<b>Welcome to today's session, The Courage</b> <b>to Be Creative presented by Anna Consie</b> <b>We appreciate your engagement</b> <b>throughout the session. Please save your</b> <b>questions for Anna and the Q&A box to the</b> <b>right hand side of your screen. Today's</b> <b>session will be recorded and made</b> <b>available in this platform following the</b> <b>conference. Thank you again for your</b> <b>participation. And now I'm pleased to</b> <b>turn it over to Anna Consie, Senior</b> <b>Director of Creative at Arizona State</b> <b>University. Thank you so much. Good</b> <b>morning, everybody. It's morning where I</b> <b>am. I'm in Tempe, AZ, so</b> <b>morning, afternoon, wherever we are. It's</b> <b>lovely to see you all and thanks so much</b> <b>for coming to my session. So a quick</b> <b>note, there is a virtually</b> <b>interactive component for this session.</b> <b>And so don't give up on me yet,</b> <b>stay with me. But if you have three</b> <b>pieces of paper lying around, grab those</b> <b>pieces of paper. Any size is fine, scrap</b> <b>is cool. Do not overthink this and</b> <b>ideally are writing. Council, if you've</b> <b>had something fun, go with that.</b> <b>Otherwise I'm all in for a pencil.</b> <b>So I just want to start</b> <b>with, frankly, a really ridiculous thing</b> <b>to brag about at a conference. But I'm</b> <b>going to do it anyway, which is that in</b> <b>1998 I was an Odyssey of the</b> <b>Mind state champion. If you don't know</b> <b>what Odyssey of the Mind is, that's also</b> <b>totally normal. It's this really very</b> <b>cool program that is run</b> <b>nationwide. It's K through 12 and</b> <b>students are given these year long</b> <b>challenges to solve a</b> <b>problem and put on about an 8 minute</b> <b>skit. And so when I was in the</b> <b>third grade, our challenge was an</b> <b>animation challenge. We had to create a</b> <b>fully animated story and</b> <b>being you know, peak like 10 and 11 year</b> <b>olds, we went with a bathroom scene. This</b> <b>was like the height of humor for us and</b> <b>the story was one of a toothbrush. His</b> <b>name was Plácido Domingo. If you are an</b> <b>opera fan, you're going to get that joke.</b> <b>If you are not an opera fan like we were</b> <b>not, that's going to go way over your</b> <b>head. But Plácido Domingo goes on a</b> <b>journey to find love across the</b> <b>bathroom and at one point he</b> <b>falls in a toilet. You can see the</b> <b>picture of this toilet. The toilets name</b> <b>was John, which we thought was frankly</b> <b>just an outstanding joke. I still stand</b> <b>by that today and this lovely group of</b> <b>people has gone on to do a lot of really.</b> <b>Amazing careers. So they've gone on to be</b> <b>architects and published authors</b> <b>and researchers at Sandia National Lab.</b> <b>There's an OBGYN, really</b> <b>an amazing group of people, and along</b> <b>with them there's a creative director in</b> <b>the group. And I tell this story not</b> <b>because I want to remember 3rd grade or</b> <b>brag about something kind of ridiculous,</b> <b>but because this is how I know in my</b> <b>life that creativity isn't just for</b> <b>creative. Creativity applies to all</b> <b>fields. Applies to all people. We all</b> <b>have creative minds.</b> <b>So when we talk about creativity, what</b> <b>exactly are we talking about? There's a</b> <b>lot of sense that creativity is a</b> <b>feeling or a moment, but it's actually a</b> <b>field of study. It's studied in</b> <b>neuroscience and psychology, all kinds of</b> <b>different places. And what neuroscience</b> <b>has learned is that creative tasks range</b> <b>from little C creativity to</b> <b>big C creativity. They say that little C</b> <b>creativity are things like making a great</b> <b>birthday present or telling a really</b> <b>funny joke they list. Making a website,</b> <b>which as a person who has made a website,</b> <b>I find to be a bit of a</b> <b>miscategorization. But that's OK, we're</b> <b>going to let them live. And then there's</b> <b>big sea creativity like writing a speech</b> <b>or a, you know, a poem or designing an</b> <b>experiment.</b> <b>Creativity is something that is a very</b> <b>desired quality. So in 2010 IBM did</b> <b>a global study of CEO's and they asked</b> <b>them what are the most important</b> <b>leadership qualities you see in the next</b> <b>five years. They ranked creativity</b> <b>#1. Now we can have</b> <b>some thoughts about these CEOs that they</b> <b>put fairness and humility towards</b> <b>the bottom of the list, which may be</b> <b>telling us something about them. But</b> <b>regardless, in 2010, creativity</b> <b>was a heavily desired leadership quality.</b> <b>This desire for creativity has stayed</b> <b>high. So in 2019,</b> <b>LinkedIn looked at all of the job</b> <b>postings that are on their site and they</b> <b>looked at what are the skills that are</b> <b>the most requested and the number one</b> <b>requested. Soft skill was creativity.</b> <b>This is a skill that companies report</b> <b>needing most. So this is a trend that's</b> <b>holding over 9 years.</b> <b>Creativity is asked from a lot of us.</b> <b>It's a heavily requested skill.