Creative Thinking

“I can’t seem to reel in potential customers. I feel if I could only use communication skills more creatively, I could get my foot in the door more often.”

“I’ve become stagnant in my job. I feel as if I’m just going through the motions. I would like to know how to think more creatively so I can get out of the same old rut I’ve been in for years.”

“I face a variety of different problems in the course of the day. I wish I could be more creative when it comes to solving problems.”

“My employees are tired of pizza parties and ‘Atta-boys.’ Why can’t I think of anything more creative to motivate my employees?”

“My boss keeps telling us we must ‘think outside the box’ for new product development ideas. I’m sick of that phrase. I don’t even know what it means.”

“I’ve never considered myself to be a creative person. Is it possible to become one?”

These are the typical responses I hear when I ask participants in my seminars what they would like to learn about creative thinking. When I ask people what type of individuals they think are creative, they usually reply, “Painters, sculptors, writers, interior decorators, movie directors,” etc. Then I explain to them that creative thinking is a skill that can be learned and mastered by anyone.

I think of creativity this way: When used in music, the results are artistic. When used in life, the results are accomplishments. When used in business, the results are innovation. Creativity can thrive in all areas of business. Many think it is an exclusive club for marketing, advertising, or communication fields. Not so. Anyone can join the club. Whether you are a clerk, a CEO or someone in between, creativity is all around you and available to you. Yes, even computer programmers, or accountants, and other professionals who tend to be more “analytical” can learn to be imaginative and resourceful.

Consider these applications in seemingly ordinary situations:

•  All competitors want more than their fair share of business, and are plotting ways to get it. A sales representative needs to be creative in order to keep existing customers and get new ones. If the sales rep can increase her sales, it is either a statement that the competition has been complacent or that her imagination is paying dividends– or both.
• An engineer is often thought of as a scientist, but the application of theory is extremely abstract. There are usually an infinite number of solutions to a problem. Every new design and application requires creativity.
• An executive of an innovative company involves all employees in self-directed work teams who are expected to come up with better ways to service the customer, improve productivity and provide solutions to problems.
• A manager at a manufacturing firm treats office systems and procedures as a challenge to his ingenuity. He continuously strives to find a way around them. When he does, it challenges the status quo and upsets a few people, but ultimately, he feels the organization is better for the adventure. It makes the decision makers realize that if the company can increase its productivity by simplifying procedures, perhaps they need to take a closer look and seek methods to simplify their procedures.
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• A newly hired employee in her first job, accepts a lowly position to gain entrance to one of the hot new .com companies. Her job is boring and routine and she often finds herself with nothing to do. She has a highly inquisitive mind that does not allow for boredom. She spends her free time observing ways to increase productivity and shares creative ideas with mid-level management. She is due for promotion next month.
• A professional speaker, in her efforts to differentiate her presentations from those of her competitors, uses her talent as a violinist in her programs as a tool to demonstrate how we must treat customers. She emphasizes that we must treat customers as if they were Stradivarius violins–precious, invaluable, to be cherished, and handled with extreme care. (Sorry folks, couldn’t help putting that one in!)

Never underestimate the importance of creativity if you want to beat the competition. It’s just as important, and often more important than being an Achiever, maintaining a positive attitude, being flexible through change and making a decision to win. When you are creatively inspired, you can lift yourself above the mundane ways you approach your work. Creative thinking can free you from the usual constraints of your job and help you see that you do not have to do your job the way you’ve always done it.

In fact, one trait of highly creative professionals is that they are able to deny many of the assumptions held by the organization. When they challenge the status quo-and people respond by saying, “But we’ve always done it the other way”-you can see the power of creativity. Who said there is only one way to explain financial products to potential customers? Who said there is only one way to design a hotel reservation system? Who said there is only one way to communicate with your coworkers or staff? Who said meetings must always be in the conference room? Eliminate the rules. Eliminate the meetings. Most importantly, creative thinking helps you inject a new level of excitement and enthusiasm for anything you do.

To survive in business today and in the future, you must constantly create new ideas for every aspect of business. In fact, you must continually generate new ideas just to survive! Bill Gates did not anticipate the Internet–in fact, he had to scramble to catch up! We are experiencing an economy that is based on innovation. You can win big just by outthinking the competition with creative ideas! My wish is that this chapter will provide you with an invaluable conviction that an ever-present creative source is available to you. It will hopefully help you find your inner creative source, and understand how and where you can apply creativity to get the results you want.

