Creativity is not luck and talent but a blend of skills and habits you must build over time. This is very relevant as we navigate the Great Resignation. Many people are quitting their jobs because creativity was hampered, leading to a boom in new-business creation.
The most innovative products often come from those who are consistently challenged to discover what others miss. By considering their habits, skills, and tools, we can be inspired by their creative process and how to copy it.

Designers and creativity

Look to the past for inspiration. Being creative means improving the old in novel and exciting ways. For example, the first camera was made in 1816 by Nicéphore Niépce. Chinese graduate student Frank Wang designed and built a flying device that carried a light camera that could take pictures from high. His company released a fully integrated camera drone in 2014.

Find the new in the old

Look for unique and hidden elements, then combine them with something else. Twitter is an example of deconstruction. Blogging started in 1994. Over time blogs contained longer posts, pictures, and videos. In 2006, Jack dorsey launched Twitter, which let people express themselves in microblogs. Today, the company is worth more than $13 billion.

Deconstruct

Aggregate is the opposite of deconstructing. It is the practice of combining different elements into a whole. For example, the smartphone is so successful because it aggregates many things. It’s a phone, camera, text messenger, email provider, internet browser, music player, video screen, and source of entertainment.

Aggregate

Combine opposites in an unlikely way. Coco Chanel was the first fashion designer to design the androgynous look in 1906. She combined straight dresses and pants previously reserved for men. In 1920, Chanel No.5, put her name everywhere. Chanel desired perfumer Ernest Beaux to make an artificial fragrance as "a woman should smell like a woman and not like a flower.” She also desired the perfume to blur the line between a respectable girl and a seductress.

Find harmony in contradictions

A cross-pollination between fields and industries leads to innovation in design. The innovative wearable-technology field is the result of cross-fertilization. Wearable tech advanced when Polar launched the first wire-free heart monitor in 1982. It combined medical equipment, science, industrial design, and technology that became the go-to brand for sports and exercise.Since then, Fitbit launched its wrist-worn tracker in 2013, and Apple released the Apple Watch in 2014.

Mix intellectual capital

In a new book, Maria Brito looks at how designers and innovators throughout history have unlocked their creativity and changed the world.


motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

creativity

Creativity

product

Product & Design

5 tricks to help you think like the world’s greatest designers

The seat belt has become a key part of our lives, a strap of nylon webbing that has saved many lives in the years since they've been embedded into the mainstream. The fabric that seat belts are made out of is called webbing, referring to the weaving process. Often made of synthetic materials like nylon and polyester, the tensile strength of a seat belt has to meet specific standards. One benefit of this highly regulated material is that most problems have been solved, and much research has been done into edge cases.

The legacy of the seat belt

The design of seat belts has directly inspired the designs of other products. The modern seat belt invented over 100 years ago had inspiration from the defence industry, which tested different harnesses and other structures during WWII.

Design perspective of seat belts

<ol><li>The concept of the seat belt predates the automobile. The idea originated in 1840 when Sir George Cayley wrote about a safety mechanism for trains and suggested a "broad padded belt to be placed in front of each passenger."</li><li>Why your seat belt always gets stuck. A seat belt uses a retractor that is designed to lock up in case of a sudden jerk.</li><li>Airline seat belts aren't made equal. Airline seatbelts need a seat belt extender to get in the seat safely. It is an older design but can be taken off quickly and has less risk of accidental pressings.</li></ol>

Interesting facts about seat belts

Swedish inventor Nils Bohlin came up with the three-point seat belt which secures your waist and chest with a stretching belt mechanism that pulls out just as much slack as the passenger needs. The two-point seat belt, which went across your lap, was imperfect, especially in independently adjustable seats and was known to cause internal injuries during car crashes. Bohlin was granted a patent in 1962, but it soon became clear that the patent would be more useful as an official standard mandated at a regulatory level.

The seatbelt patent was given away

<ul><li>In 1955, Ford offered seat belts as a part of a safety campaign in its vehicles. It was a novel option at the time.</li><li>But Ford was also competing against General Motors, which focused on traditional concerns such as speed.</li><li>Speed won, and Ford executives blamed their declining sales on the safety campaign.</li><li>In 1967, Bohlin published a report on crash statistics involving Volvo’s three-point seat belt. The seat belt prevented fatal injuries in vehicles that crashed below 60 miles per hour.</li><li>The three-point seat belt became a part of the regulations and was soon replicated worldwide.</li></ul>

The automobile industry’s handling of seat belts

It highlights the value of creating consistent standards for the common good.  However, there's always room for innovation. For example, a Ford patent for a heated seat belt raised eyebrows in the automotive world.The patent discusses adding a heating mechanism to the webbing of a seat belt strap, but some sceptics noted obvious technical problems such as being wrapped up in electricity should you be involved in an accident.

