Removing Inhibitors For Creativity
Last year I went to a conference in London where I had the privilege of meeting a gentleman by the name of Fred George. I came to admire this gentleman not only because of his illustrious career, but because he is everything a lot of us wish to be; an agent for disruption, an innovator.
At the keynote, Fred spoke about removing inhibitors to innovation.
Since then I decided I would work on removing MY inhibitors to innovation.
This article as come quite different from what George presented. I quickly understood that by removing inhibitors to innovation I would have to work on creativity, and how to spark it instead of removing it.
What I will share with you today, is what I found during my journey to try and become an agent for disruption, to try to become an innovator.
First and foremost, and if you don’t take anything else from this article, please take this:
When it comes to innovation and creativity, some of the things are about technology, most of the things aren’t! To be honest, most of the things have absolutely nothing to do with it.
The real challenge is how can we, as individuals, with all our jobs and responsibilities, stay on a perpetual state of innovation and creativity? How can we think outside the box when everything around us is inside of it?
I’ve read a lot, watched a lot of videos on the subject, but most importantly, I’ve tried a lot of things. For me, the magic formula (which is in constant flow) was a mix of the following ingredients:
- Re-purposing things. A wall may be a division between two areas, but it can also be a surface to paint on.
I’m a software developer, so I started using programming languages in different contexts of those they were created for. Like PHP on CLI tools and Javascript for artificial intelligence.
All this brought new sets of challenges, but also new ideas and new ways of doing things.
- Try new (and old) tools often. It may seem counter-productive, but old tools can bring new ways of working and can spark great new ideas.
I used to use different software for programming and writing. I decided I was going to try to use something that I could use for both. So now I’m using Vim which dates from 1991, and it’s incredible how faster I am. I also got better at touch typing. All from experimenting a different tool.
- Take time off. Allow your brain to wander, allow your ideas to flow. If you’re constantly absorbed on your daily routines and responsibilities, it is hard to think of innovative and different things.
- Travel. This one sound obvious to me. Get to know different cultures, people and ways of working. Get inspired on amazing monuments and landscapes. Expand your horizons.
- Exercise. Just like taking time off, exercise clears your mind and your thoughts. It’s a great way to get some creative thoughts going.
- Read. Enough said. Each book is an entire new world ready to be discovered.
- Expose yourself. This is a big one. Whatever you do, don’t keep it to yourself. Set yourself up for critic, learn from the experience and learn from what others have to say. Both positive and negative feedback are learning experiences. Take advantage of them.
And last but not least:
- Stop being afraid to fail! Set yourself to fail, fail often, fail early and learn from each of those experiences.
All the points are inter-connected. By travelling and exercising you’re allowing your mind to wander and your horizons to expand. The ideas you get from that lead to experimentation using new tools and methods. You can then expose those ideas to critic and learn from it. Rinse and repeat. There you have it, constant flow of creativity and innovation!
To finish things off, there’s one last thing: Persistence! There’s no innovation without persistence, without trial and error. By being persistent you’re constantly creating and learning. By being persistent you’re closer to that top 1% of people who are constantly defying the status quo.
Do you know who are those people?
The agents of disruption, the innovators!