Creativity is Imagination
We’ve been talking a lot about creativity, but let’s take a moment to make sure we’re clear on what it means. Let’s start with the traditional definition. One of the entries in The Oxford English Dictionary defines creativity as “showing imagination as well as skill.” What’s important to note here, is both the terms “imagination” and “skill” appear in the definition. To reduce “creativity” to “imagination” doesn’t fully explain the word. You can contrive very imaginative ideas that have no practical application: You can plan to open a retail location in the anticipated International Space Station; you can design a cheaper automobile made of plastic; or you can hire a psychic to help you anticipate customer expectations.

While these may be considered imaginative ideas, creativity is more. True creativity adds “skill” to the definition. You need knowledge and expertise to help you distinguish between unrealistic and realistic ideas. Creative thinking occurs, then, when you both immerse your mental energy and tap into your imagination to create new products, seek fresh solutions to problems, or come up with novel approaches to your work.

For instance, opening a new retail location in a Space Station might seem impractical, but what other, more realistic ideas might you come up with when you allow yourself to think creatively? McDonald’s restaurants might have not yet penetrated the outer space market, but the hamburger enterprise has moved into several creative non-traditional retail outlets: in Wal-Marts, on trains, in gas stations and airports. This has often been described as “Thinking Outside the Box.”

Creative thinking also takes place when you imagine something that, previously no one has thought. Perhaps you see something ordinary and then make a connection that no one has ever seen before. I’m reminded of the scientist at 3M who was trying to create a new adhesive, and ended up developing a glue that didn’t really stick very well. It would have been easy to dismiss the discovery, but this scientist realized there could be a practical application for his new adhesive. Today, most of us wouldn’t know what to do without Post-It-Notes. And some of us go too far: I’ve seen way too many people who have them on their computers, on their phones, in their cars, in the bathroom ,and who knows where else!

The wireless radio was around long before Marconi worked on it, but no one could get it to work. It was he who figured out that the antenna is what would really make the radio operate. Or how about the Walkman radio. Sony engineers at first tried to create a small portable tape recorder, but failed. The project was shelved. Then Masaru Ibuka, honorary chairman of Sony, heard about it and decided to refashion it into something different. He recalled that another of the company’s engineers was working to develop a lightweight portable headphone. Ibuka suggested combining the two, but eliminating the recorder feature. The Walkman radio was born and became Sony’s leading selling electronic product. Creativity, then, is pushing beyond, around, or through the wall.

Creativity occurs when you think something completely new, of course, but it does not always demand absolute originality. For example, as a musician, I can play a three centuries old violin composition note-for-note, but still give it my own musical interpretation. In business, a sales manager can enhance a traditional cash bonus incentive program to motivate employees by adding “bonus points” redeemable for merchandise. An engineer may devise a fresh application of a principle first pronounced by Archimedes.

Anytime you rearrange information into a new order, or apply old information to a new use, you are using your imagination. Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” In music for example, it’s safe to say there are only so many musical notes the ear can hear, yet people have been composing songs for centuries. When a songwriter sets out to write a new song, he knows he still might be able to create the most beautiful song ever written. He knows the notes are already there for him. He just has to put them together the right way to make the music memorable. Likewise in business, the challenge can be the same–to organize familiar information in a fresh, new way. Think about it. You have probably collected a lot of customer data, but have you considered how the information you already have may lead to new sales? For instance, an insurance agent collects information on all of a customer’s family members, but has she thought of marketing automobile insurance to dependent children when they reach driving age? Consider these creative ideas that started new companies:

* David McConnell sold books door to door. When housewives kept slamming the door in his face, decided to offer them a gift to improve his chances of giving his sales pitch. He gave a small vial of his own home-made perfume. The women preferred the perfume over the books, so David stopped selling the books and started his own company: Avon.
* Edwin Cox tried selling aluminum cookware door to door, but sales were poor because customers had a difficult time cleaning the pans. One day while experimenting with the best way to clean them, he combined steel wool with soap and invented soap pads. He gave them away for free, until customers requested the soap pads more than the cookware! Today, we’re all familiar with SOS pads!