</b> <b>But there's a bit of a challenge, which</b> <b>is that 77% of CEOs struggle to</b> <b>find the creativity skills that they're</b> <b>looking for. They're looking for more</b> <b>creativity than they're finding. And very</b> <b>depressingly, 75% of people in</b> <b>Adobe survey said they feel that</b> <b>pressure to be productive rather than</b> <b>creative, but they're expected to think</b> <b>more and more creatively on the job. So</b> <b>this is a heavily requested skill. People</b> <b>really want it, and those who are not in</b> <b>leadership roles are feeling that.</b> <b>They're feeling that. Desire for</b> <b>creativity. But they're not being given</b> <b>the space and time for it. So what</b> <b>exactly is creativity? What is</b> <b>happening in the brain when we talk about</b> <b>creativity? Both of these quotes</b> <b>say roughly the same thing, but I like</b> <b>them because they come from two different</b> <b>neuroscientists. And so the idea is that</b> <b>creativity has to pass two tests, the</b> <b>first of which is that it has to be ideas</b> <b>that are original, unusual, or</b> <b>novel. But they also have. Be appropriate</b> <b>to the context and questions. What this</b> <b>means is that it's great to sit in a room</b> <b>and brainstorm and throw a bunch of ideas</b> <b>out that those ideas don't appropriately</b> <b>solve the problem we're looking to solve.</b> <b>It's not actually an exercise of</b> <b>creativity, it's just a bunch of people</b> <b>in a room having a good time, which is</b> <b>perfectly valid too.</b> <b>There are two modes in our brain.</b> <b>The uncreative Mode and the creative</b> <b>mode. Here's the thing. Creativity is</b> <b>hard work. I don't think that that's</b> <b>often appreciated. It's hard to be</b> <b>creative because it means you have to</b> <b>turn away from this path of least</b> <b>resistance. You have to forge a new path</b> <b>through things that are unknown or</b> <b>unexpected or vague. And when you're in</b> <b>the uncreative mode, you're in a black</b> <b>and white zone. You're moving through</b> <b>things that are obvious or expected. It</b> <b>burns a lot less brain calories. It's a</b> <b>lot easier. Activating creativity</b> <b>takes a lot of work. It's not easy to</b> <b>turn on. So what are we supposed to do</b> <b>about it? How do we turn this creativity</b> <b>on?</b> <b>OK, well this is like such a bummer of a</b> <b>quote in the middle of a presentation,</b> <b>but I like to do it anyway because</b> <b>neuroscience says you cannot prompt</b> <b>creativity. You might be trying to be</b> <b>creative, but that's not the same thing</b> <b>as being creative. And you guys, is</b> <b>there anything more of a bummer than</b> <b>trying to be cool and not actually being</b> <b>cool, or trying to do something fun and</b> <b>it's not actually fun? Neuroscience says</b> <b>that if you're trying to be creative,</b> <b>that's not the same thing as actually</b> <b>being. Creative. Part of</b> <b>the reason for that. And look, I am not a</b> <b>neuroscientist by any stretch of the</b> <b>imagination, but this really</b> <b>cool graph, which I'm going to attempt to</b> <b>explain to you, shows all of the</b> <b>different modes that the brain has to</b> <b>activate when it's in a creative</b> <b>space. So neuroscience</b> <b>argues that people who are creative have</b> <b>a brain that is wired slightly</b> <b>differently. All of these red lines that</b> <b>you see crossing on the screen, that</b> <b>represents all the different areas of the</b> <b>brain that have to cross together to form</b> <b>these creative thoughts. That looks like</b> <b>a lot of work. And so creative people are</b> <b>much more comfortable engaging these</b> <b>systems that don't often work together.</b> <b>They've figured out how to cross these</b> <b>things and make them harmonize. And</b> <b>synchronize and tell each other stories</b> <b>and communicate.</b> <b>The good news is that psychology</b> <b>disagrees with neuroscience, and I love</b> <b>when scientists disagree with each other</b> <b>because it makes a lot of fun for me as a</b> <b>creative person, psychologists</b> <b>say. You can</b> <b>learn to be creative. Everyone has the</b> <b>potential to become more creative.</b> <b>Just because brains, some brains are</b> <b>have an easier time of linking those</b> <b>different zones doesn't mean that we</b> <b>can't train our brains to do that same</b> <b>thing. This quote, by the way,</b> <b>comes from a study.</b> <b>Full disclosure, I opened this study and</b> <b>then I had to immediately close the study</b> <b>because I could not make heads or tails</b> <b>out of it. But you know, Hillary, my good</b> <b>friends Hillary here summarized the study</b> <b>for those of us who are not deep</b> <b>neuroscientists, but they studied twins.</b> <b>In different households to see if</b> <b>creativity activities could prompt</b> <b>more creative thinking. In twins that are</b> <b>separate. Super cool study. I have a lot</b> <b>of questions about it. And thank goodness</b> <b>for Hillary.</b> <b>People feel this desire for more</b> <b>creativity, and 75% of people</b> <b>told Adobe they don't think they're</b> <b>living up to their creative potential.</b> <b>What this tells me, as somebody who loves</b> <b>creativity and who specializes in</b> <b>creativity, is that there's a real</b> <b>desire to be creative. We all</b> <b>can feel this creativity in our brains.</b> <b>We don't always know how to activate it,</b> <b>how to get it out into the world, how to</b> <b>free it and release it.</b> <b>And there's a barrier. And this is not</b> <b>going to be surprising to any of you</b> <b>. 