Tips for Optimizing Creativity
- They don't worry about looking silly.
- They push through fear & view success over the longer term.
- They have diverse experience:
"Most advances in science come when a person, for one reason or another, is forced to change fields."
—Peter Borden - They work on things they're passionate about, in ways that align with their personal values.
- They work on things that play to their strengths.
- They capture their ideas and review them repeatedly over time.
- ...but they don't let themselves get too attached to their ideas—they know that they can always come up with new ones.
- They team up with people whose strengths balance their weaknesses.
- They work intensely, then rest when they're tired. That means taking breaks
throughout the day, sleeping enough at night, and taking vacations. - They often work for years before achieving even a first success.
Best practices of the best creative leaders:
1) They don't let fear stand in their way.They allow themselves the freedom to explore.
2) Their fuel is curiosity, which is a key building block of creativity.
3) They schedule "think time" and prioritize reflection and exploration.
4) They "build a greenhouse" and make sure they are in inspiring physical spaces when trying to maximize creativity.
5) They warm up. Just like an athlete warms up before a big game, the
best creative minds "gets in the zone" before unleashing their full
creativity.
6) They separate the ideation process from the evaluation.
process. In other words, they let their ideas come up unfiltered and
THEN evaluate them at a later time rather than allowing evaluation to
restrict idea generation.
7) They laugh and have fun with the process in the same way that little kids don't worry so much about what could go wrong
7 Quick Principles for Creativity
- Understand the goal/problem to be solved
- Are curious
- Embrace failure
- Break the rules
- Suspend judgment
- Stay in the present
- Are passionate
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