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Many thanks,
Ayd
Friday, January 09, 2009
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Now is Not the Time to be Sensible
Being cautious is what causes slowdowns which lead to a run on the bank. The time when everyone wants to cling on to what they've got, to not take risks and bury heads in sand is exactly the time when you should get up and get out there.
We call the area around us where we feel safe our 'comfort zone'. This is where we retreat to when we feel under threat. But the answers to our problems are not to be found in our comfort zones. We have to step out and that means taking risks.
Creativity is all about taking risks. What happens if it doesn't work? What happens if I look foolish? The creative individual doesn't even ask those questions. Only a risk-averse, self-judging, low confidence loser even bothers to waste time worrying about such things.
Why? Because the creative winner knows that if the same path is followed, it will get the same results. And if the economic landscape is shifting, those results aren't even going to be as good as before. So doing the same (or less) is very, very bad.
"Oh, the phones aren't ringing". Why not try calling someone? Doing something different - actually trying to 'sell' for once (see quote at top of page) - actually doing some targeted measurable marketing - actually defining what your key problems are and working on solutions - improving service and quality. These are the things we need to be doing.
After all - if no-one else is doing it (including your competition probably) you'll have the playing field to yourself.
Being sensible is dangerous and deadly. It's boring. Being boring will destroy your business. No-one cares about you - they're too busy thinking about their own problems. Why should they look up from their own wonderfully delicious doom and gloom to see what you've got? They won't want to risk good money and time on boring and sensible - they won't even notice you.
But if you took the risk and stood out from the crowd and stopped talking about what you've got and what you do and started talking about other people and their pain and how you can solve their problems. What would happen then?
Perhaps you'll not only survive - but thrive. What a silly thing to do.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
We call the area around us where we feel safe our 'comfort zone'. This is where we retreat to when we feel under threat. But the answers to our problems are not to be found in our comfort zones. We have to step out and that means taking risks.
Creativity is all about taking risks. What happens if it doesn't work? What happens if I look foolish? The creative individual doesn't even ask those questions. Only a risk-averse, self-judging, low confidence loser even bothers to waste time worrying about such things.
Why? Because the creative winner knows that if the same path is followed, it will get the same results. And if the economic landscape is shifting, those results aren't even going to be as good as before. So doing the same (or less) is very, very bad.
"Oh, the phones aren't ringing". Why not try calling someone? Doing something different - actually trying to 'sell' for once (see quote at top of page) - actually doing some targeted measurable marketing - actually defining what your key problems are and working on solutions - improving service and quality. These are the things we need to be doing.
After all - if no-one else is doing it (including your competition probably) you'll have the playing field to yourself.
Being sensible is dangerous and deadly. It's boring. Being boring will destroy your business. No-one cares about you - they're too busy thinking about their own problems. Why should they look up from their own wonderfully delicious doom and gloom to see what you've got? They won't want to risk good money and time on boring and sensible - they won't even notice you.
But if you took the risk and stood out from the crowd and stopped talking about what you've got and what you do and started talking about other people and their pain and how you can solve their problems. What would happen then?
Perhaps you'll not only survive - but thrive. What a silly thing to do.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
The Genius of Oliver Postgate
Oliver Postage died this month. His voice, instantly recognisable to millions of British children, harks back to a fairer, more generous, more innocent time. A time of wonder, of looking up to the nights sky and wondering about life on a small blue planet in space and the strange whistling knitted creatures that live there. His animated stories of 'The Clangers' gave us a sense of politeness and calm. A world of soup dragons and copper trees, of magic froglets and music that grew on trees that you could use to power a flying boat (or to eat). "It's nice to have visitors" said Oliver's narration, "but sometimes it's even nicer to see them go".
'Ivor the Engine' told us the stories of a Welsh steam engine who sang in the choir. The stillness and warmth of the tales gave children a sense of peace and friendship not found in modern television storytelling with its crashes, bangs and rushing around. My three year old son loves Ivor. He has a tiny toy train and imagines his own adventures, making the sound, "Sher-ta-coo, sher-ta-coo" as his plays.
