Steps to Creativity

07/06/2011

Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won't buy the wag of his tail.
Josh Billings, 1818-1885, writer

"To approach a workplace problem creatively, we need to be fluent, flexible thinkers," says author Michael Michalko in his book Cracking Creativity, reported in Work & Family Life (July 2011). As he sees it, fluency just means coming up with lots of ideas, and flexibility means looking for new ways to think about a subject — any subject. Here’s Michalko’s five-step process:

Defer judgment. Get your juices flowing, but wait to decide which ideas are worth developing.

Generate lots of ideas. Most of your ideas may end up being discarded, but all it takes is one or two good ones to make a difference.

List ideas as they arise. A good idea can disappear the minute you get distracted by your daily routines. Keep a written record of your ideas and musings.

Keep on tweaking. Elaborate and improve on the ideas you and your coworkers have generated. Look for novel combinations, surprises, and new perspectives.

Do something different. Good ideas need time to incubate. Tap into your subconscious. Take a walk. Visit an art gallery. Then return to thinking about the problem and see what new ideas emerge.

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