Why this idea means business : We explore 5 quick and easy creative habits you can start today. Learn how to nudge your thinking towards being more innovative. Read this to start building more creative habits.
How much is this idea worth?
Idea : To build creative habits that will improve the quantity and quality of your innovation ideas. Based on our standard business case assumptions, the value of this idea is :-
- Source of business – Innovation
- Skill area – Creativity
- Commercial hypothesis :-
- # customers = 1,000
- Spend/month = $100
- Est. monthly purchases from innovation adoption = +60
- Est. sales increase = +$6k (monthly) | +$72k (annual)
“Yeah, we’re really stuck on this, and you’re a creative type. Do you think you could get back to us with something brilliant by the end of the day?”.
If your job involves creative thinking, chances are you’ve probably experienced this sort of request. Like there’s some sort of magic creative on/off switch that you flick to build bright ideas and go after creative opportunities.
But as creative types will tell you, creativity doesn’t work like that.
For example, you usually have to follow a creative process. How that works depends on the type of creative person you are. Plus, creativity is a skill. It takes time to master. Like any skill, you have to practice to get good at it. That means building good creative habits.
With that in mind, this week, we share 5 helpful creative habits. Helpful because they’re all fairly simple to start doing. And once you see the benefits they bring, they’re also easy creative habits to maintain.
Creative habits #1 - Observation
Look out!
Most psychology books on how our brains work show that our brains spend much of their time in a kind of autopilot mode.
For example, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast, and Slow describes two brain “modes”. System 1 mode instinctively and emotionally reacts to what’s going on around us. Whereas System 2 is a slower, more conscious and logical way of thinking.
System 1 helps us efficiently get through our day. It likes routines and predictability. However, this isn’t great for creativity. Neither of those is much help when thinking creatively.
In fact, the opposite is usually the case when you need creative ideas. The most creative ideas usually disrupt routines and are unpredictable. This makes them likelier to grab people’s attention and to be new and original. But to do this, you have to be much more consciously aware of what’s going on around you. Creative types are observant.
Keep your creative radar on
For example, in Mark Shayler’s Do Disrupt, he talks about the value of always keeping your (creative) radar on. About keeping your eyes open and watching what people around you are doing. Spotting the behaviours that others miss is how you find massive creative opportunities for innovation.
He cites the example of VF, owners of Lee and Wrangler. They observed that women didn’t enjoy buying jeans. In fact, women rated buying jeans as the second most intimidating clothes-shopping experience. Cuts were confusing. Vanity sizing didn’t help. Jeans were poorly displayed. VF simplified sizing and cuts, changed displays and communication and saw a $100m increase in revenue. They used the power of observation to find more creative ways to sell their products.
Creative habits #2 - Write ideas down
Remember that brilliant idea you had a few weeks ago that you were certain at the time would solve all your problems? No? Why not? Almost certainly, because you didn’t write it down.
A big challenge with creative thinking is that you can’t predict where and when ideas will appear. They often emerge from the more subconscious instinctive and emotional parts of our brains.
This is often because of a psychological effect called the Zeigarnik effect.
The brain keeps working on ideas that we’ve started but haven’t yet found an answer to. (See our Thinking about Thinking article for more on this). However, you don’t know when these subconscious parts of the brain will give you an answer, as you’re not consciously in control of them.
It could be just as you go to bed. As you’re showering the next morning. Maybe as you walk to work or later the next day, watching your favourite TV show.
The answer is to get into the creative habit of writing your ideas down. Write them all down, either in a notebook or in your digital notebook system of choice. (Google Keep, for us).
That way, your ideas become tangible. Something you can look back on, and use later. Ideas are easily forgotten if they only exist in your mind. Our brains are good at pruning things they deem unimportant. Write your ideas down and you build a source of creative inspiration for all your future creative challenges.
Writing things down has some enlightening history
Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From talks about the practice of 17th and 18th Century scholars during the Enlightenment in Europe of keeping a “commonplace book”. Anyone with “intellectual ambition” would keep a notebook of inspirational passages from their reading to create “a fund of knowledge, from which we may at all times select what is useful in the several pursuits of life.”
Great creative thinkers of that time, like Milton, Bacon, and Locke, believed writing things down had memory-enhancing powers. It gives you access to a database of creative ideas made especially for you.
Creative habits #3 - Try a different perspective
“But I just can’t see any other way to do it”, said the frustrated marketing director to us.
A big challenge for both creative and marketing leadership is that the higher up the organisation you go, the less flexible the ways of thinking tend to be.