A Case Study for Creativity
If you need further proof that you need to keep your mind open to new possibilities and that creativity will happen if you expect it to come, consider case of Richard Thieme (www.thiemeworks.com) who speaks and writes about life on the edge, especially the impact of technology on life and work. He recalls a breakthrough that illustrates how creativity will happen if we are willing to keep ourselves on the edge and expect it. Back when the Internet was just coming into public awareness as a new medium, Thieme wrote an article for Wired Magazine called “In Search of the Grail.” Drawing on his sixteen years as an Episcopal priest, he described how the new media might transform religious experience and organizations. He saw that the way we think about things and the way we picture possibilities for ourselves were strongly influenced by the media that brings those ideas and images to us.

Wired liked the article and published it – but only after removing ninety percent of the five thousand words he had written. Those words still belonged to Thieme, but what in the world could he do with them?

He remembers sitting in front of his computer looking at the text of the article and the email from the Wired editor, thinking, what other magazines might be interested in articles about the impact of the Internet?

Now, Thieme had published his first short story–a science fiction story about a virtual reality machine back in the sixties. Like many free lance writers, he learned to define the publishing world by reading Writer’s Market, the bible of the marketplace that listed thousands of magazines. But Writers Market was a print book about print technology. Thieme never noticed that the horizons of possibility the book defined for him were in the United States. Every viable market in it was American! Because he did not see any other options, he thought of those markets as the only medium of print.

Sitting in front of his computer staring at those forty-five hundred words, he had a revelation. The markets he could imagine had been determined by the world of print publishing. “Where can I send an article about the Internet?” He morphed the question into a different one: “How can I USE the Internet to reach other markets?”

He began clicking through links – search engines barely existed then – and located magazines in other countries that were exploring the networked world. He located one in England called .net, sent them a proposal for an article, agreed to terms, and had the article to them via email within a week. A month later he was receiving email from readers in Europe, and he has never looked back. Now his column, “Islands in the Clickstream,” is read in countries all over the world.

That insight came because he was willing to engage the new technology and follow wherever it might lead. He could not see in advance from within the old model of reality what new horizons might open. We rarely see new possibilities from inside the old framework. That framework must go through a moment of transformation, a looking-glass, an Al chemical change from lead to gold, and that only happens when we put ourselves on the edge and are willing to explore, not knowing what will come.

That “not knowing” place is a precondition of creativity. Even though he was writing about the Internet, Thieme had not seen that the Internet itself determined that his market had become worldwide. Information was now easily available from other countries. The Internet created the means for delivering intellectual property, and generated a worldwide audience.

Creative insight happens when we least expect it. But when we look back, we usually see that we allowed ourselves to think the unthinkable, and that, says Richard Thieme, ripens the mind for new possibilities.

Can I Be Creative, Too?
Psychological studies have proven there are some people who, by their nature, are more creative than others. Actually, scientific research about the difference between “right brain” and “left brain” people has shown that some of us are more inclined to be creative than others. There are dozens of books that describe how the “right-brain” people of this world tend to be more action-oriented and tend to think in terms of pictures. They have great vision and insight, and use their intuition to solve problems. They learn more through free exploration than long verbal explanations. “Left brain” people are more inclined to be detail-oriented and analytical “fact-finders” who think logically and rationally. They approach work in a structured, orderly way.

Does that mean, then, that you should dismiss your hopes of becoming more creative if you are a left brained person? Research has also shown that very few people are without the instinct to be creative and resourceful. That potential is in all of us.

A question, then, may be plaguing you. If you have a creative source within you, why hasn’t it appeared more often? Why haven’t you been more consistently creative? The answer is that your creativity may have been inhibited by fear or negative personal judgment. The key is to believe in your creativity. Many people are afraid of letting their creative side emerge, but once you believe you can be creative, then you have taken that first step into opening yourself up to new possibilities.

Enhancing Your Creativity
Creative thinking occurs differently for each person, so there’s no one approach that will work for everyone. If you want more detailed information about creative techniques, you may wish to explore the variety of books on the subject, but here are a few techniques you might find useful.

