The Idea Suite’s President and Founding Partner Shelli Baltman reflects on creativity, and how you don’t have to be ‘creative’ to bring it in to your day-to-day working life.
“But I’m not creative!”
Even today, it’s hard for me to write that. After almost 20 years as an Innovation Expert, a role where clients hire me for my creativity and fresh ideas, and a long track record of commercial success, there’s still a small, childlike part of me that wonders if I’m creative enough.
My journey to a career in the world of creative thinking and innovation was not the standard path through marketing or advertising. After an undergraduate business degree, I started my working life as a management consultant, building excel models and cutting my teeth in data and analytics. Even after my MBA I worked at McKinsey & Co. in London and was practicing a purely fact-based, analytical approach to the business world.
Then, while working on a pitch for a start up, I met some amazing creative geniuses, who blew me away with their ability to think differently, their ideas that seemingly came from nowhere, and their unwavering belief in those ideas, however eccentric. And I couldn’t figure out how they did it. Where were they getting these incredible ideas? Did their brains just work differently? I was jealous, to say the least. I wished more than anything that I was creative, like them, since it looked like so much more fun than the world I was working in!
And so, in 2002, I decided to make it my mission to move into the creative working world. I set out developing my creative muscles, and started reading and learning widely, all the while doggedly pursuing a career with an innovation agency. Then, finally, I convinced an agency to hire me, which marked the beginning of over 20 years of fulfilling creative work, and more than 400 successful innovation projects. Now, not only do my clients value and launch the ideas developed during those projects, but I truly love my career, and each and every one of the creative skills that I’ve been able to develop and weave into what we do at The Idea Suite.
Here, then, are a few tips from someone who had to learn her way to creativity, on how even those who don’t believe that they’re creative can bring more creativity to their day-to-day working lives:
1. Get into a great state of mind
When people are having fun, with a positive, energetic state of mind, challenging problems can be far more easily solved. This seems intuitive, yet when we’re faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges in our life or our work, many of us become overwhelmed, pessimistic or lose our energy. Which is the exact opposite of where we need to be if we’re going to find creative solutions to our problems. Have you ever noticed that when you’re in a great state of mind, you can seemingly solve any problem, and that nothing seems insurmountable? Being playful, enjoying and embracing the challenge and approaching every problem with the belief that you’re going to solve it are all critical to increasing your odds of success.
TRY THIS: If you want to increase your creativity hit rate… get into a positive and energetic state before you try to have ideas. Put on energizing music, play a creative game or simply take a walk outside before your brainstorming session, team meeting or when you’re trying to crack a problem – it can make a massive difference!
2. New ideas come from making new connections
After two decades of having ideas and helping others to have them, there’s no doubt in my mind that the best ones come from connecting two previously unconnected concepts. Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.” Even the ideas that we see as being truly ‘new’ are actually just two elements that were already in existence connected together. Waze, for example, is a mass consumer-based data collection tool, blended with GPS technology and smart phone navigation. Each of these concepts existed independently before Waze was created, but by managing to pull them together in a unique, seamless and previously unconnected way, the company was able to create something immensely successful.'
TRY THIS: If you want to have better ideas… start with your challenge in mind, then go out into the world and look for parts of the solution in other industries or geographies that have cracked similar (but not identical) challenges. Your brain is designed to create connections, and this exploration is sure to help you be more creative and will take you to new places.
3. Creativity is a practice, not a talent
In ‘Grit’, Angela Duckworth argues that, “As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” With creativity, that’s doubly true. What I’ve come to realize is that great creative ideas typically come from a little bit of obsessiveness. Often, my best ideas come when I’m really and truly focused on a problem – then, everything that I’m doing, seeing or reading becomes a piece of stimulus that could potentially help me to solve my problem. My brain begins to make links that I didn’t even know existed – and the solutions start to feel like those ‘Eureka Moments’ that you always hear about.
TRY THIS: If you want to practice your creativity… start thinking about a single problem – a lot! Get obsessed, and be disciplined. Read, think and give yourself a few days to ponder your challenge. You’ll be amazed at what your brain is able to do, when given the chance.
4. Embrace experimentation
Thinking about a challenge is not enough! And, sadly, it never will be. James Dyson spent fifteen years developing 5,127 prototypes before the first Dyson proved successful in 1993. To be creative, then, you have to radically embrace experimentation. Try it out for yourself. Find ways to write, draw, build or prototype your ideas and, most importantly, share them! Each experiment will lead to new and better ideas, and will get you closer to an incredible solution.
TRY THIS: If you want to try some experimentation… find cheap and cheerful ways to bring your ideas to life. Draw a sketch, write your idea down, create a mock ad. Just the act of trying to create a prototype of your idea will make the idea better, and will help you to be more creative.
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