52% of those in the same Adobe survey</b> <b>who said I'm not living up to my</b> <b>potential says lack of time is their</b> <b>biggest barrier. Creativity is</b> <b>hard work. As we've seen, it involves the</b> <b>brain crossing a bunch of different paths</b> <b>that aren't necessarily meant to cross.</b> <b>Getting into that space, turning into the</b> <b>creative mode and away from the</b> <b>uncreative mode. That's not a light</b> <b>switch. You can't just turn it on and</b> <b>turn it off. It takes time to work into</b> <b>that space. So what are we</b> <b>supposed to do about this? You're here at</b> <b>this session because you, like me,</b> <b>care about creativity, or you're curious</b> <b>what it means to free your creativity. So</b> <b>what can we do about this?There are five</b> <b>things. There are five things that we can</b> <b>do to free our creativity.</b> <b>The first, which is a</b> <b>little ironic that I'm saying there's</b> <b>five things you can do. And the first</b> <b>thing is just demonstrate your</b> <b>creativity. But this is true. So there</b> <b>have been studies that have observed</b> <b>children, and when children see someone</b> <b>else being highly creative, they become</b> <b>more creative themselves. When people can</b> <b>observe creativity, they're willing to</b> <b>engage in creativity. Look. Being</b> <b>creative takes vulnerability. It's a</b> <b>little bit scary to put yourself out</b> <b>there in a creative space. It's risky to</b> <b>say I'm going to put this idea out and I</b> <b>think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure.</b> <b>So if you are willing to demonstrate</b> <b>creativity, if you're willing to be brave</b> <b>and take that risk, it gives others</b> <b>permission to take that risk with you.</b> <b>They can join in and demonstrate their</b> <b>creativity too. The second is</b> <b>that you can make it a habit. We</b> <b>learned that the brain has all those</b> <b>different paths that have to cross. You</b> <b>have to get into the creative mode.</b> <b>Nothing makes that easier than</b> <b>practicing. So if you make creativity a</b> <b>habit, it gets easier and easier to enter</b> <b>into that mode and to trigger your</b> <b>creativity. This doesn't have to be</b> <b>dramatic. You don't have to be an artist.</b> <b>You don't have to have an active painting</b> <b>or sculpting or whatever practice. You</b> <b>can do small things each day to engage</b> <b>your creative brain and. Keep it moving,</b> <b>keep it alive.</b> <b>This is one of the biggest keys is</b> <b>you have to make it less serious.</b> <b>Creativity is vulnerable. It's</b> <b>risky, but often it's very, very</b> <b>fun. And so there's an idea here</b> <b>that, you know, creative people sit down</b> <b>and they have this very serious artistic</b> <b>practice. And that's simply not true. If</b> <b>you use imagination or</b> <b>play or getting outside your comfort zone</b> <b>and you make it a little bit of fun, it</b> <b>makes it easier for the creativity. The</b> <b>flow. When you reduce the pressure, you</b> <b>put on creativity. When you make it</b> <b>fun and engaging and a little bit</b> <b>silly, it's easier to activate it.</b> <b>Along that thread, you have to make it</b> <b>weird. Look, I</b> <b>realize this is a bit of an insane thing</b> <b>to say, but when you try to solve the</b> <b>same problems over and over, or a problem</b> <b>that you think has an obvious solution,</b> <b>you're not activating your creative</b> <b>brain, you're staying firmly in the</b> <b>uncreative mode. So if you take on a</b> <b>problem that isn't obvious, like for</b> <b>example. How do you make your dog</b> <b>fly? Or how do you make a rock talk?</b> <b>There's an obvious solution there and so</b> <b>it forces old ideas that you've held to</b> <b>compete. Now when I say in rooms full of</b> <b>people, how do you make your dog fly?</b> <b>Someone inevitably always yells throw</b> <b>your dog. And I really, really hate</b> <b>answer because I love dogs. But if you</b> <b>want to throw into the chat an idea</b> <b>besides throw your dog and how you might</b> <b>make a dog fly, take some time. Throw</b> <b>those ideas out there. Let's see how</b> <b>your brains can merge old ideas together.</b> <b>There's always an interesting way to get</b> <b>a dog. Airborne</b> <b>enlisted.</b> <b>Finally, this is a tiny trick.</b> <b>Tiny trick. If you use the</b> <b>phrase thinking creatively</b> <b>instead of creative thinking instead of</b> <b>being creative, you help</b> <b>people change their</b> <b>perception. So here's the thing. If you</b> <b>ask somebody to be creative,</b> <b>you're asking them to be something.</b> <b>You're asking them to perform. If you ask</b> <b>them to think creatively, you're</b> <b>creating permission for them to</b> <b>operate their brains differently. You're</b> <b>inviting them in. To think</b> <b>creatively, it makes it easier to take a</b> <b>risk. It makes it easier to volunteer a</b> <b>weird idea as opposed to telling somebody</b> <b>be something, just be more creative.</b> <b>That's a really hard thing to hear if</b> <b>you're struggling to activate your</b> <b>creativity.</b> <b>So what does all this mean? What</b> <b>does it mean to be able to be creative?</b> <b>What does it mean when you put these</b> <b>kinds of exercises into practice?