Creativity and the Big Idea!

Anyone reading this is capable of coming up with a brilliant idea every 60 seconds. Do you believe you can do it? It depends on your perception of what a ‘brilliant idea’ really is. A brilliant idea might be defined as the notion that there is no such thing as a stupid idea.   How many stupid ideas have you had that were acknowledged as ’stupid’, as opposed to ‘brilliant’.

For over 30 years, I have been ‘finding’ ideas, rather than ‘coming up’ with them – and I don’t mean that I plagiarize; although there is an organic, cumulative experience that one might compare to a form of natural, creative, shop lifting. It’s about searching for ‘inherent values’ within something. I will provide some examples of inherent values and how they are at the heart of inspiration; but, rest assured, from this pool of inherent values comes the creative grist that leads to fresh, bold, and inspired thoughts and ideas.

The “big idea” is the property of Brahma, Allah, God, or, for you quasi-existentialists, the entity or force that compels the electron to keep spinning in the vacuum of the atom it is bonded to.

We can agree, I would think, that if anything unites us all, even as we debate the differences of our diverse faiths or beliefs, it is that ‘creativity’ is at the heart of our existence. Presumably, we were created in the image of the Great Creator, whichever brand you subscribe to. “And then there was light …” And then came light switches. And so on.

We are not Gods. We can’t invoke a universal reality with a time-space continuum, which keeps everything in chaotic sync. Nor can we burn like bushes, reincarnate ourselves, or work mysterious miracles. We walk on solid surfaces, not on water. If we could, it would take the fun out of the vulnerable humanity embraced by the statement, ’sink or swim’.

The “big bang” is a triumphant, God-like exercise of ideas. Whereas, our own efforts to swim to the distant shore and reach it (against the odds) is a triumphant exercise inspired by human desperation. In fact, that’s how many of us feel when we are given the task of coming up with creative ideas – especially in the workplace. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.

What we can do is think and, as we do, connect dots planted within our thoughts and feelings, stimulated by our spiritual, intellectual and emotional experiences. These dots connect us to ‘inherent values’. So, what is an ‘inherent value’?

Some examples:

1. It could be something superficial and visible on the surface. For example, I have found other words and expressions within words. I found “I’m possible” within ‘impossible’.

2. I needed to find an idea for my daughter’s birthday party. I went into her bedroom and looked at the things that inspire her. Anything one sees – from posters on the wall to the play-list in her iPod is an inherent value.

3. A head hunting company needed marketing ideas to find worthy employment candidates for companies searching for ‘heavy hitters’. We asked ourselves, what are some of the values we see around ‘heavy hitters’? They are upwardly mobile and, when they are, they buy new houses or real estate. Real estate agents are a channel of connection to talented people. A marketing campaign was built around that inherent value.

4. The industry of fast food was built around one simple inherent value: two working parents have less time to cook. Domino Pizzas took it a step further when they realized that, the faster they could deliver pizza, the better they could position themselves with the same time-challenged people who preferred to go home and then order their meal.

5. Years ago, my life went into the ditch. I hung a picture of myself as a one-year old on the bathroom wall. Every morning, I told the little boy in the picture that I would take care of him. And I did. That photo of me as an innocent, creative human being represented the inherent values of my life.

Inspiration is like that electron, spinning endlessly around and so vital to our existence. It is not the “big idea” that you need to look for. It is the idea you just came up with a moment ago that are brilliant.

Like the one-year old in the photo, give that idea an opportunity to grow. It is an inspiring experience. In the end, it’s brilliant – every 60 seconds.

 

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The Nature Of Creativity

A little personal history always hurts or humbles.  Your own history has left powerful implants that are hard wired to your imagination.  How has your life experience affected your own creativity?  The idea here is to find out and change it or enhance it.  Resurrect it.  Improve it.  Unleash it.  DO it!

Up to the age of 5 (more or less),  a child’s natural creativity is influenced by Mom and Dad, siblings, as well as the pre-school environment and the first friends in life.  There are other influences, but there are books out there that flesh it out with authority.  I assume you get the point.

