Why you need to be creative in your business (and how)

Get ready, because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh.

Hey.

Hey. So glad to be here with you today. What an episode we have coming up. I cannot wait to dive into today's episode with you. You know, when you've got all the ideas, but you got all the things going on as well, you know, you want your business to be moving forward and sustainable and having consistent, steady revenue coming in, but things are always changing. So how do we balance the need to adapt and change and and be creative and still maintain steadiness and sustainability in our business with all the roller coasters of change that can come through? We have an exciting guest today, Karen Davis from pink pigs fly.com yes, pink pigs fly.com. karen founded Pink Pigs Fly because today's business challenges require whole new ways of thinking and problem solving. There is a lot going on out here. And our work at Karen's work at Pink Pigs Fly goes beyond traditional training more than just consulting, but they shift mindsets and culture and lasting change in our businesses through all sorts of creativity infusions in your business. And really, how do we weave in creativity on an ongoing basis and innovation on an ongoing basis? You know, I find that with everything that's going on, for example, right now I am sitting in a pretty empty house because we're gearing up for a move. They emptied the house. All of our goods are on their way to their next destination. You may notice a little bit of an echo in the background because it is empty. There's not a whole lot here to absorb the sound, and there's a lot going on. And still, how between everything that's going on, do you find those pockets of time to pause, reflect, innovate? This is important for so many reasons when you can infuse creativity into your business. When you innovate, greater and more consistent innovation happens through creativity. When you innovate, you get increased revenue and market share and higher employee engagement and work satisfaction. I weave practices that we're going to talk about in this episode today with Karen into my regular planning processes and activities. So not only are we going to talk in this episode with Karen about the importance of creativity and what it is, what are we even talking about as we think through this creativity and innovation, the importance of it, but Karen's going to get practical on how you can start weaving this into so many areas of your business. Not just taking a one day workshop to brainstorm with your team, but infusing this into your strategy so you don't leave your innovation and success up to chance. It's the perfect complement to your overall business strategy. And hey, why are we still here talking about it? Let's get into this episode with Karen right now. Introducing Karen Davis. Karen Davis from Pink Pigs Fly. I just love your business name, your whole concept. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much, Amber. I'm so excited to be here.

Oh, my gosh. We're gonna have just an incredible episode here for the listener. You believe creativity is serious business and you help businesses, you help people, you help leaders. Unleash creativity for increased innovation. Why does this matter? Why is this important now?

Creativity is. It's really the foundation of innovation. So I always say you can have creativity without innovation, but you cannot have innovation without the creativity.

Yeah.

So if you want to take new ideas and new products and new services to market and have them be successful, you need to have ideas. You need to have ways to solve the problems of your clients. You need to have a way of staying competitive and being and differentiating yourself from your competitors and just being relevant to what's going on in the world. And as you know, there's like just an incredible amount of change happening all the time. So it's not like you can prepare. Okay. Like, you know, five years from now, this is what I'm going to do. We don't know what the world will look like in five years. So you have to be able to think in a more deliberate way. So what I do is help individuals and companies facilitate deliberate creativity. So how can we use this now to solve problems that are in the near future?

This is so interesting. And two things specifically came to mind. One, when our businesses are running well, like, I don't want anything to change, like it's going well. Why. But the reality is, you know, and you mentioned this just a few minutes ago when we were just getting started before we hit record, change is inevitable.

Absolutely. It's the only thing we can count on. Right, Right.

And it's rapid fire right now.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it was, it was like this before the pandemic. But I think we all have a better sense of the degree to which change can happen and the impact that that can have on lives, on health, wellness, on businesses, you know, survival. It's. Yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty intense and there's, it's not going to change. It's not going to change.

What I'm seeing is you work with companies and you speak with people about innovation and unleashing creativity to keep up with that change. How are people infusing creativity in their business to keep up?

Yeah, so there's three ways that I work with organizations to build that creativity to a place where it's sustainable. Because it's, you know, you can have a one day business retreat and get all these ideas and everybody's like, woohoo, let's, let's go. But if it's not built into the way you work, it's not going to serve. Like it's not going to last. Right. And so you need to sustain that because you need to keep innovating over a period of time. So there's three sort of components that are the main core of creativity. The first is an individual's mindset. So how does the individual manage things like risk and failing? And do they have an imagination? Can they have a vision of something that they want to build or create? And you know, to be successful you have to like sit in ambiguity, like it's messy. So there's a lot of components around an individual's mindset. So that's one area. And then we sort of match that with what are some skills and some processes that we can provide to make the whole thing easier. So in terms of process, could be something like design thinking, that's a process. Creative problem solving, that's another process. You know, very specific steps for deliberate creativity. And then skills are things like divergent thinking and convergent thinking. So divergent thinking is the ability to think big and you need that for creativity. But what people don't realize is you also need the ability to converge. So you come up with, you know, let's say you sit down and you come up with 50 ideas, what do you do then? How do you, how do you take those 50 ideas and bring it down to one idea that you're going to move forward on and then once you get that one idea, you have to think big again to think. Okay, what do I do with this idea? So it's really a process of divergent thinking and convergent thinking to work through problems and to come to those solutions.