</b> <b>So there is this guy, his name is</b> <b>Robert. He went out and he did a study</b> <b>and he worked with city, with city</b> <b>employees from Orange County, California,</b> <b>and he did a bunch of training</b> <b>exercises and they were games. They were</b> <b>not related to their everyday jobs. They</b> <b>were fun, they were different. They were</b> <b>easy. They were a little bit less serious</b> <b>and probably pretty goofy. And after he</b> <b>did six weeks of this training.</b> <b>They put out essentially a new ideas box.</b> <b>So they put a new ideas box out and they</b> <b>said to folks. Add your new</b> <b>ideas. There was a 55%</b> <b>increase in new idea generation after</b> <b>six weeks of doing fun, creative,</b> <b>inspired games. These ideas, by the</b> <b>way, led to, you know</b> <b>, $600,000 in new revenue and a savings</b> <b>of $3.5 million. Before I</b> <b>worked for Arizona State University, I</b> <b>worked for a group called Downtown</b> <b>Phoenix, Inc. It's a it's city</b> <b>adjacent. Let's say it's a city adjacent</b> <b>kind of business. Our entire operating</b> <b>budget for a year was three and a half</b> <b>million dollars. So the idea that these</b> <b>city employees thought of ideas to save</b> <b>that much money is significant in that</b> <b>space. And what it tells me is that</b> <b>having fun with creativity really</b> <b>works. And so out</b> <b>of all of this research, out of</b> <b>everything that I learned and understood,</b> <b>I invented something called</b> <b>Creative Fridays. And I want to show you</b> <b>a little bit of what Creative Fridays</b> <b>look like.</b> <b>What's up?</b> <b>Sorry, I'm like a little laggy. My</b> <b>internet's really bad today. Are you</b> <b>ready for this?Are we ready for this? I</b> <b>think we're ready for this.</b> <b>Reach out my hand.</b> <b>Go, go, go, go, go,</b> <b>go. Go. Go, go, go, go, go, go go go.</b> <b>Well, pick me up.</b> <b>Tell you.</b> <b>Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.</b> <b>Well.</b> <b>It's OK, so my team is amazing. So my</b> <b>team made that challenge in</b> <b>one day. They actually did it in</b> <b>about 5 1/2 hours and theycame to</b> <b>work that morning for Creative Fridays.</b> <b>And the challenge was to create a Rube</b> <b>Goldberg device that connected over Zoom.</b> <b>This was in October of</b> <b>2020. I don't know if you remember</b> <b>October of 2020 well, but toilet paper</b> <b>was still a bit of an issue. Like, it was</b> <b>around, but there wasn't tons of it. And</b> <b>I just so delight in how ridiculous</b> <b>they are that they decided to flaunt how</b> <b>much toilet paper they had in their</b> <b>houses. One person had a whole stack that</b> <b>was like a little, you know, we were</b> <b>like, oh man, if we're desperate, we know</b> <b>where to go. So here's the thing. This</b> <b>challenge has nothing to do with their</b> <b>jobs. And they had to spend the day</b> <b>problem solving. How are we going to make</b> <b>this video happen? How are we going to</b> <b>figure out how to do this? And so they</b> <b>went through a lot of different ideas.</b> <b>This is a slide from their actual</b> <b>brainstorming deck and they had two</b> <b>plans. The first plan was</b> <b>record your video on your phone and send</b> <b>it to Joel, who volunteered to edit the</b> <b>video. The second plan was we're going to</b> <b>do it live, which was really risky.</b> <b>And you can see that they started mapping</b> <b>out, OK, how does the toilet paper have</b> <b>to flow across these screens if we do it</b> <b>live before they realized that</b> <b>everyone's zoom screen shows the squares</b> <b>in different configurations. And so they</b> <b>knew that it wouldn't work. And so then</b> <b>they had this idea. OK, we're all going</b> <b>to gather together. We're going to hold</b> <b>each other accountable and submit these</b> <b>videos to Joel. And poor Joel gets these</b> <b>videos at like 2:00 PM and he has that</b> <b>whole thing edited together by 4, which</b> <b>is really impressive and honestly,</b> <b>the lightful. So what is this</b> <b>Creative Friday thing? What am I talking</b> <b>about when I talk about Creative Fridays?</b> <b>So I hold Creative Fridays every other</b> <b>month. I invite the entire team. It's</b> <b>not mandatory. If you have too much work</b> <b>going on that day, no problem. But in an</b> <b>ideal world, I love when everyone shows</b> <b>up and the whole Friday is blocked only</b> <b>to do creative exercises. So this is the</b> <b>meeting invitation. This is the literal</b> <b>text that goes out to the group.</b> <b>And it says it blocks. We're going to</b> <b>have fun, we're going to exercise our</b> <b>creative freedom, and everyone is going</b> <b>to take the day to work together and</b> <b>independently on a solution to a likely</b> <b>ridiculous challenge. This wording is</b> <b>important because I'm priming them that</b> <b>we're going to have fun together. This is</b> <b>going to be silly, and it's going to be</b> <b>fun. The</b> <b>biggest trick if you want to lead your</b> <b>team or if you yourself want to increase</b> <b>your creativity, is very</b> <b>simple. The trick is to think gardening,</b> <b>not architecture. I love this quote. This</b> <b>quote comes from Brian Eno. Did you know</b> <b>he was the creator of that Windows 95?</b> <b>Sound that like that pops on. He made</b> <b>that. He gets paid royalties for that.</b> <b>But he also produced a bunch of amazing</b> <b>records for bands like You 2 and David</b> <b>Bowie. The reason this idea is really</b> <b>important is that.</b> <b>Gardening is a little bit of chaos.