Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All

by Thomas Kelley

mood-mapping apps that allow you to keep track of your daily ups and downs, so you know what you want to do more of—and what you want to do your best to avoid. This “mood meter” can help you think about both your work and your personal life.

“When was I at my best?” or “When was work most rewarding?”

three-minute “how-to” talks at lunchtime about their current passion or hobby.

Take the time to ask yourself each day, “When was I at my best?”

“Nothing feels out of my comfort zone or the realm of possibility anymore,”

Start writing the new story of your working life.

“Design for Delight”—referred to internally as D4D.

Among the principles are: 1) deep customer empathy; 2) going broad to go narrow (i.e., seeking many ideas before converging on a solution); and 3) rapid experiments with customers.

leveraged one of the core principles of the company—simplicity—and

multiyear time horizon, recognizing that real culture change diffuses slowly through a large organization.

Plenty of times executive support does not translate into real progress.

organization falls into that familiar “knowing-doing gap,” where words become a substitute for action.

They didn’t actually see the value in speaking with end users; they were just trying to “check off a box” they knew was important to their CEO.

The most robust method to boost creative confidence is through guided mastery.

To build a creative organization, you need to build creative confidence among key players.

People at every level need to understand how to influence culture and cultivate change.

leadership and culture are two closely intertwined factors that are essential to any creatively confident group.

Keep your sense of humor • Build on the energy of others • Minimize hierarchy • Value team camaraderie and trust • Defer judgment—at least temporarily

as you work through conflicting opinions and points of view, new ideas can emerge.

Bring your whole self to work.

HAVE FUN! Make it a priority to hang out and get to know each other. Having fun together will improve your collaboration. Go on a hike, get dinner, play a game, or work out as a team.

Space can affect us that way.

An open space facilitates communication and transparency.

TAILOR SPACES TO EXPERIENCES. The staff also created a few “micro-environments” in the d.school.

Bring people together to celebrate the transition to something new,

told her senior team that every time they said, “we’ve tried that already” or “that will never work,” she would fine them ten dollars.

Our version of the alternative to negative speech patterns is the phrase “How might we …,”

“How might we …?” is an optimistic way of seeking out new possibilities in the world. In

Thoughts become words, and words become deeds. If you get the language right, it affects behavior.

Certain leaders have a knack for nurturing people around them in a way that enables them to be at their best.

way to describe those leaders is to say they are “multipliers,”

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.

diminishers, who exercise tight control in a way that underutilizes their team’s creative talents, and multipliers, who set challenging goals and then help employees achieve the kind of extraordinary results that they themselves may not have known they were capable of.

Be a “talent magnet” who attracts and retains the best, most creative people and helps them reach their highest potential.

Serve as a reverse mentor to others in the seat of power.

“cultural alchemist,” Claudia has just the right mix of patience, perseverance, and force of personality to spread creative confidence across a huge corporation.

most innovative companies in the twenty-first century have transitioned from command-and-control organizations to a participatory approach that involves collaboration and teamwork. They draw on the whole brain of the company, gathering the best ideas and insights wherever they find them. They are open to listening to people from the front lines of their operation. They nurture the innovative spirit in all their team members so that ideas percolate up through the organization.

unleashing our inner creativity is like so many things we try; the more we practice, the easier it gets.

The value lies not in the idea, however, but in the action.

“What else can I add to the map that is related to this theme?”

Each challenge presents an opportunity for innovation.

mindmapping can: 1. Get you started and help you overcome your fear of the blank page. 2. Help you look for patterns.

Map your thought process and record the evolution of an idea.

Mindmaps are good at facilitating divergent or unconventional thinking; lists are good for capturing the best answers among the thoughts you already have.

Mindmaps help to generate ideas.

CREATIVITY CHALLENGE #2: INCREASE YOUR CREATIVE OUTPUT.

If you want to maximize your creative output, don’t rely on short-term memory.

your short-term memory holds a thought for only fifteen to thirty seconds.

TOOL: Fifteen Seconds of Brilliance PARTICIPANTS: This is a solo activity TIME: 10 minutes per day

Our brains are constantly making connections and associations with people, things, and ideas we come in contact with.