BE Picasso: THREE smart ways to nurture your creativity

Silhouettes: A dance team from Denver CO, contestants
America's Got Talent.  VERY Cool & SO CREATIVE
See them in Action Here

"I am not creative".

I can't tell you how many times I have heard those four little deadly words come from the mouth of a professional.  Know this: YOU are CREATIVE.  It is alive in you and may be dormant after years of not using your creativity but it is there and if you create the right conditions for yourself (and your team members, direct reports, organization, kids, family, etc) it will freely flow.

You can BE your own Picasso!

Can you create the right conditions for nurturing creativity? YES you can.  The following THREE conditions will get you started.

#1: Create parameters for your creativity

When you tell someone or a group of someone's "BE creative" you get a lot of blank stares.  An endless universe of possibilities will actually stifle creativity because it paralyzes people when there is too much to choose from.  You need parameters to work within.  Let me give you an example.  In my presentation building workshops there is a lot of group work and opportunity to be creative.  In order to create the right conditions for creative ideas to flow forth I say "Create a five minute presentation".

NO! I don't say that.  Create a five minute presentation does not inspire ideas or movement on the part of the group it just makes them feel stuck--stuck like a brokedown car on the side of the creativity highway.

Instead I say: "Create a five minute career day presentation for a classroom of 10 year olds".  Now there are some parameters to work with.  If I sense the group is struggling, I will sit down and provide a little more.  "Imagine this group of 10 year olds are in art class (or science or math)"  or "Imagine these kids did a career assessment and they tested high for architecture and engineering" or "Imagine these kids come from homes where education is not a priority, their parents don't have high school diplomas and no one has ever been to college".  My job is to "water and feed" the artist in each person in the group so that they can plug into their inner Picasso.

A few years ago I was working with a group of architects in a leadership group.  One of their assignments was to create a career day presentation.  Lauren, a smart and talented architect chose to do her presentation for a third grade girl scout troop (love the specificity of her audience!).  She came in to do the presentation for me and started by handing my a big zip loc bag filled with construction paper, glue, scissors, and a pencil.  Her presentation walked me (a third grade girl scout) through the process of designing a school.  With each step I used something from my goodie bag to design my own school.

The presentation was in a word BRILLIANT (I still get a little teary eyed when I remember it!).

Once you draw the lines to work within, the next step for nurturing creativity is to

#2. BE ready to LABOR & BE OK with it.

Creativity, like anything else worthwhile, is a process. Part of that process is not fun.  In fact it sucks.  It might be a stage where you feel stuck, frustrated, exhausted, angry, defeated, agonized and more.  And it is OK.  It is a part of the process.  Sit in it.  Muck around in it.  This part of the process is necessary and good.  This stage is where break-throughs happen.  Just when you feel like you are careening off the side of the mountain--SPARK! FIRE! FLAME! GENUIS! will happen.  I know because I have been there.  I have watched it happen.  

Typically when you reach this stage you bail.  This reaction is certainly understandable as this stage is uncomfortable and awkward (especially if you are working with a group).  I can think of no better resource to direct you toward than Sally Hogshead's slide share on this stage of the creativity process.  She calls it "Sit on the Throne of Agony" and you should take a few minutes to investigate.  Click here to view "Sit on the Throne of Agony"

Our final condition then?  Yes let's do it.

#3: Change your environment.  

A stuffy office conference room is not the ideal spot for a creativity love fest.  Foster conditions that are outside of normal to encourage creativity.  Go on field trips.  Visit museums, take a car trip down the interstate and look at billboard signs.  Go somewhere and watch people and how they behave.  Do something.  Something different!  Go outside and work in the air, sunlight, birds chirping and breeze blowing.  Creativity needs some time outside the rigmarole of office life: phones, computers, interruptions, deadlines, email, voicemail, facebook, irritating co-workers, irritating boss (haha) and more.  

Inspiration Exists but it has to find
us working | Pablo Picasso

I think Picasso and the other great masters would agree.  There is an artist in all of us.  There is one living in you.  Throughout life our creativity gets beat out of us through our education, business life and more.  But it is there.  If you take the time to create the right conditions to nurture it, like a sleeping giant, it will emerge.  

I wish you much success in your CREATIVE endeavors!

Don't Blame the BOX: My ode to the cardboard box + death to the business cliche

I love the English language. I abhor cliche. Cliche is lazy. Of all the worst cliches used in the business world,  the hands down winner is

"THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX"

Did you throw up in your mouth a little?  So did I.  This most terrible cliche suggests in some way that the "box"  limits our creativity and opportunity to be inspired. Don't blame the box.

If you were once a kid (and we all were) I can imagine you spent at least one day playing in a cardboard box. You might have been an astronaut in your spaceship, a robber using your box as a get away car or a princess playing in her fairy tale castle. And if you are a parent I am sure you have spent a Christmas morning laughing that your kids enjoy the box their present came in more than the actual present itself.