Oh, so good. I know for creative entrepreneurs, innovative forward thinking, ambitious, motivated entrepreneurs, this idea of all the things like there are so many options. So that divergent thinking in space, oh, I see it everywhere. It's a challenge sometimes to Move into that convergent thinking space. Like, all right, how do we distill this down? What's. What's the go forward step?

It's often the one that's the most difficult because it's not viewed as fun. And as you know, oh, we get to unleash our thinking with the divergence.

And.

But the convergent thinking is so critical. It is just so important to be able to figure out which ideas to move forward on and how. And that's sort of the second and third parts of creative problem solving is working through a solution and taking it all the way through to implementation. Because, you know, I mean, we can have all the ideas, but if we can't figure out which ones are the best, which ones have the most impact, which ones are at the right time, there's all these components to moving forward with an idea.

This is so good. So what strategies? Because we know this is something that comes up for people. I could do this, I could do that. I got this idea. You know, our feeds are filled with ideas and brainstorms in addition to what was already in our head. How do you recommend people take all those ideas and distill them down to okay, with everything that's going on, this is what I should move forward. How do we get there?

Yeah, there's different tools that I use when I'm working with either an individual or a group, and they really work around these four stages of creative problem solving. So the first stage is clarifying your problem. And so often we jump into, oh, come up with ideas for. And you really haven't drilled down to figure out what is the actual problem and how many, like, does it have unintended, like, different layers that you just haven't recognized? So there's a tool, there's different tools that I use, but one of them is called the. Well, it's called the five whys. That's sort of the main term that's used for the activity. I call it the wicked whys because it can be challenging and it really pushes your comfort level and it really puts you into a state of ambiguity and you really kind of dig deep.

Okay, can you tell us more about these wicked why?

Yeah. Okay, so let's. You want to try it?

Yes.

Okay. Okay. So what you do is you say, okay, I have a problem. This is my problem. You share with us what your problem is. You can do that.

Okay. The recruiting landscape is also rapidly changing. We want to hire faster. We want it to be a win win for our teams and getting a clear process in place for that. We recently made some updates to it, but it's been tricky.

Okay, so your problem is around hiring.

Yeah.

Okay. Why is that important?

Because we want to serve our clients well. And to be able to continue to do that, we got to have a great team and we've got to have. Actually, I'll stop there. I could keep going and building. Want to serve our clients well. Gotta have a great team. Wanted to win. Win for everyone. And don't want team coming in, being like, oh, this isn't. This isn't right. Want the, like the triple win trifecta.

Yeah. So the idea is that you just. You keep digging. So I would, you know, okay, well, what. What about that? Why is that important? And then you kind of sort of start to dig, and it's like peeling the layers of an onion back. Right? Like, you kind of start to peel these layers and go, wait a second. Maybe that's not the problem. Like, the one that we're thinking about solving isn't the actual problem. Like, maybe it's. There's a problem around our business model. Maybe it's around how we're structured with our employees. Like, there's so many other layers to it that we don't often dig deep enough to really see what the essence is of the problem that we're trying to solve.

So with this, we go through and we ask ourselves, or at least five.

Times, we try to push. It's hard. I mean, you can. Sometimes you end up going in circles before you actually sort of get to what you're looking for. And it can be frustrating. You're just like, well, it's obvious, like, this is why. Right. But it's. Yeah, it's. It takes some practice, but it's a really great way to push yourself, to really clarify. Clarify things.

What's going on? That's so cool. Oh, my gosh. The other. Something else that you talk about is Blockbuster syndrome.

