8 minute read
I'm not Creative
Many people have a self-limiting belief. Ask them if they are creative—although they wish to be creative—the answer would often be, ‘No.’ The fact is that all of us are indeed creative. In these difficult times, it is our creativity that will help us face the challenges, and empower us to come out victorious.
Let me ask you to draw a triangleon a piece of paper.
Done?
Now check your response.
Most of us would have drawn an equilateral triangle. Very few would have drawn a triangle which is standing on its side. And less than 10% would have drawn an upside down triangle.
The reason? We think that the first one is the right way of drawing a triangle. And that is the only way. Why try anything else then? Now, try converting the Roman letter for nine(IX) to the number 6 with just one additional line.... SIX is one right answer. The letter ‘S’ is a line but we don’t consider it so, as we assume that a line should always be a straight line. Another answer could be I X 6, which as a multiplication gives the value of 6.Here we have added 6, which is also a line. The point that I want to make is this: Most of the time, our creativity is curtailed by our own assumptions, and our compulsion to be always ‘right.’
Creative people we admire
Who are the creative people we admire and what do we admire in them?
• Actor Sivaji Ganesan rose to fame by his expression and dialogue delivery. He was very different from other famous actors at that time. From a new entrant, he became a legend.
• Cho Ramaswamy was an actor, comedian, lawyer, politician and journalist. The manner in which he wrote political articles in his magazine ‘Thuglak’ was completely different.
• Mandolin Srinivas became famous by adopting a western instrument to play carnatic music.
• Actor Kamal Haasan’s claim to fame was the manner in which he acted, danced and delivered dialogues.
• Director K Balachander shifted from stage plays to directing movies. And he took a risk by fielding two youngsters –Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. The way he made movies and directed them was completely different from that of other directors of his time.
• Music Director M S Viswanathan delivered music that was different from the one offered by his predecessors. Then came music director Ilayaraja who was also different, offering ethnic, folklore type of genre. When people thought that there was nothing more to achieve, A R Rahman entered the scene. He offered a totally different brand of music and became a legend.
• Tamil film song writers Kannadasan, Vaali and Vairamuthu have been unique in their styles.
• The approach film directors Gautam Menon and Mani Ratnam follow are completely different.
• M S Subbulakshmi delivered Carnatic music like others, but the tinge of piety and devotion elevated her music to a completely different level.
• Carnatic Musician T M Krishna has been different from others in the way he experiments with varied styles of music.
• Shankar Mahadevan brought a huge difference to playback singing.
• Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were unique in their own ways.
Abandon the beaten path
In essence, the people we admire have not just been creative; they also found out a way to be relevant yet different. Thinking, demonstrating and delivering differently became an important point in the lives of the creative people we admire. The ability to use their core strength and differentiate their offering from others is an extremely important factor in all the creative people that we admire.
As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Management guru C K Prahlad says, “You can’t be marginally different and expect to do big things. You have to be radically different.” We must be bold in our thinking and dare to move away from the beaten path.
We all are inherently creative but do not put efforts to tap that creativity. We neither want to be xerox copies of each other. We have our individual identity and do not want to be lost in the crowd. Steve Jobs said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Obsession with the right answer
The obsession to think of only one right answer for any problem is a huge barrier to creativity. For instance, in a school, if students are asked how they can arrive at the number 100, they may come up with the answer using addition (Ex: 65 + 35), subtraction (12020),multiplication (10 x 10) or division(500/5). If there are 20 students in the class, there can be multiple right answers. The ability of leadership is to generate as many right answers as possible.
When I did a corporate workshop, one of the participants showed me a photo he took of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He had shot it from the bottom of the tower, rather than in the usual way it is shown in the picture post cards. When I asked him the reason, he said he was tired of the standard view, and that the enormity of the tower came better from a bottom angle. That is exactly what thinking differently is all about, which is stepping out of the crease, rather than limiting to be safe inside the crease.
An idea is a prescription for action. An idea has an active verb and a noun. Creativity is all about creating a difference. Each of us must fish for ideas and we should not be satisfied with the first right answer. We must give ourselves a creative license which has no expiry date.
Magic happens outside our comfort zone. Bill Gates once said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Tips to become creative
1) Phone a friend: Dial at least five friends from varied backgrounds. Tell them that you are working on an XYZ project and ask them what they would have done if they were in your position. Capture their responses without arguing or commenting on what they say. This is a very powerful technique and there is a good chance that you may get at least ten different ideas.
2) Out-of-the-box-ideas: We often hear about this term, but nobody has defined a box. Here is a definition for a box. Imagine you are inside a room that has no doors, windows or ceiling. There are 6 ft high walls on all four sides. Outside this room, there is another similar room, but with 12 ft high walls, and filled with all your ‘Assumptions.’ Outside of this room, there is one more similar room, but with 24 ft walls, and filled with your ‘Logic.’ If you can manage to cross all these walls, i.e, if you overcome your assumptions and your logic, either by digging an underground tunnel or jumping above through aerial route, then you are outside the box.
3) Generate many ideas, challenging all the assumptions.
4) Write a wish list: If your wishes could come true, what would your wish list look like? What ideas do these wishes suggest?
5) Use provocative questions to think differently. Here are some provocative questions:
a) What would you attempt to do if you knew that you could not fail?
b) What if you appeal to the heart instead of the head? In business, you need logic; however, to generate ideas, you can use your heart.
c) Ask what ideas your favourite character might suggest? Eg: Mr Bean. The actor said that he always thinks like a nineyearold anarchist kid.
d) What might someone like Nandan Nilekani, the father of ‘Aadhaar card’ suggest?
e) What might Mukesh Ambani, ‘a person of big ideas’ do?
f) What might yoga guru Baba Ramdev suggest?
g) What should we continue to do which we are doing well?
h) What could we be doing better?
i) What should we start doing? (One that which we are not doing)
j) What should we stop doing? (One that is unhelpful/ ineffective)
6) Focus on the intersection of ‘Things that matter’ and ‘Things that you can control.’
7) Use the action priority. Impact versus Effort matrix to plot all the ideas that you have generated. Quadrant 1 (Low effort and low impact) is fill-ins and can be used as starters. In Q2, where effort is high but impact is Low, is for ‘Hard Slogs’ or ‘Thankless tasks.’ We need to avoid this quadrant. In Q3 (low effort and high impact), we have ‘quick wins’ and in Q4 (high effort and high impact), we have ‘Major Projects.’ Q3 and Q4 are favourable quadrants. With this, you can prioritise your actions.
Thinking differently is not a choiceanymore. Once we get a good idea, wemust make a business case and get asponsor or investor to take the ideaforward. It is our passion andcommitment that will provide tractionto our ideas.
One final thought: We are ALL creative. We have come fitted with this powerful engine. It will be a shame if we don't go beyond the first and second gear of such a powerful vehicle and enjoy the exhilaration of that power.
R Sridhar. Innovation Facilitator/Coach, Author and Speaker.
