Ep 171| Creativity is a muscle - How to Feed & Train it in 5 Steps ?

If you ask me, creativity is not a supernatural skill or a magical skill. Only certain people has it. Guys, it is possible for everybody to learn a bicycle or to ride a car, or to swim in a pool, right? It's same like that. You can learn creativity as well if you're really curious. Let me tell you with scientific facts how creativity is very important and why it is very vital to learn that particular strategies to become creative. Let's jump into this podcast. Welcome to ZDesign for Change. Thank you for staying tuning in with me today. We have a very good, interesting topic to discuss. Lot of people think creativity is a very magical skill which only some people has it, right? So let me break down, guys. Creativity is like a muscle. The more you go to your gym and lift weights and practice with your trainer, the better your muscles will grow. Same like that. Your creativity is a kind of neurological response inside your brain which can be trained in a certain way in order to improve that pattern again and again and again. See brain networks in action. You have to really understand this. Creative design involves a very complex interplay between brain regions. And let me tell you guys, first, divergent thinking. Because you need to understand the fact before going into how you can improve that creativity, you have to go into why it is very vital and important, okay? When brainstorming new ideas, you know, the prefrontal cortex, which is our central part of the brain, takes the main stage, okay? So this is responsible for higher order thinking. It helps us explore various thinkings and connections and creative positive response. So that is why it is very vital to conduct more brainstorming in your organization. If you are not one who is doing it, please go and ask deliberately with your boss, your colleague or your project manager or somebody to have a lot of brainstorming sessions, okay? Because it improves their higher order thinking. Remember, pre fatal context, prefrontal cortex, okay? So convergent thinking. First we thought about divergent, now we are going for convergent. Once you have a bunch of ideas, okay? After your ideation, the anterior cingulate cortex steps in. This is called amygdala, okay? So this is the area which helps us evaluate and select the best option. This is actually a evolutionary response when it comes to fighting or running away. During our predators, during our ancestors, during when we were hunters in the forest, this particular region really focuses on that. So why I'm asking you to do it is after you completely think in different perspective and bring new ideas and perspectives, it is very vital to think in depth of one particular idea, how it can be developed this is how you have to use divergent as well as convergent thinking in order to do that. Okay, you can read a source called Cambridge Handbook for Creativity. This particular, what you call journal has been published. And people say aha moment, right? That flash of insight when you get a solution or when you have an idea which is popped up to you. So that's your temporal lobe firing up. Imagine if you do a lot of brainstorming session, definitely you will have one or two aha moments, either by your thinking or by the other people who are giving great ideas. So what happens is your temporal lobe keeps on firing again and again and again. Let me tell you very honestly, guys, this is also one such reason I do a regular podcast every single day. You won't believe, till the time I started this program, every single day I'll record a podcast. Totally. We have 171 episodes till now. It's like one or two days lag I may have, but I'll try to match up the space every single day. Because every single day, if your neurons start firing, if I'm start thinking creatively in order to help my community or my listeners, how I can solve their problems through this podcast, how I can find solutions, how I can simplify this design subjects and make them easy to understand in less than 10 to 15 minutes, then my temporal lobe starts also firing up. This is also one kind of a creative exercise of the muscle which I am doing in order to improve myself. So you can choose any activity which is really interesting for you. So this region integrates information from different parts of the brain, guys, leading to a sudden creative breakthroughs. A source called Creative Habit has found that. Okay, so you can read that. So let us understand in terms of neurological fact. Okay, so why creativity is a learnable skill. See, as I already told you, as learning as simple as bike or bicycle or anything. So here's an exciting part. So brain is constantly rewiring itself. You know, brain evolves continuously. So this ability to form the new connections is called neuroplasticity. Okay, leave this fancy terms. Brain is always evolving. You can remember that. Okay, so a research published in neuroscience shows that training in divergent thinking exercises