The seat belt is an important innovation

history

History

Seat Belt History

"It’s really not that difficult to decipher your innovation culture by looking at leadership behavior, organizational structure, business processes, metrics and incentives, rewards and recognition, and the stories and symbols that reinforce (or inhibit) innovation. By understanding the things that shape norms, values, and behavior, it becomes possible to influence them—and to create a culture of innovation."

Culture is the collection of unwritten rules, norms, and values that influence people’s behavior. When it comes to innovation, especially disruptive innovation, an organization’s culture can be either the rocket fuel or death knell of an organization’s ability to grow and thrive.A culture of innovation is an environment that promotes freethinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, and sustainable value creation at all levels across all functions of an organization.

A Culture of Innovation

Products, services, and even business models become commodities over time. If organizations do not continually invent and reinvent their competitive advantage, they risk being disrupted into obsolescence.Culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage. It’s the invisible secret sauce that drives employee engagement, innovation, business growth, and continuous reinvention.

Competitive Advantage Is Temporary

Every organization must unlock its innovation culture in its own unique way. What works for Google and Apple might actually kill innovation in other companies. Effective best practices must be artfully adapted to the unique personality of your organization.

Unlocking The Right Kind of Innovation Culture

"For many companies, coming up with ideas often isn’t the problem. The challenge is turning ideas into something real that delivers an impact. This is where metrics can make the difference between no ideas, lots of ideas that go nowhere, and real innovation."

<ul><li>Metrics give us direction. Leaders set goals and measure progress; often this focus on easily measured metrics like speed, efficiency, accuracy, or profits. </li><li>Innovative behaviors are difficult to quantify, and most companies don’t have innovation metrics. What we decide to measure determines what we get. If we don’t measure innovation, we won’t get it.</li><li>To create an innovative culture we need to promote and measure inventive behaviors in leadership, employees, and customers. Establishing these metrics is a process unique to each company, there are no standards. </li></ul>

Measure What’s Meaningful

Measuring profitability and the support of your customers is important, but it doesn’t tell you what specific behaviors will lead to more profits and more satisfied clients in the future. Your metrics need to define the end goal and encourage innovative practices. Innovation metrics that define the end goal may include the number of clients who trade up to next-generation products or services, the business generated in new customer segments, or revenue from new markets. Metrics like these define goals, identify opportunities and promote innovation.

Define the Outputs

Once you have defined the end goal, you need to give people specific goals to reach our larger goals. Every employee should be aware of the importance they play in achieving the company’s goals and how they share responsibility for innovation. <ul><li>Communicate trust and acceptance of new ideas. Policy and business practices should align with words that encourage trust, learning, creativity, and innovation. </li><li>On a leadership level, you should set goals that support innovation by focusing on the future instead of on daily operations.</li></ul>

Define the Inputs

"Measuring innovation also involves setting specific goals that will help fuel the process—the things you do internally to help you hit your targets. When you give people targets, they take on responsibility for hitting them. And in the process, they produce experiences and success stories that then reinforce more experiences. The goal is to jump-start this kind of positive feedback loop."

Here’s a model that any organization can apply to set up its definition of innovation and take a portfolio approach to allocate its time and effort:<ul><li>70% Incremental innovation: small changes in processes, products, services, strategies, etc.</li><li>20% Sustaining innovation: major advances in the core business for existing customers and markets.</li><li>10% Disruptive innovation: breakthroughs that change the game (new biz models, products, services).</li></ul>Connecting your innovation intent to all three types of innovation helps link innovation to both the current and future direction of the organization.