</b> <b>I love to garden. I even garden in the</b> <b>Summer of Phoenix, which might be a</b> <b>version of insanity. But what have you.</b> <b>And the idea of gardening is that you're</b> <b>building this container, You're preparing</b> <b>the soil, you're caring for that. You're</b> <b>planting some seeds. You're hoping it</b> <b>takes off. And if it takes off and it</b> <b>struggles, you nurture it. You you deal</b> <b>with the bugs, you increase the watering.</b> <b>Here we add some shade. You tend, and you</b> <b>care for that. Garden. But you accept</b> <b>that you're not really in control of a</b> <b>garden, basically, ever.</b> <b>Architecture, on the other hand, is</b> <b>highly controlled. You have to account</b> <b>for the weight of the people in the</b> <b>building and all of the angles and where</b> <b>the air vents go. And I don't even know</b> <b>what, because I'm not in the</b> <b>architecture space. But you have to plan</b> <b>for everything, and you have to control</b> <b>for everything before the build even</b> <b>starts. If you're trying to control and</b> <b>manage creativity in that way, you're</b> <b>going to turn off. That creative brain,</b> <b>because you're not giving it room to be</b> <b>less serious and to play and to have fun.</b> <b>So what you want to cultivate in your</b> <b>creativity, practice for yourself and</b> <b>others, is a sense of gardening. Even</b> <b>better if you decide to go for what I</b> <b>call chaos gardening, where you throw</b> <b>seeds out and you're beautifully</b> <b>surprised by what generates.</b> <b>So with that, I want to invite you all</b> <b>to exercise some</b> <b>creative thinking with me this morning.</b> <b>This is where the three sheets of paper</b> <b>come in. So if you're ready, give</b> <b>yourself like a moment of like, yes, I'm</b> <b>going to do this and it's going to be</b> <b>fine. And so grab that sheet of</b> <b>paper, grab a pen, and I'm going to give</b> <b>you the first prompt. And I'm going to do</b> <b>it with you, by the way.</b> <b>So here's the thing, hands are really</b> <b>hard to draw, so I'd like you to use your</b> <b>non dominant hand and I want</b> <b>you to draw your other</b> <b>hand. In as much</b> <b>detail as you can muster, and I'm going</b> <b>to give you 30 seconds and that 30</b> <b>seconds starts. Yeah.</b> <b>If you are rushing along in your hands,</b> <b>don't forget to maybe add in some</b> <b>knuckles. Or maybe you happen to have</b> <b>very hairy hands and you can add in some</b> <b>hair. OK. And</b> <b>that's time.</b> <b>Now I'd like to tell you all that I</b> <b>I went to art school for five years. I'm</b> <b>technically what you call a classically</b> <b>trained artist and that's the best that I</b> <b>can do with my non dominant hand.</b> <b>So if.</b> <b>Take pride in whatever you've created</b> <b>with your beautiful drawings there.</b> <b>OK, it's time for a fresh sheet of</b> <b>paper. Now for this one, I want to invite</b> <b>you all to share what you create in the</b> <b>chat. If it's easier for you to type,</b> <b>feel free to type. I'd like you</b> <b>to write a six word story.</b> <b>Only 6 words, and it has to be a story,</b> <b>it's not an introduction. It's not</b> <b>a beginning of a sentence. It's a six</b> <b>word story. And extra bonus points,</b> <b>make it not sad and</b> <b>not sad story. And once your story is</b> <b>complete, add it in the chat. I'm going</b> <b>to give you all a minute and I'm going to</b> <b>do this too.</b> <b>OK. That's your</b> <b>minute. I'm going to wait for a few</b> <b>to come in because there's some really</b> <b>great ones in this chat. We rode the</b> <b>train to NYC. That's a lovely</b> <b>story. That's a beautiful story. I love</b> <b>that story. My story,</b> <b>for what it's worth, is a glorious day to</b> <b>get lost.</b> <b>See if there's any else that come</b> <b>through. Look, 6</b> <b>words. A lot of words. My</b> <b>cat rules my little family. OK, that is a</b> <b>perfectly complete picture of a</b> <b>story. We know what's happening in that</b> <b>person's life. They have the little</b> <b>family. They have the feisty cat. What a</b> <b>fantastic six word story.</b> <b>Ohh, Mr. Blue Sky is shining today,</b> <b>guys. These are beautiful and way to make</b> <b>them not sad. I love it. Beautiful</b> <b>execution of storytelling. Thank you all</b> <b>for joining me. We have one more</b> <b>activity now. Full disclosure,</b> <b>we're going to see how this goes. So</b> <b>there's a really cool website called</b> <b>Proto Bot and I am going to click on</b> <b>this link and Proto Bot is going to</b> <b>automatically generate a prompt.</b> <b>I do not know what this prompt is going</b> <b>to be, and like 95% ofthe</b> <b>time Proto bot is appropriate and five to</b> <b>the time it says really weird things. So</b> <b>that says a really weird thing. I'm just</b> <b>going to refresh it quickly and we're</b> <b>going to work it through. So here we go.</b> <b>I'm going to pull up this prompt and</b> <b>we're all going to draw it together.</b> <b>OK, this is fantastic. So your prompt</b> <b>is design A teapot that is</b> <b>much more complicated than it has to be,</b> <b>and for this I'm going to give you 2</b> <b>minutes. Good</b> <b>luck.</b> <b>OK, that's time.</b> <b>I really wish that I could see all of</b> <b>your teapots. I'll hold up mine for you</b> <b>again. Five years of art school, clearly.