6 Ways Employees Can Boost Their Imagination, Ingenuity and Vision at the Office  

After spending a week at SXSW, I felt like I was floating in a cloud of inspiration and motivation. But, when I came down from my high, I found myself feeling a little apprehensive about the future. Tech experts and agency panelists spent quite a bit of time discussing how technology is continuing to take over process-driven work. This should not be a surprise to anyone: we’ve seen robots in the news. Smart cars are here. Self check-outs at the grocery store have longer lines than the clerk-operated lanes. And banking apps are used more often than going into a branch. So it’s a given that technology has a strong influence on all facets of our lives and careers.

As an advertising professional, I can’t help but question how my career will be impacted by all of this. Our industry has already been affected by slashed marketing budgets, and clients taking advertising and production services in-house. Now can technology possibly replace even more?  And what parts of my job are so productivity-driven that some kind of technology can eventually take it over, and possibly do it better than I can? (Of course, I can only hope that timesheets and expense reports will be on this list!)

In all seriousness, though, it is clear more than ever before, that creativity and innovation will be what continues to separate the human intelligence from artificial. Creativity and innovation are necessary to push our industry forward, and to do that we need to challenge ourselves and our teams to always be curious, forward thinking and take risks. This mission is made somewhat more difficult by the fact that in our process-driven business world, it’s often easy to lose sight on setting aside time for creativity each and every day. We just need to find methods that can draw it out; whether you are left-brained or right-brained, there is creativity that fuels all of us.

Here are a few suggestions on flexing your creative muscle:  

Focus
This is the starting point, and probably the least creative part of your process, but it is essential. So think:

• • • What is the problem you are solving?
    • What is the ideal outcome you seek?
    • And what is the purpose — to fix a broken process, a design challenge, create a new tool, or solve for a consumer need?

This is crucial to having focus during your creative moments. Whatever your approach to creativity is, make sure you really dissect the challenge and the goal so that you have clear guardrails as to where your mind takes you. 

Visual Thinking and Sketch-noting
In my industry, I’ve been programmed to be more of a visual thinker, but it can still be tough to take my notes and thoughts from meetings and conferences and turn them into something more than just a mess of bullets and sloppy sentences. So, I tested out the method of sketchnoting during my time at SXSW, and I am a believer. I felt that my takeaways were more concise, articulate and I was able to connect the dots between ideas. Plus it truly does make note-taking more fun.

If you are interested in sketchnoting, check out these two sources: rohdesign.com and  braindoodles.net/lessons. 

Move your Body
I can’t say enough about how good exercise is for the mind. We often get so bogged down by timelines, budgets, and managing teams that we don’t have brain space to look at the big picture. But when I exercise, my mind clears up and I feel like I can think again. This can be as simple as going for a quick walk outside when you are feeling like your mind is blocked. This idea of creativity fueled by exercise has been scientifically proven, and is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get your brain moving. After all, Steve Jobs always took walking meetings, so that’s got to count for something.

Create Challenges
This can take many forms; in my industry it could be something like pulling your team together and picking out 5 random campaigns and trying to dissect them. Sometimes thinking beyond your business can help clear your mind and step away from the nuances and minutiae that are holding you up.

A solo challenge could be as simple as just sitting down with a pen and paper and writing down 100 nuggets of ideas that could solve your challenge. By the time you get to your 100^th idea, there are bound to be a couple gems that can be further explored. There are many writers in the film and TV industry who follow this method, and it can certainly work across industries. 

Place Yourself in Atmospheres Full of Inspiration
Where do you find inspiration? Is it at an art museum? On the beach? At an industry conference? I feed off the energy of creative minds, so I feel most inspired after leaving creative conferences, like SXSW. But, I also have colleagues who just need to be alone with the elements of the earth to find their creative happy place. Whatever it is, carve out time for it on a regular basis. If you don’t make time for it, no one else will.  And if it interferes with your work schedule, openly discuss it with your boss. Rather than just asking for time away from the office, ensure you make a case for how it is important this is, and be clear on what you are trying to get out of your time away.

Embrace the Bad Ideas
There will surely be times where we come up with ideas that, in their initial phase, may not solve the problem at hand. It can be frustrating, for sure. But, look to the root of the idea. Is that right? If so, tweak it, and tweak it again until it cracks the code. Taking a strategically smart risk, is better than doing nothing. There was a quote I wrote down from one my SXSW sessions with Regina Dugan from Google Advanced Technology and Projects: “In innovation, taking big risks drives results way more often than smaller risks.”  This idea stuck with me as it is often easy to walk away from a risky idea and find something that feels more safe, but often less impactful. If you have a risky idea, but can prove that it addresses the problem and the goal outcome, give it a shot.

Always remember though that when thinking creatively, purpose comes first. If your ideas do not serve a purpose, it’s going to be a challenge to get it to take off. There surely are an abundance of ways to seek out creative moments. The ones above just happen to be tricks that I’ve tested.