Yeah. So when I'm. When I'm working with organizations and it's sort of like, well, you know, why. Why is this important? Like, why is this something we really need to focus on? It really comes down to, you know, there's. There's a business case for creativity and the innovation that's. That's connected to it. And if you are not in that constant process of thinking with new, fresh ideas and new ways of working and looking around, like, what's going on around us, then you will. You will. You know, the possibility is suffering the same fate as Blockbuster and, you know, actually becoming obsolete and the story of Blockbuster is just. It's so sad in many ways, but it's such an amazing example because they were just not creative enough to see. To have a vision, to see themselves as something more than a video rental store. They didn't think about much entertainment. We're providing. Maybe there's a new way to be providing that infotainment. Maybe things are shifting. Maybe there's something we need to pay attention to. You know, they weren't curious. They weren't using their imagination. They didn't have that vision. Long comes Netflix and says, hey, I think there might be something different we could do. And the crazy thing is that Netflix actually went to Blockbuster and said, why don't you buy us? Why don't you buy Netflix? You have the infrastructure. You have this full industry. Like, we're like this teeny, tiny company. Why don't you buy us? No, we're good, right? I mean, it's crazy.

Ooh, wow.

So they, they didn't use creativity, and then they did not innovate and they became obsolete. And it's, It's. It's not the only example, but, you know, it's. It's one that everyone, almost everyone can recognize because, you know, if you're old enough, you have memory of, you know, going to Blockbuster and renting a movie and walking it back home and paying the late fees when you forgot to take it back.

Oh, those late fe. Blockbuster and Library. Get me.

I know, right?

You know, something that comes up for me as we think about innovation and change like that is, oh, this is a big business problem, but it's really not. And, you know, we as small businesses have the opportunity to be nimble individuals who are pursuing creative paths, innovative paths. Do you find for small businesses? Like, one of the thoughts that came up was like, man, is this. It could be exhausting. Like, you could always be in a space of change and innovation and. Okay, so how do you strike the balance between change and innovate versus. No, stay the course right now.

Yeah, so there's. There's a really interesting concept in. In this. In this field called polarity thinking. And if you. You think of an infinity sign, and it's about balancing two absolutely critical ways of thinking and sort of having them flow in a way that they both are. They're balanced in a way to. To really work together. So, you know, you think of productivity and creativity. You know, like, you can't have all productivity without any creativity, or you become blockbuster. You can't have all creativity without productivity because you wouldn't actually achieve anything. You wouldn't make it to innovation. So it's really, it's this flow of balancing these two. Two sides of things, which I, which I find really, really fascinating. The problem is that most companies are way more focused on the productivity side, and that creative side is a lot harder to build into your culture as a business, whether it doesn't matter how big, you know, even small businesses, even individual entrepreneurs. Are you taking time to sit and look at other industries, you know, and see what's going on in the world? Are you taking time to read other articles from different industry? Like, that's where ideas are. Because one of the, one of the greatest things about your ideas is that it's often a connection between two things that are. Haven't been connected before. A great example is there is a doctor in Toronto who came up with an idea to make their operating rooms more effective. How do we make this whole, the environment, the whole process safer and just having a better impact overall? This doctor connected the operating room to the concept of a black box in an airplane and then created this black box for an operating room where it records the conversations, all the machinery, all the, you know, the status of all the different measurements that are being tracked. So if something goes wrong, they have the ability to go back and reflect and learn and make improvements. And again, even the learning component, that's creativity as well. You know, it's a process of trying things. What works, what didn't. Let's learn from it and we try again. But I just love that example. I just think it's brilliant. Because who would think that there would be any connection between an operating room and an airplane?

Oh, yeah, that's incredible. You know, the other thing that was coming up as you were speaking is sometimes when I'm in this creative space, like, oh, you've got this idea. Put that black box, like this idea that comes up getting in there fast. And other times, like, no, this created process, sometimes there's a sense of urgency, sometimes there isn't, and you stay the course. Again, the polarities. But how, how do you address that sense of urgency? Imbalance that with. No, stay the course. And again, this goes back to the stated course of implementing in your business. But how does creativity just become something that is woven in. You're not always like, great idea, go, great idea, go, go.

