The Creativity Myth:
Creative = Artistic
Creativity = Fixed Trait

Creative Confidence:
WE ARE ALL CREATIVE!

Creativity: using your imagination to create something new in the world.

Creative Confidence:
the ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out.

«New opportunities for innovation open up when you start the creative problem-solving process with empathy toward your target audience»

Growth or fixed mindset?

Do you think: “I’ve never been good at anything creative, so why embarrass myselve now?”

Or do you think: “Effort is the path to mastery, so let’s at least give this a try.”

Act with intention

fear of failure inhibits creativity:

fear of being judged

fear of getting started

fear of the unknown

Edison maintained that “real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into twenty-four hours.”

«creative confidence results in reduced anxiety in the face of ambiguity when you are bringing new ideas into the world.»

bring-your-whole-self-to-work and allow yourself to be vulnerable

innovation is fueled by
-restless intellectual curiosity
-deep optimism
-ability to accept repeated failure
-relentless work ethic
-mindset that encourages ideas combined with action.

Choose to be creative

• Redefine problems in new ways in order to seek out solutions.
• Take sensible risks and accept failure as part of the innovation process.
• Confront the obstacles that arise when challenging the status quo.
• Tolerate ambiguity when they are not certain that they are on the right path.
• Continue to grow intellectually rather than let their skills or knowledge stagnate.

Think like a traveller

• Engage a beginner's mind
• Pay close attention and rediscover the familiar
• When was the last time you took a class? Read some unusual magazines or blogs? Listened to new kinds of music? Traveled a different route to work? Had coffee with a friend or colleague who can teach you something new? Connected to “big idea” people via social media?

Daydreaming

EMPATHIZE WITH YOUR END USER

DO OBSERVATIONS
IN THE FIELD

Find the extreme users

ASK QUESTIONS:
“WHY?” & “WHAT IF?”

Reframe questions

«BUILD A CREATIVE SUPPORT NETWORK»

Cultivate serendipity

«Innovation = turning ideas into action»

If you want to make something great, you need to start making!

Make a first sloppy version, beat perfection and resistence!

From intentions to action!

• Ask a person to help you
• Create peer-pressure
• Get an audience
• Do a bad job
• Lower the stakes

«USE CONSTRAINT TO FUEL CREATIVE ACTION»

Design action

• Work on easiest parts first
• Narrow down the goals
• Use multiple milestones
• Create prototypes: experiment, get feedback

Most analytical people don’t have a bias toward action.
The continue thinking and talking about their ideas.
Better prototype them asap!

Great teams

• Know each other's strengths
• Leverage diversity
• Get personal
• Value relationships
• Craft the team experience in advance: "How will we..."
• Have fun!

In a meeting, when others bring a stack of PowerPoint slides, try using a single image and telling a compelling story.

Better yet, bring a prototype or create a simple video that makes your idea come to life. To start even smaller, try to add a sketch to the whiteboard during your next meeting.