Imagine that your beloved furry friend keeps escaping from your yard through a gap in the fence. Exasperated and not wanting to lose her again, you’re temporarily flummoxed as you don’t have the time or cash to build a new fence.
What’s a person to do?
Why add a wooden spoon of course.
I snort laughed out loud when I saw this picture. It’s Brilliant with a capital B.
It’s also a fabulous example of creativity in action.
Instead of focusing on the fence and all the blood, sweat and cash that would have to go into building a new one, this furry friend’s owner focused instead on the dog. How could she make the dog bigger so it couldn’t fit through the fence?
It’s simple once you know the answer. Simply tie a wooden spoon to the dog’s collar. Voila! (Picture credit: @Mr_DrinksOnMe)
Creativity is amped up and definitely a topic for the neighborhood conversations.
Creativity is all about thinking up a new way to look at something old. Creativity in action, aka innovation, solves persnickety problems.
Creativity is a buzzword and is all the rage. How can you amp up your own?
Here’s four suggestions:
Change your focus
The owner of this dog changed her focus. Instead of the fence being the source of the problem and therefore the solution, she focused instead on her dog.
Examine your assumptions
he exasperated parents of a boy who managed to get his head stuck in their fence, assumed … well, see for yourself as I don’t want to give it away.
They assumed the size of his head was the problem and that he had to be able to fit his noggin through the fence. It was the boy who realized their assumption when instead of pulling his head back through the fence, he moved forward and fit his body through the fence.
Combine two or more disparate things
A Swiss gentleman walking his dog through the Alps noticed his dog was getting burs stuck in its fur. Thinking about this further, he put dog fur and burs together in an unusual way to then come up with the invention of Velcro.
Pay attention to your atmosphere
Figure out what cramps your creativity and what amps it up. Not sure? Here are a bunch of examples from a Fast Company article.
From dogs and wooden spoons to Velcro and going out the in way, creativity is everywhere. Play around with yours using these four suggestions; change your focus, examine your assumptions, combine things in unusual ways and figure out what atmosphere supports your creativity. Then have some fun translating your creativity into innovation and actively seek out ways to use it.
P.S. Want to learn more about how the creative Kate McBride, chief of IT for UNON, encourages a culture of learning at the UN with her team? Remember to click here to register for my April 26th Learning and Development Roundtable, which you can attend in person at the UN or online.
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