Creativity Coaching Panel
Issue 4, 2005

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A Reader Asks: "How do you inspire your staff to come up with creative solutions, or out of the box thinking, when the tried and true standard methods are no longer working?"

See how the panel responds...

• Wanda Ropa
• Sharon Price
• Michele Engel Edwards

Wanda Ropa
Creativity Architect, Certified Creativity and Executive Coach & Author

Wanda's Response: Out of the box thinking requires that an individual first recognize that there is a box. Sometimes this initial shift in thinking demands a major reformatting of your hard drive (your mind). Naturally, our mind doesn’t like change, especially major shifts. If we want to divert from our usual pattern of solving problems, our amygdala, located in our midbrain, can get in the way. When we experience a block, our amygdala has triggered the “fight or flight” response, which sometimes results in “immobility” or “the freeze.” Centuries ago, this natural alarm mechanism was very useful to surviving life threatening scenarios, such as avoiding dinosaurs or saber-toothed tigers. But today, in the 21st century, it is our mind that gets in the way of a solution.

Major experts report that the key to success is adaptability - being fluid in solving problems. How do we avert triggering the amygdala? How do we outmaneuver our mind? Freezing is acceptable if it is temporary. However, as the human mind locks on an idea and freezes, once it’s stuck, it can be very difficult to transition out of this block. Imagine the quicksand experience. Once in quicksand, the harder we struggle, the deeper we sink. We continue to be stuck in the same patterns, in acting and performing in the same way, and mirroring our past behaviors to solve today’s problems.

Change takes us out of our comfort zone, activates fear, and stimulates “fight, flight or the freeze.” According to Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap, “Human beings are social animals – our natural inclination is to go with the group.”

Creative solutions are not natural. We must “abandon the comforts of habit, reason, and the approval of our peers, and strike out in new directions.” Embarking on problem solving in a creative way is usually a struggle for most people.

So, how can we get creative results in an easy and effortless way? How can we get unstuck without struggle or frustration? The answer is play. Play allows us to “zag” when our mind and our peers are stuck in “zig.” As adults, we have forgotten how easy and fun it was to play in the playground. There were no expectations. Our creativity and imagination was high and we just had fun.

The secret is to play with possibilities. If you’re not achieving results or finding solutions, you need buy-in to play. In a corporate setting, connect with the informal leader of the team, department, division, etc. and elicit playful responses. If you’re running your own business, seek out one or a few of your best customers and have them engage in play.

Suggestions for Stimulating Playful Responses:

• Ask your internal customers to pretend it’s an ideal world. How could you exceed their current expectations?
• In an ideal world, ask your best external customers what you could offer to delight them.

Document this feedback without judgment and schedule a play session for yourself and your team members. The focus of this session is on playful responses and playful possibilities. Capture the information that results without filtering or screening.

1. Compile a list of revered mentors, alive or dead. Select each one and using their perspective, ask: If I were, e.g., Albert Einstein, what approach would I take regarding my current products or services? From their viewpoint, what would stay the same? What could be different?
2. If I were an 8-year-old child, how would I view the products or services? What would stay the same? What could be different?
3. Bring in a dictionary and randomly select 10 words from different pages. Describe your products or services using these words. How would they stay the same? How could they be different?
4. If you could have unlimited funding, how would that affect your products or services? What would remain? What would change?
5. Gather 10 different magazines or trade journals. Take 10 minutes to identify and tear out images that reflect your feelings toward your products and services. Use the next 10 minutes to paste them on a poster board. Identify patterns and themes within the collage. How do your collective images affect your current approach toward your products and services? What is the same? What has changed? Document your responses.
6. Without further discussion, schedule another meeting within a week to review all the information from the play session. Discuss and look for ways to incorporate these responses to align with your customers’ requests to delight them.
7. Treat the players to ice cream sundaes as a reward for playing.

References

• “The Brand Gap,” by Marty Neumeier. New Riders, Berkeley, CA 2006.

"Creativity is the breakthrough skill needed for the 21st century. Your level of creativity will drive success and personal fulfillment." ~ Daniel Pink, Author, A Whole New Mind

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Sharon Price
Master Marketing Magician
President, PowerPartners Marketing
sprice@powerpartnersmarketing.com
www.powerpartnersmarketing.com

Sharon's Response:

The Big Red Flag in Our Mind

Before I go into providing some ideas with regards to this month’s question, I’d like to thank Wanda for inviting me to be part of this panel. It is an honor to be able to share some of my gifts, talents and experience with those who are looking for answers. I hope that, in some way, these ideas will help you!

When I think of “creative solutions” or “out of the box thinking,” I tend to relate this to coming from a place of facing an obstacle or challenge that just won’t get out of the way. In my mind, this place comes with high emotional content, frustration and stress. These feelings are actually a good thing because it gives us a big red flag, which if recognized, can help us to take the first step toward finding a creative solution to the challenge. This red flag gives us the opportunity to stop and look at what our brain is doing behind our backs; or, as one of my mentors puts it, the opportunity to “Mind our mind in the moment.”

Our brain is generally the culprit behind most of our obstacles and challenges. It has a lifetime of memories, behaviors and thoughts to keep us doing things the way we’ve always done them – and to prevent us from finding a new, out of the box, way of being or thinking. So, in my opinion, the best way to get out of that brain-frozen box is to stop and take a look at what our mind (and the collective group mind) is doing.

A good way to inspire staff to move towards more creative solutions might be to use a ‘red flag’ system. Whenever they come across a situation that constantly generates high emotional content, have them send you a red flag. The red flag could be in the form of an email or an anonymous red flag suggestion box and needs to be formatted so they have an opportunity to reflect on both the situation, as well as their thoughts, beliefs and memories of similar, connected or related situations from their past.