Concentrate
Creative ideas may come to you through sharply focused and steadily sustained concentration. My friend, Dr. Dan Yovich, teaches a course on creativity at Purdue University. One method to get creative ideas, he explains, is to rub a pencil against paper while focusing on the situation or problem and the desired outcome. Steadily focused and repetitious activity such as this is a means for many people to channel into their subconscious where a variety of solutions and ideas will generally present themselves. Others simply stare into space with a far-away look in their eyes.

Reflect
Silent reflection is another method. Some people simply sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet room, keeping their mind open for whatever new ideas enter. Others sit in the park or drive up to the mountains to look over a peak, and jot down any idea that inspires them. Still others have told me they get their most creative ideas upon awakening from a good night’s sleep. Their technique is to prolong the calm and peace of sleep for a few minutes before rising. In that serenity, ideas come more freely. Often, dreams provide us with messages we don’t experience in an awake state.

Establish Rituals
Creative thinking takes place for many people when they are engaged in a ritual to help them focus their minds. Andrew Carnegie, for example, carried a deck of cards and played solitaire to clear his mind when he sought creative solutions to problems. Albert Einstein said he always got his best ideas in the morning while shaving! Many people, myself included, make a ritual of sipping their morning coffee in solitude and get their most creative ideas at that time.

Meditate
Meditation, is not only what I call a “stress-buster,” but when practiced correctly, it can calm the incessant stream of thoughts that sometimes flows through your mind like a coursing river, bringing you inner quiet–a great place to seek creativity. You may think this is only for those who, like myself, practice yoga. If you do, you are very wrong. Bob Hovan, a highly successful sales professional, is one of the most happy-go-lucky and funny people I know–and one of the most creative. He told me many years ago that whenever he needs to find a solution to a problem, make an important decision or come up with something creative to win-over a customer, he meditates anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. Because of his upbeat personality, I was surprised to learn he practiced meditation. He explained that solutions and ideas don’t necessarily pop in his head during his meditative state, but they usually come to him soon afterwards. I know many business professionals who say meditation calms their minds, while at the same time, it jolts their creativity.

The process of meditation does not happen by itself. It requires effort on your part. If you’d like to try it, begin by sitting. Be sure to keep your spine straight so that your energy will flow. Or, lie down in a quiet place. Eliminate all the “to-do’s” and “I gottas” from your mind and concentrate on the inhalation and exhalation of your breath. Be sure to breathe deeply from your diaphragm. You can place your hand slightly above your waist, to feel the rise and fall of your lower chest to be sure you are breathing correctly. Then, listen to your breathing and your heartbeat. Shut out the rest of the world, and trust that all is good in your life and in the universe for those moments. If any thoughts interrupt your mind, push them out. Relax and let go.

Beginners, do this for five minutes. If you can get to fifteen, that is excellent for a beginner. When possible, attempt to practice it up to a half hour each day. You dozed off? That’s good! You succeeded in putting yourself into a relaxed state and gave your mind and body a great way to rejuvenate, energize and receive ideas. (Just be sure you don’t do this at your desk unless you are self-employed!)

Huff and Puff
The majority of the people I have worked with tell me they obtain creative breakthroughs while enjoying recreational activities. I enjoy fast-walking, bicycling, hiking, yoga, weight-training, and gardening. Like them, I find that as I am doing something I enjoy, I become completely oblivious to my work. This is when my subconscious mind releases my own creative imagination, and ideas seem to pop into my head –a reason why I always keep a pencil and paper nearby.

When I ask my audiences where and when they get their best creative ideas these are the things they say most often: when talking with colleagues or friends, when walking their dog, while showering in the morning, in the middle of the night, while on a plane, while listening to classical music, or during any type of exercise. Why these kind of activities? Could it be because people feel a sense of balance, rhythm, harmony, mental relaxation, and healing in their life while engaging in them?

Here’s another idea you may find interesting and helpful. An executive in one of my seminars shared this: He said when he gets stuck in rush hour traffic, he has learned not to get himself into a tither because he knows there’s nothing he can do about it. To avoid frustration, he turns on his favorite Kenny G CD because it has a relaxing effect on him. That’s when he gets his best ideas, he says. He’s on to something. Listening to Mozart or other classical music has been proven to enhance creativity and has helped many a college student study for final exams. Ongoing studies are being conducted to determine the effect that music can have on the creative mind.

