A Five-Minute Creativity Workout that Helps you Change the Future
Unimaginative leaders repeat the past. Creative leaders change the future.
Creative leaders are better problem solvers.
“The only sustainable competitive advantage – for individuals and companies – is creativity,” Josh Linkner
“With creativity, we stop relying on what’s always been and open our eyes to what might be.” Matt Adams
Rituals:
“Daily rituals are the polar opposite of a magnificent performance. They aren’t your moment of glory, but rather they’re the unglamorous tasks you do in order to win the prize in the first place.” Josh Linkner
“I find my rituals helpful on the good days but absolutely essential to get me through the tough ones.”
Creativity is more discipline than inspiration.
M. Scott Peck tells a story about Pulitzer Prize winning author John P. Marquand that explains the power of daily rituals.
At the age of 64 Marquand could have retired in luxury. But Peck recalls, “… every weekday morning at the dot of nine, I watched him stride out of the house to his study in a little barn 50 yards distant. There he wrote until he returned for lunch on the dot of one. On the one hand, he taught me nothing about writing that summer. On the other, he taught me almost everything.”
Josh Linkner’s 5 minute creativity workout:
- 30 seconds of breathing.
- 30 seconds of gratitude. “Gratitude activates creativity.”
- 60 seconds of guzzling inputs. Look at a painting. Watch a video. Read a poem.
- 60 seconds of creative calisthenics. What are eight alternative uses for a pen, for example?
- 60 second highlight reel. Recall an accomplishment. Imagine a future accomplishment.
- 30 second battle cry. “I create a short manifesto that I read out loud.”
- 30 seconds of breathing.
What blocks creativity?
What strengthens creativity?
Check out Josh’s new book: Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results
Bonus article:
15 Best Creativity Tips | Leadership Freak
One of my all time favorite quotes from one of the most creative leaders we all know.
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
— Steve Jobs, 1997
Risk-taking emboldens creativity.
Comfort stymies it.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!
Thanks Joseph. Great quote and application. “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!” Cheers
What strengthens creativity?
A tough challenge or problem that we are highly motivated to solve.
Nicely said, Paul. That means we lose creativity when we avoid challenges.
The most creative person I know is a writer. He spent ten years as a print journalist writing a column about golfing, for a major US newspaper. Then he wrote a couple of books about golf, followed by a few books on photography, another hobby. His interest in US history led him to research and write a half dozen or so historical novels. As an amateur woodworker, he explored that subject in four books on woodworking and furniture making. As an avid traveler, he wrote a number of travel guides. He then turned his hand to writing mystery novels, with three series in print and more coming. He is consistently one of his publisher’s best selling authors.
I said all that to say this: he is extremely creative, but he is probably the most disciplined person I know. His approach to writing is extremely workman-like, but the creative wheels are always turning. He once told me, “My my best ideas for fiction books come to me while I am writing non-fiction, and my best ideas for non-fiction while I am writing fiction.” He jots these ideas down on note pads as they occur to him, then he puts them away until he finishes the project at hand. We meet for breakfast on a regular basis, and he is not above taking a paper napkin to scribble down an idea that comes up in conversation. It may or may not make its way into a published work, but he has collected and curated it all the same!
I wish I had learned his method earlier, but I now try to emulate it in many respects.
Brilliant story, Jim. Reading your story seems daunting. I could never be like that. But, the point of the story is I could and you could be ‘creative’. Thanks.
The biggest bar to creativity that I see is folks who think “Oh, I’m not creative because I can’t write a novel / paint / draw / craft.” In other words, they have defined creativity as making art and so have already limited themselves.
Thanks Jennifer. Maybe we should include creative ways to give feedback or make decisions in the category of art. 🙂
Creative leaders are better “challenge” solvers. I do like this statement (corrected of course). Now the real question as you bring up is how does one become creative; to think outside the box, to take the road less traveled? It starts with imagination. Read books, stories of others’ lives lived, challenges faced, defeats, and triumphs across history. From those “reads” one can imagine how to tackle the challenges one sees and seek to solve them. Unfortunately too many (most notably the youngins) don’t read anymore let alone read for pleasure.
Thanks Roger. The idea of feeding our creative self makes so much sense. One way to learn to be creative is to see creativity in others. That’s something Josh mentioned in his video. Great minds think alike. OR, creative minds think alike.
I believe we all have capabilities if we apply ourselves. “The driving factor behind anything is being driven”, someone has to push a little, shove a little more, to perhaps bring out ones creativity. The teachers who admired your artwork, musical talent, writing abilities, the song writer who writes the song that’s never played until someone hears it and tells them they can write, sing, etc. If no one notices perhaps we never will create until someone pushes us.
When my kids were in middle school, the art teacher made the comment that if we had the kids spend as much time on drawing as they do on arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing), they would all be great artists. It is a matter of applying yourself and doing it.
What a great thought.
Thanks Tim. You bring the social side of creativity to mine. We have the ability to encourage others. That’s so powerful. Admiration is one way to affirm something.
In areas with high regulatory compliance thresholds, creativity and innovation are dirty words. Regulators want to see things done the way they understand, so they are content that what is done is completely compliant and shows that things are not worse than they used to be. Consider, innovation and creativity are immediate, and change daily, weekly, even hourly. Regulations change of years, or even decades (example, in my own industry a long-awaited new Guideline was issued last month. The last update was 1999.
Thanks Mitch. There are some areas where creativity isn’t appropriate. I wonder if we can stretch our creativity when it comes to the way we lead/manage, even in highly regulated sectors?
Even highly regulated sectors have room for creativity and innovation. I work for a government audit organization. Over the years, we have tried different formats for our report. At one point, we had them as two columns instead of one, to encourage our folks to write shorter sentences. In turn, that make the reports more clear about what problems we found, why the problems occurred, and how the problems could be fixed. (Try it some time: longer sentences are really noticeable when the column is narrow.) We even experimented with using Power Point slides as a way of reporting minor issues instead of a full report. So creativity and innovation have a place, as long as the end product meets standards.
This looks like a useful and usable exercise. I’m going to try it out on my design team colleagues at our weekly meeting today!!
What blocks creativity? In my experience it’s often starting from where you are. When you start from now and think about the next steps you’re held back by your inner critic, past experiences and beliefs.
What strengthens creativity? Getting out into nature, visualising where you’d like to be in 5 years time, mind mapping, listening to music, collaborating.
Asking yourself better questions. Rather than “Why can’t I do X?” ask “How can I do X?” suddenly your brain starts looking for answers.
There are quite a few blocks to creativity, especially personal beliefs or characteristics that can prevent us from capitalizing on the benefits of creativity.
1. Perfectionism. Thoughts like, “If I can’t dedicate an hour to yoga three times a week, I’m not going to be creative.” Keeping to a strict schedule is great (see my #3 creativity block) but it’s not the end-all, be-all of being creative. So what if you can’t do an entire hour. Can you do five minutes? Then do five minutes of yoga when you can. (And also let go of the guilt.)
2. Distractions. Phone and laptop notifications, homeschooling the kids, dinner is late, the house is a mess, and the tv volume is up on the news channel. The world if full of potential distractions that can block creativity. One way I block out distractions is to find a quiet place (or a good pair of noise cancelling headphones) and dim the lights (can’t see the clutter) to do my five minutes of journaling every day. No phone, no laptop, no tv, no distractions.
3. Someone else’s ideals. The idea of waking up at 5:00 AM because I’m the CEO of some billionaire tech company is a great idea but it’s not my ideal (because I’m not the CEO of anything, or a billionaire). Stop holding yourself to somebody else’s ideal and their ideas of what makes them more creative.