Author: JD Stewart

1. Read more stuff
Magazines, books, blogs, food labels… it doesn’t really matter — just read. The more you know the more you have to be creative with.

2. Listen to Music
The type of music you listen to can help you generate different types of ideas. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the IQ level jumps while listening to classical music.  If you don’t like classical music, (which I did not for along time) get over it. It actually increases your brain power.

3. Listen to great speakers
Listen to great speakers speak. Don’t just listen watch as well. How did they deliver the message? How did they capture the audience’s attention? What kind of stories did they use and why?

4. Read quotes
Quotes from people generally capture a spark of an idea in a sentence or two. Here is a link to a site containing a lot of different kinds of quotes. Brainy Quotes

5. Turn Off the Television
I have never heard anyone yell, “I got it” while watching a sitcom. Television dulls the imagination rather than sharpening it.

6. Play games
Word games such as crossword puzzles or Scrabble, or strategy games like risk, chess or checkers are great ways to get the mental gears lubricated.

7. Study History
What have problems have people faced in the past? How did they solve them? They did not have the resources you have. Even kings could not dream of doing the things you are capable of doing. They way they solved a problem may help you identify a unique solution for a problem you are facing.

8. Express yourself — journal, sketch, paint
It does not have to be an artistic master pieces just do it. Express both your thoughts and your feelings.  The spark of an ideas you capture today may become a bonfire  of an idea tomorrow.  They say a person has over 60,000 thoughts per day. Don’t let them get away.

9. Pay attention
Most of your creativity will be the result of being aware of what is happening around you.

Do you want to make a difference? You can’t do that by being one of the masses. If you are in the middle, main stream, or moderate the one thing you cannot do is make a difference. The reason is simple your ideas, are just like every one else’s . If you are trying to think outside the box you are trying to think like everyone else. How is there a box? What is the purpose of a box? Think like a magician! What would be the most unexpected turn from where your product is right now? Or what your company is doing right now.  It is the unexpected that is delights your customers and confounds your competitors.

The people in the middle of any issue or idea, i.e. the moderates, will never be the one responsible for changing a company, a product, or a culture. It is the extremist the ones with the radical ideas that move us in one direction or another. Extremism serves a purpose to move the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not. Seth Godin in a recent blog recognized and commented on this very idea. An op-ed peice in the New York times by David Brooks comments on how similar the tea party and the new left from the 60 appear and behave. They are both extremist but they have/will make a difference. Those who voted for Perot in the 80’s did not throw their vote away. They changed the course of american politics for 20 years. If you are to make a change real in your the market place you need to be different. As Godin noted you will probably will not be able to move the masses all the way. Instead, what you will do is make them feel safe to change the boundaries. Over time,  successful extremist don’t argue to win. “They argue to move the goalposts and to make it appear sane to do so.”

Make a difference, think like a magician and do something radical.

I was listening to a gentleman yesterday talk about goal setting. He was big into goal setting and set big goals for himself. And he almost always achieves them. He was not always like that. He use to set goals and then may or may not achieve them. He response to missing the goal was, “Oh well.”What made the difference was the fact that he started looking at the reason behind the goal. He wanted to understand why achieving a particular goal was important to him. As he understood why he wanted to achieve that goal, he was better able to motivate himself into achieving the goal. It kept him focused and allowed him to make mid course corrections.

Understanding why we want to accomplish something gives us guidance as to how to accomplish it. Additionally it constantly reminds us why a particular goal is important. So before you set up your daily tasks, or set out next quarter’s goals or milestones. Ask yourself this question. So what?  So what if you make the goal? So what if you do not make the goal? What difference will it make? Ask yourself, what is really important to you. Why are you here? What is your purpose?

I know a man who says the most important thing in his life is his family. But he spends all of his time on other things. He bemoans the fact his oldest set of grandchildren are grown and they do not even know him. Yet he does not spend time with his youngest grandchildren in spite of pleas from his children.  He simply “does not have the time.”  Other things get in the way. Here is the rub. I believe him. I believe he values his family, but he does not know how to set priorities.  As a result other things get in the way of accomplishing what his true goal is, his family.

So take some time and reflect. Only once you understand your purpose will you be able to properly set your goals. Once you understand what your goal is, work backwards setting yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily  goals that will allow you to fulfill your purpose. It all starts with asking, “Why am I here?”

Right now I am going to have lunch with my wife. She is a priority in my life.

There has been a lot written lately about the poor job schools are doing in teaching innovation. What they teach is compliance and conformity.  I agree that school can and should do a better job of teaching student to think and not just mechanically follow a set of rules. However, the unstated assumption of these writers  is, conformity to rules inhibits creativity and innovation. That is, conformity to rules is bad and breaking the rules is good.  I must say I disagree.

Rules can provide a framework to communicate, keep us safe and to create. They provide an understanding of the world around us. The English language has certain rules. These rules allow us to communicate and understand that communication. Understanding rules in this case does not inhibit creativity or innovation it provides a framework to express it. Think of the beautiful poetry or the wonderful stories  you have either hear or read. Without rules of grammar and spelling nothing would have been communicated.  It is understanding the laws of physics that keep me from stepping off a cliff. Following these rules keep us safe. These same laws of physics that provide us the framework to invent. The rules of etiquette allow us to have a civil discourse. So conformity to rules does not necessarily inhibit creativity. Rather it can make creativity possible.

It is not compliance to rules that inhibit creativity it is the assumption of invalid assumptions. So what is required is critical thinking skills. Thinking and challenging assumptions with the rules of logic is to source of creativity. The choice is not between innovation and compliance. Rather the challenge is to think.

I recently attended a clinic on using magic in presentations and training presented by Ken Jones an army officer, PhD candidate and dang good magician. He opened the class with a presentation of  a magic effect performed 4 different ways. It was the classic effect of picking a card and then it is identified by the magician.

All 4 of his presentations interesting.  Each of the first 3 had about the same impact interested but expected. They were impressive but not amazing. After all you expect a magician to be able to identify your selected card. But the last presentation blew you away.  This time he had someone just think of a card. He was able to draw a picture of it. Before he drew the card, he did not ask  the volunteer any questions. Or do anything that could have indicated what the card was. Believe me I not all of them and I was watching. He got it right and the crowd gave and audible gasp. It was amazing. He then explained how he was able to did each one. The techniques went from requiring a lot of technical skill to a simple trick deck you could buy in any magic store. But the last one, the amazing one, required no technical skill. It did not even require him to go to the magic store an buy a trick deck. The technique used was simple. Before the class began he recruited someone to think of a specific card. All he had to do was draw the agreed upon card on a blank piece of paper. It was the easiest, the cheapest. It was the quickest to learn of all of the four methods.  And it was the most amazing.

This got me While there are multiple ways to accomplish the same result, we tend to work with some of the most complicated ones.  If we want to be amazing we need to trim away all the extraneous things and take the straightest path to the result desired. Simple is usually faster, better and cheaper. If you think like a magician simply is also the most amazing.