Creative Think

Reverse Your Point of View

While poking around on the net, I discovered an ad produced by Leo Burnett Italia. It runs forty seconds: check it out.

This is a powerful ad. And I hope its message is heeded by those at whom it is directed.

But it reminded me of what a wonderful mind-opening technique looking at things in a reverse manner can be.

Here is one of my favorite examples of "reverse." I'll quote a section from my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head**, called "Reverse Living":

Life is tough. It takes up all your time, all your weekends, and what do you get at the end of it? Death, a great reward. The life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, and get it out of the way. Then you live for twenty years in an old age home, and then get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch and then you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college and party until you’re ready for high school. Then you go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.

What can you look at backwards? How might you see it in a fresh way?

**The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is starting to appear in stores this week, and is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon).

Don't Force It

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is "Don't Force It." This is what it says.

An architect built a cluster of office buildings around a central green. When construction was completed, the landscape crew asked him where he wanted the sidewalks. "Just plant the grass solidly between the buildings," was his reply.

By late summer the new lawn was laced with paths of trodden grass between the buildings. These paths turned in easy curves and were sized according to traffic flow.

In the fall, the architect simply paved the paths. Not only were the paths beautiful, they responded directly to user needs.

By putting an idea on your mental back burner, you allow yourself to put your problem in perspective. Sometimes we get so close to the problem that we lose sight of what we're trying to accomplish.

One advertising man told me that his strategy for coming up with ideas is to spend six weeks inundating himself with information about the client and its market. Then he'll go fishing for three days, and "let the ideas percolate their way to the top." Moral: If you allow yourself to get away from your problem, you put yourself in a position to see the big picture.

As the poet Doug King says:

"Learn to pause . . . or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."

What are you forcing in your issue? Where can you back off? Where has pausing helped you be more creative?

(Me? I'm going to the movies this afternoon!)

Avoid Arrogance

I've been reading the papers today. Hmmm. To sort things out I thought I'd draw some inspiration from the trusty Creative Whack Pack. Here goes. It's "Avoid Arrogance." Let's see what it says.

On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte smugly assured his generals: "I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime."

There is a fine line between a healthy sense of one's abilities and arrogance. If you're repeatedly successful, you're tempted to believe that you've found the formula for success and are no longer subject to human fallibility.

This is devastating to the creative process; in a world that is continually changing, every right idea is eventually the wrong one.

With an arrogant attitude, you cease paying attention to different points of view and information that contradicts your beliefs. You screen out the "boos," and amplify the "hurrahs."

Don't be blinded by arrogance. A little humility can help you steer clear of disaster.

Where is arrogance affecting you? How has it clouded how you think about your problem? Where is your ego interfering with thinking of alternatives?

Flex Your Risk Muscle

I'm in need of a little inspiration for a project I'm working on. What direction should I go? Time to reach into the Creative Whack Pack. It's card # 53: "Flex Your Risk Muscle." This is one that always demands some action. It reads:

Bull's-eye every time? If so, you're standing too close to the target. If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a "risk muscle." You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies and you're no longer able to take chances. How can you exercise your risk muscle? What kinds of risk can you take while pursuing your issue? What's the biggest, most sensible risk you can take?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but three ideas come immediately to mind: 1) to call a person I'd been putting off for fear of not getting through or looking stupid; 2) getting some prototypes out for some feedback (even though I'm not sure they're quite ready — isn't that almost always the case?); and 3) being a little more adventuresome in my design.

I'm sure I'll think of other interpretations over the next few days.

I'm in need of a little inspiration for a project I'm working on. What direction should I go? Time to reach into the Creative Whack Pack. It's card # 53: "Flex Your Risk Muscle." This is one that always demands some action. It reads:

Bull's-eye every time? If so, you're standing too close to the target. If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a "risk muscle." You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies and you're no longer able to take chances. How can you exercise your risk muscle? What kinds of risk can you take while pursuing your issue? What's the biggest, most sensible risk you can take?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but three ideas come immediately to mind: 1) to call a person I'd been putting off for fear of not getting through or looking stupid; 2) getting some prototypes out for some feedback (even though I'm not sure they're quite ready — isn't that almost always the case?); and 3) being a little more adventuresome in my design.

