Creativity is for everyone. You can do it, I can do it. That’s because we’ve all been created to create. It’s like we have a creative gene that is essential to being human.
That said, we can create situations and surroundings that quell or diminish or hinder our creativity. And, conversely, we can create situations and surroundings that foster it–that literally enhance our levels of creative performance.
If you do something over and over again, it will become a habit. Creativity is the same thing–this is why writers will write everyday, painters will paint everyday, the business executive will work 80 hour weeks. What people are doing is building neural connections in the brain that will wire together and thus form a habit. Have you ever seen Picasso sit down and just start painting something awesome? He truly mastered his medium. It’s said that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something. That’s because it takes that many times for your brain to create the neuronal connections. Now Steven Kotler, on whose 17 triggers of innovation this post is based, maintains that by mastering how to create flow states, that 10,000 hours can be cut in half. That could very well be.
What these habits do is create the conditions for a thing called flow. Steven Kotler, based on the seminal work by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, defines flow as an optimal state of consciousness in which we both feel and perform at our best.
Here are 5 habits that enhance creativity:
- Intense Focus: Aldous Huxley was known for answering the door of his house, having a conversation with the person, and then forgetting who it was when his wife later queried him about it. The famous writer G.K. Chesterton was known for calling his wife to tell her he’s at the train station, and to ask where he is supposed to be going. “Home dear!” she would reply. Intense focus is critical for creativity and innovation. It requires a single activity and solitude. You’ve got to shut off your phone, lock yourself in a room for days on end, and be alone. This is how many great writers and scientists and painters and musicians have created over the centuries.
- Clear Goals: This is important. ‘A goal without a plan is just a wish’. This also relates to the goal itself. If you have no objective, you will have no direction. It could be the case that following the goal will take you into a different direction, but you still need to start with a goal. In group innovation, having a clear goal that is agreed upon is critical for solving that complex challenge.
- Immediate Feedback: If you’re painting, and the colours don’t work or the strokes are too thin or the line you just wrote sounded terrible, you have immediate feedback. But what about that project for your director you’re working on? You need to get immediate feedback. This requires vulnerability. If I’m doing work for someone, I like to ship multiple iterations–I don’t care how good they are. I’m just trying to get new ideas out and get feedback on them.
- Challenge/Skills Ratio: To be in the sweet spot of creativity and innovation you need be in the tension of a serious challenge that is almost beyond your ability to solve it, and you need to have the requisite skills to solve it. An artist will immediately see when he or she is pushing the boundaries of skill when venturing out on a work and thus might pare it down. You want to hit the mid-way mark between performance and anxiety. The challenge must be slightly greater than the skills we bring to it.
- High Stakes: To be in flow we need to be working on projects that matter. We need to be taking a risk at something. I resonate with Richard Branson who claimed that if it isn’t fun and challenging he won’t do it. There is a time for playing it safe, but not in creation and innovation. And in groups, you need everyone on board with the risk, willing to stick their necks out to succeed. There has to be skin in the game.
These are just 5 habits of creativity and innovation. They will work with individual and group creativity. These become habits when one puts time into each of them, allowing them to become part of one’s daily practice.
In future posts, I will continue with more habits. Meantime, try these out and see how they work for you. Add a comment if you like what you’ve read.
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