Creativity Boot Camp 2: Creative Fuel

- Creativity workshops are great ways to energize and inspire a group of people. They're fun, and they remind us all that we're more creative than we think. Most people relish the opportunity to ideate and create, as most people will say they don't get much of either in their day-to-day lives. If you're interested in developing and facilitating a creativity workshop for your team, let me offer up a few important tips to crafting and running a creativity workshop. First, focus your workshop on problem solving. Creativity is problem solving with relevance and novelty, so focus your content around solving problems in relevant and novel ways. While someone on your team may not consider themselves to be "creative," there's little doubt that they solve problems for a living, so make that connection early and often. Second, don't make it about art. Make it about ideas. Most people associate creativity with art, and most people will say that they're not artistic. You can use art as a way to solve problems, but show them they can solve problems in lots of ways that aren't just artistic. Third, use their own behavior as teaching tools. We learn best when we do rather than just hear or see. So use creative exercises to teach principles. This is what turns a talk into a workshop, so don't be afraid to give them small problems to solve as illustrations to points. Fourth, make it fun. There's an inherent joy in creating anything, so lead joyfully. Bring in music or snacks, or costumes or whatever. People follow passionate people, and they want to have fun, so make your session enjoyable. Use absurd examples, solve silly problems, make it fun. Lastly, make it childlike. There are few times in adults' life when they draw pictures or use crayons or make things out of Play-Doh. If you're struggling to find good content, think about a grown-up problem solved with a child's tools, or vice versa. Don't be afraid to be playful. And don't feel pressure to create an all-encompassing creative exploration. Pick one aspect of creativity and ideation to focus on and develop a workshop to illuminate just that focus. In this workshop, I'm focusing just on generating ideas faster, so let's jump in.