</b> <b>Excellent drawing. I've got a</b> <b>tiny mouse who has to turn</b> <b>a crank shaft to keep the water boiling</b> <b>in his teapot house. Much more</b> <b>complicated than it has to be. If you all</b> <b>want to describe in the chat for a second</b> <b>any of your teapot innovations, please</b> <b>feel free to do so. And</b> <b>thank you for going along this</b> <b>creative journey with me.</b> <b>You've survived the creativity exercises.</b> <b>Now if you're feeling it and you're in a</b> <b>creative space, I fully suggest that you</b> <b>try doodling other things a great way</b> <b>while you listen to me. Wrap up this</b> <b>session, pick an object in front of you,</b> <b>put your pen on the paper, and draw</b> <b>that object in a continuous line without</b> <b>actually looking at your paper. And don't</b> <b>forget the details. The details are</b> <b>really what make it.</b> <b>So here's the thing. In 6</b> <b>minutes. Less than that, actually, we</b> <b>created a little magic together. Some of</b> <b>you might still be having those magic</b> <b>moments. You drew the hardest</b> <b>thing to draw, which is hands.</b> <b>Hands are incredibly difficult to</b> <b>draw. Many artists, in fact, avoid</b> <b>hands altogether. It's very common to see</b> <b>cartoonists with people with their hands</b> <b>in their pockets, which I just mind and</b> <b>you can't see because hands are that hard</b> <b>to draw. Why are hands so hard to draw?</b> <b>Well, they're very technical. There's a</b> <b>lot of shapes happening with hands.</b> <b>They're complex, they're shadow, and</b> <b>there's line. They're very, very</b> <b>intricate. But more than that,</b> <b>you see. Hands. Every day you have hands.</b> <b>You instantly know what a hand should</b> <b>look like without ever drawing it, which</b> <b>makes it very hard to draw, which is the</b> <b>whole point of using your non dominant</b> <b>hand. You've freed yourself from the</b> <b>seriousness of drawing a very hard to</b> <b>draw hand and instead you just let it</b> <b>fly out of you. And how awesome is that?</b> <b>You all drew a hand today and that's</b> <b>really incredible. You wrote a killer</b> <b>story. What an amazing thing to do,</b> <b>a six word story. There are beautiful</b> <b>stories. I love seeing them. You design</b> <b>something that has never been designed</b> <b>before. There is no teapot house with the</b> <b>mouse. Churning things out there,</b> <b>probably for good reason, might sound</b> <b>like an animal rights violation, but</b> <b>that's okay. You design something brand</b> <b>new and I hope, I hope</b> <b>that you might have laughed during the</b> <b>middle of a work day. Maybe really</b> <b>hard. At ASU we are all about</b> <b>innovation, if you might know this.</b> <b>If you're in the Phoenix area, there's #1</b> <b>innovation posters everywhere. And so to</b> <b>me, true innovation is taking a moment to</b> <b>recharge your creativity and laughing</b> <b>very hard in the middle of a work day.</b> <b>If you're curious, hey, what are some</b> <b>exercises that I can do to keep my</b> <b>creative brain alive and keep it moving?</b> <b>I have eight of them right off the bat.</b> <b>The first is that you can color a</b> <b>coloring book page in the mirror. This</b> <b>is way harder than it sounds. I</b> <b>do not know why it is so hard, but if</b> <b>you're experiencing writers block, or if</b> <b>you really need to like free up some</b> <b>thinking, I firmly recommend coloring</b> <b>in the mirror. Exceptionally difficult,</b> <b>Great at dissolving writers block. You</b> <b>can draw a horse. Horses are</b> <b>stupid hard to draw. No one is</b> <b>going to drawing horses unless they</b> <b>really practice drawing a horse. So</b> <b>draw a horse. You can design</b> <b>the chair of your dreams, and you can</b> <b>build it out of tinfoil if you have some</b> <b>tinfoil lying around at home. It's great</b> <b>to practice constructing things and</b> <b>sculpting things out of a really</b> <b>challenging medium. How good can any of</b> <b>us really be at sculpting and tinfoil? So</b> <b>it frees you instead to enjoy the</b> <b>activity of sculpting and get less hung</b> <b>up around. How do you sculpt the chair?</b> <b>You just do it's tinfoil. Even better if</b> <b>you have other materials lying around.</b> <b>Sculpt that same chair. More materials</b> <b>Sculpture out of pipe cleaners sculpted</b> <b>out of Plato. Anything you have that can</b> <b>be a modeling material. Give it a try.</b> <b>I invite you to try this today. If you're</b> <b>in the office, create a secret handshake</b> <b>with a colleague with at least four</b> <b>moves. This is an excellent, excellent</b> <b>way to freeze some creativity, because</b> <b>you have to collaborate with somebody and</b> <b>you have to find an appropriate response.</b> <b>Handshakes have sets of rules that we all</b> <b>know, and a secret one is even better.</b> <b>And like, who doesn't want an inside joke?</b> <b>This is a great opportunity too. You can</b> <b>use the letters of the alphabet to make</b> <b>stick people. So use the letters of your</b> <b>name, for example, and see how many stick</b> <b>people you can make using letters for a</b> <b>purpose they're not intended for. Mix up,</b> <b>uppercase, lowercase. It's a great time.</b> <b>If it's beautiful where you are in the</b> <b>country today, go on a color walk.