5 Tools to be Instantly Creative on Your Project [BOOK GIVEAWAY]

Hey, I’m giving a free book on creativity to a randomly selected individual from those who try this and comment.  Details below. 

Have you ever found yourself stuck on a project and wondering how you can harness that creative spirit you once had in college?  Ever read a book jealous for the author’s ability to write in a style and his or her ability to connect deeper concepts with fresh simplicity and examples?  Do you feel like you’re in a style rut, repeatedly producing the same material in the same way? Join the club.

I love talking about creativity and learning from those who are truly creative. But, in reality, most of us feel quite “normal” when it comes to the topic. And, the older we get, the more we find ourselves in patterns that confine us. Since I’m aging and normal at best, I find myself working to be creative.

I’ve had some success in getting myself beyond the rut and I use a wide range of methods to do so (this blog post is just one idea).  There are some helpful books, like A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative or Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, to get you thinking differently.  Until you get this, I’ve got five tools that you can do right now to help you see your project (lesson, event, sermon, or writing) differently and to experiment with so you can get it moving forward with a fresh level of creativity.

Before you begin, you need space.   Block out a full 90 minutes, turn off your phone, music (some of us like music when being creative, so you can decide for yourself on this one), and eliminate distractions.  Find an open place where you can use all sorts of items to help – sticky notes, good pencils/pens, and maybe an iPad. To be honest, I’m of the guild that thinks computers or iPads can create more distractions than provide benefits during the intensely creative moments that demand full attention and space.

5 Tools to be Instantly Creative on Your Project

The Disney Perspective – take what you’re working on and pretend the imagineering group from Disney is taking it over.  What would the story be now? The colors they would use?  What would they illustrate? What would the “customer service” elements be?  What would they clean up (they’re notorious for cleanliness and clarity)?  What characters would they create as hosts? What would Disney do?  


The Talk Show Visit – imagine your project went on a talk show with your favorite (and funniest!) host – you can insert who that might be.  For me, David Letterman, when at NBC, was the best. So, I imagine that he’s booked the project on his show and I take it through two scenarios:  First, how would he help make the project funny? What would he do that might be a bit quirky and odd, but would help us laugh about it a bit?  Second, what questions would he ask of the project to help him understand it better, as if he were about to interview it as a guest (with the goal of getting a laugh).
The Target Audience Exercise – this one I use with my writing. I find when I’m stuck it’s often because I don’t know to whom I’m writing.  So, I find 4-5 people to be my imaginary audience, friends that I know bring out my best wit and work.  On one fiction project a few years back, I even printed out pictures of the people to help this process.  Sounds weird, but creativity demands that we experiment a bit and it helped that I saw their faces as I wrote.
“Can we Have Some Style in Here?” process – I saw the benefits of this one firsthand with one of the best student leadership conferences I have EVER seen. Ever.  [In fact, just last week I met a college student who had attended - I was a speaker there - and he mentioned how good the conference was.]  What helped the student leadership be successful and focused was the approach to style that the leaders took. They asked, “What if we took an iPad approach to content delivery?” So, everything you saw, experienced, and heard felt like Apple had honed it and shaped it. And it connected instantly - and students can still recall what they learned during those conferences.

Now this one is more visual, so the front door to this process may feel a bit uncomfortable. However, find some style source and imagine that style shaped everything you were doing. Please don’t pick leisure suit style or boy band style.

By the way, you already have a style in place. So, it’s not you haven’t done this already. I’m just suggesting change it a bit for a while to see what happens.

5. Draw a Cartoon - If #4 didn’t make some of you uncomfortable, this one will do so. You can take two paths on this one.  You can draw a quick cartoon about your project. I’ve been increasingly intrigued that many of the leaders I admire use visual processes to help them conceptualize.  More than graphs, I’m asking you do think of how your work can show up as a cartoon of sorts.  If you don’t like that path, then imagine that a cartoonist has your project in hand and he/she wants to do the drawing for you.  How would you explain it to her so that they can create characters that use your material in funny ways?  What humor might he/she develop?

This process is called bricolage, taking perspectives (or tools) at our disposal to help us build something. We can look at one topic (your project) through many different lenses to help us see the potential in fresh and creative ways.

Again, this is just one method, with five variations, for accelerating your creative thinking.

NOW… I need testimonials, thank you. I’d like for you to take a “stuck” project and then try this process.  Report back here with a comment about what your project is, why you felt stuck, which of these you did, and the results.  On February 15th, I will conduct a drawing from among those who’ve commented (all names thrown in a bowl and my secretary will draw a name at random) and will send them a brand new  copy of either A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative or Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative (your choice).

Good luck!  Go get ‘em!

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