Learning to be creative

We’ve all heard someone who’s being tapped for a little creativity say, “but I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” And we usually take them at their word and move on without much rebuttal to the more lampshade-wearing types in the room. It’s almost as if we believe creativity is a natural born quality—like red hair—either you got it or you ain’t. Even in the advertising industry, we tend to compartmentalize people into artsy, quirky, techie, salesy, etc. and assign in our head whether somebody is creative or not and, if so, where his creative strength lies—as in, “Sure, Juan can whip out a creative solution to a difficult website architecture in his sleep, but he doesn’t get a single ‘chicken crossed the road’ joke.”

While it’s true that some folks are creative and others aren’t, to just accept that you’re not is a copout. Anyone can learn to be more creative if they want to and here’s how to start:

To be creative, you have to first believe you are creative.
Positive reinforcement. Your inner voice. Mentally picturing yourself making the big play as opposed to dropping the ball. Everyone has the ability to be creative, but if you don’t believe you do, you won’t be. It’s no big secret. Just hold the creative vision.

Ask creative people about their process.
At Ryan William’s, we have weekly brainstorming sessions with the entire agency to hatch creative for new and existing clients. Some of the crew write down words and phrases and play with them on paper to get the juices flowing. Others sketch or doodle. Still others surf around on their laptop or smart phone. We’ve even got one guy who closes his eyes and looks like he’s nodding off, and then all of a sudden out will come an idea that rocks the room. These folks may not even realize that what they’re doing is a creative process, but indeed it is. Try them out and see what feels comfortable and natural.

Change up your routine.
Listen to a different radio station or watch a different show on television. Eat something you normally wouldn’t or eat at a different time of day. Hang out with someone new. Take a class. Read a new blog. Go to a stock car race if you’re an opera fan. You get the idea. Change is stimulating and promotes not only fresh individual concepts, but links those seemingly unrelated ideas and builds upon them.

Stay ready to be creative.
You never know when anything from a seemingly inconsequential fleeting thought that might come in handy later to an utter brainstorm is going to pop into your head, so you want to stay ready. Carry with you a pen and pad, smart phone or mini-recorder, etc. to immediately note these ideas when they come. It’s likely that a great many strokes of genius came and went in the middle of the night because there wasn’t a paper and pencil on the nightstand, but we’ll never know for sure, will we?

Take the learning process a step further.
A lot of data suggests that deliberate exercise of the brain—word games; learning a new language or musical instrument; solving riddles and brain teasers or any of hundreds of methods—improves overall brain function and helps develop creativity. Pick one and try it. Who knows, you may find yourself moving from the accounting department over to marketing, and although we’re sure we’ll hear about this from our right-brained followers, marketing and advertising is WAY more fun than accounting.