You might think of creativity as something clever marketers or copywriters whip out when they need to come up with a compelling ad, or a personal trait only certain people, such as successful serial entrepreneurs or brilliant improv actors, naturally possess. But according to Keith Sawyer, research psychologist and author of "Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity," everyone can be more creative just by taking eight incremental steps, but not necessarily in linear order. His path to creativity is more back and forth, a process in which the steps to greater imagination and originality build on and feed off each other.
The book is a gold, chock full of fascinating findings from research studies and a deep well of tactics that will get you thinking differently. In fact, Sawyer advocates what is likely a radical shift in mindset for most people. Coming up with good ideas isn't something we leave until there's a pressing need. Rather, it's is a skill that can be practiced daily to solve life's problems as well as discover its opportunities.
Here are his steps for cultivating creativity, along with a sample of tips that can help you in this case.
1. Draw, paint, doodle
Growing up, my favorite thing to do when I was bored was to grab my notebook and note a makers, and just draw with no end goal in sight. I’d create rainbows, mermaids, solar systems — and I don’t remember feeling any pressure to make them worthy of hanging on the fridge, I just did it for the sheer joy of creating. Later on, I took up collaging with a stack of magazines each evening, and in high school, I fought the boredom of band class by secretly sketching dresses in my quest to become a fashion designer.
The sheer act of engaging in making art of any kind fires up all kinds of connections in the brain, so don’t fight the urge to doodle while you’re on your next conference call. I’ve been taking time each weekend to dust off my sketchbook and spend some time watercoloring with Phoebe, and it’s been so refreshing for my mind and my soul to make art just for the fun of it.
2. Embrace boredom
I recently did a 48-hour detox from all my devices, and one of my biggest goals for the experiment was to learn how to embrace boredom. Why, you may ask? Because research shows that being bored actually propels us towards deeper thinking and creativity. The theory goes that a bored mind searches for stimulation, which moves it into the daydreaming state, which leads to new ideas. Read more about the studies here.
Instead of filling every extra minute with productivity or scrolling through your phone, give your mind some breathing room. Let your mind wander, and who knows? You just might have the “aha moment” you were working so hard to achieve.
3. Ask the right question.
Sawyer tells the stories of the beginnings of Starbucks and Instagram. Neither company would be what it is today if its founders had continued to try to solve the original questions they sought to answer. Instead of asking "How can I recreate the Italian espresso bar in the United States?" Howard Shultz eventually looked at what wasn't working with that idea to instead ask "How can I create a comfortable, relaxing environment to enjoy great coffee?" And while Kevin Systrom originally pondered how he could create a great location-sharing app, a better question turned out to be "How can we create a simple photo-sharing app?"
Sawyer tells the stories of the beginnings of Starbucks and Instagram. Neither company would be what it is today if its founders had continued to try to solve the original questions they sought to answer. Instead of asking "How can I recreate the Italian espresso bar in the United States?" Howard Shultz eventually looked at what wasn't working with that idea to instead ask "How can I create a comfortable, relaxing environment to enjoy great coffee?" And while Kevin Systrom originally pondered how he could create a great location-sharing app, a better question turned out to be "How can we create a simple photo-sharing app?"
Sawyer offers plentiful techniques for generating lots of questions.
- Quickly, without overthinking it, write 10 variations of the same question. For example, for the classic question "How can I build a better mousetrap," you might ask questions such as "How do I get the mice out of my house?" and "What does a mouse want?" or "How can I make my backyard more attractive to a mouse than my house?" One of your new questions will likely be a better one than your original.
- Debug your life. Brutally criticize an imperfect product or situation you come in contact with every day. Once you have a list, think of ways to eliminate the annoyances. This can amp creativity because little problems are often symptoms of bigger ones. Steve Jobs, a genius innovator, excelled at finding bugs that distracted from a user's experience of a product.
- Make something then reinterpret it. Sometimes before you get at the right question, you have to make something. Once you do, think of your creation being used for purposes other than your original intent. This process throws away your first assumptions, forcing you to consider new perspectives.
4. Watch a TED talk or listen to a podcast
I often find that tuning into a powerful TED talk or listening to an interview with someone fascinating is a great way to shift my perspective, quickly and without a lot of effort. There are so many inspiring people out there, and nothing makes me more excited about creative thinking than learning from someone who is out there truly innovating in their field.
5. Be open and aware
Creative people are always on the lookout for possible solutions. You can do this by becoming more aware and practicing mindfulness, which involves intentionally noticing things and not pegging people you meet based on your expectations or the categories you have established in your minds. Instead, try to be open and curious and resist stereotyping people.
Creative people are always on the lookout for possible solutions. You can do this by becoming more aware and practicing mindfulness, which involves intentionally noticing things and not pegging people you meet based on your expectations or the categories you have established in your minds. Instead, try to be open and curious and resist stereotyping people.
- Create your own luck. Researchers have found people who describe themselves as lucky tend to notice things more than self-described unlucky people. They also act on unexpected opportunities and network well with others because they're curious. Unlucky people tend to be tense and so focused on narrow goals that they miss opportunities.
- Don't let accidents annoy you. Plenty of inventions--such as Penicillin, The Slinky and chewing gum--came into being because someone didn't brush past an accident, but studied it instead.
- Play with children's toys. Playing children are really good at making new connections. "I'm not the least bit self-conscious about my toy collection," Sawyer writes. "If you walk into just about any supercreative company, you'll find toys all over the place."
6. Play and pretend
When you play, your mind can wander and your subconscious has time to work. This is why time off from work is necessary for creativity to bloom.
When you play, your mind can wander and your subconscious has time to work. This is why time off from work is necessary for creativity to bloom.
- Explore the future. Imagine yourself being wildly successful five years from now. Write down as many details about what this success looks like. Then write the history of how you got there asking yourself questions such as, "What was the first step you took to move toward your goal?" or "What was one early obstacle and how did you move past it?"
- Leave something undone. If at the end of the day you leave a task slightly unfinished it may be easier to start on the next day. That's because cognitive threads are left hanging in your mind and as you go about your non-work activities your subconscious might hook onto them and give you a sudden insight.
- Become a beginner. Learn how to do something new, such as Hula-Hooping, juggling, carving wood, or archery.
7. Fuse ideas
This involves combining things that don't normally go together. In a recent study British neuroscientist Paul Howard-Jones asked people to create stories by giving them only three words. To one set of people the words were related, such as "brush," "teeth," and "shine." Another set of people received unrelated words such as "cow," "zip," and "star." The people who received the unrelated words made up more creative stories.
- Make remote associations. Go to page 56 in two different books and find the fifth sentence on each. Now create a story that tells the connection between the two.
- Use analogy. Find similarity between two things that on the surface seem different. Find something that's removed from your problem, then define five structural properties of it. Instead of listing "sharp" or "metal" for a knife, for example, you'd want to identify things like "requires downward pressure to cut." How can these characteristics apply to whatever you're trying solve?
- Engage with people who are different from you. We hang out with people who are like us, and while doing so may be comforting, it's not stretching. Also try imagining yourself as someone else--such as a chef, a foreign student, a building inspector. How would such people see the world?
8. Make time for play
Studies show that when we fully immerse yourself in just doing what we enjoy in other words, getting out of our own heads — it stimulates outside-the-box thinking and silences our inner critic. Tinker with toys, build something, get outside… and most importantly, think like a kid!
Studies show that when we fully immerse yourself in just doing what we enjoy in other words, getting out of our own heads — it stimulates outside-the-box thinking and silences our inner critic. Tinker with toys, build something, get outside… and most importantly, think like a kid!
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