The difference between stagnant businesses and businesses that flourish is the ability to constantly create something new. Businesses thrive off new ideas and energy to implement them. To stay on your feet you need to try new things, grow, and evolve. Coming up with great ideas is a process. The mind needs to be in an environment that breeds creativity.
How do you create an environment suitable for growing creativity?
There are many different ways to go about this. Creativity is all about options. Marc Barros wrote in an article titled 5 Ways to Bring Creativity Back to Your Culture, that you can get back your creative spark by breaking the typical work rules. He recommends giving employees more freedom by offering unlimited vacation, scrapping meetings, and allowing employees to work from home. Barros suggests that when employees have more freedom to work when, where, and how they want, it enhances their ability to think creatively. Limiting the structure and repetition in your work gives the creative mind more room to breathe and the ideas flow more freely.
Another approach is to apply your own restrictions. Tanner Christensen wrote a list of Top 10 Ways to Fuel Your Creativity, of which #8 is to jolt your thinking. To do this, you apply a limitation that forces creativity through struggle. This technique was used by Dr. Seuss when he wrote I am Sam. The limitation was to write a book using only 50 words.
Asking a lot of questions is another method that made Christensen’s top 10 list. This is essentially brainstorming through questions that then form various random ideas that eventually piece back together to solve a problem. By asking a bunch of questions that cover different perspectives of a problem, you then think up answers.
Another form of adding a restriction is by being completely random. Christensen suggests choosing random word to focus on and then trying to think up ideas related to that particular word. Number 1 on his list is to quit worrying about risks. When you have a good idea, just run with it!
A common theme on both of these articles is to try new things in order to come up with new ideas. When you’re stuck in the same routine your mind gets comfortable. A mind that is comfortable has no reason to grow and adapt. Getting out of your comfort zone forces your mind to think differently because you’re doing something new. Take a new route to work and pay attention what you see on the way. Meet new people and be open to the new perspectives they offer. Switch things up to keep your mind awake and alert. Everyone can be creative if they allow their mind the space for new ideas.
