Guiding Creativity

Having numerous decision-making frameworks can help spur creativity. Chapter 15 of The Social Entrepreneur book provides several such frameworks.

Telling your AI Chatbot some details of the problem or issue, and prompting it to respond with creative and innovative solutions can result in good ideas. It may come up with some far-fetched ideas that, if you brainstorm on them, may lead to reasonably creative practical ideas from that far-fetched idea.

The old methodology of stating the problem on a whiteboard as best you can (Peter Drucker says that asking just the right question is 50% of the answer) and then having a few friends brainstorm with you, will often cause one friend to build on another friend’s idea to come up with completely new and innovative solutions.

Proverbs 3:5-6 are good verses to start a creativity session. 

All wisdom comes from the Lord. 

Reading Proverbs 2:1–12 are good verses to read before you start your brainstorming. Pray for the Lord to give you creativity, innovation and wisdom.

Think about the problem or issue on which you seek creativity and jot a few notes about it immediately before bed. Your subconscious creative juices may give you an innovative solution in the middle of night or just after you wake.

Go to a creative workspace that prompts creativity. It might even be going outside with a flip chart or whiteboard to a nice grassy area that is different from your norm and stimulates creativity.

Whenever the thought, “This can't be done” comes in your mind, stop and ask “how can it be done?” A lot of creative solutions come from someone saying “that's not possible we can't do that”, and someone else saying “let's spend a few minutes thinking and brainstorming about how it might be possible to do that”.

On important issues requiring creativity, try to be well rested and at peace. A good way is to get to peace is to meditate on favorite Bible verses for 10 or 15 minutes.

You can use a formal structure with your personal board of directors or forum group. Steve sent you one that I have used very effectively. The requirement to ask questions on the first go around is helpful for everyone to understand the issue. Often the forum is helping with creativity by clearing away the fog from the person presenting, especially if it is a pressing or threatening issue. This process has often resulted in creative solutions that the presenter had not considered at all.

Mentors that “have been through it all” are so helpful! I remember when I bought my company, which was a turnaround. It had lost money for five years in a row, and the CFO was predicting we would run out of cash in three months after the purchase. I had invested my life savings to pay the purchase price. I called my mentor. With his great experience, he gave me a great idea on how to raise cash -- prepaid subscriptions. Banks were not interested in loaning to a company that had lost money for five years in a row. I had to get a creative idea!

Good mentors, especially those are from your industry, can be invaluable in helping you come up with great creative ideas.

When your mentee has an issue for which you want to bring creativity to the table, and it's not readily coming, you may wish to connect with another Ardent mentor who is in a similar business/industry, perhaps the same space in a non-competitive segment, and invite them to join the call with your mentee to brainstorm. it would be good to bring in two or three other mentors to best arrive at the best creative solution. Watch the mentees body language as here she/he hears the proposed solutions. Ask if they think it's possible to use that suggestion to create a successful solution. If they say no, then ask how could it be possible, just to make sure the mentee is not closing off pathways that might offer a good solution, because they have blind spots that are hindering them from coming up with a good solution.

Ask the mentee for solutions with the following question: “if money were no problem and if time were no problem, what would you do? If you ask a mentee how long it will take to implement that solution, then ask them how can they do it in a third of the time, if they absolutely must.