Leaders 19

Make your day

18 Leaders

Careers

In the face of danger, 70% of people will stop dead, according to a theory known as normality bias. How do you become

one of the people who take action? The solution is in the way you think.

Picasso said, “Every child is born an artist. The problems begin once we start to grow up.” We’re all capable of being creative – we just need to rediscover the spark lurking within.

We checked in with those in the know in Cape Town, World Design Capital 2014, for some inspiration. Here’s what we learnt.

1 A GOOD MORNING!Start at the begInnIng: breakfaStThe monthly Creative Mornings talks in Bree Street make up Cape Town’s chapter of a global movement that discusses a new topic each month. Anyone can drop by for a high-fibre, high-inspiration breakfast packed with talking points and tips to get you through the day. Philipp Schmid, marketing manager at Friends of Design, co-ordinates Cape Town’s chapter. He says people rock up hungry “for food and for inspiration” and leave satisfied. Creative Mornings also has a Joburg chapter.

PechaKucha, a similar global event

keep an open MInd

Tune in to what’s going on

around you.

braInStorM SolutIonS

Apply your technical knowledge in the morning and think out of the box

in the afternoon.

dIScuSS IdeaS Surround yourself with people you respect and

who believe in you. Bounce ideas off them. Be open to

feedback. If you’re rejected, restart and repair.

StockpIle IdeaS

Make a note of your ideas as they strike.

IdentIfy probleMS

What irritates you? Ask yourself what can

be done differently.

2 MID-MORNING MATTERSknow what you’re capable of – and when…According to www.hongkiat.com, there are two kinds of creativity: practical creativity and fantastic creativity. Practical creativity involves anything where you apply technical knowledge. The best time for this, they say, is mid-morning.

Practical creativity is complemented with fantastic creativity, or “inventing entertainment”. You’re primed for this when you’re a bit run-down after lunch. This is when the more left-field ideas come. What this means is that you’re capable of coming up with useful solutions all day. Sometimes you just need to allow yourself a little time to think.

3 WORK THE WATER COOLERonce you’ve thought of an Idea, Start talkIng!So you’ve come up with a great idea, a real doozy of a solution for your problem. What’s the next step? You may snicker, but old-time rapper Vanilla Ice said it best: “Stop, collaborate and listen.”

where 20 slides are displayed for 20 seconds each while a presenter talks you through them, is active in Cape Town, Joburg and Durban.

But if you can’t make it to these talks, there are plenty of other ways to find inspiration in your environment. Philipp says you should keep your mind open to new things. “There’s so much happening in the city: exhibitions, galleries, festivals. Any big city can inspire you on a creative level, whether that be from its urban or natural environment. If you have an office job, go outside at lunch time. You may be inspired by what you see and hear on the streets.”

Thinking alone is not a way of thinking creatively. You have to work in a team to achieve your goal. “You can only go so far if you work alone,” says Philipp. “The input you get from others takes you so much further. Even if you are split up into different teams, you’re all working towards a common goal for the company.”

4 AFTERNOON SLUMPStore IdeaS lIke nutS. SerIouSly.Sometimes we hit creative hurdles – especially as closing time approaches! You can’t control when inspiration strikes, but you can save an idea for later. Have a notebook handy at all times to jot things down for when you need them. Or, if you know you succumb to the slump, work your day so that tasks that demand creativity are done when you’re at your freshest. You can still work through the slump, just pick work that’s not so demanding creatively, like admin.

5 FOOD FOR THOUGHTloSe the ego.Philipp says the biggest obstacle is to understand that you are not the best in the world and that you can always improve. Be open to feedback from others and your ideas could take off.

You can’t control when inspiration strikes, but you can save an idea for later. Have a notebook handy at all times…

Creativity can’t exist in a vacuum – so collaborate!

Doing something inspiring over breakfast boosts your day

CREATIVE-THINKING FLOW CHART

Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, so learning some creative thinking skills can help you face those unexpected challenges efficiently, elegantly and with little fuss…BY BrenT SMITh

CREATIVE THINKING BY NUMBERS

The egyptians used reed straws with split nibs to write 5 000 years ago. This “pen” gradually transformed to quills, then metal dip pens and fountain pens. In 1931, Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpoint. Today, more than 150 million pens are sold each year.

5 000

Pencils were invented more than 450 years ago and were used in space in the 20th century because they could write in zero gravity. 45

0

Bill Gates and Paul Allen are

the two people who founded

Microsoft (makers of the world’s

most used desktop operating

system, Windows) in 1975.

Bill, who was responsible for

Microsoft’s product strategy for

more than 30 years, was number

one on the Forbes list

of The World’s richest

People from 1995 to

2007 and 2009.

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