Transformational Leadership Series: Consciously Catalyzing Creativity

Have you ever had a brilliant idea, or a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question come to you in the shower, on a run, or in the middle of the night? The answer, most likely, is yes.

These moments of creative insight can seem like magic. 

When suddenly struck with a solution to a problem, people often say things like…

“It just hit me.”

“It came to me out of the blue.”

“I woke up with the solution in my head.”

But imagine how powerful it would be if you could encourage those moments of creativity to show up, rather than just waiting for them to strike?

Imagine if you knew exactly how to create the conditions for the answer, the solution, the idea, to burst into your brain. What kind of difference could that make in your life and in your work?

Thomas Edison knew how to create those kinds of conditions. The story is told of Edison that, when he had a particularly pesky problem to solve, he would sit in his rocking chair with a stone in his hand held above a bucket. He would rock himself into a state between wakefulness and sleep, knowing that that was where the answer lived. If he fell asleep, the stone would drop from his hand into the bucket and wake him up. At which point he would immediately write down any ideas that were in his head.

What we're talking about here is consciously catalyzing (to cause or accelerate) creativity. It’s a process you can learn. And we’re about to show you how.

When you learn how to do it, it opens up a whole new world of possibility… as well as a trust that the solutions you’re looking for, in any realm of life, will come to you.

What is Creativity and Why does it Matter?

Creativity is simply the production of novel ideas that have value. 

The value of creativity in leadership cannot be overstated. 

In 2010, IBM asked 1,500 corporate leaders, across 60 countries and 33 different industries what the most important quality is in a CEO… 

Creativity topped the list.

In another survey conducted by Adobe in 2016, Adobe found that “companies that invest in creativity, surpass their rivals in revenue growth, market share, competitive leadership and customer satisfaction.” 

Bottom line, creativity matters.

The good news is there is actually a science to the creative process that, when you understand it, can be leveraged within yourself and your teams. 

When you learn to leverage the creative process, coming up with creative solutions or brilliant ideas will begin to feel less like magic and more like a trusted friend you can rely upon to come through for you.  

Knowing how to catalyze creativity is particularly critical when going after your biggest, boldest goals. Because the truth is, the bigger the goal, the less visible the path. You’ll be charting completely unknown territory, and along the way you’ll have to answer questions that have never been answered before, and solve problems that have never been solved before. 

So let's dive into the science of creativity, then we’ll take a look at how to apply this practically in your life, your work and your organization.

The Creativity Cycle

The Creativity Cycle, as Steven Kotler describes it in his book, The Art of Impossible, is the result of the combined work of French polymath Henri Poincaré and a London School of Economics professor, Graham Wallas, who were fascinated with how the mind solved difficult mathematical problems.

In 1927, philosopher Alfred North Whitehouse gave this cycle a name — “Creativity”. Surprisingly, the word creativity did not become a household name until 1948.

The Creativity Cycle is comprised of the following four components:

Preparation - A problem is identified and the mind begins to explore the dimensions of the problem and play with possible solutions.

This is when we might do some brainstorming with ourselves or our team to capture some initial ideas. 

Incubation - The problem gets passed from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind, and the pattern recognition system begins to chew on the problem. (Note: The pattern recognition system in the brain resides in the UNCONSCIOUS part of our brain).

This is when you step away from the problem and focus on something else. This step is CRITICAL to facilitating the creative process.

Illumination - Our subconscious mind “puts all the pieces together” and delivers that brilliant idea back into our conscious mind, often through an experience we might call Insight.

This is when the idea shows up in the shower or wakes us up when we are sleeping or hits us when we’re mowing the lawn.

Verification - This new idea is consciously reviewed, tested and applied to real-world problems.

This is when you run the idea by a few people, test it as an idea, and imagine the practical applications of the solution before running with it.

Practical Application of the Creativity Cycle

So let’s take a look at how you might leverage the Creativity Cycle with your team.

Prepare:

You’ll likely get more mileage out with the Creativity Cycle if everyone on your team understands it. So before you are faced with a problem that requires a creative solution…

Share the creativity cycle with your team and how it works. Indicate that you’ll be working with them to consciously leverage the science of creativity when faced with future problems that need to be solved or ideas need to be generated.

Practice:

Now let's imagine you’re in a meeting with your team. You need to come up with a solution to a problem where it seems like everyone has a different perspective (sound familiar)?  OK, let’s leverage the creativity cycle…

1) Identify the problem or question - and capture initial ideas of how to solve it/answer it — maybe spend 30 minutes. Let the team know that you don’t expect to solve the problem in this meeting. This process is not about being right, but about pulling out all the creative stops in order to “get it right.”

2) Write the problem in a “highly calibrated” way. - We want to make sure we’re giving everyone’s subconscious mind the right question to work on. You might drop this question into a Google Doc, or better yet, have each person write it down on a notepad or in their phone. Here’s an example of a highly calibrated question, vs. one that is not:

How can we easily raise an additional $5M by the end of the fiscal year so that we can not only meet, but actually exceed our fundraising goals?

vs.

Where is the best place to cut spending, given our current deficit?

3) Step away from it - (Maybe you can do this at the end of the work day to better facilitate the stepping away.) Let your team know that you know there’s a solution out there that everyone will feel excited about, but we haven’t found it yet. Let them know you have faith in the creative process and the best thing to do next is to step away from the process and come back together in a couple of days.

Encourage the members of your team to do something else that’s stimulating to take their mind OFF the problem and put them in a positive state of mind — working out, hiking, walking, woodworking, basketball, lawn mowing — knowing that the pattern recognition center that resides in their subconscious is working on it and that the answer will come. Encourage everyone to capture any ideas that come to them.  

4) Sleep on it - Encourage each member of your team to review the highly calibrated question at night before they go to bed —  knowing that the pattern recognition system in their subconscious will work on it while they sleep. Encourage them to note any ideas that come to them.

5) Capture Ideas - Either add to the Google Doc or plan to come back together in a day or two to share any ideas that have come to you. Brainstorm again with the new ideas. It may take a day or two or a week or two, but the answer will come and everyone will know it when you land on the solution, because it will feel right to everyone.

At TGP Consulting, we’ve used this process when writing our book to figure out how to most clearly represent an idea or particular concept, and we’ve used it with our clients for everything from figuring out what to name a major giving society, to creating an “out-of-the-box” strategy for cultivating a transformational gift donor, to crafting a powerful philanthropic narrative of your organization's mission. 

Now it’s your turn.

What is a problem you are currently facing or a question you currently have, that you need a solution to or an answer for?

We encourage you to try out this process with your team (or with yourself if your question is something more personal) and see what happens. Trust the creative process and know there is an answer to every question, and a solution to every problem.

We’d love to hear from you about your experience.

Here’s to your journey of consciously catalyzing creativity!

All the best,

Lisa, Pam and Jeremy