Creativity Constrained
When you think of creativity in your work, do you think creativity means being able to come up with anything to solve a problem?
One of the more interesting concepts about creativity is that creativity doesn’t work real well when you can, in fact, come up with anything to solve a problem.
There is a principle of creativity that says creativity is enhanced by constraints. That’s right, shackle down options that include everything. Put conditions around what you are trying to do. Don’t let “anything” rule — instead, make what you come up with work within the rules.
If you are an artist, creating anything is creatively limiting. But creating time pieces only out of carved wood puts exceptional constraints on your work — and frees up your creativity.
Being a photographer and being able to creatively shoot pictures of anything is limiting of your creativity. Instead, shooting only sunsets Pimps your creativity.
In your work, when someone asks you to be creative, ask them for the constraints: what conditions would you want to have around the creativity that would help solve the problem?
Then watch the creative juices flow.
For a real life example of this in action, check out The Midas Noogie over on Carpe Factum.
I have to admit that if I’m working on a project that has a big promotions budget, I tend to get lazy about cheap, non-traditional methods, and rely on the expensive traditional methods.
A lot of people cringe when they realize they have almost no budget. But sometimes it can get you out of the rut of always relying on what worked last year. This isn’t last year, so why not try something new?
Hi Eric,
Exactly. Not that I wouldn’t want to have a big promotion budget!
Even if you do, things get better if you wrap some constraints around the budget. You can have all the promotion dollars…but you can’t use any traditional media (e.g., television), only non-traditional media (e.g., text ads on blogs…).
We get distracted by shiny things especially the million shiny things when we don’t have constraints.