Creativity Archive - The Art of Communicating

New paths

I’m back from three relaxing weeks with my family, the guitar, and some inspiring books.

And a fascinating interview with Paul Simon, recorded shortly after Simon & Garfunkel released Bridge over Troubled Water.

Simon speaks about a crucial moment in the writing process for the song.

It’s a moment you’ve surely experienced yourself.

The moment of being stuck.

Dick Cavett, the interview host, asked him what that meant. Simon’s answer is brilliant (at the 7:15 mark):

Everywhere I went led me where I didn’t wanna be. So I was stuck.

I’m pretty sure you’ve had that feeling. I certainly did. While working on an idea, a project. And certainly while crafting a presentation.

That moment is rarely solved by staring harder at the page. When every path you try leads to places you don’t wanna be, the next step might not be to think harder.

But to step away.

The same inputs produce the same outputs. To get unstuck you often need a spark from the outside.

A story. A sound. A question from someone who sees things differently.

That’s not weakness. It is how new paths appear.

Through the outside. Through Inspiration. And sometimes through the help of others.

How do you get unstuck?

Keep lighting the path!

We can’t say it in one sentence can take an unexpected turn.

Or life, for that matter.

Maybe you never wanted a career in marketing turned out to be your passion.

Or you thought you were bad at public speaking is now what people admire you for.

Perhaps you thought that you need to be born as a genius is actually the result of hard work.

And when it looks like someone’s locked the status quo can actually change.

Where has your perspective seen an unexpected shift?

(Inspired by this brilliant campaign using “reverse sentences”.)

Sorry, first ideas are sold out

I’m sorry to have to inform you that first ideas have already been taken.

Not that first ideas had ever been a good deal (except for maybe in the very early days).

First ideas are almost never the best ideas, in part because first ideas tend to be the obvious ideas. It’s very likely that if it’s your first idea then it’s other people’s first idea, too.

First ideas are what you get without digging deep.

Thanks to AI that means game over. AI will generate first ideas not only faster but better (as it can tap into all the first ideas that all the other people have previously given). Quite likely, AI’s first ideas will be much better than yours.

It’s the move beyond the first idea that remains hard. That’s where AI still needs guidance and where the will to dig deeper pays off most.

Digging deeper is where you can still make a difference.

The urgent and the important

Some things are urgent, others are important.
Some things are both, others are neither.

If you’re managing a project, spending your time on things that are neither urgent nor important can quickly turn into a disaster. Most time management tips aim at limiting – if not eliminating – time spent on non-urgent and non-important tasks.

If you’re managing your personal time, the opposite might be true. Spending no time on those things can turn into a creativity disaster.

It’s often the non-urgent, non-important tasks that provide us with unexpected insights and new ways to connect the dots.

This allows things to become important, things you didn’t even know would ever be important. Things that only in hindsight turned out to be the most crucial part of your path.

How do you manage your time when it comes to seemingly unimportant and non-urgent things? Do you allow yourself to procrastinate?

What if?

“What if we were only allowed to use environmentally friendly supply?”

“What if we had to cut the price by half?”

“What if we had to double the price?”

“What if we had no ad budget?”

“What if our account would be suspended on Instagram (or whatever platform you’re most active on)?”

“What if we had to tell the truth in our marketing?”

“What if?” is a great question to identify possible leaps. At first, it feels like you’re constraining yourself. But if you play it seriously the constraint can become a powerful creativity booster that leads to unexpected paths that allows you to leap independent of the constraint.

Doomed to fail

Many great ideas have died as a result of status fights. In the meeting room it became more important whose idea it was rather than whose idea was best.

And so, the best idea died.

Of course, the world couldn’t care less about your status struggles. If you show up with an inferior idea and others show up with their best idea, who’s gonna make it?

For that reason, Rick Rubin, the famous producer, tries to remove names from ideas as much as possible: “I always ask for any information shared with me to not be labeled and not explained at all.” This allows him to judge an idea based on its merits rather than based on whose idea it was.

And quite likely that explains part of why he has managed to produce winning records for over four decades and become one of the most influential producers of the world.

Have you taken any deliberate steps to leave status out of the decision making process?

The first idea

Yesterday, I’ve spoken about how the first idea is often not the best idea. And yet, sometimes it is.

The problem is that when that happens, we usually don’t know it. We have that feeling that there must be something better out there. Something funnier, smoother, edgier …

Only that there isn’t.

Which can feel very frustrating when we’ve produced 100 ideas, none of which felt like an improvement. When, after 100 iterations, we discover that the first idea is still the best, it feels like we have wasted our time.

We didn’t, of course.

We could only find out that the first idea was already the best idea after ruling out all the other possibilities. We couldn’t know that earlier. Now we know: the first idea really is the best idea. Which gives us the confidence we were lacking at the beginning of our quest.

Even if the first idea is the best, move beyond.

The second idea

Usually, the first idea is not the most creative. Nor the funniest. It’s not the most sophisticated. Nor the clearest.

But the second idea wouldn’t happen without the first.

Get that first idea out of your head. If it ain’t good, just move on and leave it behind.

Every thing is made by someone

Every thing has been invented, designed, engineered, produced, marketed, and distributed by someone.

The clothes you wear.
The bike you ride.
The music you listen to.
The book you read.
The painting you admire.
The house you live in.
The fridge you just opened.
The chocolate you love.

One of the things that are very important to my wife and me in how we raise our children is that they see this very clearly.

Things are made. By someone. And that someone could be you.

If you want something to exist, set out to make it.

When people should care, but don’t

One of the problems with Malaria is that it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s actually not that hard to protect yourself from getting infected.

The real problem is that those who are affected by Malaria can’t do much about it (because they can’t afford it) and those who could do something about it are not affected – which is why they don’t care.

Now, how do you make someone care for something they (quite likely) know a lot about but still don’t care.

Here’s what Bill Gates did when he took the TED stage in 2009. He was facing an audience of people who you’d imagine could potentially do something about Malaria (a ticket costs at least $5000) but were not affected by it.

A couple of minutes into the speech Gates walked over to a table that had an empty glass of jar standing on it. He stopped. Then he said:

“There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience.”

… and lifted the glass to let the mosquitoes fly.

.
.
.

Only to add that the mosquitoes were, of course, not infectious.

This short moment was stronger than any professionally designed excel chart could have been. It was stronger than any photo of a suffering patient or a mourning family would have been.

Because it brought the experience close. Gates didn’t just speak about the severity of Malaria. He didn’t just show it. He let his audience experience the feelings. Suddenly, they were affected.

And so he made them care and opened their minds to listen to what he had to say with completely different ears. It wasn’t just the generous thing to do, anymore, but the human thing to do.

The best part: it didn’t cost a fortune. It was not an expensive wow effect. It cost an idea. Which is actually cheap once you know what you’re trying to achieve.

How can you bring your audience closer to the feeling.

SEARCH

Explore

Work with me

Connect

SUBSCRIBE