Break the Rules
Creative thinkers often get their ideas and achieve success by being willing to break the rules. Innovation has occurred in every industry when a creative thinker questioned the status quo. Here are a few examples:

• Fred Smith broke the rule that only the U.S. Post Office could deliver mail when he founded Federal Express.
• Leo Burnett broke the advertising rule that words are more important than images when he created some of advertising’s most recognizable character images: Tony the Tiger, the Jolly Green Giant, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Keebler Elves and my favorite, Morris the cat.
• In 1914, Henry Ford broke the rule that auto workers should be paid the minimum wage of $2.34 a day, and raised his company’s wages to $5.00 a day. Critics may have called him a socialist, but at Ford, productivity increased, employee turnover decreased, morale improved, and eventually, the workers themselves could afford to buy the cars they made! Within two years after raising the minimum wage, Ford Motor Company doubled its profits from $30 million to $60 million.
• Alfred P. Sloan, CEO of General Motors, broke the paradigm that people must pay for a car in full before they could drive it off the lot. Instead, he pioneered the idea of purchasing a car through installment payments.
• Executives at all three major television networks predicted failure for Ted Turner’s idea of an all-news station because previous attempts of this format had failed. CNN, of course, is an incredible success. In fact, even foreign dictators turn on CNN to learn what’s happening in the world.

Here’s more food for thought on breaking the rules: how about eliminating some of the boring and unproductive meetings held in the conference room where ideas get fogged up the moment the door is closed? Instead, take your people for a walk or have them sit on a staircase. I recall a client visit where I saw an example of this. As I pulled into the parking lot in front of their building, I saw a group of about twelve people sitting on the grass having a meeting lead by a person who was obviously their manager.

I sat in my car for a while to observe. There they were, talking in the sunshine and open air where their minds could find fresh thoughts. He had them standing most of the time, so their energy levels would be high. I found out later, he often called these meetings spontaneously, and did not allow any phones, beepers or any other distractions. What a creative manager!

Intuition is In
Men call it a “gut feeling.” Women call it “intuition.” It’s a type of thought processing that comes from within us and offers a way to integrate and synthesize, weigh and balance ideas and information. In the past, speaking about using intuition in business was considered flighty if not downright feminine. Today, the corporate world is taking the matter of intuition to heart. Many are training their executives to use intuition to help them achieve productive results.

Each of us has that strong that little voice inside our heads whose ideas we tend to dismiss as silly or irrelevant. Learn to trust your insights and remain open to many divergent solutions. Believe that your intuition does exist and that it can be of use to you. Loosen any inhibitions you may have had about it. It may come out of nowhere and probably when you least expect it. Scientists and artists refer to it again and again in describing the key element in the act of discovery or creation. It’s intuition at work. Don’t muffle that voice, whether you hear it as a loud shout or a quiet whisper. If you have to make a big decision, wait until you wake up one morning and know where your gut tells you to go.

Ideas for Success
Maybe our high school teachers were on to something when they forced us to keep a journal. You could keep a daily journal and write down ideas, musings, pictures, or whatever else comes to mind. Keep your journal with you throughout the day so you can capture ideas as soon as you think of them.

One of the most effective methods of keeping track of my ideas came from Jim Meisenheimer, a highly successful sales trainer and author. I was fortunate enough to have Jim as a mentor in the early part of my speaking career. He told me to create an “Ideas for Success” journal and always keep it nearby–especially at a seminar. (I keep mine in a file on my computer. Whenever I get a creative idea t I write it down. Then, I make sure I review them regularly. I even take this a step further: I take one idea at a time, implement, and practice it (just like practicing fingering passages on the violin) until they become a habit. That’s how you can be more effective in implementing new ideas.

Because of all the “mind-traffic” we experience on a daily basis (all those things we need to remember to do–responsibilities, both business and personal), sometimes we need to “slow-down in order to speed up.” Countless business professionals have told me they need to stop what they are doing and write something down the moment they think of it, or they will quickly forget their great ideas. The alternative is to agonize over the forgotten great idea. Most people–including myself, do not want to admit this happens to them.

My assistant, Norell, who admittedly does not use a journal, has confessed to me she has even written important things on her hand when necessary so she won’t forget them. I recommend that you keep a running log of all the creative, innovative things you can think of. This will allow you to develop even your “half baked” ideas into something that may be the spark of genius down the road.