The same alternative energy was found in the most loved children's programme of all time, 'Bagpuss'. The story of the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical, saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. He lived in the window of a junk shop who came to life with all his friends, to mend whatever item Emily brought to the shop.
As you may remember, the Clangers spoke only in whistles. This is what Oliver Postgate said about that challenge:
"They spoke a language of very articulate whistling squeak, which needed to be translated from its natural medium of nuclear magnetic resonance (there being no air to carry sound) into audible terms. The nearest I could get to that was to write out the script in full and then persuade Stephen Sylvester to help me record the dialogue...by reading it, or rather playing the inflections of it, on a selection of Swannee whistles. In this way I was hoping to make a sort of wild-life film in which, by listening carefully, the viewer would be able to understand what was being said and work out what was going on ... I made a separate voice-over tape, a sort of intermittent running-commentary on what was going on. It worked quite well but I have always wondered how the films would go in their original form.
I did try it once, I took an episode of The Clangers to the 1984 E.B.U. conference in Germany and showed it to the participants without my voice-over. Afterwards I asked them whether they had been able to understand what the Clangers were saying. 'But of course.' they replied. "They are speaking perfect German.' 'But no.' said Gerd, 'That is not so. They spoke only Swedish.'"
See the remarkable and creative story of the making of the films here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
'Ivor the Engine' told us the stories of a Welsh steam engine who sang in the choir. The stillness and warmth of the tales gave children a sense of peace and friendship not found in modern television storytelling with its crashes, bangs and rushing around. My three year old son loves Ivor. He has a tiny toy train and imagines his own adventures, making the sound, "Sher-ta-coo, sher-ta-coo" as his plays.
The same alternative energy was found in the most loved children's programme of all time, 'Bagpuss'. The story of the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical, saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. He lived in the window of a junk shop who came to life with all his friends, to mend whatever item Emily brought to the shop.
As you may remember, the Clangers spoke only in whistles. This is what Oliver Postgate said about that challenge:
"They spoke a language of very articulate whistling squeak, which needed to be translated from its natural medium of nuclear magnetic resonance (there being no air to carry sound) into audible terms. The nearest I could get to that was to write out the script in full and then persuade Stephen Sylvester to help me record the dialogue...by reading it, or rather playing the inflections of it, on a selection of Swannee whistles. In this way I was hoping to make a sort of wild-life film in which, by listening carefully, the viewer would be able to understand what was being said and work out what was going on ... I made a separate voice-over tape, a sort of intermittent running-commentary on what was going on. It worked quite well but I have always wondered how the films would go in their original form.
I did try it once, I took an episode of The Clangers to the 1984 E.B.U. conference in Germany and showed it to the participants without my voice-over. Afterwards I asked them whether they had been able to understand what the Clangers were saying. 'But of course.' they replied. "They are speaking perfect German.' 'But no.' said Gerd, 'That is not so. They spoke only Swedish.'"
See the remarkable and creative story of the making of the films here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Friday, October 31, 2008
Creative Space
Your working environment and surroundings are far more important than people realise when working on creative projects. Process jobs like administration, manual labour and accounting can be done anywhere within reason but to be able to think of ideas, write, draw or design, the surroundings become an extention of you and you part of them.
If you find you have 'writer's block', feel distracted or uninspired it's often because your surroundings are relating to you in the wrong way. The wrong sort of noise, mess, dirt and clutter outside you become refelected in your creative mind which then can't perform.
Before starting on a project or creative session, tidy up everything that does not relate to the task in hand. It's fine to have mess and clutter that is diretly related to the project, but everything else must go. You need to create outside you the space you want reflected inside your mind. A tidy desk and office gives you space inside to think and breathe. Being surrounded by things, sounds, smells and people that inspire you will make massive changes to your creative productivity.
Try this tip: get everything off your desk - yes I mean everything. Put it all in boxes or folders, neatly out of sight. Wipe the desk down. Then put back only the things you need to work on during the next two hours. Leave everything else packed away. See how you get on.
