How to Kickstart Your Creativity

As professionals, we thrive on solving problems and innovating solutions. But the grind of work and the pressures of life can fatigue your creative intuition. Even the most creative minds will encounter mental roadblocks or get sidelined by distractions. So, when you feel like you’re spinning your wheels or have hit a dead end, what can you do to kickstart your creativity? Here are six strategies I’ve learned to employ from observing other highly creative people:

1. Change Your Environment

Sometimes, a shift in perspective begins with a literal change of scenery. Working in the same space every day can lead to mental stagnation. Step away from your desk and find a fresh environment: a quiet park, a coffee shop, or even a different room in your office. New surroundings can stimulate your senses and help you see problems from a different angle. Changing environments is also another way to minimize distractions, which can also be accomplished by adjusting your work schedule to start early or stay later.

2. Apply a “What if?” Mindset

One of the simplest ways to get the juices flowing is to ask “What if?” What if you removed a component of your design? What if you combined two unrelated technologies? Posing hypothetical questions encourages unconventional thinking and can lead to breakthrough ideas.

While it may seem counterintuitive, using “What ifs” framed as a limitation can actually boost creativity. For example, if you’re designing a product, imagine how you’d adapt it with a smaller budget or fewer materials. Imposing constraints forces you to think within boundaries and find ingenious ways to work around obstacles. This is a process I like to refer to as “Thinking Inside the Box.”

3. Collaborate and Brainstorm

Creativity doesn’t usually happen in isolation. Sometimes the reason we’re stuck is because we’re too close to a problem. Sharing your work with others can uncover blind spots and spark new ideas. Seek out collaborators with different perspectives, who can introduce you to alternative approaches and help you refine your ideas. Allow your collaborator to question your assumptions, and make yourself open to constructive criticism. Remember, no idea or suggestion is too outlandish during a brainstorming session. Unconventional ideas often hold the seeds of innovation.

One good collaborative exercise to spark creativity is failure analysis. If your current approach isn’t working, bring in fresh eyes to help analyze why. Failure isn’t a dead end; it’s a steppingstone that you can build on. Understanding why something isn’t working can guide you toward what might.

4. Experiment with a New Tool or Approach

There are a variety of tools and techniques you can use to stimulate creative thinking. Learning and applying a new tool stretches the mind, and can help you overcome a creative roadblock. Here are eight popular tools or techniques with a brief description of how they work:

Mind Mapping: Mind mapping is a powerful tool for visualizing connections between ideas. Start with a central concept and branch out to related themes, challenges and potential solutions. Mind maps help identify patterns and reveal connections that can generate new ideas and approaches that might not have been obvious.
The SCAMPER Method: SCAMPER is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. This structured approach prompts you to think about different ways to innovate or improve a concept by systematically altering its elements.
Reverse Brainstorming: Instead of asking how to solve a problem, this technique starts with considering ways to make the problem worse. By exploring negative scenarios, you might uncover insights and solutions that would not have been apparent otherwise.
Six Thinking Hats: Developed by Edward de Bono, a psychologist, physician and author known for his work on creative thinking and innovation, this method employs the concept of lateral thinking, by assigning “hats” representing different perspectives: logical, emotional, creative, optimistic, cautious, and process oriented. Analyzing a problem through each viewpoint ensures a comprehensive approach to problem-solving.
Random Word Association: Choose a random word and try to connect it to your problem or challenge. This exercise forces your brain to create links between unrelated concepts, often leading to unexpected and innovative ideas.
Forced Connections: Take unrelated concepts and explore how they might interact. This technique can lead to surprising ideas and breakthroughs by encouraging out-of-the-box thinking.
Storyboarding: Visually lay out a sequence of events or steps using sketches, images or notes. The process of storyboarding not only enables you to explore ideas, it also helps you map out processes and identify areas for innovation or improvement.
The Messy Desk Theory: Try letting a little disorder into your life. A paper published by the Association for Psychological Science back in 2013 found that keeping a messy desk promotes creative thinking and stimulates new ideas. Based on a study by Dr. Kathleen Vohs, a psychology researcher and her associates at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Managements, the researchers concluded that “Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe.”I can say from personal experience that searching for something buried on my desk has occasionally resulted in some interesting forced connections, as I sorted through the stacks of paper. But I always felt like the time spent searching was a tax on my productivity. Since my job was to manage the creatives, I tried to keep a neat desk, while tolerating the messy desks of my staffers who we relied on to generate creative solutions.

5. Engage in Cross-Disciplinary Exploration

Innovation often arises at the intersection of disciplines. Look at how different disciplines have solved analogous problems. For example, architects might draw inspiration from nature, while software engineers might find new approaches by studying industrial design. I always remember being briefed once on how a group of aerospace engineers had solved a critical vibration problem that was affecting sensitive controls during space launches by studying how Japanese civil engineers designed skyscrapers to be earthquake resistant.

6. Take a Break

Ironically, stepping away from a problem is often the best way to solve it. Engage in an activity that allows you to clear your mind and completely shift your focus, such as exercise, cooking or playing a musical instrument. Often, your subconscious mind will continue working the problem and a new idea or possible solution will come to you in a flash. Many of my most creative ideas came to me in the shower or while taking a walk in the woods.

Closing Notes

Creativity is a well that will run dry unless tended. There are things you can do to make your well deeper, and keep the waters of creativity flowing. The highly creative people I know practice mindfulness and meditation, embrace lifelong learning, cultivate curiosity by trying new things and seeking new experiences, allow themselves to focus by clearing mental space and limiting multi-tasking, challenge themselves to stretch their comfort zones, and give themselves breaks to reflect and recharge. Some people even keep a “creativity journal” to document ideas, inspirations and observations as they occur, which they can mine later for ideas and fresh insights. And on those occasions when their wells run dry, they employ strategies like those described above to reignite their creative spark and unlock innovative solutions.

For more ideas and to dig deeper, Harry T. Roman has authored a series of E-Books and audiobooks for IEEE-USA on the topic of creativity that I can also recommend for your reading: