1. Redesigning the Packaging
   I don’t know how many different versions I have created of this blog. The design keeps changing, but if I were to focus more on the content I am sure I would be more successful and content. Companies will of tens spend countless hours and money on getting their logo just right; all while ignoring customers and the demands of the market.How are you waisting time on packaging that you should be spending on creating?
2. Checking the Locks on the Doors (again)
   Being creative often means doing the lonely work. Meanwhile, our email chimes in, the TV news calls to us and the unlimited entertainment of the web sinks its addictive fangs into our arms.Are you able to shut out distractions when creativity needs your undivided attention?
3. Making the Copies
   We are creatures of comparison. If you never saw what other people were driving, you’d probably be fine driving and old Chevy pickup (not that there’s anything wrong with that). For an initial boost of inspiration, there is nothing wrong with looking at what others have done. Just don’t try and copy someone else’s success, and don’t continue to go back to that well. See what your inner creativity can add to your project instead of recycling other people’s ideas.Have you really poured your soul into your work? Are you doing anything original?
4. Star-Crossed Love
   If it weren’t for a bit of bad timing, Romeo and Juliet would have been a lot better off (putting it lightly). One of the curses of creativity is giving up too soon. Whether you want to play in a band or write a novel, you have to put in the necessary time to hone your craft. This is the 10,000 hours rule coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.
5. Yes Man Syndrome
   Your time is precious. Ever tell something mundane to someone, just to hear them snidely remark, “I’ll never get that five minutes back.”? Maybe they were being a jerk, but there is some truth to what they said. We’ll never get any five minutes back, in fact. So, be judicious in what you say ‘yes’ to. Networking meetings and lectures can be helpful, but if you’re spending more time talking about and listening to others talk about the trade than actually creating anything. . . then you’re stalling.

For the creator, an additional motivator should be the act of creating. This can feel selfish because we expect the artist wants to make her art. It’s true, she does WANT to create. Another truth is less apparent. She also wants people to be moved, inspired . . . perhaps transformed. A creator isn’t always trying to find fame, fortune and glory. Knowingly or not, he also wants to serve.

A point of clarification: we are all creators.

It is still “my place” as it is one of my favorite childhood memories. Each weekday after the ring of the school bell, my older sister and I would walk four blocks to the grocery store. I would anxiously go over to the magazine rack and see if there were any new comics. Spiderman, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Cloak & Dagger, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, The Green Lantern… these were the titles I peeled out of their file and placed into my cue. If none of the more exciting comics had new copies, I would either re-read my favorites or relegate myself to Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost or Archie comics. Minor consolation for my hungry imagination.

These stories of heroics performed by people gifted beyond their humanity were the fodder for backyard adventures and even a few hand-drawn comics of my own. That small patch of tiled floor in the middle of the small town grocery store fed my creativity for years. It was a source of inspiration.

Years later, well into my 30s, I don’t know that I have a specific source I can call “my place.” I enjoy a good movie, and many of my favorite comic heroes are now available on film. Still, they don’t feed me in the same way. It seems harder to find inspiration than it did as a child. I have to be more intentional to allow that wide-eyed wonder to stir within me again. It’s still there, but is like a cooled-off ember.  I feel it sometimes as I soak in an engaging TED talk or listen to Stephen Fry describe the decadence of our language. When I surround myself with entrepreneurs, aspiring filmmakers or artists, the ember can be poked by others’ stories and bristled back into a flame by the air of new ideas.

So, perhaps this is a good thing. Maybe I have lost the nostalgic notion of sitting and leaning back on a bookshelf, knowing it is there to prop me up. Instead, I carry “my place” inside me and know it can come alive at any time. It can be scary not to have a stack of new worlds sitting next to me with so much promise. But there is an exuberant sense of liberation in knowing new worlds can be birthed from within and shared with you. Hopefully this can be one of “your places” as well.

I hope it is.

Creative Exercise #16 is Pick a Fight

Tharp states that “Creativity is an act of defiance.”

What are you defying?  Are you willing to defy your usual route to the office and see what the new scenery inspires?

Would you defy your typical lunch selection in order to experience a totally new set of taste sensations?

Dare you to defy your evening routine and pick up a book, rather than watching TV tonight… what ideas may come from that?

“Every act of creation is also an act of destruction or abandonment. Something has to be cast aside to make way for the new” says Tharp.

If you never destroy/abandon/change, then where is the vacuum creativity can fill in your life?

Here’s a quick brainstorming tip.

Next time you’re stuck on predictible, unoriginal ideas, try this:
Think 180°.

1. Ask yourself, “What is the LAST thing I would do in this situation?” or “What is an idea opposite of these?”
2. Make a list of the ideas that come to mind.
3. Read over the list and evaluate WHY each idea wouldn’t work.

Now, you may not use any of the ideas you’ve listed, but you’ve stimulated new thoughts. After you explore the opposites, you may go back to one of your original ideas with a twist. “What if we create this product, but market it to women in business instead of men?”  “What if we do the seminar on these topics, but the seminar is free, we charge for lunch and sell snacks during breaks?”

Sometimes thinking outside the box is most helpful when you eventually bring the ideas back inside the box.

7 Reasons No One Likes Your Ideas
Why don’t people listen or use your ideas?  Here are a few clues.

Pull! 10 Signs You’re Shooting Down Good Ideas
Are you as open to new ideas as you think?

One Idea Forward, Two Opinions Back
What’s the difference between an idea and an opinion? Why does it matter?

Ponder This: Q&Q
A new take on Q&As

Byproducts of Busy Bees
A dedication to those who make a difference. 

A Free Exchange of Ideas
How do trust and risk affect the sharing of ideas?