Stretch Your Horizons
If you are an Achiever who focuses intently on your particular business, spend some time developing interests in other areas. Many times, a completely unrelated pursuit will serve as a source of ideas if you keep your mind open for unique connections and applications. Can reading about gardening designs give you fresh ideas for organizing a warehouse? Is there a connection between different fishing techniques and “landing” diverse types of customers? Can Civil War Reenactments teach us about business strategy? Who knows. If you’re open to divergent thinking, you might be surprised where new ideas come from.

One of my clients once got a great idea while scuba-diving in the Caribbean. He decided to take his sales force on a training experience that would stretch their horizons. He knew that many of the elite management training courses pit their people against the elements for several days for a team-building experience. In these basic survival courses, people have to work together and use a great deal of imagination in order to survive out in the wilderness. He realized that scuba-diving would be a unique twist on this idea because below the ocean waves your field of vision is limited and you have absolutely no idea what might be around the next reef. You are dependent on a buddy and must use non-verbal communication in order to survive.

The idea was so successful, he took it further. For those brave souls who were willing to participate in this exercise, he took them night-diving on a reef. Diving at night is much different than diving during the day because a diver’s field of vision is reduced to the light beam that he carries. Your focus must be intense, and you don’t dare let go of your buddy. He told participants to concentrate on letting go of fear and enjoy the serenity of the warm and serene waters. (If I were on that trip, I would have had visions of Jaws I, II and III!)

The next day, his team sat together and brainstormed ways to differentiate their company from the competition. The ideas came quickly, and at the end of the day, they had a good strategy for moving forward. My client told me he believed the experience was so successful because the scuba-diving experience had put everyone into a creative state while building a strong sense of camaraderie and team spirit. This manager spent a great deal of time and money to encourage creative ideas, but the rewards were well worth it as sales increased 20% the following quarter.

Don’t Kill Creativity
In my experience, I’ve seen many managers inadvertently kill creativity in their frantic efforts just to get work done by a deadline. Managers can learn to maximize creativity without killing it in the process. One way to keep people creative is to give them new and challenging assignments, but not so difficult they feel overwhelmed. This can be an effective way to ignite the fire under some of the Strugglers and Coasters. Be sure to give them specific goals but do not dictate how they should be met. They will likely use their creativity if you give them the freedom to decide how to climb a mountain. If you are a manager seeking new ideas and solutions to problems, create a task force of people from different departments. Be sure you include individuals with different areas of expertise and thinking styles, as this diversity will stimulate discussion and help produce innovate ideas. You’d be surprised to see the strategic ideas these task force groups come up with.

Brainstorm
Most of us have participated in brainstorming sessions. If you haven’t, you are missing an opportunity to discover how creative ideas can be introduced, developed, and expanded as thoughts are bounced from person to person. To effectively set up a brainstorming session, take people away from the job and bring them to a unique environment in order to foster their problem-solving skills. Identify the problems and generate solutions for each one. Then, think about what problems these solutions may create. Don’t be content with the first solution. Ask yourself,”Do we have an opportunity to do something that has never been done, and therefore really differentiate us from the competition?

Think Positively
Creativity requires a positive attitude! Think: “Yes! I can find a better way to do this.” Even if you receive negative feedback it should provide the thrust for you to try a different approach. Think about all the successful salespeople you know. They hear “no” far more than unsuccessful salespeople simply because they knock on more doors. They don’t let rejection get them down. They think positively, always trying new sales approaches.

Take It Easy
In today’s world, we know we must work hard in order to succeed. But frankly, if you are overworked, developing creative solutions will be more difficult. Take a break from your problems. Slow down a little. You may find you have to “step-out” to “look in.” As I said earlier, often the best ideas present themselves when NOT in the work environment. What’s that slogan? “You deserve a break today….” Take one soon. In fact, take a vacation if you can.

Highly creative individuals do not necessarily receive divine inspiration in flashes of brilliance, but they do seem to march to the beat of a different drummer. They have a willingness to take risks and are open to new ways of looking at the world. They also immerse themselves passionately into what they do. I encourage you to t to tap into your own creativity, because the more often you focus on innovation and insight, the more likely you are to develop unique ideas on a regular basis. Wherever you are, open your mind and let your thoughts flow free.