In my previous post, “Your Inner Child is Ready to Lead,” I discussed the growing recognition of creativity as a vital component for successfully managing in a rapidly changing environment. How is it that you can tap into your dormant childhood creativity in order to re-imagine your business and your life? Try the following challenge:
No matter where you happen to be reading this blog – at home, your office, outdoors, or on an airplane, take a quick look around you. Absorb the various mundane objects that you see. Now try to fabricate a game or a simple sport using them as props. These props are all things you see every day in the same way without giving them much thought. But now let your imagination take over, and see them as objects of fun. Go!
How did you do? How long did it take you to come up with something? Moreover, do you think that the game you came up with would be fun to try? Did you find the exploratory process of this exercise difficult? Meaningful? In essence, this simple exercise represents exactly the thinking process that we need to reconnect with, that came so naturally when we were children.
I’ll reposition the challenge:
Take a look at the resources of your business, or the familiar characteristics of your environment. Now think of new applications, new combinations, new angles which would allow you to overstep perceived limitations of your business and your environment in a way that provides new levels of enrichment to consumers.
By doing this, nothing has changed except your perspective and the boundary lines of your imagination, which in turn serves to unlock meaningful new possibilities. And away we go…!
Gabor George Burt is an internationally recognized expert on innovation, creativity and strategy development. His spheres of expertise help organizations to overstep perceived limitations and to carve out successful growth strategies. Share the excitement surrounding Gabor’s upcoming book Slingshot at www.slingshotliving.com or on Twitter ( @slingshotliving ).