Have you ever done any reading about Einstein and his writing on creativity and imagination? Do you desire how to be a creative thinker not destroy creativity?
We are great fans of Albert Einstein and have written about many of his stories.
No greater source than Albert Einstein said the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.
As such, it is almost an indignity when learners are forced to stuff themselves full of facts. So full without bowing to the greater good of creativity and imagination.
Italy is known for tomatoes. Thailand for chilies. Germany for sauerkraut.
But tomatoes originated in Peru. Thailand imported chilies from Central America. Sauerkraut started in China.
Everything is a remix—and the world is better for it. Share what you know. Learn from others
It is by far the most overlooked part of a person’s learning. And it is a great way to destroy creativity and imagination.
Of the two, imagination is difficult to define. It is obviously an intellectual mechanism that takes existing data and reintroduces it in a variety of forms.
But what gives some people an abundance and others fear it? Research indicates imagination starts with a person’s play instinct.
This is the ability for us to recreate something with ourselves as a centerpiece. Imagination requires the reformation of existing outcomes – we call it a form of empathy.
You can stimulate such thinking with “What would happen” questions. Play and having fun is a great way to enhance imagination.
Truth be told, many peoples have rich and varied creativity and imagination. It can eke its way out if given a chance.
It includes musical, spatial, linguistic, math, relationships, and others that serve as a good base for developing both creativity as well as imagination.
Let me share a story with you. In 1960 two men made a bet. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager.
The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of the publishing firm, Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words.
Dr. Seuss took the bet and won. The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.
At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long-run.
But let’s examine what we can learn from Dr. Seuss. You see most of us limit our creativity and imagination abilities.
Here are the 16 most obvious ways you destroy your creativity and imagination. And more importantly some important pointers on what you should do to eliminate them:
Maintain the status quo
Working with a few new activities and new environments is a guaranteed way to limit both your imagination and creativity.
The true enemy of imagination is the acceptance of the status quo.
What to do:
Try to do and experience many new things. Do things differently.
This could be as simple as taking a new route to work or perhaps learning how to write with both hands.
The true enemy of imagination is the acceptance of the status quo.
Accept average quality.
Creative thinker … accept average quality
Have you occasionally noticed that you are spending most of your time on the wrong priorities?
Doing much more but everything at an average quality? No time for imagination or creativity in anything?
What to do:
Think about your priorities and how you can make things better. A man just made a small fortune redesigning the fork.
He made a wood model of one, watched how people used the fork, and imagined a better version. It can cut on both sides, fits into the hand better, and has dull tongs to grip pasta better.
He picked his priority and stuck with it.
Limited view of imagination
Are you constraining your view of what imagination really is? Shouldn’t be very many constraints should there?
What to do:
First, break the habit of seeing imagination as only appropriate for art or music. Almost every article written on imagination is about music or art.
Despite this fact, many other significant bits of intelligence need to be encouraged.
To stretch this limited view of imagination; note that everything you use has been invented by someone. Someone who has applied imagination to solving a problem.
Think about who invented the pocket or the wheel. How did they use better observation skills to increases the awareness of possibilities?
So the first priority is to give yourself problems to solve. This naturally develops and it encourages imagination.
Indeed, problem-solving is nothing more than applied imagination at work.
Overly reward imagination
Are you going overboard recognizing and rewarding your imagination?
That can constrain additional creative thinking and improvement ideas.
What to do:
If you compile an innovative way to solve a problem, accept it as such. However, continue to improve it.
If overly compensated for this effort, you may lose the desire for continuous improvement.
Creative thinker … always evaluate imagination
Do you evaluate your imagination or creativity? Again this can limit your out of the box thinking.
What to do:
Don’t evaluate imagination. Don’t tell yourself that the imagined solution is bad or good.
Don’t tell yourself why it will or wouldn’t work. Just explain it to yourself.
The imagination cannot always be judged by those close to it. Truly imaginative work can require a long gestation.
Outside of asking for an acceptable explanation of the work, judgment should be left until a later date.
Limit experiences
Do you lack the ability to explore and try new things? Does it make you feel uncomfortable?
What to do:
Observation is the mother of imagination. A person who is not exposed to new things cannot bring new thinking to a problem.
For imagination to grow, a silo filled with resources must exist to feed it. The more experienced, the greater the imagination that can be brought to bear on potential solutions.
Follow the rules
Are you one that follows every rule? Never question or overlooks those that make no sense?
What to do:
Let just say not all rules are good ones. There are some stupid ones out there.
Pick your spots and explore. Kill the bad rules.
Don’t practice
Hate to practice and use new skills? Don’t think one can practice and improve skills like imagination and creativity?