Yeah, I think, I think it's part of. So it's. When I was talking about there's sort of three main areas that, first being mindset, the second being like, Having skills and processes. The third is having an environment or. And the culture that you work in being. Being creative or being able to foster creativity and facilitate creativity so that it's not just something you do for, you know, a different activity, oh, we're gonna go be creative today. It's something that you live and breathe as an organization, and it's a lot harder to implement because there's some, you know, it's a bit more fuzzy in some ways, but it includes things like, you know, do you have an environment where it's okay for your employees to take risks, try new things, and fail? Do you celebrate the failures? I mean, there's. There's organizations that will actually promote the failures that have. Have happened because they're celebrating the fact that someone's taken a risk and tried something new. And so, again, it's kind of goes. It fits in tandem with the mindset, because an individual can have a mindset, but if they're not in a culture that supports that, they're not going to be able to be creative. And that's pretty much why I left the corporate sector, because my creativity was stifled. I couldn't do the things that I wanted to do. It was like, no, we're good. And so you have to have that environment. It includes things like giving your people time. You know, there's organizations that will actually say, you know, what for, you know, a certain number of hours a week you work on your own project. You know, something that interests you, an idea that excites you. So it also engages employees in a totally different way. And creativity is linked to not only increased profits and being able to stay competitive, but increased employee engagement, increased mental health, and wellness for the individual as well. So there's all these links to creativity that are so much more. Have so much more impact than often people think. It's kind of like, oh, well, you can have fun with Play DOH for the day. And it's just fun and fluffy. It's not. There's such a deep impact. And that's what my goal is, to help business owners and entrepreneurs realize that.

There'S this deep value to it that feels so good. And sometimes that deep value unfolds over time. I was thinking about how sometimes I feel that need for a change. We've got to innovate here. We've got to shift something. But the answer doesn't come right away. It oftentimes, oh, a little creative project here. Creative. Okay, Exercise there. Journal, flip chart, team activity, squiggle exercise. You know, I love Karen like weaving in some of these things. Oh, that just unlocks something. Oh, new idea over here. And then with this culmination of series of pauses, reflection, activity, something new is being born. And so as we think about this, you shared a couple of tools and resources or strategies and techniques we can weave in. But if someone wants to start to infuse this creative process, ongoing into their way of being and evolving and growing in their business and their lives, where do you recommend we start?

Yeah, so for an individual, I would say there's a few things that you can do to sort of get that your creative juices flowing on a regular basis. And. And again, you know, the myth around creativity is that it's, oh, you know, I have to be an artist to be creative. And, and it's not, It's. It's just around your, your thinking and your ability to think differently and provide something that's of value and original. So it's, it really has nothing to do with artistic talent. You can, you, you know, artists are creative, but that's not the, that's not the only way to express creativity. And, you know, the other part of it is that a lot of people will think, well, you know, you're either born with, you know, that creative gene or you're not. And that's not true either. Like, there's studies that show you can actually improve your creative thinking abilities and strengths and that it's. It's like a muscle. It's like, you know, any other muscle that you need to exercise. So absolutely. Things like journaling. Journaling is a huge benefit to improving your creativity and doing it in a way. So the way I journal is I don't like, I don't necessarily write or type in, like, straight lines. If I have a word that's stuck in my head, I'll, you know, write it in a big way. And I use arrows and I use boxes, and I do a lot of this kind of visual, visual journaling. And I do the same thing when I'm, you know, if I'm at a conference, taking notes, I do the same thing where it's visual because it connects to just a different part of your brain. And I find that I remember things so much more easily when I'm doing that versus writing a page of words. Nothing sticks out when you write a page of words. But when you add these little, like, you know, if I, if I hear a book recommendation, I like, scribble a little book with, like, you know, so I can see this little. It's like having Your own little set of icons. Right. So that's a great way to start. And I actually do some exercises around helping people learn how to, to do that kind of creative, creative note taking or creative journaling. And then things like walking. Walking meetings are something that a lot of people implement because it gets them out of their regular day to day space. And especially now like when we're doing so much over zoom. If you're, you know, get out and walk on your own, don't have, you know, don't walk to the store, just go and walk, just change your environment up. Even something as simple as going to a co working space or you know, go to Starbucks for a few hours. Changing your environment changes your perspective and it just, you never know what you will see or hear that just will spark something. So those are a couple of really easy ways to do it. And of course I have so many, so many other ideas, but that just.

Gives you a taste, really do. This is incredible. And the other thing that's coming to mind, I'm having so many reflections as we move through this conversation, is that there's got to be a little bit of trust in the process. Like, okay, I hear this. Yeah, but it may not have immediate impact.

Absolutely.

As you said, like be open, it's going to, may unlock something. Like, all right, I got to just roll with it.

