A little more creativity please

You can see I’m a fan of regularly applying the skills of creativity: in thinking, writing and idea generation. 

The World Economic Forum said the top 3 skills we’d need by 2020 would be
- Complex Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity.

In their updated skills list for 2025, creativity features in half of the top 10 skills, in one form or another. 

And here we are… in a world where we’ve been adapting to a global pandemic, working from home, leading remotely, changing business practices, generating new products, serving customers in new ways and ... keeping it together!

Sir Ken Robinson said “...we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”

It’s worth putting some of that creativity back in, and learning to be even just a little more creative! 

We need creativity now and for our future and it's worth asking for a little more creativity please, and being able to deliver a little more creativity. 

Time and space for a laugh

Have a favourite comedian? One you know you can watch or listen to, loving their style of humour ... and you’ll always get a laugh?

Brian Regan cracks me up 🤣! His physical humour and his stories, I love them. (‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Me Monsters’ are highlights).

It’s a personal choice though, isn’t it... about what makes us laugh. 

As we continue through tough times the world over, it’s good to know what gives you a laugh when you need it. 

...To know what you can do for yourself to lift or change your mood; and laughter can do that for us. 

We’re less stressed and more productive when we laugh and there are plenty more glorious benefits, so says Betty-Anne Heggie in Harvard Business Review’s ‘The benefits of laughing at the office.’

Even when the office is at home, it’s worth inviting and welcoming laughter at work. 

In meetings, workshops and when groups and teams come together online or face to face, it’s absolutely worth bringing a laugh to the work environment when you can. 

Work out what makes you laugh. And then enjoy more of it. 

😃So... how do you get a laugh? Comedy? Something else? 

Could you morph that idea

When we’re problem solving, trying to find a solution to a situation, we usually brainstorm some ideas. 

Working alone or together with others, we throw ideas about, hoping to land on something that’s worthy of following through and implementing. 

So have you tried morphing those ideas? And could you if you had to?

Morphing happens in animation and films as one thing changes gradually, step by step into something else. 

What if one of the ideas on your list could work to solve the problem at hand, but it needed to change? And then change again?

Could you do it? Would you let go of it and let it morph?

Sometimes we hold on so tightly to a decision or idea that we won’t be swayed or moved no matter the potential or the evidence. 

Even when that idea may not be working. 
Even when it could work if it was changed or adapted - even a little. 

Our willingness to morph an idea is powerful given the world we’re living in. 

Look at the ideas you’ve got ready to go. Which of them would you be happy to morph or change? 

And are there any you’re holding on to a little too tightly? 

The need for ideas doesn’t end

Challenges still present themselves. 
Problems are still to be solved. 

Even when we are overloaded with life in general, we may still have to come up with some genius and share our thoughts and ideas. 

Oh but what if
- we don’t feel like it
- we’ve ‘got nothing’
- we can’t think of anything
- we aren’t ‘feeling it’?

We may expect genius to just show up magically when we require it. 

But the funny - or perhaps cruel - thing about ideas is they can arrive when we’re bored! 

As our brain begins to relax from the pressure we put it under, zoooomwhoosh, in comes an idea. 

‘Out of nowhere’, we’ll say. 

This week I worked with a team to help them get bored... and quickly. 

As boredom arrives from a mundane task, their genius fires up and their ingenuity helped solve the challenge they’d been working on. 

They’ve come up with so many resourceful solutions and surprised themselves about how useful boredom can be. 

We can become less frustrated about times or tasks that are ‘BORING!!!’ and instead use them as the space and place where your clever is bubbling away, working on the problem. 

Get bored and use boredom. It’s a valid, relevant and practical strategy. 

OMG so boring !! 😁😁🤣

Fresh skills we want to learn

How does a team adapt in an environment of change like the world is experiencing now? 

What skills do leaders need to better lead in these times?

Remote work, extreme uncertainty and ongoing complex change are impacting so many sectors and organisations. 

Old learning topics like body language, negotiation skills and time management are being overtaken by more contemporary, practical and inspiring skills. 

These skills are more related to today’s workplace and aligned to the capabilities people need to be able to work better together. 

Plus they’re the kinds of skills people want to learn!

They are: 
Ingenuity 
Empathy
Creativity 
Curiosity 

Facilitation 
Visualization 
Experimentation 
Improvisation 

Sensemaking
Listening
Learning
Collaborating.


These kinds of skills help us stay relevant and motivated in the learning ... as well as the daily application.