Last month I spoke at the launch of the Portfolio Innovation Centre in Northampton. It's a centre for small creative businesses to supply them with the right creative space to live and breath their craft. If you're in that area, contact Wendy on 01604 779000 and take a look. The event was a great success, organised by Enthuse PR who specialise in organising PR for businesses who want tangible results. Contact Rachel on 01933 666091. You can read the press story about the event here.
Photo: Louise O'Callaghan
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Thursday, October 02, 2008
On the radio
I was interviewed on the radio this week, and not on my usual topic. The programme was on BBC Radio Suffolk and the theme was if you knew your friend or family member was being cheated on by their partner, would you tell them? Should you tell them? I put the case that you should and that the truth is important. (If it was you being cheated on, wouldn't you want to know?).
The reason I was involved was because I'd written a book called 'How to Survive Infidelity'. The interview was done over the phone, live. I drew upon what little I knew from previous radio interviews and my limited media training; have a single point you want to get across and no matter what questions are asked, make sure you get that point over. I've learnt from experience that if you wait for them to ask you the golden question that allows you to get your message out there, you'll be disappointed by the end which comes all too quickly. Instead, interviewers usually ask questions that take your further away from what you'd like to talk about.
My message was that I'd written the book and it helped people survive infidelity. I managed to squeeze in the website address. So how did I do, talking about a topic I don't really talk about, live and with little idea the direction of the interviewer? You can listen yourself here.
The book by the way is available as a download, here. If you're planning to use the media, consider some advice from the experts. Have a look at what Alan Steven's got to offer.
How to Survive and Thrive in Difficult Times
In difficult times the creativity of you and your team, can be your biggest asset. Following on from my article last month on why there has never been a better time to do buisiness than right now, I've teamed up with Business Link to create a half-day workshop on how we can kick-start our creativity and use it to innovate and troublehsoot our businesses for hidden profit.
This interactive workshop will help you focus on your product or service in a different and more creative way. It will help you improve your offer and in doing so increase sales and profit. You will spend time on your business and work on action points that you can implement after the workshop.
We'll be looking at how to be more creative in problem solving, how to increase in sales and save costs, how small changes can have a dramatic effect as well as looking at how your brand values and marketing messages work in the minds of your potential customers.
It'll be thought proving and fun and you'll leave with a set of creative tools and ideas you may not have come across before.
The workshops are FREE (bookings need to be made in advance)
8th October, 8:30am - 12:30pm at National Badminton Centre, Bradwell Road, Loughton Lodge, MILTON KEYNES, Buckinghamshire, MK8 9LA
12th November, 8:30am - 12:30pm at The Oxford Centre, 333 Banbury Road, OXFORD, Oxfordshire, OX2 7PL
To see more details and sign up click here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
This interactive workshop will help you focus on your product or service in a different and more creative way. It will help you improve your offer and in doing so increase sales and profit. You will spend time on your business and work on action points that you can implement after the workshop.
We'll be looking at how to be more creative in problem solving, how to increase in sales and save costs, how small changes can have a dramatic effect as well as looking at how your brand values and marketing messages work in the minds of your potential customers.
It'll be thought proving and fun and you'll leave with a set of creative tools and ideas you may not have come across before.
The workshops are FREE (bookings need to be made in advance)
8th October, 8:30am - 12:30pm at National Badminton Centre, Bradwell Road, Loughton Lodge, MILTON KEYNES, Buckinghamshire, MK8 9LA
12th November, 8:30am - 12:30pm at The Oxford Centre, 333 Banbury Road, OXFORD, Oxfordshire, OX2 7PL
To see more details and sign up click here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Thursday, August 14, 2008
There has never been a better time to do business than right now
"But times are hard, the economy's slowing and inflation is up" say the little voices all around us. That may be the case, and that's precisely why right now is the best time to do business.
Many small businesses think they're in the business of selling their products or of supplying their services. Successful businesses, those that thrive in more trying times, are those that realise this is not quite the case. In reality, every business is a problem-solver. They exist to solve their customers problems. They exist to make the customer money by driving up profits, save the customer money by reducing costs, or to make the customer look and feel good in some way.
