The document emphasizes that innovation stems from a creative mindset characterized by curiosity, resilience, and a willingness to embrace failure. It outlines strategies for fostering creativity, including engaging in relaxed attention, empathizing with end-users through field observations, and reframing problems to explore broader solutions. Collaboration and creating a supportive environment are also highlighted as critical components for unleashing creativity in individuals and organizations.

1. 88
Cultivate a
Creative Spark
Innovation can happen anywhere. It's fueled by a restless intellectual curiosity,
deep optimism, the ability to accept repeated failure as the price of ultimate
success, a relentless work ethic, and a mindset that encourages not just ideas but
Strategies
¡Action!
#1Choose
Creativity
It's a decision.
Redefine problems in order to
seek out solutions.
Take sensible risks and accept
failure as part of the innovation
process.
Confront obstacles that arise
when challenging the status
quo.
Tolerate ambiguity when no
certainty you are on the right
path.
Continue to grow intellectually
rather than let skills or
knowledge stagnate.
Think Like
a Traveler
Rediscover the familiar. See more
than ordinary people.
On a trip we become our own version
of Sherlock Holmes, intensively
observing the environment around us.
Have all your receptors on - and
frequently turned up to eleven.
Engage a "beginners mind",
everywhere you turn tend to think
"Isn't that interesting?" rather than "I
already know about that".#2
Engage Relaxed
Attention
#3
The problem-solving power of daydreaming.
Our minds make unlikely connections between ideas,
memories, and experiences when we are at rest and
not focused on a specific task or project.
When stuck in a problem, defocus your mind:
By taking a walk.
When you are awakened from a deep sleep finding
yourself in a half-conscious state.
Empathize with
your End-User
The ability to see an experience through
another person's eyes, to recognize why
people do what they do. When you go into
the field and watch people interact with
products and services in real-time.
Gaining empathy can take sometime and
resourcefulness, and requires taking your
ego out of the way.
It's a gateway to better understand their
thoughts and feelings.
#4
Do observations
in the field
It's a field research to get the latent needs, the non-obvious ones.
A powerful complement to interviews, turning up surprises and
hidden opportunities.
Challenging your preconceived ideas and setting aside your
sense of what you think is true in order to learn what actually is
true.
An interview won't give you that, Sometimes you need to follow
consumers into the kitchen.
#5
Ask questions, starting
with "Why"?
One of the best ways to accelerate learning is to ask questions.
A question that starts with "Why" or "What if" can brush aside superficial
details and get to the hearth of the matter.
Do you ask deep, probing questions, or are you hearing what you
expect?, are you making a connection or just making contact?.
Get so much farther than you would have with usual pointed questions.
#6
Interview techniques:
* SHOW ME
* DRAW IT
* FIVE "WHYs"
* THINK ALOUD
Great leaders are good at reframing the
problem.
The first step toward a great answer is to
reframe the question.
Reframing the problem should open up a
broader range of possible solutions and
allows you to address bigger, more
important problems.
Reframe
Challenges
#7
Reframing techniques:
* Step back from obvious solutions.
* Alter your focus or point of view.
* Uncover the real issue.
* Look for ways to bypass resistance or mental blocks.
* Think about the opposite.
Build a Creative Support
Network
Best ideas result from a collaboration with other people.
Multidisciplinary teams with the humility to build on the ideas of
others.
Build your own supportive community of innovators: Creative
Digital Communities, All Volunteer Projects, Creative confidence
groups.
#8
Creative Confidence "Unleashing the Creative Potential within Us All" Kelley & Kelley- Chapter 3Source:
Create an "epiphany-friendly" environment within yourself and your
organization to cultivate the seeds of creative energy.