second piece I just listened to this morning is a video on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg, John Cleese on creativity.

 Not only is John Cleese an excellent actor and writer but he is a great presenter and I listened to the last second to his inspirational speech on creativity.

 I paid special attention to the five conditions to be creative that I will let you discover for yourselves. From being “open” to “closed”, from the importance of humor as a way of getting faster from the “closed” to “open” mode and lateral thinking, John Cleese reviewed it all with his sense of humor that will keep your full attention until the end of his speech.

 As a conclusion, I truly believe that creativity is key to the world’s evolution and will always exist provided we give ourselves proper pondering time in a positive way.