increased activity in pre fatal context. So now you can understand why I ask you to do it in a regular basis so you don't have to remember a lot of psychological facts or things. Guys, just do it as much as possible. Creative ideation brainstorming session. Because you're activating your prefrontal cortex again and again and again and again and Again, every single day. What happens? Creativity can be enhanced to a greater extent. A preliminary study by MRI found that training in divergent thinking and creative problem solving has really made a lot of breakthroughs, particularly when it comes to statistics, guys. A study in thinking skills and creativity found a decline in creativity scores among young generation. This highlights the need for actively nurturing creativity. So particularly for younger generation, they found the skill is really lowering down. It's because they are not following that creativity process or maybe they are not engaged in a brainstorming session or anything like that so that their decline in creativity happens. Okay, so in business case for creativity. A World Economic Forum report suggests that creativity will be one of the top three skills needed in the future workforce force. Sourced by Future of jobs report 2020. So understand this guys. It is very vital to, to really go and get these things done. That's why I explained you why it is very, very vital in order to get this perspective. Okay, Jagdish, you said it's very vital. You said it's, it's. Our brain is evolving. You need to constantly train it. You need to understand this. So next, the point is how we can really improve it step by step. Okay, before that, let me go one more research also study found that participants who underwent intensive training in creative task showed that significant increase in gray matter density in brain. Okay. In the brain regions which was more associated to creativity and positive connections particularly with respect to prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. So understand guys. People have studied extensive search researches and study has been found. I'm just quoting few because there are a lot of things available in the online because there are a lot of scientific journals which has been published how people are becoming creative because people want to tap that, right? People have to really tap is it really a magical skill or somebody needs to really acquire from the inborn ability or something like that. It's not tight, guys. It's completely a myth. It's a learnable skill and you need to understand. If you train your prefrontal cortex using your ideation techniques again and again and again, every single day you'll be having new, new connections, guys. Okay? I'll be telling you how you can improve this particular activity. Okay? So creativity you can improve. Remember these five steps, guys. First is define your creative goals. See, a lot of people have a very abstract goals in design. Take some time to reflect that first have it very specific challenge what you can do to overcome what innovative solutions you can bring to the table and concise the terms and bring it okay, you know what? This provides you a roadmap, guys. Do it in a systematic way. It's not like a, what do you call it? It's not like I'll think and sit in the tree, I'll get an idea. I'll think and lay down in a chair, I'll get an idea. That's not the case, guys. A lot of people tell, hey, if I smoke, I'll get a new idea. If I go for a. What do you call, alcohol this, that I'll get out this, that's. I don't think that's really true, guys. In my experience, in my knowledge, what I've seen, people really get creative when they constantly do activities and exercises. People really get creative when they do ideation continuously in engage with the team. Always try to bring positive connections and what you call different, different neurological connections. If you're making, if you're making inside your brain that will slowly stick as a pattern for you. You don't need a drug to activate or psychedelic drugs to do anything, guys. LSD and all right, people call. So it's not really required. It's all health deteriorating habits and activities and substances which is out there. Okay? So be very pure and very conscious and careful in that. In a search of new ideas, don't get into another big trouble, okay? I mean it's in a creativity zone that's also a predominant problem. I've who have lost their way and they've even gone into a deepest level of depression since that. Trust me, guys, don't ever try all these things. Okay? So first is define your creative goals. The second is seek inspiration from diverse sources. See, this is very vital. Expand your horizon, guys. Let me tell you that. Try to find a lot of people, lot of workshops, seminars, different ideas from different book or if you're watching some journal publications, try to bring that richer perspective and have your scrapbook with you. I mean it, guys. If you really wanted to have a diverse perspective and become a