What to do:
Creativity and imagination are like any other learned skills. Unless you are the rare minority, you weren’t born with amazing creative skills and boundless imagination.
You will need lots of practice and experience. And lots of failures and not so good results.
Be patient and stick with it. All good skills take time.
Don’t collaborate
Do you avoid collaboration? Are you fearful that others will recognize your undeveloped creativity and imagination?
What to do:
Collaboration drives creativity because new ideas always emerge from a series of sparks. Never a single flash of insight.
Surround yourself with creative people in different fields. Learn from what they share.
Find people that are also looking for collaboration and give it a try.
Limit play and experimentation
Are you one that works all the time? Believes that play is not an ingredient of work.
And don’t like to experiment with new ideas because you abhor mistakes and failure?
What to do:
Actively play and experiment with new ideas. Keep an open mind and focus on continuous learning in new fields.
Keep in mind that knowledge is what you already know. Imagination is what makes it grow.
Don’t worry about finishing what you start
Like to keep lots of balls in the air? Good at multitasking?
But your record of completion of tasks is not that great?
What to do:
Remember you are trying new things. And not expecting great results. Expect many failures.
If you don’t finish, it doesn’t count as experience or a failure. Just a give up.
Don’t question authority
Do you avoid questioning why things are done the way they are?
Avoid questioning the decisions of bosses up the line?
What to do:
Don’t become a pain, but ask for explanations.
And don’t hesitate to offer recommendations for change. Especially challenge the authority of your own longstanding beliefs.
Don’t think broad
Have a problem with a vision of what could be, especially in new fields of endeavor? Are you lacking confidence in expanding your horizon and setting aggressive goals?
What to do:
Make new friends in new fields and use their expertise to infuse new ideas into your thinking cap. Create diverse teams and rotate yourself into new projects and roles.
This is especially true for ones you are fascinated by.
Limit your questions
Believe that questions can be a nuisance to those around you?
What to do:
Ask about everything that will help you learn and explore.
After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking different questions, ask them in a different way.
Fear bad ideas
Do you fear to make mistakes and surfacing bad ideas? Don’t like failures?
What to do:
Remember people with bad ideas occasionally succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.
Someone once asked me where I get all my good ideas. They explained that it takes them a month or two to come up with one.
I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, “none.”
And there, you see, is the problem.
Don’t stretch yourself
You are not comfortable with going beyond your current boundaries. You are happy with where you currently are.
What to do:
Build on your imagination and your curiosity. They are your most important creativity assets.
Work hard at avoiding the old ways you do things. Getting the old ways out of your head is one of your most difficult tasks.
Embrace the new paradigm of active learning, curiosity, and imagination. Offer a spark to others around us and may even build a new movement.
The bottom line
This list is simple, but makes good sense doesn’t it?
But here is the thing. An example.
Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages.
By hand, on individual sheets of paper. And how many masterpieces by perhaps the most creative thinker of all time?
Probably 3-5 depending on who you ask. Persistence is a key, isn’t it?
Lack of persistence is perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people, isn’t it?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration.
But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on creativity from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Most innovative vision? We are always fascinated by this skill. It is one of the best business skills to have in our view. Does it mean you see everything? Certainly not. It does say that you have the ability to see what many cannot. And then act on these items. It is what made the Zara shopping and innovative fashion retailer in our mind.
That is what makes for the most innovative companies, don’t you agree? Lots of experiments and exploring.
Adaptation doesn’t work well without experimentation and lots of action. And Zara knows how to do this well.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for innovation design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
Why may you ask? They certainly have learned to question convention wisdom. Many of us have wandered around their trendy shops or browsed their top-of-the-class website.
Often without knowing very much about the company behind that brand. Some, like me, may have never heard of Zara, until recently. So, what makes this Spanish brand so impressive?
Let’s examine this attractive retail giant.
About Zara
Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia, Spain and founded in 1975. There are over 2,000 Zara stores located across 88 countries, including 51 in the United States as of July 2014.
Zara stores are company-owned, except where local legislation forbids foreigner-owned businesses. In those cases, Zara franchises the stores.
What makes Zara the most innovative fashion retailer?
It is claimed that Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores. This is compared to the six-month industry average.
Zara launches around 10,000 new designs each year. That is an amazing statistic, isn’t it?
Zara has resisted the industry-wide trend towards transferring fast fashion production to low-cost countries.
Perhaps it’s most unusual strategy was its policy of zero advertising. What is behind this strategy? It was simple. The company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead.
During the 1980s, Zara started changing the design, manufacturing, and distribution process to reduce lead times. This allowed them to react to new trends in a quicker way, in what they called “instant fashions.”
