Director’s Toolbox
Running a business can be exhilarating, but let’s be honest – it can also be exhausting.
As a business owner, you’re juggling a million priorities, making countless decisions and often wearing more hats than you can count. Some days it feels like energy is in short supply.
Taking steps to harness your creativity is about more than just generating ideas, it’s about fuelling and refuelling your ability to adapt, innovate, sustain momentum and have a positive company culture. The question isn’t whether creativity has value, but how to harness it effectively.
An infinite resource
Maya Angelou’s words remind us that creativity isn’t finite – it expands with use. Every time you engage your creativity, you’re strengthening the neural pathways that make it easier to generate ideas, solve problems and see new possibilities in future.
This regenerative quality makes creativity very powerful in times of stress or stagnation. When you or your team feel stuck, engaging your creative thinking can shift your perspective to help you navigate challenges and reveal new solutions. It’s not about adding more to your plate; it’s about mining a resource that amplifies your ability to lead effectively.
When you tap into the creative energy in your business, you gain a way to channel your struggles and problems constructively, discovering opportunities that you didn’t even know existed. Maybe that’s a new way to connect with customers, a fresh approach to streamlining operations, or an innovative product idea that sets you apart from the competition.
Innovation drives success and creativity is the fuel of innovation.
As a creative facilitator, I’ve seen firsthand how the energy of creativity can transform a business. Imagine your team brimming with insights, experimenting with fresh ideas and finding innovative ways to tackle challenges. Creativity is the spark that can light that fire and for many leaders, it’s a resource just waiting to be explored.
Creativity on tap
Here are some ways to overcome creative blocks and step into a creative mindset.
Firstly, it helps to see creativity as a process for generating ideas and perspectives that are novel and useful. As adults we get fixated on everything being useful, so we tend to quickly kill off novelty.
The good news here is that we can learn how to follow a creative process that injects novelty. Sounds useful right?
Understanding that every artist and marketer has a process, lets us find an approach that draws on our natural strengths, interests and inclinations. That might be finding inspiration in the shower or on a long walk, daily journaling, taking a nap in the afternoon, or using structured techniques for problem-solving with colleagues. Whatever you do – do something.
Secondly, it helps to know the ingredients that go into the creative process. Mathematician and creativity researcher, Ruth Noller, devised a formula that captures this:
C = f a(K, I, E)
In this formula creativity (C) is a function (f) of your attitude (a) towards combining knowledge (K), imagination (I) and evaluation (E).
The ‘a’ for attitude is the most important part. It sits outside the brackets and multiplies the results inside the brackets. The right attitude lets us build momentum, and one example of this is recognising that it is better to try and fail than to get marooned by the fear of failure.
Within the brackets is the creative process. It calls for you to use your knowledge flexibly and seek new understanding, and to use an imaginative mix of critical and creative thinking to reframe challenges, generate ideas and develop prototypes.
It comes as a surprise to many people that evaluation is an essential ingredient in the creative process. With any effective process, it’s vital to know how and when to apply judgement and what experiments to run.
Leadership: the creative catalyst
As a leader, your attitude sets the tone for your team. Remember it’s the ‘a’ in ‘C= f a(K,I,E)’ that makes all the difference. When you play at your creative edge, it doesn’t just benefit you; it ripples outwards and inspires your colleagues, your culture and your customers.
Of course there are barriers, challenges and blocks to progress, but the consistent application of a creative process can overcome even apparently insurmountable hurdles. Try asking business leaders who inspire you how they generate creative solutions and stay energised – you might find that it helps you tap into a powerful force for change.
Practical tips and tricks
Harnessing your creativity doesn’t have to be a daunting undertaking. It can be woven into the fabric of your daily conversations and activities. Here are three approaches to try with your team that are drawn from applied improvisation and creativity training. They will help to bring a sense of play and a lot of creativity into your everyday work.
- Say: “Yes, and…”
One of the foundational principles of improvisation is to accept what’s offered and build on it. So instead of saying, “that won’t work,” try saying, “yes, and what I like about your idea is…” Using affirmative judgement helps to keep the energy flowing and ensures everyone feels heard. In team sessions and client meetings you’ll notice ideas multiplying instead of stalling, and you can still evaluate and make decisions as you go. - Play with constraints
In improvisation, performers thrive when they are given a specific challenge, like: “Only speak with five words at a time.” Similarly, creativity flourishes within constraints. Try challenging your team to come up with solutions under specific conditions – like designing a new product with only three materials. To really stretch your creative muscles, you can also use structured problem-solving techniques such as ‘Reversal’ where you take a challenge or assumption and flip it on its head. So, if you want to improve customer retention you might ask: “How can we drive all of our customers away?” You’ll be surprised by what it reveals.
Exploring analogies or parallel worlds is another useful technique for unlocking creative solutions. If you’re struggling with efficiency, you could ask: “How would a Formula One pit team optimise this process?”
- Reframing the problem
We tend to get fixated on finding solutions to narrowly defined problems, but it can help to explore different ways of framing the problem itself. For example, if your problem is: “How do we increase sales?” You might reframe it as: “How do we create more value for our customers?” Or perhaps ask: “How can we make our product more enjoyable?”
Shifting the lens often reveals opportunities that were hidden before. This is really using critical thinking, and it’s the natural bedfellow of creative thinking – and usually the best place to start.
This article was written by Alex Menhams who specialises in creative facilitation and leadership training. Contact him at www.alexmenhams.com or www.hereandnowpeople.com.
