Narrative Assets

Want To Get Creative? Think Like A Kid Again!

 

As a writer and speaker, people are always asking me where I come up with my creative ideas. If I could give one bit of advice it would be this..."Think like a kid!"

Remember when you were a kid? Didn't everything seem worth exploring? If you ended up getting your feet wet during your adventures, did it really matter? Growing up can and often does have a negative effect on our creativity. At a certain age, our dreams can be squashed as we're told that our imagination is nonsense. How sad - and how far from the truth!

Without a sense of wonder, life would seem so grim. Nothing would be fun anymore, and we would worry too much about what people think. To keep those creative thoughts flowing, here are 5 tips to keep you on top of the creative game:

1) Rediscover your sense of play. If you have kids, watch them at play. See how they interact. Join in. If you don't have kids, walk through a toy store and get nostalgic as you rediscover all your favourite childhood toys and memories

2) Rediscover your sense of wonder. As we get older, we tend to lose our enthusiasm for things. Take a walk through the woods, and look at all the wonders of mother nature. Watch an airplane soar through the sky, and wonder why it is the thing never falls down. Take a look at a full moon, and imagine what it must have been like to walk on its surface. Imagine yourself walking on the surface. What would you be thinking?

3) Rent one of your favourite childhood movies, and discover what it was you liked about it in the first place. There must be some reason you remember it now

4) Jump in a puddle. Don't forget to wear rubber shoes or boots

5) Imagine yourself as a superhero. Who would you be - who would you save - and why?

Rekindling your creativity by thinking like a kid doesn't have to take a lot of effort. It just takes a willingness to step into a place where everything was new again. A place where possibilities were endless, and every day held something to treasure.

What steps have you taken today to rekindle your creativity? How has your creativity been squashed as you worked your way through life? What movies,  books or toys remind you of the best times of your childhood?

Imagination in Business: The New Competitive Edge

Just about every business success story has been the result of an innovative idea. While we tend to think about business as being overly rational and logical in its thinking, it’s virtually impossible for a business to have survived without some degree of creativity and innovation.

Consider this: Where would GE be without the invention of the light bulb? Would Disney have survived without the creation of a mouse to pull it through? Would any car company have succeeded without the original vision of Henry Ford?

In an age where information has virtually exploded into every facet of our lives, imagination may be what separates an average product or service, from a great one. In their book “Return on Imagination”, Tom Wujec and Sandra Muscat define imagination as “the very human capacity to experience, construct, and manipulate mental imagery: the ability to see, hear, and feel things that are not physically present.” They claim that “what you imagine steers what you see, feel, think and experience.”

This is probably good news for marketers. If marketers and businesses could find a way to harness the imagination, they could drive how we feel and think about a brand. They would own our experience. Without the ideas and possibilities that imagination provides, it is difficult to maintain the kind of customer loyalty that is needed to drive and sustain profits.

The truth is that imagination is something deeply personal. We all create a sense of our world through a series of mental images and stories. Without ideas and innovation, there is no progress and without progress, there is no business.

It’s time that more businesses opened the door to innovative thinking. Let’s hire more ideas people – and imaginary thinkers. Mix them in with seasoned executives and let them loose. The result might be a return that goes much further than profits. If you capture ‘Return on Imagination’, you’ll capture more than our hard earned dollars – you’ll capture our hearts.