The Three Types of Innovation

Here are some examples of innovation intent statements that can do just that: <ul><li>Finance: To deliver financial insight that drives strategic business decisions, new market opportunities, and the innovation process.</li><li>HR: To recruit and grow top talent that shapes the future of our company and that transforms the industry.</li><li>IT: To provide tools and services that deliver insight for employees that accelerate innovation and optimize the customer experience.</li></ul>

Every Function Should Have Its Own Definition of Innovation

Without the focus an innovation intent provides, people tend to think innovation belongs to someone else (such as Research and Development) and assume it isn’t part of their job. The lack of a thoughtfully defined innovation intent also makes it difficult for leaders to create specific programs, processes, metrics, and rewards that shape values and behavior, because specific expectations and measures of success usually aren’t clear beyond the call for “more ideas.”

How Innovation Intent Shapes Culture

** WINNER of BEST BUSINESS BOOK, International Book Awards ** Every purchased copy of the book includes access to the free downloadable Invisible Advantage Toolkit! The Invisible Advantage shows how any organization can create a culture of innovation--an environment that promotes freethinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, and sustainable value creation at all levels and across all functions. This book isn't just about the importance of an innovation culture, nor how to emulate the ''innovation untouchables'' like Google and Apple. It's a complete tool kit that anyone can use to uncover the unique, hidden drivers of innovation and then introduce fresh, intuitive approaches tailored to their organization's specific environment. To get the free Invisible Advantage Toolkit, email your receipt to toolkit@leapfrogging.com to get a download link that contains: 1. Free Video: Download the Culture as Competitive Advantage video to help make the business case for creating a culture of innovation. 2. Free Questionnaire: Get proprietary survey questions to assess your current culture of innovation. 3. Free Interview Guide: Get proven interview questions to engage key stakeholders in 1:1 discussions to assess culture and build momentum for change. 4. Free PDF Poster: Get a Large Format PDF Poster that you can print to help facilitate working sessions to design your own culture of innovation. 5. Free PowerPoint Template: Use the PowerPoint Template to define and communicate your current-state and future-state culture of innovation.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

business

Business

books

Books

** WINNER of BEST BUSINESS BOOK, International Book Awards ** Every purchased copy of the book includes access to the free downloadable Invisible Advantage Toolkit! The Invisible Advantage shows how any organization can create a culture of innovation--an environment that promotes freethinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, and sustainable value creation at all levels and across all functions. This book isn't just about the importance of an innovation culture, nor how to emulate the ''innovation untouchables'' like Google and Apple. It's a complete tool kit that anyone can use to uncover the unique, hidden drivers of innovation and then introduce fresh, intuitive approaches tailored to their organization's specific environment. To get the free Invisible Advantage Toolkit, email your receipt to toolkit@leapfrogging.com to get a download link that contains: 1. Free Video:  Download the Culture as Competitive Advantage video to help make the business case for creating a culture of innovation. 2. Free Questionnaire: Get proprietary survey questions to assess your current culture of innovation. 3. Free Interview Guide:  Get proven interview questions to engage key stakeholders in 1:1 discussions to assess culture and build momentum for change. 4. Free PDF Poster: Get a Large Format PDF Poster that you can print to help facilitate working sessions to design your own culture of innovation. 5. Free PowerPoint Template: Use the PowerPoint Template to define and communicate your current-state and future-state culture of innovation.

Soren Kaplan

The Invisible Advantage

In his book Peak, psychologist Anders Ericsson downplays the importance of native-born genius and emphasizes the importance of deliberate practice to perfect some skills. However, after much-continued work and mastering technical skills, there are moments when the mind takes flight. We call this inspiration.

Inspiration

Inspiration doesn't make sense when we think of it logically. Inspiration feels uncontrollable and irresistible. When one becomes inspired, it feels like time changes its pace. The senses are amplified, and you may experience goosebumps or a feeling of being overawed by beauty. You may feel a burst of energy and an awareness of being capable of more than you thought.

Moments of inspiration

According to Vladimir Nabokov, inspiration comes in phases. <ol><li>Prefatory glow is the feeling of wellbeing that removes awareness of physical discomfort.</li><li>An instant vision or lighting bolt of inspiration that forms the nucleus of a work that will grow from it over a long period.</li></ol>

Inspiration comes in phases

<ul><li>Inspired work stands separate from normal life. Inspiration is not driven by money or status but the work itself takes hold of a person.</li><li>Inspiration is not earned. It is a gift.</li><li>Inspiration is not something you can control.</li><li>Inspiration is not controlled by one person. Inspiration has a tendency to raise a sense of possibility in others. In turn, the inspired person performs his own feats and inspires others.</li><li>Inspiration is fleeting and cannot be contained.</li><li>Inspiration demands a certain posture of awe and mystery.</li></ul>

Features of inspiration

That moment when mind and spirit take flight stands apart from normal life.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

problemsolving

Problem Solving

What Is Inspiration?

