People are afraid to throw out ideas because they think someone will criticize them. This severely inhibits creativity. The way around this is to focus on generating new ideas without any evaluation. This is easier said than done. Here’s how to keep the criticism at bay.

• Speed. Don’t give people time to think. Idea generation is a spontaneous activity. Evaluation requires thinking. If you want to create a list of ideas, give yourselves a time limit and then use the limit to increase the sense of urgency. Setting the pace with music or with a timer can also keep the ideas popping without time for evaluation.
• Quantity. Give yourselves a goal for the number of ideas you want. Keep pushing the group toward the number, and they will quickly forget about the quality of the ideas.
• Build on ideas of others. Allow people to add their ideas only if they can build on the current idea with a statement that begins with “Yes, and…” This forces listening, and what they hear stimulates new ideas.

Imagine your team is supposed to brainstorm ideas for increasing customer loyalty.  Instead of looking for ideas to improve loyalty, the team brainstorms ways to decrease customer loyalty. Trying to improve employee morale? Brainstorm ideas for destroying morale.

The tool’s power is in its ability to harness negative energy (cynicism, sarcasm, hostility, etc.) and use it to spark creativity. If your team is in this type of mood, it’s very difficult to build excitement for brainstorming. By giving them a chance to vent their negativity, you will witness amazing creativity.

After the team has filled the wall with ideas for lowering morale or chasing away customers, you are ready to get down to identifying potential solutions to your problem.

Ask the team to analyze the list and develop ideas for solving the problem. Many solutions can be found simply by reversing the ideas on the list. Others can be discovered through patterns and interesting combinations of negative ideas. In either case, the list of “bad” ideas is a tremendous stimulus for generating “good” ideas.

Next time you face the same old problems and a team tired of trying to solve them, cut the team loose on ways to make the problem worse. It will be fun, energizing, and most of all…effective.

Groups need creativity. It helps them solve problems, develop products, and improve productivity. So how do you put a creative spark into a group that just doesn’t seem to have any creative abilities?

Researchers have discovered only one significant characteristic between people who are and are not creative.  It is their self-perceptions about how creative they are.  Everybody has the capacity to be creative.  Some just choose to use it and others do not.  The challenge is not to make the group more creative.  Rather it is to help them recognize their own creative potential.  Try some of these ideas.

• State Problems Clearly. Creativity is nothing more than finding a novel solution to a problem.  The trick is to make sure everyone knows and understands what the problem is that needs to be solved.  The more specific you can be, the better.  For example tell people that your boss has asked for the delivery date on your current project to be shortened from six months to five.  Tell people you are trying to figure this one out, ask for their help, and give them a day or two to get back to you with ideas.
• Reinforce Creativity. When you see people do anything that is creative, make sure you recognize it.  The creativity might be an interesting idea, a new method of doing the work, or a skillful response during a thorny conversation.  The more times you catch people being creative, the more they will begin to believe in their own creative powers.
• Deal with Inhibitors. If people are not as creative as you like, it is probably because of the environment.  Assess your own behavior.  Are you doing or saying things that might keep people from taking risks?  Are there a couple negative people on the team who act as wet blankets?  Are people so bogged down with work that they are too exhausted to offer new ideas for fear that it might make them even busier?  There are many barriers to creativity.  You need to identify them and remove them.  Only then can the ideas begin to flow freely.

Let’s try an experiment. Write down the features of a place where you enjoy spending time. This might be a room in your house, a place in nature, or another building. What makes this place appealing to you?

Once your list is complete, put down your pen, close your eyes, and visualize this place. Imagine that you are there. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you feel? Just take a minute to enjoy this space in your own mind.

Open your eyes and take a look at the list you created. What have you forgotten? Add features to the list to make it more complete.

When working with a team to develop a sense of purpose or goals, the power of pictures and imagery can play a useful role. Instead of asking a team to write down what it wants to accomplish, ask people to imagine a better future. Better yet, ask them to draw that future on a large sheet of paper.

In the course of drawing a picture, people tend to dig deeper for meaning. They make new connections. Pictures awaken the imagination and engage more of the senses. They give an idea more detail and richness.

Here’s another application. Suppose a team is stuck while brainstorming around a question such as “How might we get people to take more initiative?” Put an unrelated object in front of the group. This could be a frying pan, a roll of duct tape, or a basketball. Ask folks to think about that object for a minute. Allow a little time for thoughts and feelings about that image to emerge. Now go back to brainstorming and pay attention to any changes.

Not sure how this will work? It’s not guaranteed to work perfectly, but it will help the individuals change old thinking patterns. It will help create new ideas. And in those ideas, the perfect answer just might emerge.