The company based its improvements on the use of information technologies and using groups of designers instead of individuals. Most of their process secrets are in this area.
Zara offers considerably more products than similar companies. It produces about 11,000 distinct items annually compared with 2,000 to 4,000 items for its key competitors.
The company can design a new product and have finished goods in its stores in four to five weeks. It can modify existing items in as little as two weeks. That is amazing, isn’t it?
Shortening the product life cycle means greater success in meeting consumer preferences. If a design doesn’t sell well within a week, it is withdrawn from shops; further orders are canceled, and a new model is pursued. What a great feedback loop.
Zara has a range of basic designs that are carried over from year to year. However, some fashion forward designs can stay on the shelves less than four weeks.
This encourages Zara customers to make repeat visits. An average high-street store in Spain expects customers to visit three times a year. That goes up to 17 times for Zara. What a difference, eh?
Zara owes none of its success to advertising. That’s because they doesn’t advertise. It hardly even has a marketing department, and it doesn’t engage in flashy campaigns, as its competitors do.
Competitors do lots of teaming up with fashion designers like Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Martin Margiela and Marni. Zara’s designers are completely anonymous.
Some would say this is because they are copiers rather than designers. With their success, does it matter?
They don’t spend money on commercials because they are spreading their ‘brand’ with verbal communication between customers and with their label only on their bags.
Also most amazing to me. Can you name one other retailer that does this?
It is essential that Zara has the possibility to quickly respond to market demands. They have innovative manufacturing process, which allows them to be quick in responding and sending clothes to their shops, and they also do some re-designing in that time.
Only 15-25% of clothes are produced before the season and 50-60% at the start of the season. All other clothes are manufactured during the season according to customer wishes ( a design which has no good response is withdrawn).
While I am not an expert in fashion design, that is most amazing to me. Very customer responsive.
Zara design team is producing 18,000 different models of clothes; that’s about 70 every working day in a continuous process. The Zara Inditex group has more than 5500 stores in 82 countries and employs more than 110,000 people.
Their product reaches customers in just four weeks. It is amazing that whole idea process is just four weeks long. Think about that fact … 4 weeks.
Zara’s process innovation makes this company fast and market-responsive. It is more than enough to keep their top position among fashion brands.
ZARA shopping.
Zara shopping … growth strategy success
In 1980, the company started its international expansion through Porto, Portugal. In 1989 it entered the United States, and in 1990, France. This international expansion was increased in the 1990s, with Mexico (1992), Greece (1994), Belgium and Sweden (1994), etc. until reaching its current presence in over 88 countries.
In the last five years, Zara’s overall sales have grown to 13.8 billion euros a year from 9.4 billion euros. Profit has risen to almost 2 billion euros a year.
The company expanded to 110,000 employees in 2011, from around 80,000 in 2007. Remember, while Spain has been suffering through real estate and debt crises (following the global financial crisis), Zara has prospered.
Zara New York,NY … innovation secrets
Every day, store managers report customer feedback information to headquarters. It is then transmitted to a large team of in-house designers. They quickly develop new designs and send them to factories to be turned into clothes.
Zara said that is because the customer is always determining production, not the other way around. An interesting thought isn’t it?
Every piece of clothing the company makes has, in a way, been requested. A business model that is so closely attuned to the customer does not share the cycle of a financial crisis.
Zara is one of greatest examples of process innovation. The founder, Armancio Ortega started his business in the year 1975 as a single store in La Coruña (Spain). Ortega, once a tailor’s assistant, learned the value of controlling all steps of the production and distribution process.
Later he applied it all to the Zara chain. And started refining the process steps based on this critical concept.
Key takeaways
Zara, I believe, is the most innovative fashion retailer in the global economy. This is within an industry built around constant design innovation and change. Why may you ask?
We believe there several good reasons. First, as one of the originators of customer responsiveness, they have some great process secrets. They are built on a foundation of new ideas and constant introduction of new products.
Second, they know their future is based on those ideas. They also know how to do new things well, and they must be good at trying new ideas in many areas as experiments.
These tests, they realize, will not all work as planned, and some percentage will fail. They know and accept this without worry.
Innovation is extremely essential to any organization, especially in today’s hyper-competitive business market. The successful exploitation of new ideas is critical to a business’s ability to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to the market, increase its overall efficiency and productivity, and, most importantly, improve its profitability.
So if you want to find a truly great innovator, don’t look for the ones that make the biggest headlines are that are most inspiring on stage. Look for those who spend their time a bit off to the side, sharing ideas, supporting others, and quietly pursuing a path that few others are even aware of.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving the innovation for yourself and your team?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your continuous learning and innovation. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