These are all problems that our customers have, and in trying times these problems do not go away, in fact they often increase. So to a keen problem-solving business there's plenty to be getting on with. We have to work out ways that we can be more creative in selling, marketing and positioning our problem-solving products and services. Can we turn our troubleshooting skills in on ourselves to hit upon the ideas that will reduce our own costs or increase our own profits? How can we become expert, flexible and creative problem-solvers?
We must understand and unlock our individual and our company’s collective creativity. In affluent times, creativity and innovation are often seen as soft skills, nice to toy with, but not really taken very seriously. In more troubled changing times, your creativity and the creativity of your team become your biggest asset. Creativity has become a hard skill. Fortunately it is one that can be enhanced through training and practice.
Here’s a tip to start you off.
Get a piece of paper and write at the top your biggest problem right now as a question, e.g.. ‘How can I increase sales’, ‘How can I use the internet to drive business’ or ‘How can I improve cashflow’. Then write on the sheet twenty-one answers to the question. Do not stand up or do anything else until you have twenty-one answers. (You’re allowed to shout across the room for help from your colleagues!)
To complete the list, some of your ideas will have to be fanciful or even silly. If you fail to complete the list it is because you’re trapped in judgmental thinking and that is what is holding you back. Be more open and think of some ridiculous ways to answer the question. Just doing this exercise will open your mind to possibilities. You may even find that your stupid ideas are actually inverted good ideas. Do this every day and you will soon become an expert problem solver. Who knows, on one of those lists you just might find the big idea that will change everything and take your business to the next level.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Many small businesses think they're in the business of selling their products or of supplying their services. Successful businesses, those that thrive in more trying times, are those that realise this is not quite the case. In reality, every business is a problem-solver. They exist to solve their customers problems. They exist to make the customer money by driving up profits, save the customer money by reducing costs, or to make the customer look and feel good in some way.
These are all problems that our customers have, and in trying times these problems do not go away, in fact they often increase. So to a keen problem-solving business there's plenty to be getting on with. We have to work out ways that we can be more creative in selling, marketing and positioning our problem-solving products and services. Can we turn our troubleshooting skills in on ourselves to hit upon the ideas that will reduce our own costs or increase our own profits? How can we become expert, flexible and creative problem-solvers?
We must understand and unlock our individual and our company’s collective creativity. In affluent times, creativity and innovation are often seen as soft skills, nice to toy with, but not really taken very seriously. In more troubled changing times, your creativity and the creativity of your team become your biggest asset. Creativity has become a hard skill. Fortunately it is one that can be enhanced through training and practice.
Here’s a tip to start you off.
Get a piece of paper and write at the top your biggest problem right now as a question, e.g.. ‘How can I increase sales’, ‘How can I use the internet to drive business’ or ‘How can I improve cashflow’. Then write on the sheet twenty-one answers to the question. Do not stand up or do anything else until you have twenty-one answers. (You’re allowed to shout across the room for help from your colleagues!)
To complete the list, some of your ideas will have to be fanciful or even silly. If you fail to complete the list it is because you’re trapped in judgmental thinking and that is what is holding you back. Be more open and think of some ridiculous ways to answer the question. Just doing this exercise will open your mind to possibilities. You may even find that your stupid ideas are actually inverted good ideas. Do this every day and you will soon become an expert problem solver. Who knows, on one of those lists you just might find the big idea that will change everything and take your business to the next level.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
An Englishman in New York
I've just come back from my first ever visit to New York where I attended the National Speakers Association conference. Some of the top speakers in the US gathered (around 3000 of them!) to hear from some of the very top speakers. The highlights were for me my walk in Central Park, the amazing lift shafts in the conference hotel (the Marriot Marquis in Times Square) which looked like something from the Jetsons and a speech by social entrepreneur Bill Strickland.