The list is based on statements by Brad Pitt’s character in Fight Club. Below is my favorite:

Tyler’s Eighth Rule of Innovation:

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
Brian does a great job of expounding on this statement and seven others.  It is well worth the two minute hiatus to check it out.

Collaboration creates teams of teams.

Organizations that encourage collaboration will see greater interdepartmental and interorganizational teamwork. A sense of interdependence creates a desire to involve others in on the work at hand.

Conspiracy creates lines and sides.

Information is held in silos. The grain is harvested, then stored where it simply rots.

Teams do not grow from shared experiences. They fight to steal from each other’s silos of information, recognition and reward.

Conspiracy divides individuals, centering them around lower goals and agendas.

Myopia causes conspirators to focus on self-centered goals which don’t benefit the larger organization(s). Consequentially, they do not rally followers around them because their vision is narrow, short-sighted and low on impact.

Collaboration unifies individuals around a common, higher goal.

By collaborating, individuals and teams discover common goals held across the divide. By broadening horizons, collaborators broaden their vision and hold onto the higher goals that impact the BIGGER picture. Consequentially, collaborators attract followers who desire belonging to something bigger than themselves.

Collaboration stimulates growth.

Individuals must be empowered in collaborative environments. Collaboration encourages delegation as the vision and input of direction is bigger than one person.

Conspiracy stunts growth.

Long-term, conspiracy mindsets eventually stifle growth. Conspiracies may have early growth spurts, but are midgets as adults when compared to their potential through collaboration.

Thanks for throwing down the gauntlet Alex! I hope you and others find this stimulating, and perhaps generate your own beliefs on the effects of collaboration vs. conspiracy.

Just read a Tom Peters “Cool Friends” interview from a few weeks ago with Stephanie Palmer, author of Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience.

  

Here are a few of my favorite nuggets from the interview:

tompeters.com asks …

Stephanie, what’s the big idea here?

SP: “Good in a room” describes anyone who presents themselves and their ideas effectively. The phrase originated in Hollywood and it’s used by agents and producers to describe people who pitch ideas well. I teach people to use, in their own industry, the tactics that work in Hollywood.

……….

Tom Peters has espoused the elevator pitch as one of the supporting columns of Wow Projects. The goal of the elevator pitch being, if you get into an elevator on the first floor with your boss and you’re trying to sell an idea, you want to sell it by the time you get to the 35th floor. You say the elevator pitch is a myth. Why is that?

SP: I think the term “elevator pitch” incorrectly implies that it’s appropriate to pitch in an elevator. Communicating quickly and concisely is important, but you should never pitch when you don’t have time to continue the conversation. A moment’s access with someone who doesn’t know you is not an opportunity. Your first interaction with someone sets the stage for the relationship to come. You shouldn’t start pitching your idea to someone before they know who you are enough to care about what you’re saying in the first place.

High-level buyers are pitched all the time. They know when they are hearing something that’s been repeated to dozens of other people. If you haven’t taken the time to build rapport and customize your pitch to that person’s specific needs, it’s a sign that you’re an amateur. Every buyer is unique, and your pitch should reflect that.

……….

You also say that networking is a waste of time. Why?

SP: I think most people who think they’re successful as a result of using traditional networking techniques succeed in spite of those techniques, not because of them. Traditional networking is generally a quantity-based approach. The idea is that if you meet enough people, accumulate enough names, you will eventually find people who are a good fit. On the surface this makes sense; you’d need a large pipeline of people because statistically only a few of them would be a right fit for your business. It’s a bulk mail strategy, sending out a lot of letters and seeing what comes back. But bulk mail is expandable, whereas we are not. The bulk mail approach doesn’t work so well in establishing genuine relationships because we only have so much time.

Therefore, instead of spending small amounts of time with lots of people, I suggest spending more time with fewer, carefully chosen people. Use a quality based approach. Upgrade from bulk mail to a handwritten letter with a first class stamp.

……….

But in as much as you don’t believe in the standard group theory of networking, you do still have a network. You categorize people a little differently than most people’s A, B, and C lists. Could you describe your system?

SP: I don’t like using the terminology of A, B, and C groups, simply because I know that I don’t want to be on anyone’s C list, and I don’t think that anyone else does, either. I start with Good People to Know, which is anybody who I think for any reason might be someone I would like to know in the future. It may be someone whom I’ve met at a conference or a barbecue. If I think that person is really interesting for whatever reason, business or personal, I’m going to include them in my Good People to Know.

If I meet someone, and I know that I have no interest in them, I’m not going to include them in my rolodex or keep tabs on them. Doing so is like being a relationship pack rat. I’m not looking to have the world’s largest network so that I can brag, “Oh, I have 10,000 people in my list.” I want to be more focused.

My next group I call the VIPs. Those are people whom I would like to have a business relationship with, but maybe I don’t know them. They’re my target list. Twenty people is the maximum that you should have on your VIP list.

My last group, and most important, is the Inner Circle. Those are the people that are closest to you, who support you professionally and personally. Those are the relationships that I spend the most time nurturing. Their support has been the most valuable for me, personally and professionally.

……….

It looks like a worthwhile book, so I’m buying a copy. Might write my own review when I finish it.

You can see more about “Good In A Room” on Stephanie Palmer’s website.

Executive editor Mariette DiChristina conducted a roundtable discussion involving three experts on creativity:

John Houtz is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His most recent book is The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hamptom Press, 2002).

Julia Cameron is an award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker. Her book The Artist’s Way (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Her latest book is The Writing Diet.

Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. Contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and former editor in chief of Psychology Today, Epstein has written several books on creativity, including The Big Book of Creativity Games (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Below are a few quotes I found interesting.

Read the rest of the article and see what you cull from it.  Perhaps it will inspire you to unleash more of your creative potential.