</b> <b>Photograph everything you see that's</b> <b>yellow or red or anything. This</b> <b>fundamentally changes the way that you</b> <b>interact with and see your space around</b> <b>you. When you're looking for something</b> <b>specific, you see things that you may not</b> <b>have seen before. This starts to fire up</b> <b>that creative mode. This is one of my</b> <b>favorites. Draw a friend. Or if you</b> <b>want to live dangerously, draw a stranger</b> <b>in a continuous line without looking at</b> <b>your paper. Faces, horses, and</b> <b>hands are those three hardest things to</b> <b>draw. In my estimation, faces are</b> <b>similar. We all inherently know what a</b> <b>face should look like, so freeing</b> <b>yourself from what you think that should</b> <b>be and drawing it blind is a fantastic</b> <b>way to challenge old ideas.</b> <b>Finally, big fan of this,</b> <b>I'm sure baskin-robbins is not creates</b> <b>31 upsetting ice cream flavors.</b> <b>Ice cream should be delicious, but what</b> <b>if you make it upsetting? What if you</b> <b>make it deeply offensive? What if you</b> <b>create mulch ice cream that's</b> <b>terrible, but again, forcing old</b> <b>ideas to collide to create something new</b> <b>and unique?If you're</b> <b>wondering. Hey, how do these</b> <b>Creative Fridays actually work? How do</b> <b>they actually perform? What does it mean</b> <b>when you do creativity exercises at</b> <b>scale? Yes, they do work. I</b> <b>know in my team that when we have</b> <b>creative thinking exercises the next</b> <b>week, they complete their tasks</b> <b>faster with more joy and we actually get</b> <b>more done. We've recharged the creative</b> <b>thinking superpowers in their brain and</b> <b>given them permission to think</b> <b>differently. This carries over into the</b> <b>next week and into the next month. The</b> <b>other thing is. These are quotes. So John</b> <b>is somebody who is on my team after a</b> <b>creative Friday, John said. I spent the</b> <b>last three hours working at the fullest</b> <b>capacity of my brain. This is exactly</b> <b>what I'm going for. I have somebody who</b> <b>is utilizing all of their creative</b> <b>potential, working really hard, but</b> <b>operating and turning on that creative</b> <b>brain. I had an Anna</b> <b>who's a designer on my team. She had to</b> <b>examine her own perfectionism to get the</b> <b>work done, and she's proud of what she</b> <b>made. This is a really great project.</b> <b>They had to make parody music videos</b> <b>on topics that I gave them, and hers</b> <b>happened to be Parmesan cheese. She</b> <b>had to let go of perfect and force those</b> <b>old ideas to compete. She had to try</b> <b>something really weird, and she ended up</b> <b>really proud of what she did by letting</b> <b>go and letting the creativity. Happen.</b> <b>Finally, Jesse is a project manager</b> <b>and about two months ago we</b> <b>had an urgent project come through with</b> <b>the kind of project that normally would</b> <b>take us a week to do. We really had a</b> <b>day. We got it at 9:00 AM. We had to turn</b> <b>it at 5:00 PM. The team</b> <b>is so well trained into quick problem</b> <b>solving, into being creative, into being</b> <b>collaborative. Because of that training,</b> <b>we turned the project an hour early, we</b> <b>got it done quicker, and it's because</b> <b>I've trained and coached them into how</b> <b>those things creatively, how to</b> <b>collaborate, how to trust each other and</b> <b>how to have fun. So these are great</b> <b>reasons to bring a creative Friday</b> <b>practice or something similar into your</b> <b>workplace. I always get a</b> <b>question when I talk about Creative</b> <b>Fridays of how did you convince your</b> <b>leadership to do this?Here's the</b> <b>thing. I did the research, which I've now</b> <b>shared all of the research with you all.</b> <b>So you now have the exact research that I</b> <b>have. And I just went ahead and did it.</b> <b>I did the research. I said I'm going to</b> <b>give this a try and I'm going to see what</b> <b>happens. And I asked for forgiveness</b> <b>later. It's been going now.</b> <b>For four years. I have</b> <b>people from all across the company ask,</b> <b>hey, can I join a creative Fridays? I</b> <b>want to be part of it. It's worth</b> <b>starting this practice and setting your</b> <b>and your teams and your colleagues</b> <b>creativity free. We know it's a needed</b> <b>skill set. So with that, I'm happy to</b> <b>take any questions while I</b> <b>answer questions. I'm going to leave</b> <b>these activities on the screen in case</b> <b>you want to screenshot them or start</b> <b>doing some of them or anything, but I'm</b> <b>happy to take an answer questions with</b> <b>our remaining 5 minutes.</b> <b>Thank you so much, Anna. There's all a</b> <b>lot of good ice cream flavors or bad ice</b> <b>cream flavors going on in the chat right</b> <b>now. We do have a lot of questions that</b> <b>have been coming through the the first</b> <b>set has had 18 up votes is what</b> <b>sort of things could be done daily to</b> <b>stimulate the creative brain. Yeah,</b> <b>so these activities here are a great way</b> <b>to stimulate your creative brain. It's</b> <b>all about the habit of it as opposed to</b> <b>it being something big. So my suggestion</b> <b>is to pick something to you that feels</b> <b>repeatable. So for example, it may not</b> <b>be feasible for you to color something in</b> <b>the mirror every single day, but it might</b> <b>be feasible for you to doodle at your</b> <b>desk. It might be feasible for you to</b> <b>write a six word story. Pick something</b> <b>that feels like you can repeat it often</b> <b>and easily, and go for that. The</b> <b>idea with.