creative guy, go and buy a scrapbook. Write down whatever you're getting as and when you're traveling, as and when you're going through online Google, if you are able to collect some pictures and cut it and paste it there in your scrapbook, that is damn good, guys. I'll tell you how it will be reflecting for you. Okay? So no, please stop at the step two. Step three is practice divergent thinking. So now you have to challenge with multiple ideas and lot of what you call brainstorming sessions you will have, right? So you will have a Multiple different ideas. And sometimes it may be unconventional, sometimes impractical. Set aside all this practicality. Impracticality, guys, just use your brain to just sketch out some ideas, stimulate your creative thinking. Now, after doing this activity, open your scrapbook, Try to plug in those ideas into your idea, whatever you're working in your project. Okay, I'll repeat, you guys plug in the ideas from your scrapbook, whatever you got into this idea. Hey, Jagdish, what is this here? I have created my scrapbook for my own. What you call during travel or exploration or during my. That's my personal book here. How it will be relevant for my project. Trust me, guys, it will be relevant. The moment when you see some positive connections, looking for the outside, your scrapbook is none other than what's going on inside your brain. Okay? So whenever you're solving a problem for your client or customer or anything, automatically when you scrap, when you open your scrapbook, you'll get poured a lot of ideas. I did one creativity course, guys, in my exchange education program. And I was in Germany for six months. We went to an island for, you know, for 10 days. Okay? There is absolutely no social connection. And totally, that island has only less than 100 people. And it's a very crazy experiment we had in the department of experimental design. Okay? So I took a very different course there. I wanted experience how it is. So these people really locked me in there for like 10 days. I mean, we had a great time there. The thing, what they asked to do is do whatever you want. They said that's the curriculum. I said, what is this? You have to give some curriculum or something like that, right? So this is you do whatever you want. You want to cut pictures and stick, do it. You want to stitch, do it. If you want to paint, do it. If you wanted to do sculpting, do it. If you want to do cycling, go for cycling. You want to jump into a pool, do it. You know what, guys, long story short, let me tell you at the end of this course, I made a beautiful book, which I have never done in my work, in my life so far. I mean, I was really wondering that, how creative I could be in order to bring that kind of different. Different connections from that. Starting from a scrapbook, I did a beautiful binded book still. I have it in my. What you call, workspace. If you're coming into my program, I'll show you live. Because that book really helped me motivate myself that, hey, Jagdish, you are capable of really making creative ideas you are no more a rigid thinker. So that's where your scrapbook will really help in. The fourth important step is embrace your constraints. Guys. See people get lot of problems when it comes to ideation. In terms of timeline, in terms of budget, in terms of resource, in terms of the project boundaries. Seal everything. Guys, just go for ideas. Just go for ideas. Just sketch out, just talk, just pitch to your client, okay? That's why you need to have a huge amount of ideas. That leads me to the fifth step. Iterate a lot, do more experiment, do more experiment. Do more when you're able to do it. Guys, if you generate hundreds and hundreds of ideas, definitely one or two will be a great idea. You know what designers do? They create only two ideas and they really pitch for their clients to select them. 1. That doesn't happen in the creative field. Guys. We are not in a formula engineering based kind of an approach where you have a formula you have to apply and you will get an answer. No, that's not the point. Design is very abstract. Unless until you are able to find out what's your creative goal. Unless until you seek out some inspiration from different sources. Unless until you practice divergent thinking. Unless until you really embrace the constraints in your creativity for your project to go beyond. And unless until you iterate more and bring lot of experimentation, you, you won't be able to bring a good idea to the table. Okay, let me quickly repeat. You guys define your creative goals. Seek inspiration. Third is practice divergent thinking. Fourth is embrace constraint as a catalyst for creativity. Don't be afraid. Okay? Fifth is experiment and iterate it again. With these five points, let me give you quick action points. What you can do. Very first week, what you can do is you can define your creative goals. Guys. In your project, you can do it for one day or even a one week. That's okay. Next two days or maybe next two weeks. You can seek