Top 10 solutions for inducing creativity

“Create interesting, engaging, fun and creative content that will become viral and generate new users and customers.” 

The sentence easy to say and easy to advise, but how to find a moment of inspiration and creativity? Where to find new ideas or inspiration for them? The answer is: in the many ways to inspire your creativity that’s already in ourselves. Some of the ways for inducing your creativity and your creative environment are: 

1. The entire organization needs to nurture the culture of creativity and difference. How? 

Very simple. “Live and let live”! Of course, this slogan is valid until my mode of operation isn’t obstructing the mode of operation of someone else. Here, we’re encountering the question of infrastructure and the arrangement of different departments. The general progression of technology is enabling that persons who are doing similar jobs don’t have to be located one next to each other. In most cases, Skype and e-mail are enabling all forms of cooperation. It is crucial that those people are located in the surroundings which relaxes and agrees with them. Those things can be wall colors, space size, number of plants in the room, loud or silent music or something else. 

P.S. “Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” – Albert Einstein 

2. Extravagant individuals or ideas are the core of creativity and art

Because of these reasons, you shouldn’t throw away their ideas upfront, but rather work on them and draw something usable out of those ideas. If an idea is a bit too edgy for someone, it might not be so edgy for someone else. That difference can serve as a source for the solution your client or user needs. If you want to get everyone to approve of your ideas and get everyone to like them, that idea is probably copied from something that already exists. If you see yourself as an ordinary person, get in touch with somebody unusual and absorb ideas from that person. Also, become unusual yourself because, in the end, we all are, we just need to find it in us. There is no mistake in creativity, and the fear of mistakes is the biggest creativity and spontaneity killer. P.S. “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali

3. The creative team cannot be predefined for every project and content

The people skilled in one area of business will always have tendencies of thinking inside the boundaries of that area (for instance, community management, PR, SEO,…). This is why it’s important to select the team based on the drive they have towards a certain topic or assignment and to select the team that reaches a certain amount of synergy between themselves. The involvement of the people on a certain project shouldn’t be based on their position or department, but rather on their interest for a certain topic/project. It is also crucial that you limit the maximum number of people involved in brainstorming because, in the end, they can decide on a compromise – the usual idea. P.S. “Creativity comes from a conflict of the idea” – Donatella Versace

4. “Less is more” or “Sometimes it’s good to say no”

Not every idea is the right one for every moment. The content inappropriate now might be appropriate in a month, so save it. Avoid chaos. Don’t drop your work quality because of the wrong timing. P.S. “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird, that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus

5. What kind of content is wanted? Ask those you are planning delivering it to.

After all, they know what’s best for them. P.S. “There is creative reading as well as creative writing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. Leave your office or your everyday work surroundings

At any moment of any day. Go somewhere where nothing is obstructing your thoughts. In the park, at the beach, on a bridge, on a parking lot of a big shopping mall, in a coffee shop, in children’s playroom, on a stadium in the kitchen, in the bathroom or even in your bosses office (ask nicely, he will surely allow it). A momentary lack of inspiration cannot be an excuse for the entire day of coffee drinking and laziness. The point of the location change is that you release the thoughts bothering you at that moment and to focus on a precise idea, problem, client, campaign or a plan. P.S. “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created” – Albert Einstein

7. Write everything down

The best ideas always tend to come at the worst possible moment. Just when you’re about to do something else, when you’re not at work and when you’re thinking about something completely unrelated to the thing you’re just about to do. That’s why you should write everything down! P.S. “You can’t use up your creativity. The more you use, the more you have“. – Maya Angelou

8. Don’t wait for the last minute

Inspiration doesn’t come when ordered. Deadlines won’t draw it out of you. That’s why you should always have enough time to let go and to do something that needs to be done when you’re inspired. For you to have enough time to “steal” the creative minutes or hours in your day, you should always plan your tasks and leave yourself plenty of time to solve all those unpredictable situations. Good time-management is the key. P.S. “You can’t wait for the inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London

9. Read, listen, watch, follow and talk

Read books, listen to music, watch movies and series, follow interesting blogs and talk to people of different interests and knowledge.  Enrich yourself daily with new information from different areas of art, marketing, social events… Follow trends but also educate yourself about the past. Be open to different, new things. P.S. “Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” – Leo Burnett. 

10. Don’t forget to play

Creativity is a game. P.S. “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up“. – Pablo Picasso
Creativity is not a talent, it’s a state of mind and it has nothing to do with the level of intelligence but with the ability to bring ourselves in such a state which activates our natural creativity. It’s a state, everyone must find it for themselves. 

What else would you add? How are you inducing your own creativity and the creativity of your team?