When helping a team stretch, don’t just talk about it. Look at it, imagine it, and experience it. Let your imagination guide you to new possibilities.

If you’re like me, I used to wonder how it could be that there weren’t any ideas around the table.  Then I realized I was making a big assumption.  Just because nobody was sharing ideas didn’t mean there were no ideas.  It just meant that people weren’t willing to open their mouths.

Why wouldn’t somebody with an idea want to share it?  There are several viable explanations.

1.  The person has learned that opening your mouth means opening yourself up to ridicule.  Ideas are personal.  Egos are involved.  If the group shoots down the idea, it feels like they are shooting down the person who offered it.

2.  We have a tendency to ask the person who offers the idea to run with it.  This does make some sense in that the idea owner probably has energy for seeing it implemented.  The problem is that most people are about as busy as they want to be.

3.  The person fears that the group may agree to the suggestion, but if later something goes wrong, they’ll come back to blame the idea originator.  This concern prevents ideas from surfacing unless they are absolute sure shots.  And how often does that happen?

4.  Finally, there may be some reluctance to give up control of the idea.  When the idea is in my head, it’s totally mine.  Say it out loud, and now the group owns it and may choose to do all kinds of things with it that don’t fit what I had in mind.

If you want more ideas in your meetings, you’ll need to find ways to deal with the four problems listed above.  Take care of these, and hear the ideas begin to flow.

The next time you’re asked to lead one of these sessions, use the following techniques and strategies to unleash the group’s creative spirit.

Prepare the Group

Begin with the assumption that people have other places they would rather be and other things they would rather be doing. Assume they are distracted. Knowing this, you need to prepare the group and help it focus. Here are several techniques.

• Engage them in an activity. The trick is to make it interesting enough that the participants can’t help but pay attention. You might ask them to solve a puzzle, listen to a song, or play a silly game. Laughing and smiling are two indicators of a group that is engaged.

• Set the stage. Adults typically aren’t willing to do anything without a good reason. Spend a few minutes explaining what you want to do, why you want to do it, and how they might benefit by participating.

• Create a safe environment. If you are asking participants to be creative, you are also asking them to take a risk. It’s your job to minimize the risk. Start by first identifying the specific concerns. Then agree on ground rules to protect participant safety. Examples might include: “The person who submitted an idea will never be tied to the idea.” “You do not have to believe in or even like the ideas you submit.” “Offering a suggestion doesn’t mean you will get stuck with all the work.”

Separate Generation from Evaluation

People are afraid to throw out ideas because they think someone will criticize them. This severely inhibits creativity. The way around this is to focus on generating new ideas without any evaluation. This is easier said than done. Here’s how to keep the criticism at bay.

• Speed. Don’t give people time to think. Idea generation is a spontaneous activity. Evaluation requires thinking. If you want to create a list of ideas, give yourselves a time limit and then use the limit to increase the sense of urgency. Setting the pace with music or with a timer can also keep the ideas popping without time for evaluation.

• Quantity. Give yourselves a goal for the number of ideas you want. Keep pushing the group toward the number, and they will quickly forget about the quality of the ideas.

• Build on ideas of others. Allow people to add their ideas only if they can build on the current idea with a statement that begins with “Yes, and…” This forces listening, and what they hear stimulates new ideas.

Create a Fun Setting

Business meetings need not be boring. If you can accomplish what you set out to do and have fun in the process, you have just created a magical experience. Here are some easy techniques for adding fun to the creativity session.

• Take advantage of all the creativity research. Although some people will see it as corny; incorporating toys, colors, music, and movement into your meetings can serve as wonderful creativity stimuli.

• Create drama. It doesn’t take much to “stage” the meeting so that it’s more interesting. A big, ticking timer does wonders in helping the team pay attention to time. Splitting into sub-groups for some friendly competition (e.g. seeing which group generates the most ideas) usually notches up the energy. And there’s nothing like role playing specific scenarios and acting out case studies to put people into a creative mindset.

• Get comfortable. Creativity is fun and free-flowing. It’s hard to achieve this in a formal environment. Find a comfortable setting, and encourage the participants to dress and act informally.

• Add fresh perspectives. Invite people to the session who have no formal “expertise” in the topic. Rules and assumptions do not limit these folks. Their questions, ideas, and challenges will help the group uncover dangerous assumptions and push the group to explore uncharted territory.

Successfully leading a creativity session doesn’t require bizarre and wacky behavior. You don’t need to be an artist, musician, or one of the other so called “creative” types of people. Ideas don’t need to be forced out of the group. They want to burst forth all on their own. You just need to make sure that nothing gets in their way.