5 creativity tips

Getting CreativeGetting Creative““Excellent Companies Innovate”Excellent Companies Innovate”

© Phil Jones - 2011

Welcome to our little workshop…

• You chose well.• You’re an awesome specimen.• We can all think.• We all have great potential.• We only use around 10-15% of our brains

cognitive ability.


Time is the #1 killer of creativity.


Why Bother?

• Competitive advantage.• Momentum.• Creative thinking leads to innovation and

temporary Monopolies.• It creates a challenging and stimulating

environment.• It contributes to business agility.


Why Bother Breaking Convention?


Processing Power vs. State

Frequency

Rare

Frequent

Utilisation

Low

High


You’re in a right state

• Beta – Busy, tasks, doing, functioning• Alpha – Relaxed States (Exercising)• Theta – Deep meditation and dreaming• Delta – Unconscious/Sub-conscious

• Conscious (beta) thinking only burns around 4-15% of your brain power, yet we spend most of our awake time there…..


Six Tips to Creative Success

1. Beta/Alpha thinking – be fit to think.2. Environment – get out of your usual

surroundings.3. Understand personality types.4. Quickfire works best.5. Prioritisation is critical.6. Mornings better than afternoons.


And a mad one…that works!

Ask your subconscious to do something before you go to sleep.

1.Ask it out loud.2.Be specific with what you want.3.Go to sleep and the answers appear as the brain uses Theta state to process.


FIVE TIPSFIVE TIPS


Technique One – Restate the Issue

• Re-word/re-state the issue as you may get different results?

• We need to grow sales by 10% can mean….– We need to find another 10% from our top 10 customers.– We need to find 50 new customers.– How do we stop losing customers out of our leaky bucket?– How do we cross sell other services to our customers?– What new products can we develop?– Can we put our prices up 10%?


Technique Two– Be Someone Else

• What would the following people do if they took over your organisation?– Sir Richard Branson? (Virgin)– Steve Jobs (Apple)– Michael O’ Leary? (Easyjet)

• Example. “O’Leary would charge our customers for drinks and toilet usage at client review meetings.”


Technique Three – Assumption Smashing

• Write down all your company and industry conventions and challenge them all by asking yourself what if you didn’t do them?

Example• What’s the worst that can happen if

we…….moved our business model to a pay as you go service?


Technique Four – The Five Whys

• Good for problem solving and root cause analysis.

• Come up with reasons for your problem.• Then keeping asking Why? against each

problem until you get to the root cause.Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

Root Cause© Phil Jones - 2011

Technique Five– Reverse the Issue

• If you want to increase sales think of all the things that you could do which would negatively contribute to that goal.– We’d treat customers poorly.– We’d put our prices up.– We wouldn’t deal with everyone.– We’d reduce the number of salespeople.

• Point is. Are you’re competitors doing any of these and where could you expose them?


Exercise 1

• Then take the persona of Virgin CEO Richard Branson and re-look at it. What would Richard do?


Exercise 2 – Group (15 mins)

• Consider the conventions /assumptions of your industry sector and smash them up.

• Define some new “what if” scenarios…


Choose to Think

• Find time to escape the desk and the workplace.

• Fit more in if you have to, in order to release time to think.

• Go somewhere inspiring.• Switch the phone/blackberry off.• Always carry a notebook with you and have

one by the side of your bed.


You’re amazing.Unleash your inner creativity.


www.philjones.bizwww.philjones.bizTwitter - @philjones40Twitter - @philjones40


5 creativity tips

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