Seven things you need to do right now to give yourself a creative hit and keep those ideas flowing
When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO in 2008, the brand had lost its way. Soon after he convened a leadership team offsite in Seattle. One activity was for the team to venture into the city’s food market to take inspiration from the traders. There Schultz visited a cheese stall. He was so impressed by the knowledge and passion of the server he ordered the closure of 7,000 Starbucks stores in order to retrain baristas how to make the perfect espresso.
This one act - of embracing curiosity and then creatively taking lessons from another environment and applying them to his own - transformed Starbucks.
I love that story. In my working life, I value curiosity and creativity just about above everything else.
Then there’s Aaron Sorkin’s, the Hollywood screenwriter behind The West Wing, and his writers-block-busting strategy of taking a shower to get the ideas flowing. Nothing too unusual in that, except that he’d had a shower installed in the office. And took between six to eight showers a day to stay creatively energised.
Whether we’re a business leader or a freelance designer, most of us need to stay creative and curious. We’re creative in so many ways, coming up with solutions to business challenges or in the output we produce at work. And a curious approach helps us broaden our horizons, makes us better at innovation and empathy, helps us walk in our customers’ shoes and enriches our working day.
Lockdown and the trials of the last three months have given us many constraints. But working from home means showers are on tap (pun intended) if you find they help you get the ideas flowing. And with neighbourhood cafes and food stalls opening for take-outs, perhaps we can take a leaf out of Schultz’s book and soak up inspiration from our local traders.
Pockets of inspiration in small doses: OK, it’s not the same as getting out in a busy metropolis, walking the streets, soaking up coffee shop vibes, or taking a train journey someway. These were the ways I used to get my creative fuel. It’s harder too to spark off others when stuck at home. Legendary copywriter David Ogilvy said he never wrote anything in the office as it was too distracting but WFH has its limitations too. Many of us are missing those informal and serendipitous interactions in the office that are essential in the creative process.
So here are my seven tips for what else we can be doing right now to enhance our curiosity and creativity, and cultivate a well-stocked mind, whilst our usual stimuli might be out of reach:
Stay curious from your sofa. Inspiration out needs inspiration in. Podcasts. Articles. Magazines. Videos. Online lectures and workshops. Never before have we had so much material to engage us. Be careful you don’t, however, get stuck in the mindless-scrolling trap - and curate your list consciously. Perhaps go outside your normal digest and soak up inspiration and knowledge from other worlds. (And if you want a recommendation, try my video series Meet The Storytellers).
Embrace your inner Schultz. Look around your neighbourhood. What lessons in innovation and customer service can you learn from how your neighbourhood shops have adapted during lockdown?
Notice. You might find yourself bored of a daily walk that has stayed the same for thirteen weeks. But if you purposefully look out, and up, you’re guaranteed to spot new things. I must have walked along my local high street a thousand times in the last fourteen years yet I had never noticed a sign carved into the stone above a parade of shops. I saw it last week when I made a conscious effort to look up. The thoughts and concepts sparked by what we spot can translate into new ideas.
Walk, walk, walk. Whether it’s an urban walk or a rural one, ten minutes or two hours, walking never fails to unlock ideas and fresh solutions for me. So if you need to get unstuck, head out (and this is me above, walking through Leigh-on-Sea).
Pursue unplanned paths. Change up your habits and surroundings. That might be hard physically right now, so think about how you can pursue unplanned collaborations and projects. During the last three months I have reunited with a former collaborator David for a podcast series we call The Unplanners. Unsurprisingly considering the name, we didn’t plan the concept and on each episode we just go where the water flows. Having those regular conversations with David really energises me and keeps me on my toes.
Plunder your own archive. If you have a hard drive or photo album of old pictures, or old journals or diaries, you might find that you have a bit of time now to go through them. I have found that unearthing ideas, scribblings and stories from my past - especially those I’d made when travelling - has been really valuable for triggering new ideas. As I wrote before, it’s as if my younger self gave me all I need for lockdown inspiration.
Lastly, always have somewhere to write your ideas down. Whether it’s the shower (OK, immediately afterwards) or waiting in line at your neighbourhood coffee shop, make sure you always have somewhere to scribble down those eureka moments. One mantra I always abide by is that of David Allen, the Getting Things Done guru. He says, “Your brain is for having ideas not storing information.” I am always, always jotting things down.
This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means. But it’s about experimenting, iterating and knowing what works for you. And once you find what consistently works for you - a walk around the block, multiple showers - keep doing it!
Could your organisation or team benefit from being more curious and creative at work? Check out my More Good Days at Work webinar and help get those ideas flowing! iansanders.com/moregooddaysatwork
