Friday, March 6, 2009

24 Lessons in High Performance Leadership

Lesson Twenty-one
Cultivate Creativity

When I took the beach break to see if I could figure out what had caused my office to dive from #1 to #36, I needed an answer quickly. I didn’t have the information then I’m sharing with you now. Even though I initially stumbled across the correct action to stimulate my creativity, I can now recommend such isolation to anyone who is experiencing major problems. Most people in the heat of battle will feel they can’t abandon the fight. Believe me, staying in the struggle with no good ideas or anything else to offer won’t accomplish much.

The fellow I learned some helpful principles from lost his job as a young newspaper reporter because he “lacked good ideas.” His editor back in Kansas also said that he was “void of creativity.” Nobody knows the name of that editor. But, almost everyone in the world associates the young reporter’s name, Walt Disney, with creativity. In order for anything to become successful (a book, a company, a movie, yes, even leadership style), Walt Disney said that it must have:

1. A uniqueness factor: Why should anybody get excited about something that’s ordinary?
2. A word-of-mouth factor: People can't stay quiet about a positive experience.
3. A flair factor: Do it big, do it right, and do it with class.

I think of creativity as the voice beyond silence. I’ve already talked about isolating yourself to experience a clear mind. In the silence of isolation will come the voice that is creativity. Whether or not you are able to induce creativity or it simply happens when the time is right, the following four-step process will help you make the most out of your creative experience:

1. Preparation: If your intention is to create a new product or method for doing something, it’s important to learn everything you can about that subject.

2. Incubation: Don't rush things. Give a new and creative idea time to cook in the incubator.

3. Insight: That moment, in the middle of the night, when you sit bolt upright in bed in a moment of insight. Insight is that glimpse at the suddenly clear and illuminated answer.

4. Verification: The process of verification brings it all back to reality and begins to establish boundaries.

Here are some basic ways to go about becoming more creative:

Schedule more uninterrupted private time.

Allow yourself to be gullible.

Look at far-fetched ideas.

"Aim for striking originality. It gets attention"

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