I'm sure I'll think of other interpretations over the next few days.

Use All Your Senses

To boost your creativity, pay attention to wide variety of different information.

If you're visually oriented, focus on the "sound" or the "smell" of a situation.

If you're analytically oriented, focus on how something feels.

If you're intuitive, concentrate on the logic.

What other senses can you use?

What is the smell of your current situation? What are the "below the surface" sounds? What are the subtlest colors? What other senses can you use to develop your idea?

What associations do the following spark in your mind that might be useful to your issue:

• The sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard
• The terrified howl of a man tormented by his inner demons
• The feeling of a dentist drilling in your teeth
• The taste of salt in your tea when you thought you had put in sugar
• The smell of fresh paint
• The smell of a shirt that has been worn for thirty days in a row
• The smell of sweet incense
• The feel of silk in your fingers
• The smell of mist from a large fountain
• The smell of fresh-brewed coffee
• The feeling of a tennis ball hitting the heart of your racket
• The feeling of the floor rolling beneath you during an earthquake
• The smell of rotten fish
• The sound of loud thunder crashing near you
• The taste of a fresh strawberry
• The smell of gasoline
• The feel of diving into a swimming pool on a hot day
• The sound of an air raid siren going off
• The smell of burning leaves
• The feeling of the warm sun through a glass window on a cold winter's day
• The taste and sound of biting into a crunchy apple
• The feeling of melancholy
• The sound and feeling of a very large crowd cheering at an athletic event
• The smell of day-old vomit
• The smell of an airport restroom that hasn't been cleaned in twelve hours
• The feeling of pushing yourself hard in an athletic event.

What specific sounds, smells, feelings, and tastes stimulate you?

Look to the Past

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is Look to the Past. This is what it says.

History is loaded with creative analogies. Napoleon marching on Moscow is really just project management. Mao waging a guerrilla war is like launching an ad campaign. What ideas from history can you apply to a current project?

The past is gone. We can't get it back. Nor should we want to. But history can give us some valuable questions to help us understand the present.

For example, I recently spent several weeks reading about the Peloponnesian War which took place nearly 25 centuries ago. I found this to be a quite useful prism to view current events, e.g., politics, ethics, and distant wars.

Pick a culture from the past. How would someone from that time deal with your issue?

How about from your own personal history? What were you doing in each of these times that might be useful to you now: ten years ago ... last week ... when you were a sophomore in high school ... exactly twelve months ago ... when you were two ... last spring ... the year you had your greatest athletic achievement ... the year you had your first big love ... the happiest day of your life ... the year you learned that life wasn't all fun and games.

What ideas from history can you apply to a current project?

"Negativity": Your Advice Requested

Dear Readers,

I'd love to have your thoughts and advice on the following issue.

Several days ago, I received the following email from SR, a "regular" of this blog.

For about a decade now, I've had a hard time being 'creative' . . . when I sit at the drawing table, it's very difficult for me to have fun and be creative. This is not good for a graphic designer who's job it is to be 'creative' all the time. It affects me at work, and even in the sanctuary of my own home studio.

What I am good at creating is negative dwelling, self-doubt, and ridiculous negative fantasies.

So, my question is... could my 'creativity' struggles be attributed to my negativity? When I try to buck down and be creative, could something inside try to stop me, because subconsciously, I associate creativity with negativity?

Do you think I'm on to something here? Or does it sound stupid?

Okay, readers: What advice would you give to SR? Thanks.

Take A Whack At It

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is: Take A Whack At It. This is quite appropriate for this time of year!

Let's see what it says.

