I went to the gym yesterday.
Nothing surprising about this as I tend to go quite regularly.
When i am not on a cardiac machine i follow a pre-determined workout using the weight machines.
I find this motivating and i can track my progress towards my goals.
During this workout I kept wondering why we couldn’t apply the same logic to creativity?
Many of us want to be more creative and innovative so why not set out (say) a weekly program to achieve this.
Think of attending a mental gym rather than a physical one.
So this is my attempt at designing a weekly creativity workout.
What is key is that I am adopting a position that says that creativity is a skill that we all have and can be improved with practice.
Day 1:
Volunteer for a brainstorming session this week. It does not matter when, where or on what topic — just participate in one.
Day 2:
Try and have at least one creative conversation per day for the rest of the week.
A creative conversation is one where you try and enhance an initial idea to make it stronger or better.
Day 3:
Solve a problem using the Power of 3 tool (i.e. develop a usual, different and radical range of solutions).
Day 4.
Run an Ideas Blitz today. It could be to prepare for a presentation, meeting or to solve a problem.
Just get in the habit of dedicating 10 per day to Blitzing or accelerating your creativity.
Day 5:
Share an original insight, perspective or idea with your team. It could be a You Tube video or research report or a challenging blog post.
Day 6:
Do something different today.
It could be going to the theatre or watching a new movie or reading an article about something you do not know anything about.
Day 7:
Challenge the status quo.
The idea here is that you select an existing product, assumption, report, process or practice and challenge it.
As yourself — How could you make it better? Could you delete it? Why is it still in place? What if we tried something new?
Now design a quick test or experiment of a new approach.
There it is.
Your 7 day creativity workout.
Try it and let me know how you go.