In modern Western and Eastern cultures, creativity is now understood as deeply embedded in the fabric of daily life. From something that is exclusive to higher-level entities, whether deities or nature itself, it has evolved into an ability anyone can practice at various levels, whether it is to create art or to perform small acts of innovation as part of the ever-changing movement of the world we inhabit. But, somehow, this creative aliveness is not what most of us experience in our daily lives.

The flow of creativity

<ul><li>Make space for unstructured creativity. You don’t need to create something useful or beautiful. In fact, you don’t need to produce anything at all. </li><li>Consider each interaction as a creative playground. Let creativity permeate each moment of your life, whether you interact with a person, a piece of content, or a problem you want to solve. </li><li>Write as an act of self-creation. Journaling allows you to not only document but also to shape your mind and thus your life. It’s a powerful way to turn life into a creative adventure.</li></ul>

How to practice creative aliveness

The biggest creative canvas is our own life. The possibilities are practically infinite, the tools at our disposal are many, and each person we connect with opens the door to a potential creative collaboration. However, life can get so busy we end up squeezing our creativity into a tiny canvas — small, pre-defined spaces such as an art class or a brainstorming session.Instead of constraining our creativity to these bounded containers, creative aliveness elevates our day-to-day experiences by considering each moment as an opportunity for curiosity and innovation.

Living a creative life

Creative aliveness consists in reclaiming a larger creative canvas woven into the fabric of our lives. It starts by asking yourself: what makes you come alive creatively? And how can you inject more creativity into your daily life?

Creative aliveness

A creative mind is:<ul><li>Connected. A creative mind is connected to people who stimulate their imagination, to networks that foster collaboration, and to sources of content that provide them with interesting information.</li><li>Curious. Curious minds tend to question the obvious, consider alternative answers, and consistently dig one level deeper to get to the core of how things work.</li><li>Courageous. While creativity doesn’t have to be grandiose, it requires stepping into the unknown and sometimes taking bold risks with limited knowledge of the potential outcomes.</li></ul>

What makes a creative mind?

Creative aliveness consists in reclaiming a larger creative canvas woven into the fabric of our lives. It starts by asking yourself: what makes you come alive creatively? And how can you inject more creativity into your daily life?

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Motivation & Inspiration

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Problem Solving

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Creativity

Creative aliveness: turning life into a creative adventure

Creative people across all genres have this reputation for being mentally unstable and undone by their gifts. Not knowing if you can top your great success is one of the most painful reconciliations in a creative life. Once artists produce a magnificent work, they are asked, "What if you'll never ascend to that height again? Then what will you do with the rest of your life?"

The impossible things we expect from creative geniuses

In ancient Greece and Rome, people did not believe that creativity came from human beings. It was believed to be a divine attendant spirit that came to humans. <ul><li>The Greeks called these attendant spirits of creativity "daemons." </li><li>The Romans called it a genius. Romans believed a genius was like a magical entity that lived in the walls of an artist's studio and invisibly helped the artist.</li></ul> This understanding helped the ancient artist protect himself from certain things, such as too much narcissism. If your work was brilliant (or terrible), you couldn't take all the credit for it.

Managing the inherent emotional risks of creativity

The pressure of unmanageable expectations about performance is destroying artists. As an artist, you may be full of anguish if believe that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you. But if you believe that a genius was on loan to you from another unimaginable source for some portion of your life to be passed along when you're finished,  it changes how you feel. When you create, don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it and use the creative moment when it comes to you. Otherwise, keep on showing up.

Removing the pressure to outperform

During the Renaissance, the individual was placed at the centre of the universe. People started to believe that creativity came only from the self, not from mystical creatures that took dictation from the divine. It is the first time in history that people refer to certain artists as a genius, rather than having a genius. Allowing someone to believe that they are the source of all divine, creative, eternal mystery is too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche. It's like asking somebody to swallow the sun. It creates unmanageable expectations about performance.

Believing creativity came from the self

Needing to feel motivated? Enjoy these inspirational Ted talks that will change your perspective and make your day better.

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7 Days of Inspiration 

Find an accurate transcript (and subtitles in 46 languages) on ted.com: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius/transcript?language=en "Eat, Pray, Love" author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk. TED Talks is a daily podcast of talks and performances from TED, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages are available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED Talks on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tedtalks Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED

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Videos

Find an accurate transcript (and subtitles in 46 languages) on ted.com:
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius/transcript?language=en
 
"Eat, Pray, Love" author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

TED Talks is a daily podcast of talks and performances from TED, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages are available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate

Follow TED Talks on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tedtalks
Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert

The Set Designer looks at every day as a chance to liven up their workspace. They promote energetic, inspired cultures by creating work environments that celebrate the individual and stimulate creativity. 
To keep up with shifting needs and foster continuous innovation, the Set Designer makes adjustments to a physical space to balance private and collaborative work opportunities. In doing so, this person makes space itself one of an organization's most versatile and powerful tools.