Absolutely. You got to be open to things that are new. You have to be in that space where you're, you're willing to look at things differently, flip things upside down, change things up. And you know, for some people that can be really hard and you know, they like structure. And again, I think it's, you know, so you know, in my own world I need to infuse a little bit more structure because I have this whole creative side of me as we talked about before. And you know, sometimes I get just a few too many sticky notes on my desk with all these different ideas and then I'm like, okay, I'm going to get this all organized and I put them in a pile and I put them somewhere and then I start another sticky note. So again it's back to that polarity thinking where yeah, be productive in terms of, you know, and be organized and you know, do your systems that you need but really make time for that, more open, more flexible. And yeah, I mean it's setting, setting a time and one of the things that I'm looking to implement is for leaders how can create a place where they can come together and we can spend, you know, 15, 2030 minutes and use it to. Let's say, like, let's read. Let's all read this article. Really short article from a really interesting industry that's totally outside of what you do.

And.

And then let's just chat about it and see what comes up and see if you get. Make any connections. Because those are the types of things that without it being scheduled and having a reason to do it, often get pushed aside. Right. Because it's like, I'll get to that later. I'll be creative tomorrow.

Yeah, you got to schedule the creativity.

Yeah. Again, it goes back to that deliberate creativity.

Right.

And again, even that there's a polarity between being deliberate about your creativity and then allowing time to incubate and let things kind of float around and see what develops. But if that's all we did as business owners, if we just let things percolate forever, we're going to be in trouble. So you have to build some of that deliberate creativity into the mix as well.

So this, I would say, is the invitation to you as you listen, where will you build in some deliberate creativity? Consider polarity and the divergent and the convergent thinking. But I'd say first step, like, get intentional. What's it gonna be? Are you gonna start with the journaling? Schedule it in. Are you gonna start with a walk? Schedule it in. What are you gonna do that's a little bit different? Mixing up your day just to get things firing in a different way. And of course, be open, open, open to the possibilities that are gonna unfold here.

Oh, one of the neat things that I do when I am, when I'm walking and this is even, you know, I don't. I didn't even start doing this on purpose. It just kind of happened. But I would see, like, trees and, you know, see how they're structured. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, that tree looks kind of like a moose. I mean, like, all of a sudden I'm seeing these things. I'm like, oh, that's cool. What other things can I see in the tree shapes? Right. Really simple ways to just add those. You know, sit and look at the clouds and see what shapes are forming in the clouds. Like, we used to do that as kids.

Yeah.

But, you know, we don't take the time to just be playful. So just adding that in. Yeah, it's cool.

So good. Karen, if people want to dive into this more, you know, I'm just loving your new website where new people, people find you.

I'm@pinkpigsfly.com.

Oh my gosh.

I'm also on in LinkedIn as well. Under Pink Pigs Fly or Karen in Davis. K A R I N A N N E D A D I S the Pink Plagues it. Pink Pigs Fly is easier to remember.

It is so cute.

People. People get curious about the. The name. So yeah, it's. It tends to stick, which I love.

Oh, it's incredible. Really well done on all of that branding and the creativity around it. It totally pops. And thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit of this. I can't wait to see what unlocks for people as they're on this creative journey.

Thank you. It was so great to be here and I just, I love talking about creativity. Just. Oh, I get so passionate about it.

Oh, good. It's clear and it pulls through in so many different ways in so many different things that we're doing. So I really hope people zip on over to pinkpigsfly.com to get a little taste of the magic, the Karen magic.

Thanks, Amber. Thank you. See you soon.

Oh my goodness. I got some reminders in this episode to schedule in more of those creative outlets. Going for a walk without having a specific destination in mind. I like having my destination in mind on that journey, but meander every now and then. Meander in my journal a little bit more. I can't wait to see what creative practices you infuse into your business strategy, your planning, your work with your team, your work to build out innovative solutions for your clients. Things are changing rapidly. Things are changing fast and it's just going to keep on coming. The practices Karen talks about and shares over at Pink Pigs Fly are only going to help you with that. If you take a nugget from this and something is unlocked for you. We'd love to hear about it in a review on the podcast episode or tag us in on social media. You can find me at Amber McHugh and I wish you so much success as you implement these practices and innovate and continue to evolve your business solutions for your clients. Thanks for listening to the Right On Time podcast today. You got this. Let's get a little taste of magic, the Karen Magic.

Thanks, Amber. Thank you. See you soon.

Oh, my goodness. I got some reminders in this episode to schedule in more of those creative outlets. Going for a walk without having a specific destination in mind. I like having my destination in mind on that journey, but meander every now and then. Meander in my journal a little bit more. I can't wait to see what creative practices you infuse into your business strategy, your planning, your work with your team, your work to build out innovative solutions for your clients. Things are changing rapidly. Things are changing fast and it's just going to keep on coming. The practices Karen talks about and shares over at Pink Pig Pink Pigs Fly are only going to help you with that if you.