Creativity can be elusive, and sometimes you need to go searching for it in the same way that a detective looks for clues to crack a big case. Here are the best places to look to find creativity where it hides. These techniques will serve as your treasure map to a rich bounty of creativity and imagination:
1. The Borrowed Idea – “The problem I’m trying to solve is like…” Complete this sentence, and find a metaphor that is similar to your Creative Challenge. The Borrowed Idea is about finding a solution that works in one area of life; then applying it to your current situation. For example, Velcro was a borrowed idea that came from burrs in the forest. Look for ideas and inspiration from nature, art, music, and other industries and see if there are concepts that you can “borrow” and apply.
2. A Different Lens – Shift your perspective by viewing your problem from a different vantage point. How would a movie star view the situation? A spy? A Rocket Scientist? Bill Gates? This shift will help you see your Creative Challenge in new ways, and help you find less obvious answers.
3. Slither – A few years ago, I invented a make-believe competitor, the Slither Corporation, and unleashed it on our team. Slither was smarter, faster, bigger, and was beating us in the marketplace. We used Slither to not only keep our sense of urgency, but to encourage free-thinking. “How does Slither do it?” became an often-used phrase at our company. “What is one thing your counterpart at Slither is doing better than you?” Go ahead and create your own Slither, and imagine how your new arch-enemy is approaching situations. It will remove barriers and free up your mind for fresh, innovative thinking.
4. Immersion – When an actor prepares for a new role, she may spend a few weeks living in a similar world to the character she plans to portray. No better way to learn how to act like a hardened cop than to hang out with one for 16 hours a day for two months. Similarly, immerse yourself in your Creative Challenge. This could come in the form of customers, location, habits, nutrition, recreation, transportation, or anything else you can do to live in their world. If you want to market to college kids, you should plan to spend a lot of time on college campuses to not only understand your audience, but also the overall college experience.
5. Scratching – Imagine a cat scratching at a sealed box of cat food. Each scratch cumulates, finally tearing through the box and getting to the food. In the same way, you can start some great ideas by scratching lightly at the surface and then continuing to scratch like mad. The concept here is just beginning with simple sparks of ideas, even though any one of them may not even be close to your final answer. Simple, little ideas that can spur additional thinking or even combine with other scratches to create something special. Keep scratching to break through barriers and find the juicy ideas you seek.
6. The Upside Down – Try flipping your Creative Challenge around completely. Instead of trying to come up with a new cereal product, what if you came up with totally new concept for the box? See if you can flip around the very thing you are trying to accomplish or re-write the question in different ways. This will give you a fresh way at looking at things, and maybe direct you to an unexpected solution.
7. Patterns – With a high level of awareness, you can spot patterns in just about any area of life. Traffic patterns. Speech patterns. Thought patterns. See if you can notice different patterns, and explore if there is a way to apply the same pattern to your work. Maybe you notice a pattern of people waiting for the subway and looking at ads, and you then apply that idea to delivering ads to people waiting in line at an airport. Or the pattern of “soft, loud, soft” in a song could translate to a similar pattern in planning a meal (mild, spicy, mild).
8. The Newsstand – For quick bursts of inspiration, go to a bookstore and grab some magazines that you have never opened before. Flip through them and notice the colors, images, and content. Read the ads. Browse the articles. In just a few minutes, you get the opportunity to be immersed in a completely different world. And this fresh perspective may just inspire some brand new ideas.
9. Open Innovation – All brains are better than any single brain (even a super smart one). Open Innovation communities such as TopCoder and 99 Designs offer a Creative Challenge (design a new patch of software code, or design a new logo) and then people all over the world compete to develop the best idea. The winner may get a cash reward, but the real winner is the person who needed creativity and leverages a huge pool of talent. The task of being creative can be daunting, but knowing where to look for the best ideas will give you the boost you need to let the fun begin. Explore these areas. Play with them. Enjoy them. Most of all, use them to discover fresh ideas and express your true creative potential.