24 years ago Bill started a programme in his desolated hometown of Pittsburg which has become a foundation for disadvantaged children and people on benefit. His facilities are amazing, full of valuable art, gourmet restaurants and hand-made furniture, provided for or made by the local transformed students. Bill says that there's nothing wrong with poor people except for the fact that they have no money - and that's a curable condition. His aim is to cure the cancer of the spirt with sunlight, flowers and music, which his facilities are full of. The story of how he got backing and finance to fund the project is truely amazing. You can read about it in his book here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
24 years ago Bill started a programme in his desolated hometown of Pittsburg which has become a foundation for disadvantaged children and people on benefit. His facilities are amazing, full of valuable art, gourmet restaurants and hand-made furniture, provided for or made by the local transformed students. Bill says that there's nothing wrong with poor people except for the fact that they have no money - and that's a curable condition. His aim is to cure the cancer of the spirt with sunlight, flowers and music, which his facilities are full of. The story of how he got backing and finance to fund the project is truely amazing. You can read about it in his book here.
If you want something entertaining, motivational, unusual and highly relevant in today's climate for your conference or company training have a look at a clip here and visit my keynote page here.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Do our schools programme us to fail in business?
What is the point of the education system? Is it to prepare our young people for a productive and happy life in society? That would be nice. Is it to allow every child to be the best they can be? That would be a great goal. Is it just to keep kids off the streets (as many believe)? Sadly, it is possible that the education system has no goals at all.
But it once did have a goal. It was set down in the Victorian Industrialist era to prepare children to work in factories. That purpose was never replaced with anything more suitable. That’s why we were all educated in a room full of children all sat in rows. We were all told to shut up, don’t talk to your neighbour, don’t look to see what anyone else is doing, just concentrate on your own work and face the foreman at the front. Above the foreman was a clock and when a bell sounded we were all allowed outside and when a bell sounded again we all came in. Just like in the factory. We were given a smattering of almost useless general knowledge and the education system’s job was done.
The problem with having a goal such as this means that we were all trained to behave in a certain way in the world of work, for a world that no-longer exists. Being told that to ‘conform is good’, that to ‘keep quite is good’ and ‘not to copy is good’ all have latent side-effects. Those behaviours give rise to beliefs that strangle creativity and leave us unprepared for a changing world in three ways:
1. If you conform in business you don’t stand out. Ok, you don’t risk making mistakes, but being risk-averse means you become frightened of failure and that means you’re unable to grow. Instead we’re taught that failure is bad.
2. If you’re in business and don’t talk to anyone else you will hate networking and fail at building relationships and teams, the secret to success in society. Instead we’re taught that you should work by yourself in silence.
3. If you’re in business and you don’t look to see what the competition is doing, if you don’t copy the best ideas and improve on them you end up being left behind. But we’re taught that we have to be totally original (which is impossible) so we fail.
As adults, by realising this, we can turn back the clock and reinstate our creative selves that were persecuted and locked away all those years ago. Perhaps times have changed slightly. Perhaps there are individual schools that have greater, more honourable goals. But the ‘system’ has no such goal except to produce ‘results’ by testing and ranking pupils and schools. For our children we can and should examine how they are being educated and ask the simple question - what is the system for.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
But it once did have a goal. It was set down in the Victorian Industrialist era to prepare children to work in factories. That purpose was never replaced with anything more suitable. That’s why we were all educated in a room full of children all sat in rows. We were all told to shut up, don’t talk to your neighbour, don’t look to see what anyone else is doing, just concentrate on your own work and face the foreman at the front. Above the foreman was a clock and when a bell sounded we were all allowed outside and when a bell sounded again we all came in. Just like in the factory. We were given a smattering of almost useless general knowledge and the education system’s job was done.
The problem with having a goal such as this means that we were all trained to behave in a certain way in the world of work, for a world that no-longer exists. Being told that to ‘conform is good’, that to ‘keep quite is good’ and ‘not to copy is good’ all have latent side-effects. Those behaviours give rise to beliefs that strangle creativity and leave us unprepared for a changing world in three ways:
1. If you conform in business you don’t stand out. Ok, you don’t risk making mistakes, but being risk-averse means you become frightened of failure and that means you’re unable to grow. Instead we’re taught that failure is bad.