After the 5^th year, things really change.  We begin to remember more things we see and hear.  The values we place on these things vary, but they guide our thinking, feeling and imagination.  More importantly, we begin to make more defined creative choices.

Our first, more defined creative experiences happen when we play or pretend as children.  In other words, we start to move from playing randomly as toddlers with something designed for a simple purpose — such as grabbing something and winging it across the room or shaking a noise maker — to creating simple stories often incorporating  toys or props.

Within those stories we become something: a character or simply the force behind the manifestation, such as the hand that moves a racing car or the hand that moves the doll and the voice that speaks its thoughts.

Of course, at that point in our growth, we don’t suddenly stop and say, “Gee, I’m creative.”  It comes out more as, “Look at what I did with Sparky, Mom.”  And it is Mom who, after savouring the image of Sparky dressed as the big bad wolf and strapped to a toy stroller, will say, “Gee honey, that’s very creative.”  The truth is, the child won’t really understand what Mom meant.  What they want to hear is, “Wow, Sparky looks like the big bad wolf.  Well done!”  For children, it’s about the result as much as it is about the recognition; it’s about validation on several levels.  But, hey, I’m a writer, not Freud.

 

A Brilliant Idea Every 60 Seconds – A Primer

Is it really possible to come up with a brilliant idea every 60 seconds?  Early in my career as a professional creative (adjective as noun), I established a 60-second time challenge: to state a creative idea within 60 seconds in a meeting, which would make at least one person at the table take notice.  This powerful connection would eventually draw in all the other participants and a far different meeting would unfold.

What kinds of ideas have the power to get this kind of attention?  The answer to that question is not necessarily about the ‘Big Idea’.  In fact, it’s more about the not-so-big idea, which, when examined closer, can yield incredible things.

What many people think about creativity, whether it is associated with art, music, advertising, fashion, writing, films — even business and sports —- is heavily influenced by the creative machines in Hollywood and New York as well as radio and television

Films, TV and radio programs, commercials, music videos — they all take us somewhere, creatively; they all shape our perception of what we think is highly creative and, by implication, what we think — or don’t consider — about our own creativity.

Ask the pedestrian on the street what he or she thinks is an example of creative thinking, and rarely does anyone say anything about an idea of their own.  What do you think about your own creativity?  Have you had a good idea lately?  Would you know if you did?

I wish I had a quarter for every person who has said to me, “I wish I could be as creative as you.  How do you come up with ideas like that?”  The truth is, I don’t really “come up with ideas”.  I find them.  Sometimes, they find me.

 

A Few Creative Truths

1.  There is no such thing as stupid idea.  This is not a rule of my invention.  It was stolen from the public domain.

2.  Only God, Allah, Buddha, Brahman — all capital ‘C’ Creators — actually “come up” with big ideas.  I mean — I just don’t have the qualifications to create a universe of reality with spirituality as a subliminal influence.  Do you?

3.  Creativity is a thousand doors.   Pick one.

4.  Your children, mother, father, grandparents and favorite school teacher think you are creative.  Are they wrong?  On this rare occasion, they are right.

5.  The moment you yell, “I’m such an idiot!” and whack yourself on the side of your head, is a moment of pure, absolute creativity.

6.  Have you ever lied?  C’mon, it doesn’t take creativity to tell the truth, which is why politicians and lawyers are the most creative people I know.  (How many lawyers become politicians?  Crazy circle, isn’t it?)

7.  When you were a child, you pretended to be someone else at Haloween. (Some of us still do.)  You also turned an inanimate object into a weapon of destruction, transformed yourself into royalty with a handful of clothes, and managed to convince your parents that you were too sick to go to school.  In some cases, you did this all on the same day.

8.  Creativity is not exclusive to one person.  It is a shared process, an ongoing collaboration that happens either by design or spontaneously.

9.  Everyone is creative.  People who say they are not creative are lying to themselves, and that’s very creative.

10.  Perfection is imperfection at work.  Just as there is no such thing as a stupid idea, there is no such thing as a perfect idea.