Thanks to my friend Jeremy Ellis (who was once a boy and remembers the possibilities of a great cardboard box) I watched the loveliest short film from Studio Canoe aptly titled "Adventures of a Cardboard Box".  It illustrates the beauty and endless possibilities of a cardboard box.

You probably had a smile on your face the whole time and loved all the fun that was had with that cardboard box. My favorite is the quick homage to Ghostbusters. I also loved the Indiana Jones shout out.  You may have not counted while you watched but I counted FORTY different ways the young boy and his sister used the box to create fun and adventure for themselves.  FORTY WAYS TO USE A CARDBOARD BOX! 

The takeaway is simple. Quit blaming the box.

The box is not the reason you lack creativity or miss the opportunity to be open to inspiration. The box in fact is the perfect parameters by which inspiration and creativity can flourish. This begs the question

Why is it so darn hard to be creative? 

If there is a finger to point I start first with the public school system for our collective lack of creativity. When does it happen?  If I were to pinpoint an exact time I blame the third grade. It is at this point that things get serious and it starts with cursive writing. So many rules!  No room to develop your own unique style of writing!  And I ask you: who writes in cursive anymore?  Very few people do except maybe my mom and all third grade teachers.  But the great creativity zap does not happen in one fail swoop. The process to deactivate our creativity is systematic and little by little our creative juices seem to dry up like a lemon left out in the hot Texas sun.

Time for art, music, recess and other perfect places for creativity to reveal itself are getting shorter and shorter in the school day and in some school districts there is NO time in the day for these things. Fine arts budgets get slimmer and slimmer every year in favor of academics (yes important) and sports (yes important too).  So where are we going to tap into our creative aptitude?

At home, exploring and adventure and fantasy have been replaced by video games, the computer, endless supplies of bad TV.  Gone are the days that kids roamed their neighborhoods on a bike seeking adventure and play.  As a kid myself, I spent HOURS across the street from my childhood home playing at the park, BY MYSELF, creating a rich fantasy land for myself.

Add to that the over scheduled, over involved life of the average 10 year old and there is little time to simply be a kid. 

We are all creative.  Typically our creativity manifests itself in one aspect of our lives either personally or professionally.  Where does your creativity reveal itself?  If you have blank stare on your face with a "what you talking bout Willis" line on the tip of your tongue: It is there--I assure you.  If it has been laying dormant like a sleeping lion all these years how do you unleash the beast within?  I will save the answer for the next post and tackle this burning question "Can I be MORE CREATIVE in my life?"  The answer is a resounding yes and I can't wait to show you how.

Until then, go and find an empty box and see what you can come up with!

KoppelLine

Jeff (my husband) and I just got back from Chicago where he attended a professional conference and I ate and walked and then ate some more. One of the big names that opened the first general session of the conference was none other than Ted Koppel. I'm still not clear on why an old news guy was speaking at a financial investment conference, but his speech provides a lesson in the value of candor and unexpectedness as a public speaker.

One of the elements of presentations that Libby and I talk about over and over is the importance of gaining the attention of your audience as soon as you start talking. This is just what Koppel did. According to Jeff, as soon as Ted Koppel came onto the stage, Jeff and everyone around him were struck by how short Koppel is. Wisely understanding how distracted his audience could be, Mr. Koppel succinctly addressed it in a humorous and lighthearted way: "I know what you're thinking" he said as he glanced at the much taller fellow next to him. Notice how disarming and unexpected such an acknowledgment is! It immediately shifts the focus of the audience from his height to him.

Another surprising and very unexpected element of Koppel's presentation was his use of humor to get the attention of the audience. Now, you may be thinking that the use of humor is not a novel way to start a speech. But wait! There's more! It was unexpected, not because it was funny, but because of what it was about. Ted Koppel told three, um, how shall I say . . . penis jokes. Yes, you read that right.

Oddly enough, his opening jokes were not in any way related to his core message (which, as you know, breaks a cardinal rule in presentations). Libby and I always teach that every word you say from the time you open your mouth to the time you close it should be directly relevant to your core message. However, Koppel gets a pass -- and here's why.

Ted Koppel had already established a great deal of credibility with his audience. Anybody remember those 25 years of Nightline? He was actually facing a different challenge than most of us when we give presentations: whereas we use the early portion of our presentations to create identification and credibility with our listeners, Koppel used his to combat widely held beliefs about his character and personality. By creating surprise in his listeners, he effectively forced them to open their minds to what would come next.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not advocating the use of off-color jokes to begin your next presentation. And I don't suggest that you reveal private things about yourself (unless they are readily apparent to your audience and have the potential to distract your listeners). But, take a lesson from Ted Koppel and surprise your audience every once in a while. Even if they only remember what surprised them and not your complete message, you will be the one they leave the meeting/interview/presentation talking about.

-- Millie Shaw