2. If you’re in business and don’t talk to anyone else you will hate networking and fail at building relationships and teams, the secret to success in society. Instead we’re taught that you should work by yourself in silence.
3. If you’re in business and you don’t look to see what the competition is doing, if you don’t copy the best ideas and improve on them you end up being left behind. But we’re taught that we have to be totally original (which is impossible) so we fail.
As adults, by realising this, we can turn back the clock and reinstate our creative selves that were persecuted and locked away all those years ago. Perhaps times have changed slightly. Perhaps there are individual schools that have greater, more honourable goals. But the ‘system’ has no such goal except to produce ‘results’ by testing and ranking pupils and schools. For our children we can and should examine how they are being educated and ask the simple question - what is the system for.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Creative, Moi?
The midwife holds up the newly born baby and declares, "we've got a creative one here all right. This one's a genius and no mistake." You can tell just by looking at them can't you?
Well, the people that society judges to be genii, the cleverest people that humanity has ever produced all say that although babies are born with a tendency to be better at some tasks than others or be interested more in one thing than another, 'being creative' is not something you are born with to a greater or lesser degree than anyone else. It's like running. Babies aren't born Olympic sprinters or long distance runners, they become them many years later by training. We could all become Olympians if we went through the relevant education and training and it's the same with creativity.
A dictionary definition of creativity is "the ability to create new ideas or things using your imagination". Notice it doesn't say "the ability to be able to draw and paint a lifelike representation of a bowl of fruit".
So why do people think it is? Perhaps it's because creativity hasn't been understood or taught particularly well in so many schools.
This could be changing. Teachers have realised that creativity can be taught alongside and within every subject. The National Curriculum is tackling this and have come up with their own definition of creativity: "First, creativity involves thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second, this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective." It sounds a bit vague perhaps but it seems to encompass everything.
Creativity is the process of making associations between disparate concepts, to make decisions based on those associations and then take action. What that means is that creativity is looking at things, making connections between things that weren't connected before and then doing something about it. We can simplify that to a formula:
Perception + Decision + Action = Creativity
So what's this all about you say, and how does it relate to me making more money? Well the products of creativity are ideas. Ideas are the currency of tomorrow’s world. We need more ideas. If you can consistently come up with good ideas in your field, for your business, for your life, you win.
Still think you're not creative? No, I didn't think so. I know you'd never admit it but you're probably the most creative person you know.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
Well, the people that society judges to be genii, the cleverest people that humanity has ever produced all say that although babies are born with a tendency to be better at some tasks than others or be interested more in one thing than another, 'being creative' is not something you are born with to a greater or lesser degree than anyone else. It's like running. Babies aren't born Olympic sprinters or long distance runners, they become them many years later by training. We could all become Olympians if we went through the relevant education and training and it's the same with creativity.
A dictionary definition of creativity is "the ability to create new ideas or things using your imagination". Notice it doesn't say "the ability to be able to draw and paint a lifelike representation of a bowl of fruit".
So why do people think it is? Perhaps it's because creativity hasn't been understood or taught particularly well in so many schools.
This could be changing. Teachers have realised that creativity can be taught alongside and within every subject. The National Curriculum is tackling this and have come up with their own definition of creativity: "First, creativity involves thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second, this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective." It sounds a bit vague perhaps but it seems to encompass everything.
Creativity is the process of making associations between disparate concepts, to make decisions based on those associations and then take action. What that means is that creativity is looking at things, making connections between things that weren't connected before and then doing something about it. We can simplify that to a formula:
Perception + Decision + Action = Creativity
So what's this all about you say, and how does it relate to me making more money? Well the products of creativity are ideas. Ideas are the currency of tomorrow’s world. We need more ideas. If you can consistently come up with good ideas in your field, for your business, for your life, you win.
Still think you're not creative? No, I didn't think so. I know you'd never admit it but you're probably the most creative person you know.
Click here to read more about creativity.
Click here to read articles on creativity, design and branding.
www.aydinstone.com
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