Dr. Leon Segal argues that creativity isn't about genius or luck, but a repeatable process. He identifies three daily practices: improving creative ability, collaborating effectively, and using empathy for end users. His mindset: today is a prototype for tomorrow.
Chapters
I'm Dr. Leon Siegel from Innovationship, and I have a question for you, which is how come some companies keep innovating and being really creative, while others seem to be stuck with one idea that they just can't get out the door? And also, how come some meetings in some companies seem to kind of explode with ideas and be creative, while other places people sit around the room and look at each other and say, what do we do next? If you want to be consistently creative and innovative, you have to have a process. You can't rely on luck, and you can't rely on that one visionary genius who walk into the room and give you the solution. You have to have a process. And this is what this talk is about. It's about having your own process for being creative in a consistent way. I started my talk by saying, today is a prototype for tomorrow, because that reflects a mindset that represents the creative process you have to adopt. What does it mean, today is a prototype for tomorrow? Well, look around you. Everything you see was designed by someone. The screen you're watching me on right now was designed by someone. My watch was designed, My shirt was. The chair you're sitting on was designed by someone. Everything was designed by someone. What that means is it can be redesigned and redesigned in a better way. You need to adopt that mindset, that perspective on the world in which you walk around and realize that everything's an opportunity to be redesigned. If you look at the process of innovation and collaborative creativity, what you need is to represent three primary things in your daily thinking. One is just to find ways to increase your creative ability, whether it's individual, whether it's in teams. Work on Being creative and in teams brings in the second element, which is collaboration. You have to be able to collaborate, and creativity and collaboration don't necessarily always go well together because some people's egos get involved, et cetera. So find a way to also work in a team and be creative and make the most of the fact that you're a group of people. The third element is empathy. Empathy is very big. If you go any of the big companies, Google, Apple, ebay, all over the world, you look at companies, they're hiring people from the soft sciences, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, because they realize that the greatest ideas come from empathizing with end users, from customers, from just empathizing with the people we impact with our designs. That's where we get inspiration for great new ideas. So you have to include empathy in your process, too. So with those three, you can start creating a culture that's creative and that's what you want. Peter Drucker said that culture eats strategy for lunch. He was talking about corporate strategy. I want to tell you that process will eat great ideas for lunch. Unless you have the process in place to do something with your great ideas, nothing will ever happen from them. So go out there, find someone who can help you build a great creative process for you and your organization, and your life will change. I promise. Thanks.