Sometimes, considering new options can be challenging when we have already developed some ideas while solving problems.Some ways are helpful to improve flexibility & uncover what's missing<ol><li>Point of view analysis</li><li>Assumption reversal</li><li>Constraint release</li></ol>

Shifting Perspective In Problem Solving

An effective approach to shift your current frame of mind to promote creativity.<ol><li>Form empathy</li><li>Put yourself in another person's shoes</li></ol><ul><li>Think your business from the eyes of your competitor</li><li>Think about how they might experience a particular situation</li><li>Ask how they might behave if you change your strategy</li><li>Guess what they might think to compete against you in the current market</li><li>Consider which actions they might be taking to own your current customers</li></ul>

Point of View Analysis

Another way to boost creativity in problem solving.Challenge long-held thoughts to have fresh perspective.<ol><li>List all explicit & implicit assumptions</li><li>Walk through each assumption one by one</li><li>Pressure test on them</li><li>Think what new possibilities would be if the assumption is reversed</li></ol>

Assumption Reversal

Similar to assumption reversal, fresh ideas may be uncovered by releasing thoughts constraining our solution space.Acknowledging you donot have specific restrictions up front in the process allows you to go deeper in solution development.<ol><li>Write down all constraints </li><li>Consider each as if they are not true</li><li>Think new possibilities</li></ol>

Constraint Release

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

How to take the ‘outside view’

Creativity is the main engine of innovation and entrepreneurship, and a major driver of resilience. The current foundation of creativity training is the technique known as divergent thinking.But there’s a problem: Research has shown it to be at best inadequate and at worst counterproductive. The training doesn’t work.

Problem With Creativity 

Have everyone anonymously write down something they like but are afraid to admit to the group. Then share the answers, maintaining anonymity.When each answer is shared, ask everyone to take two minutes to imagine that they like the same thing Silently plan a way to incorporate it into the workspace. Benefits:<ol><li>Removes subjectivity </li><li>stimulates teams to actively appreciate nonconformity </li><li>it primes the brain to value anomalies: the most potent biological source of creative inspiration</li></ol>

Exercise 1: To Foster Originality 

Think of a new competitor in your market — an existing startup, maybe, or an established company that might enter your lane, or some kind of organization that you anticipate might emerge in the future. Identify one highly anomalous feature of the competitor — and now imagine that you are that competitor. What does your anomalous feature enable you to do in the market?Stretch your horizon as long-term as you can.

Exercise 2: Instead of brainstorming, think counterfactually

<ol><li>For step one, take each of your team’s newly imagined options and rank it on the scale of 1 - 10. Options ranked at the bottom (0–2) are low in creativity and low in innovation potential. Options at the top (8–10) are moderate-to-low in creativity but high in innovation potential. Options in the middle (3–7) are low-to-moderate in innovation potential but moderate-to-high in creativity</li><li> </li></ol>

Exercise 3: Meet the moment process (Step 1)

For step two, assess your current operational environment in the scale of 1-10.Is it stable? Or volatile? Certain? Or uncertain? If it’s high in stability and certainty, go with an option ranked 9 or 10. If it’s moderate, go with a 7 or 8. If it’s low, go with a 6 or 4. (That’s not a typo. Go with a 4, an option you think might not work.) If it has no stability or certainty, go with a 5.

Meet the moment process (Step 2)

These new methods for increasing creativity might seem weird, implausible, and even flatly wrong. But that’s exactly how it should be. 

teamwork

Teamwork

3 Exercises to Boost Your Team’s Creativity

”nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what can before. Nothing is completely original.”

“Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.” - Austin Kleon

Collecting Source Material

“The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder.” - Austin Kleon

Collecting Not Hoarding

“You have to be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else - that’s how you’ll get ahead.” - Austin Kleon

Dig Deeper

“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.” - Austin Kleon

Remix Your Ideas

“There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want. Experiment. Do things just for the fun of it. When you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract you from getting better.” - Austin Kleon

Experiment

“It’s the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.” - Austin Kleon

Art As Identity

“Get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored - the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.” - Austin Kleon

Stay Busy

“Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.” - Austin Kleon

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use - do the work you want to see done.” - Austin Kleon

Your World

One of my greatest influences as a creative…

Unlock your creativity. An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life. Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you—what feels like a hobby may turn into you life’s work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch. And finally, stay Smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring in the everyday world so that you have the space to be wild and daring in your imagination and your work. “Brilliant and real and true.”—Rosanne Cash

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side. When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.