This helps them to be more aware of how their mind is reacting to the situation and you to become more aware of problems that have a recurring theme for your company. The awareness is the key.

Here is a quick, easy idea that you can use either individually or with your team to become more aware of what’s going on behind the scenes. Once you and your team have this awareness, coming up with creative solutions is second-nature. The awareness removes the block and the creative ideas come bubbling to the surface – effortlessly.

Stream of Consciousness Chat Box

On a piece of paper, draw a big square leaving room both inside and outside the square to make notes. On top of the page, print the obstacle or challenge. Inside the square, write all the ways you’ve handled this challenge in the past, all the emotions that come up when you look at this obstacle, all the thoughts, beliefs and memories you can think of with regards to this problem.

Circle or highlight every word or phrase that repeats itself. (If you’re in a group setting, use a flip chart to write every word or phrase that repeats itself within the group.)

Note: It’s important with this exercise to set an expectation or guideline that this is not to be about blame or judgment. This is about looking at the old way of thinking, doing and being. (For yourself or for a group!)

The next step is to literally think outside the box. Write down anything that comes to mind about how you might handle this challenge in the future, how you could change the emotions you have surrounding this obstacle, how you can learn from the thoughts, beliefs and memories you have about this problem.

This step is not about finding solutions, it helps to gain greater clarity about the opportunity the awareness is presenting.

After you’ve finished thinking outside the box, simply walk away and let it be. You now have the awareness you need to begin to see more creative solutions. You may want to keep a notebook handy to jot down any ideas that come to mind as you move through the rest of your day. If you’re working in a group, you can suggest that this awareness will open them up to new ideas and new possibilities with regards to the challenge and either schedule an idea/solution meeting the next day or let them email you their ideas over the next few days.

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Michele Engel Edwards
Creativity Workshop Leader and Coach and Author

Michele's Response: I’ve found that it’s important to combine two components in order to inspire creative thinking: an environment that’s conducive to creative thought, and a structured process within which to arrive at creative solutions to problems. One component without the other won’t lead to success. That said, I’ll save the details about my three-stage structured process for another time, and focus now on what I do to make sure that the people on my staff are able to do justice to their creative energy.

I like to start by inviting one or more (as many as 6) individuals on my staff to join me for a 1-hour walking meeting at a nearby park. I ask them to put deadlines and other work-related stressors out of their minds as best they can, to be in receiving mode as much as possible, taking in the sights and sounds of nature and whatever small talk we might be engaged in (nothing heavy). Once we’ve walked for about 10 minutes, I find us a table to sit at, and and then I ask them to think for a few moments about what they wish they could change about the way we work and the results we get.

Each person has pad of “stickies” they can use to jot down ideas. Just three rules: 1) the wishes must be stated as possibilities and opportunities, not as problems (e.g. “I wish,” or “It would be great if ….”); 2) we strive to get as many wishes on the list as possible, the wilder the better; and 3) we make no judgements about the wishes expressed. I put a long sheet of newsprint on the surface of the table so we can collect everyone’s stickies. We’d walk back to our offices and return to our usual routines for the rest of the day.

A few days later, the same group meets for a potluck lunch on site. While we’re enjoying each other’s food and company, we also engage in an activity that helps us to prioritize the wishes we’ve generated, ultimately deriving a list of 2 or 3 of the “hottest” ideas.

Perhaps several days later, the group gets together for a 1-hour “Fact Finding” meeting that I hold in the conference room. The purpose is to gather significant data/information to enable a clear understanding of the objectives/goals we came up with at the last meeting. We do more brainstorming: What’s the history, who’s involved, why this is a concern, how it’s an opportunity, etc. And then we do some convergent thinking, selecting the most important data to understand the situation.

The end of the first stage has us clarifying the problem. It’s important to note that we did not start the process by stating a problem; we simply explored the challenge(s) we face to make sure that we would arrive at a true statement of the problem/subproblems. Many an individual and organization has invested much time and money solving the wrong problems, and we want to avoid doing that.

The goal of the second stage of the process is to find the most interesting and promising ideas around solving the problem. This time, I have lunch brought in to our conference room and plan on spending about 45 minutes generating ideas (potential answers/possible solutions) and about 45 minutes narrowing those ideas down to a list of those that are workable, innovative, and have the potential to solve the problem. We take our time, we make it fun. It’s likely that I kick things off with something that will get the group laughing—maybe a clip or two from Saturday Night Live or America’s Funniest Animals.

For the third stage, during which we prepare for action by selecting and strengthening solutions and then finding acceptance for our plan, we go on a full-day retreat. I like to drive the group to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for brunch (about an hour away). We sit out on the patio for awhile, generating a list of criteria for evaluating potential solutions. We ask questions like “Will it …?” or “Does it …?” vis a vis the potential solutions we came up with at the last meeting. We select the most relevant/important criteria and compare potential solutions with criteria. We strengthen the solutions by applying the PPCo Praise First tool: We list the pluses for each possible solution, the potentials, and the concerns (How to …? How might …? In what way might …?), and then overcome the important concerns. Thereby we identify the solution(s) to be implemented (“NOW what we see ourselves doing is …”).

We take a break and go for a walk on the beach for an hour or two. We return to the patio to plan for action. We want to identify resources and actions that will support implementation of the selected solution(s). The first step is to generate a list of all of the possible steps needed to make it happen (the “To Do” list). We do some brainstorming, asking who might assist, who needs to be convinced, what resources are available, etc.

Then we select the necessary steps and create a plan for action, detailing what is going to be done, who will do it, by when it will be done, and who will check or needs to know it’s done. We now have a list of resources and action steps needed to sell or implement the selected solution.

At every step it’s important to give people permission to be creative, nurture their creativity, and celebrate their efforts with enthusiasm and warmth.

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