Even though I consider myself a creative person, nothing can be more daunting than a blank Word document with a blinking cursor staring at you, waiting for you to get started. What I once thought was an inherent trait (“I’m creative by nature”), I now realize takes time to actively invest and foster in being creative.

Hence, who better to learn about fostering creativity than from Pixar President Ed Catmull? I had the pleasure of meeting Catmull at an event held at Pixar, featuring some of the greatest creative minds, including CEO Tim Brown, Medici Effect author Frans Johansson and others.

So many things inspired me while I was on-site at Pixar. Yes, the case full of Oscars was one, but there is a certain electricity in the air when you are there. The feeling that anything is possible. The feeling that you too can have a Pixar adventure.

Kicking off 2018 by reading Creativity Inc led me to conclude: you have to continuously invest, foster and most importantly protect creativity. And you need to do that through how you utilize people, how you cultivate a creative environment and how you invest your time.

Pick your people wisely.

I’m going to go ahead and say it: not everyone is an abstract thinker; however, that does not mean that more execution-focused people are not creative. I’m a firm believer that all of us are born creative and imaginative, and we express it in different outlets. However, when you’re looking to solve a problem creatively, the mix of people you have on the team is imperative.

One of the most common mistakes I see in creative brainstorms is that the people making the final decisions are too focused on the execution. Hence, people are hesitant to speak up because they have a kernel of an idea, but because it’s not fully thought through, they don’t speak up for fear of being shut down. As you think about who you are selecting to solve creative challenges, ask yourself: are they great listeners? Are they builders or are they criticizers? A brainstorming session is not the time to outline all the reasons why an idea won’t work; it is the time to expand upon it, let the idea breathe and take on a life of its own. It’s not about getting credit, or what’s in budget; it’s about what is possible.

Which leads me to another mistake I see in creative brainstorms: too many people. If one brain is great, two brains are better, right? But before you know it, the meeting invite expands to five, ten, fifteen people in a room all trying to solve a incredibly complicated, abstract idea in an hour. This is a recipe for disaster. Not only are people fighting for share of voice in the room, there is an added dynamic of demonstrating hierarchy and expertise. And let’s face it, nothing gets done. If you want a truly successful brainstorm, limit your session to five-to-six strong, creative thinkers who have a diversity of expertise on the subject and who can view each other as equals.

Build a creative environment.

All of us have different personal preferences on environments that make us feel inspired. For me, the background noise and strong smell of espresso in the air in a coffee shop instantly gets my fingers on a keyboard, but it wasn’t always this way. In the past, I needed absolute quiet and minimal distractions in order to grapple with articulating thoughts. The point is that creativity comes in many shapes and sizes, and as such, so should your creative environment. Quiet spaces for those who need to focus, as well as open collaborative spaces cater to those who have different work styles.

Even more important than the physical environment is the psychological environment you are creating. For years, my friends and I would joke that our relationships are “safe spaces,” meaning we can speak freely without judgment. But the more I said it, the more I realized how truly unique and valuable that is. I’d later learn that the term is called “psychological safety,” which is defined as "being able to show and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career" (Kahn 1990, p. 708). Catmull echos it in Creativity Inc about the need for people to “protect the new.”  

If your creativity is stalling, ask yourself if you are truly creating an environment where people feel psychologically safe to put themselves out there. Are failures celebrated? Are there no stupid questions? Is any idea possible? If you find limiting beliefs at these statements, even subconsciously, remember that an idea is just that: an idea. There is nothing to lose with an idea, no budget attributed to it, no headcount attached.

Collaboration plus contemplation.

I say this with a grain of salt: creativity does not have a deadline. Coming from a creative agency at Duarte, if I truly believed that, nothing would have gotten done on time and I would have had unhappy clients. However, you can’t mandate creativity nor can you will it. You have to give it space to breathe.

Duarte was a deadline-driven environment, but even within that environment, it was important to find the space for what we called “collaboration plus contemplation.” This meant that while working with groups of people on a brainstorming session was helpful in getting the creative juices flowing, the creatives needed time to go back to their desks, look back at their notes, and make sense of it all.

This was an important concept and one that resonates with me as well. Often times, a brainstorm is overwhelming with thoughts, ideas, energy, but the momentum can fall flat afterwards when no one knows how to move forward. This is where contemplation plays a key role in helping to distill down common themes, and even perhaps unpacking a hidden problem that we did not anticipate or address.

Personally, I also believe in the power of the brain’s ability to find random connections and solutions the second we stop trying to hard. I’ve thought of some of my best ideas while out on a run, stuck in traffic, or even in the shower. In the Medici Effect, author Frans Johansson agrees that great ideas come from the intersection of different fields, industries or disciplines. But when you are so narrowly focused on solving one problem, it can be difficult to remove the blinders and see the other solutions that could also work for your problem.

Creativity is a necessity in any communications practice. How do you foster creativity within yourself or others?