The Set Designer

Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, creating a need to incorporate multiple personas. These personas are driven by the idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and today's great idea maybe tomorrow's anachronism. The learning roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused, and remind the organization not to be so smug about what you “know”.

Ten Faces Of Innovation: The Premise

The Experimenter celebrates the process, not the tool, testing and retesting potential scenarios to make ideas tangible. 
A calculated risk-taker, this person models everything from products to services to proposals in order to efficiently reach a solution. To share the fun of discovery, the Experimenter invites others to collaborate, while making sure that the entire process is saving time and money.

The Experimenter

The Storyteller captures our imagination with compelling narratives of initiative, hard work, and innovation. This person goes beyond oral tradition to work in whatever medium best fits their skills and message: video, narrative, animation, even comic strips. 
By rooting their stories in authenticity, the Storyteller can spark emotion and action, transmit values and objectives, foster collaboration, create heroes, and lead people and organizations into the future.

The Storyteller

The Caregiver is the foundation of human-powered innovation. Through empathy, they work to understand each individual customer and create a relationship. 
Whether a nurse in a hospital, a salesperson in a retail shop, or a teller at an international financial institution, the Caregiver guides the client through the process to provide them with a comfortable, human-centered experience.

The Caregiver

The Experience Architect is that person relentlessly focused on creating remarkable individual experiences. This person facilitates positive encounters with your organization through products, services, digital interactions, spaces, or events. 
Whether an architect or a sushi chef, the Experience Architect maps out how to turn something ordinary into something distinctive—even delightful—every chance they get.

The Experience Architect

The Cross-Pollinator draws associations and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts to break new ground. 
Armed with a wide set of interests, an avid curiosity, and an aptitude for learning and teaching, the Cross-Pollinator brings in big ideas from the outside world to enliven their organization. People in this role can often be identified by their open mindedness, diligent note-taking, tendency to think in metaphors, and ability to reap inspiration from constraints.

The Cross-Pollinator

Successful businesses build fresh innovation strategies into the fabric of their operations. They do it year-round and in widely differing parts of their enterprises. When the team’s creative engine is running at top speed, the momentum and synergy can keep a company ahead through bad times and good.

The Hurdler is a tireless problem-solver who gets a charge out of tackling something that's never been done before. When confronted with a challenge, the Hurdler gracefully sidesteps the obstacle while maintaining a quiet, positive determination. 
This optimism and perseverance can help big ideas upend the status quo as well as turn setbacks into an organization's greatest successes—despite doomsday forecasting by shortsighted experts.

The Hurdler

The Director has an acute understanding of the bigger picture, with a firm grasp on the pulse of their organization. Subsequently, the Director is talented at setting the stage, targeting opportunities, bringing out the best in their players, and getting things done. 
Through empowerment and inspiration, the person in this role motivates those around them to take centre stage and embrace the unexpected.

The Director

This is the person who ventures into the field to observe how people interact with products, services, and experiences in order to come up with new innovations. 
This person is good at reframing a problem in a new way, humanizing the scientific method to apply it to daily life. Anthropologists share such distinguishing characteristics as the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind; empathy; intuition; the ability to "see" things that have gone unnoticed; a tendency to keep running lists of innovative concepts worth emulating and problems that need solving.

The Anthropologist

The Collaborator is the rare person who truly values the team over the individual. In the interest of getting things done, the Collaborator coaxes people out of their work silos to form multidisciplinary teams.
In doing so, the person in this role dissolves traditional boundaries within organizations and creates opportunities for team members to assume new roles. More of a coach than a boss, the Collaborator instils their team with the confidence and skills needed to complete the shared journey.

The Collaborator

The practice of innovating is too valuable a skill to overlook. Businesses that downplay the importance of pushing the boundaries and asking the questions run the risk of becoming stagnant, inflexible, and irrelevant. What the author argues in The Ten Faces of Innovation is that “innovation” is more than a buzzword found on the covers of business magazines; it’s a lifestyle and your company’s best secret weapon.

The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity. The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation. Over the years, IDEO has developed ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation. Filled with engaging stories of how Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Safeway and the Mayo Clinic have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, The Ten Faces of Innovation is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

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Books

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Product & Design

The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity. The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation. Over the years, IDEO has developed ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation. Filled with engaging stories of how Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Safeway and the Mayo Clinic have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, The Ten Faces of Innovation is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

Jonathan Littman is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Jonathan Littman has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Jonathan Littman's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Jonathan Littman

Thomas Kelley runs the marketing side of the hugely successful industrial product design firm IDEO. His brother, David, started the company in 1977 in Palo Alto, CA. One of his earliest projects was designing the first mouse for Steve Jobs at Apple Computers.