I’m a writer who draws. I make art with words and books with pictures. Author of Steal Like An Artist and other bestsellers. Visit my website: http://austinkleon.com/

Austin Kleon

Steal Like an Artist

“Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me.” - Charles Bukowski

Solitude

“The moonlight was bright. My footsteps echoed in the empty street and it sounded as if somebody was following me. I looked around. I was mistaken. I was quite alone.” - Charles Bukowski

Isolation

“But starvation, unfortunately, didn’t improve art. It only hindered it. A man’s soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax. Once you realized that everything was a hoax you got wise and began to bleed and burn your fellow man.” - Charles Bukowski

The Starving Artist Hoax

“I had thought that machines had put tomato pickers out of work. Yet, there it was. Humans apparently were less expensive than machines. And machines broke down.” - Charles Bukowski

Disposable Labor

Charles Bukowski was a brilliant poet and novelist. His books have highly impacted the literature world…

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next. Charles Bukowski's posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum is a masterfully vivid evocation of slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism, and an excellent introduction to the fictional world of Charles Bukowski.

writing

Reading & Writing

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.Charles Bukowski's posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum is a masterfully vivid evocation of slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism, and an excellent introduction to the fictional world of Charles Bukowski.

Charles Bukowski

Factotum

Vera Rubin is responsible for discovering dark matter, which makes up 84% of the material that exists in the universe. Her approach to problem-solving and innovation holds many lessons for us today.Visual thinking: Use various strategies to represent complicated problems or projects visually.

Visual Thinking

Vera Rubin's thinking strategies include:<ul><li>Practising visual thinking.</li><li>Trusting the evidence.</li><li>Seeing the bigger picture.</li><li>Focus on creating the most useful visuals.</li><li>Follow the evidence.</li><li>Look for factual information.</li><li>Analyze data from different perspectives.</li><li>Step up for others.</li></ul>

How to Think Like Vera Rubin

Vera Rubin was a powerhouse in astrophysics, though she rarely gets the credit she deserves. Rubin is responsible for discovering dark matter, which makes up 84% of the material that exists in the universe.

philosophy

Philosophy

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Vera Rubin: The power of evidence-based visual thinking

In a content-driven world, entrepreneurs who see themselves first and foremost as creators could have it the wrong way round.Whether you decide you are on the creator or entrepreneur path matters in making strategic decisions about where to invest your time, money, and energy in your business.

Creators vs. Entrepreneurs

<ul><li>Being a creator is a unique experience defined by building an audience on platforms where audiences can be found.</li><li>Entrepreneurs who identify too much with being a creator first and foremost may well be spending their energy on the wrong things.</li></ul>

The Worlds of 'Creator' and Traditional Entrepreneur Collide

<ul><li>The role of an entrepreneur is to keep their business alive, so they should prioritize building a product or service people actually want to buy.</li><li>Creating beautiful graphics on Instagram, threads on Twitter, or reels on TikTok might feel easier and safer, but in isolation, they are unlikely to move your business forward.</li></ul>

Content Creation Is Not Always the Best Use of An Entrepreneurs' Time

Creating content is often fun, and can feel good when you get likes and comments, but creating demand and selling what you have built is your number one job.Continue to do content creation if it is driving demand for your business and use the sales to pay for the team to support you run the other parts of your business.

Get Into Sales, Not Content

<ul><li>You get to choose if you are on the creator path or not.</li><li>Entrepreneurs don’t always get the choice to choose what to spend their time on, but creators do.</li><li>Creators get to play around in the phases before they make money from their content.</li><li>Being a creator should be about discovering what you enjoy and figuring out what other people find valuable.</li></ul>

Choose Your Path

In a content-driven world we are all creators to an extent. But entrepreneurs who see themselves first and foremost as a 'creator' could have it the wrong way round. Here's why.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Why entrepreneurs should be wary of calling themselves 'creators' 

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