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put your line into the water. You can't make your idea a reality unless you take a whack at it. If you want to be a singer, go sing. Sing in the shower. Sing for your friends. Join the choir. Audition for a musical.

As adman Carl Ally put it, "Either you let you life slip away by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them."

How can you take a whack at your idea? What are the two most important things you can do to get going on your issue?

My Favorite New Year's Eve Story

Not long ago, I read about a group of Russian immigrants in Los Angeles who have the tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve on the afternoon of December 30th. A reporter for the Los Angeles Times heard about this and, thinking that there was a story there, went out to interview them.

“Why are you celebrating the new year thirty-six hours before everyone else?” she asked.

One of them, a man in his late sixties, responded, “When we were growing up in the Soviet Union forty years ago, we were very poor, and we found that it was a lot cheaper to get a band on December 30th. That’s how the tradition started.”

The curious thing is that most of these people are now well off — they've prospered in America. They could easily afford lavish entertainment on New Year’s Eve, and yet they still celebrate it on the previous afternoon.

I think we've all experienced this phenomenon many times.

1. We make rules based on reasons that make a lot of sense.
2. We follow these rules.
3. Time passes, and things change.
4. The original reasons for the generation of these rules may no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them.

Almost every organization I’ve ever worked with — including my own — has some of this mentality of celebrating New Year’s Eve early for an obsolete reason.

I think this story highlights an important aspect of innovation:

Creative thinking means not only generating new ideas;
it also means escaping from obsolete ones as well.

Enjoy letting go of some obsolete ways of doing things in the coming months. I know I'm going to try!

Not long ago, I read about a group of Russian immigrants in Los Angeles who have the tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve on the afternoon of December 30th. A reporter for the Los Angeles Times heard about this and, thinking that there was a story there, went out to interview them.

“Why are you celebrating the new year thirty-six hours before everyone else?” she asked.

One of them, a man in his late sixties, responded, “When we were growing up in the Soviet Union forty years ago, we were very poor, and we found that it was a lot cheaper to get a band on December 30th. That’s how the tradition started.”

The curious thing is that most of these people are now well off — they've prospered in America. They could easily afford lavish entertainment on New Year’s Eve, and yet they still celebrate it on the previous afternoon.

I think we've all experienced this phenomenon many times.

1. We make rules based on reasons that make a lot of sense.
2. We follow these rules.
3. Time passes, and things change.
4. The original reasons for the generation of these rules may no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them.

Almost every organization I’ve ever worked with — including my own — has some of this mentality of celebrating New Year’s Eve early for an obsolete reason.

I think this story highlights an important aspect of innovation:

Creative thinking means not only generating new ideas;
it also means escaping from obsolete ones as well.

Enjoy letting go of some obsolete ways of doing things in the coming months. I know I'm going to try!

Beware the Unintended

Need a jolt of inspiration? Let's take a card from the Creative Whack Pack. Today's message is "Beware the Unintended." Let's see what it says:

In preparing for the Olympics, the coach of a leading crew team invited a meditation instructor to teach awareness techniques to his crew. He hoped that such training would enhance their rowing effectiveness. As the crew learned more about meditation, they became more synchronized, there was less resistance, and their strokes got smoother.

The irony is that they went slower. It turned out that the crew became more interested in being in harmony than in winning. What are the unintended consequences (both positive and negative) of your being successful in a current project?

Unintended consequences are fascinating. Each of us has examples of things that we did for a particular reason, and something much different was the result.

For example, in September, 2006, I started blogging with the purpose of promoting my (then) brand new product, the Ball of Whacks. As I got into blogging, though, it turned out that very, very few of my posts pertained to this product. What happened instead are two main things: 1) I've met a lot of interesting people from all over the world; and, 2) I developed a lot of new content ideas some of which I've been able to put into the new edition (25th Anniversary Edition) of my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head (coming out in May, 2008).

Question: I'd love to hear some of your "Unintended Consequences" stories — both negative and positive. What are some of your favorites?