Tom Kelley

The Ten Faces of Innovation

No matter what role you take on, your initial focus should be on how you can help the people around you to achieve their goals.
People remember others who have helped them in the past. In addition, most people want to repay the members of their community who have done favors for them. Starting your time with a new team by helping others reinforces a favorable first impression and also generates a sense of support from people you can rely on when you need help in the future.

Be Useful

This service mindset is particularly valuable for people taking on supervisory roles. People who are leading others for the first time are often concerned about coming across as a strong leader. 
They may want to give orders to others in order to demonstrate that they can command a team. A leader who finds ways to help their team achieve their goals, however, can develop loyalty from the people who report to them, which pays significant dividends down the line.

The Service Mindset

Once you begin the new job, information is going to come at you fast and furious, so the better prepared you are in advance, the easier it will be for you to handle the flood.
You should be preparing for your first day on the job even before you get there. If you’re new to a company, you should be reading up on it. Ask your new boss for some information if they don’t provide it. Find out as much as you can about what your responsibilities are going to be.

Start Before You Start

When you first arrive at a new job, there is a temptation to make a big splash right away. The pressure to have an impact can be particularly strong for people who are coming into a leadership role, but it is true for almost any role.
When you first get to an organization, really listen to people. What are their concerns? How do they talk about the work they are doing? What do they articulate as their priorities? The more you understand about what everyone else thinks is important, the better you will be at devoting your efforts to key tasks.

Listen More

Starting a new job soon? Here’s what you need to do.


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Career

3 ways to create a good first impression at your new job

The last thing that happens in an interaction has a disproportionate influence on people's overall impression and memory of the experience (a consequence of the "recency bias," as it's known in psychology).
To help end on a high note, conclude calls, meetings, e-mails, and any other type of interaction with a recap of what specifically you're committing to do to help the person you're serving. This will instill confidence in your customer, showing them that you have everything under control.

Recap Commitments

"I can help you with that." If you confidently utter those words to a customer or an employee who comes to you for assistance, it immediately changes the tenor of the interaction. 
To the person on the receiving end, it's a signal of ownership and advocacy--an indication that someone is taking personal accountability for addressing their needs. That makes customers feel heard, understood, and cared for--emotional cues that help cement the memory of the encounter in their heads. Be sure to not just signal ownership, but to actually take ownership.

The Five Words To Take Ownership

Imagine submitting a purchase inquiry through a "Contact Us" form on a business's website--and then hearing back from a company rep within minutes. Exceptional responsiveness is a rarity in today's world, and when we encounter something novel and unexpected, our brain is biochemically primed to forge long-term memories about that experience. 
People often like to create the illusion that they're busier than they are, so they sit on that e-mail, text, or voicemail for a while, making their customer or colleague wait.

Be Super Responsive

If you work in a retail environment, be sure someone is greeting customers within 10 feet or 10 seconds of entering the store. That simple act of making eye contact and acknowledging the customer with a prompt and courteous greeting (even if just to say "I'll be with you in about five minutes") sends an important signal: We care about you and your patronage. 
The greeting helps to immediately personalize the experience, making customers feel more welcome and appreciated. They'll remember that the next time they consider visiting your store.

Greet Customers Right Away

When making commitments--be it to call someone, deliver a proposal, or provide requested information--don't promise to get back to people "soon" or "shortly," because those terms mean different things to different people. 
In most business contexts, ambiguity is the enemy. Uncertainty deprives people of what's known in psychology circles as "perceived control," and, as a result, it makes the experience feels less pleasant. Avoid ambiguity by proactively communicating a specific time or date when you'll be in touch, and then honour that commitment.

Set Clear and Time-Based Expectations

Entrepreneurs often think they must do whatever they can to satisfy their customers. But satisfied customers defect all the time, and if you want to derive a competitive advantage from the product or service experience you offer, it's not enough to satisfy people--you need to impress them.
That's what success in business really comes down to: Delivering experiences that people don't enjoy just in the moment, but also remember well into the future--thereby cultivating the repurchase and referral behaviour that's the lifeblood of any organization.

Creative aliveness: turning life into a creative adventure

Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert

The Ten Faces of Innovation

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

3 ways to create a good first impression at your new job

CURATED BY

Creative aliveness: turning life into a creative adventure

Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert

The Ten Faces of Innovation

It's time to Read like a Pro.

3 ways to create a good first impression at your new job

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.