</b> <b>Creating a routine to stimulate your</b> <b>brain is giving yourself permission to</b> <b>have that routine. So find something that</b> <b>feels easy and do that. I consider, by</b> <b>the way, gardening as an act of</b> <b>creativity. You don't. It doesn't have to</b> <b>be rigid. It doesn't have to be artistic.</b> <b>It doesn't have to have a deep, rich</b> <b>practice. It can be something to you that</b> <b>forces you to have old ideas compete.</b> <b>Alright, the next question, where do you</b> <b>think the presence of</b> <b>AI fits into this creative sphere?</b> <b>Ohh man. I had a feeling that this</b> <b>question was going to come. I have big</b> <b>feelings about AI. I think that AI is a</b> <b>really powerful tool and I also think</b> <b>that it's something that can limit</b> <b>creativity because everything is at your</b> <b>fingertips in a way that doesn't force</b> <b>you to have old ideas compete. So</b> <b>on my team we've been talking a lot about</b> <b>what does it mean to use AI? What does it</b> <b>mean to use that?Faith. Not from an</b> <b>ethical concern, although of course we</b> <b>have those conversations too, but more</b> <b>from a creative concern. How do we</b> <b>preserve expertise? How do we preserve</b> <b>the time spent thinking to generate novel</b> <b>and unusual and new ideas? When you can</b> <b>type a prompt into a chat bot and have it</b> <b>feed exactly to you back what you wanted</b> <b>it to do, you're not forcing that habit</b> <b>in your brain to develop. Now some folks</b> <b>feel amazing prompts into.</b> <b>ChatGPT or other spaces. I'm not</b> <b>discounting that, but I would encourage</b> <b>you to think of it as a tool, not an</b> <b>exercise with an outcome or not something</b> <b>that is creative in and of itself. You</b> <b>still have to bring the creative thinking</b> <b>to the table.</b> <b>Right. Next question. I think we have</b> <b>time for about two more. How do you</b> <b>balance the need to be productive like</b> <b>pumping out lots of design jobs quickly</b> <b>with the need to be creative?</b> <b>Oh man, I love this question. So we we</b> <b>battled this all the time and my team, we</b> <b>do about 2500 projects a year. This is</b> <b>designers, writers, video. We're a team of</b> <b>11. That's a pretty huge productivity</b> <b>load and one of the things that we talk</b> <b>about is balance. Sometimes good enough</b> <b>is good enough and sometimes you have to</b> <b>bring creative thinking to the table. So</b> <b>the rule that I use is that if something</b> <b>is a problem we haven't solved before,</b> <b>spend the time to invest the creativity.</b> <b>Spend the time to get creative. If this</b> <b>is a problem that we solve continuously,</b> <b>that's a great one to put into what I</b> <b>call the production space. I come out of</b> <b>the journalism background. Turn and burn</b> <b>that one. Let it go. But spend the time</b> <b>where something is new or it requires</b> <b>unique problem solving. But your creative</b> <b>brain can't solve every problem all</b> <b>day, every day without getting completely</b> <b>exhausted. So it's about picking and</b> <b>choosing where the creative energy is</b> <b>best spent.</b> <b>And our final question, how do you bring</b> <b>creative thinking into an our already</b> <b>established process or project?Oh</b> <b>yeah. So that's one of my favorite things</b> <b>to do. So one of the things that we do</b> <b>in to establish projects or establish</b> <b>processes, if we have the space to do so,</b> <b>sometimes they'll turn and burn, like I</b> <b>said. But when you have time, what I love</b> <b>to do is what's called an expert</b> <b>consultation meeting. So I bring the</b> <b>folks in the room who have expertise in</b> <b>the space that I may not but that the</b> <b>team may not. And what I do most often</b> <b>is, I pose an unsolvable question.</b> <b>So if we're trying to figure out how to</b> <b>create. Something it hasn't been created</b> <b>before. I don't tell them that. That</b> <b>shuts down creative thought. Instead,</b> <b>what I like to say is OK, what does</b> <b>it mean to make somebody read this and</b> <b>feel excited, or enthusiastic or</b> <b>inspired or I dig really deep into my</b> <b>emotional vocabulary. When you ask</b> <b>somebody to generate a solution towards a</b> <b>feeling, it forces old ideas to</b> <b>collide and helps to create novel</b> <b>responses. That usually gets us much</b> <b>farther along the road to a creative</b> <b>solution. Than putting the problem</b> <b>directly in front of my team. I always</b> <b>start with solving for emotions before</b> <b>solving for logistics, and I bake in time</b> <b>to do that with the experts at the table</b> <b>before we finalize the marketing plan</b> <b>or the fundraising plan or whatever.</b> <b>All right. Well, that gets us to our</b> <b>time. But thank you so much, Anna, for</b> <b>joining us during our expertise and</b> <b>allowing us to be creative on a diffuse</b> <b>day. For those of you who are</b> <b>online, we are going to take a 15 minute</b> <b>break until we get into the next round of</b> <b>elective sessions at the top of the hour.</b> <b>Thank you so much. Thank you.</b>

video

Anna Consie

The Courage to Be Creative

creativity

neuroscience

psychology

leadership quality

new idea generation