There’s a natural tendency to “stick with what’s worked” to get you to where you are now. But this often limits creative thinking. “What works” can change and often depends on context. Innovative ideas mean thinking about new rather than existing ways to solve problems.
A common way to unblock this fixed thinking, therefore, is to attack a problem from multiple angles as part of your creative process.
For example, Edward DeBono’s 6 Hats Creative Thinking approach prompts you to think about problems in different ways. As a group, you move through different problem-solving “hats” and use each as a prompt to pull out ideas.
So, one hat focuses on the (logical) facts. Another explores the (emotional) feelings raised by the idea. One has groups list all the benefits. Another then lists the risks. These different perspectives generate a wider range of ideas, higher quality ideas, and help lower creative barriers.
There are many other ways to prompt this sort of creative thinking. For example, try thinking about how your favourite movie star might solve the problem. Or a famous historical figure. Maybe even how another brand from a different category would solve it. Thinking about problems from different perspectives generates more imaginative and interesting ideas.
Creative habits #4 - Explore the opposite of obvious
Advertising guru Rory Sutherland’s book Alchemy shares an intriguing idea that the opposite of a good idea is also a good idea.
He argues that ideas exist on a spectrum. Though one end of that spectrum might seem like the logical (and obvious) answer, there’s often creative value in exploring the opposite end too.
This idea of opposite thinking has strong appeal in creative thinking.
The problem with many ideas is that most people go with the first decent-sounding creative idea they have. They “satisfice”. Ideas that satisfy and are sufficient to meet their immediate need. That sounds like good time efficiency, right?
However, there are 2 big creative problems with this.
Firstly, the chances are if you’re doing that, then so are your competitors. This is one of the reasons so many adverts, products and ideas seem so same-y these days. Businesses increasingly go with the first OK-ish creative idea they find. So you get similar-looking AI-generated images and bland, meaningless copy like “unleash your potential”. But if everyone does, this, no one stands out.
The other big challenge is that obvious ideas are less interesting. Non-obvious ideas usually grab more attention and engagement. So, when you find something that seems like an (obvious) good idea, you should look at the complete opposite and see where that takes you. Probably somewhere more interesting.
This habit helps you find ideas in spaces that no one else is thinking about. These types of ideas make your brand more distinctive and help build your brand’s reputation for being innovative.
Creative habits #5 - Edit for simplicity
The best creative ideas have an “oh, why didn’t I think of that” feeling to them. Something that seems simple when you see it, but something you never thought about.
A big part of why people miss great ideas is that they overcomplicate ideas with too much detail.
An idea that starts simply as “Why don’t we put our products in more sustainable packaging?” becomes a bloated 100-page business plan as it grinds its way through your typical big business innovation process.
Some complexity is usually inevitable in any idea crafting process. However, there are many ways to manage it, and the biggest of those is the power of editing.
No book hits the shelf without an editor having reviewed it. No artist sends their paintings out into the world without having spent time refining them. The same principle applies to how you make your ideas work, whatever creative context you work in. Edit ruthlessly.
It’s normal for your initial simple idea to blow out as you work more on it. But keeping an editor’s eye on it as it evolves helps you keep your ideas sharp and succinct.
So, cut everything that doesn’t add value. Trim words and images that don’t make the idea better. Your customers must get your idea right away. Editing that idea to keep it simple makes it much likelier that they’ll do so. No customer ever said, “Oh, I wish that were more complicated.”
Conclusion - 5 creative habits you can start today
Just as there are different ways to get physically fitter, there are also many different ways to get creatively fitter. The key is usually getting started.
We chose these 5 creative habits as none require major effort. You can do them on your own without others even noticing. The more you practice them, the more creative confidence you’ll feel.
Good creative habits start by being observant. Keep your eye out more for creative inspiration.
Write your ideas down, and build a creative ideas bank you can draw on when you need it.
Explore ideas from different perspectives, especially looking at the opposite of what seems like a good idea.
And when your ideas start to flow, be prepared to edit them hard so they stay simple enough to pack a compelling creative punch.
Check out our creative process guide for more on this. Or give our creative habits test a go to see how you compare to other brands. Or get in touch next time you need inspiration on inspiration on building better creative habits.
Photo credits
Creativity Switch (adapted) : Photo by Isabella and Zsa Fischer on Unsplash
Eye : Photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash
Man in blue shirt writing : Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
Thumbs down : Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Simple Scrabble Tile : Photo by Pablo Arroyo on Unsplash