inspiration from diverse sources. Apart from your project timing, I'm saying, okay, you can visit some museum galleries, cultural inspiration, read books, watch documentaries, anything. Week four to week six, you can practice divergent thinking. Set a dedicated time in your brainstorming session. Apart from the normal brainstorming each week to practice this divergent area. Bring huge connections from different different areas. Creative journals, scrapbook. Bring everything in front of you and your team. They can able to help you more create ideas. Week seven to week eight or maybe seven to eight days. Embrace these constraints. Identify some constraints inherently in your current design project and seal it out. Okay, take it away. And 9th and 10th day or 10th week is you can iterate and refine. See, parallelly, when you're doing a project for 10 weeks or eight weeks, okay, that's a decent average time of a design project. Why don't you parallel try this activity? It's like exercising your muscle, guys. The more you do it, the better you will be able to feed it and help prove it, okay? Because when you go for a gym, your muscle really breaks. You feed it with a protein and then new muscle forms and then your shape comes when you tone it again and again and again. Same like that. When it comes to a creativity, it's all same like you again and again. Practice one such muscle constantly. The moment when you sit for the next ideation session, you know what hundreds and hundreds of ideas will come into you. Let me tell you one very recent thing, guys. Just a week before, I was doing a brainstorming and ideation session with my team, okay? I was in a travel, in fact that I have to go for some place, but I was in the ideation session. I don't want to miss that, okay? I'm really excited to do that. In just a span of one hour, I'm able to come up with 45 different ideas. Our team was like, hey Jagdish, are you really crazy? How come you will you. You are able to do this for me? If you ask, that is nothing, guys. That's not even my 25 percentage of my potential, okay? Still, I could do better because I have trained myself, I have put myself in that constant zone to learn and build. Do it consistently. It's not a goal where you have to reach something, guys. It's a continuous learning process. If you tune your mindset in that and continuously engage in brainstorming session like that, eventually you will see a great improvement. In just 30 days, guys, in just seven, eight weeks, what I told you as an action plan, you can see a huge difference. There is no shortcut, there is no super magical bullet or there is no injection or a drug which you can take to become a creative designer. If you're looking for that, definitely you will go into a depression. Guys, come out of that. Be practical, understand the scientific facts what I told you and connect the dots to become Steve Jobs or even go beyond Steve Jobs or something, okay? I mean, why I quoted Steve Jobs is he was the one person whom I really admire so far in the universe who has really connected the dots. Like nobody has ever done that. That means he's a great inspiration and he brought a lot of things okay, Steve Jobs is being called for Apple iPhone, this, that. There are hundred things apart from iPhone. Steve Jobs have did that, guys. Okay, so go and read a book called Jobs. You'll come to know Steve Jobs is really a visionary person. He is such a creative person where he could even build a company where it can be cash rich as a whole country. You know what? Apple is equivalent to a country's cash rich economy right now because that's the one and only company in the world which is going to cost. I think it's, it's reaching trillion dollar industry. I think it's already reached by the time I'm recording this podcast. I think it would have reached. So that's the kind of potential what you have when you use your creativity in a positive way. Okay, I hope I given you some thoughts on this. Take a reflection and work on it, guys. Let me know in the podcast what you really felt. Okay, I'm ready to have a discussion and debate for this and we'll see in another episode, guys. Take care. Bye bye. All the best. And by the way, let me tell you, if you really needed this kind of intensive education in terms of creativity and, and what do you call in a discipline and accountable way to learn this brainstorming and ideation, I highly, highly welcome you to my mentorship program. You can send that email to dfcdesignforchangemail.com me or my team will help you out to you guys. You won't believe in one hour. As a team we ideated close to 400 plus ideas in a session a month back we had in our mentorship program. Okay. We did a brainstorming session for a very crazy problem which people said nobody can give ideas in this. We did close to 400 ideas. So it's possible when you learn it with a proper source, guys. Okay. And if you find this useful, this podcast give me a best star rating in Apple and Spotify. Take care guys. All the best. Bye bye.