What the Brainiacs Know About Creative Genius

Brain scientists know that you are going to remember only 1 thing in about 10 that I write here.
AND I am going to need to make it memorable with a story, a picture, and something stimulating!


John Medina says I am going to have to repeat it again in 90 minutes for it to truly lodge in your memory.
That's right and then AGAIN in 90 minutes and again 90 minutes after that.  That could make for a really long blog post.  (Well no wonder they run that Geiko ad so many times.)


In a TED talks 18 minute presentation on creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert shared her view on creative genius.  She reminded us that the Greeks and Romans believed creative genius to be separate from you, and flowed through you into the universe.  This separate thing removed you from being responsible if your art or idea was "good" or "not so good" when it manifested itself.  If you didn't think it was great, you simply blamed it on your creative muse.  You were simply the vehicle through which creativity or inspiration expressed itself.  


In her talk, Gilbert told a story about a long time poet who told her how poems would come to her.  She said,  "I would be working in the fields and I'd hear the poem come thundering my way and I would run as fast as I could to get into the house and grab a pen and paper to catch that poem as it came through me.  Sometimes I would miss it and it would go on down the road looking for another poet to write it down.  Other times I would catch just the tail end of the poem and I would pull it back through my body onto the page.  At those times, the poem would come out perfectly, but backwards."  


What about this do I want you to remember?  That you are off the hook and free to explore and express what is at this very moment coming through you.  Take time to run into your house, grab your own creative idea by the tail and pull it back into your world.  The world will be a better place for it.


Up your Creative Genius

Getting New Things to Happen

Since the business launch, I have gotten a lot of questions...how is this different from what you did before? etc. My favorite response is, "That's top secret!" heh heh heh!

In fact, while I get the new website up, I have been doing some testing with my teams. Here's what we've been up to:

Rocket Launching - Having FUN

Did you know that you can shoot a rocket 1000 feet into the air with a bike pump? You have to check this out!

Email Launching - Making CONNECTIONS

Not to bore you, but I felt compelled to hand write each and every client and person on my email list. That was a tip from @chrisbrogan. Wow. Okay honestly I'm still on the "r"s, but guess what? Almost everyone wrote me back. (and only 2 wanted off my list ;-)

Idea Launching - Validating WHAT'S NEW

For months I have been devouring books on neuroscience in hopes that I could recommend that "one book" to you that would validate and encapsulate all I have been testing with creativity. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of "new" ideas.

Frankly, the best concepts remain the same:

1. If you want to create change, tell a compelling story filled with images and metaphors with a clear way for your audience to grab hold and make the change happen.

2. What people believe determines the outcome. Remember the teachers who were told that their underachievers were "gifted" students? A year later, those same students she worked with, tested as truly "gifted".

3. What if we apply Bateson's testing to teams? Bateson ran tests with dolphins to "drive them crazy." First he gave them rewards when they performed a series of tricks, then he withheld the reward to see what they'd do in hopes they would "go crazy". Guess what? They did, but after a short period of going crazy, they created completely new tricks.

Hmmmm, this indicates to me that to possibly get new ideas, you have to challenge people by creating a little dissonance.

Here's a few tips I tried with one of my high tech teams:

• Warn them what they are about to do is something they never have before - this scares them a little.
• Put them into a creative environment that is outside their comfort zone. (I call this creative waterboarding)
• Challenge them to solve a problem that (in their current roles) they have no control over.
• Watch them implode, then explode. Result? Amazing new solutions and ideas.
• Reward them with food.

Idea generation...not brain science? Or is it? Until next time...

Up Your Creative Genius!