What are you doing to capitalize on the creativity around you? Creativity is the natural birthright of every person. And depending on whom you talk to (or read), it is considered the number one competitive advantage for success in business and life today. So what are you doing to unleash its potential? Buddhist teachings refer to something called Crazy Wisdom. It is

“an innocent state of mind that has the quality of early morning—fresh, sparkling, and completely awake.” (Chögyam Trungpa)

I am saddened by the dull, stale thinking that goes on in most of our organizations and institutions. People seem really bored and most brilliant ideas remain dormant due to the fact that no conditions exist to nurture people’s natural creative talents. To unleash even a little of that crazy wisdom in your organization, try the following:

1. Assume responsibility for building your creative capacity.
2. Be willing to set aside assumptions about your or other people’s lack of creativity.
3. Ask people about how they think they could bring more creativity to their work.
4. Create an environment that is conducive to good conversation, experimentation and idea sharing across departments and industries.
5. Take a different approach when it comes to process and planning.
6. Challenge people with good questions and stimulating opportunities.
7. See mistakes as part of the necessary learning and feedback process.
8. Provide a formal means for idea generation.
9. Decide how you will capture good ideas.
10. Don’t rush to evaluate.
11. Utilize creativity building tools whenever you can.
12. Develop your appreciation for and understanding of creativity.
13. Get dirty, messy and a little crazy.
14. Be willing to have fun and learn with others.

I invite you to leave a reply regarding your efforts to build the creative capacity in your life and work…Thank you. Yael