The Creative Advantage

The objective of this program is to lay out the science behind creativity, to not only appreciate our creative potential but to give us all the motivation and the tools to obtain a creative advantage in all aspects of life.

The introductory video explains the  Creative Advantage Program Model that this program is structured around. Download the Program Model to see each of the seven steps and how they fit together.

Note: If you're not sure about the global context for the need to enhance your creativity, skip ahead to the Bonus Module: Understanding What’s Defining the World Today, for an introduction to why creativity is so important today.

Welcome to the Creative Advantage

This video provides an overview of how the program is structured, what’s included and what to expect.

Can you guess who this creative genius is? While there are many who still cling to the belief that creatives are borne and not created, this case study provides a reminder that this is a misconception. In buying into this myth they miss out on benefiting from a fundamentally essential strength of being human.

Step 1: Self-Assessment – What’s your creative strength?

We’ll begin this online program by raising your awareness about how you approach creativity whether it be in problem solving, creative thinking or more every day approaches. Once you know where you’re at you can then focus on building your creative advantage.

As you’ll learn we’re all creative , so how do you express your creativity?

Undertake Activity 1 - the Creativity Self Assessment.

This activity aims to raise your awareness about the multifaceted elements of creativity. All the topics in the assessment will be covered in more detail throughout the online program.

After listening to the videos undertake the second activity to help relate this information covered to your own ways of expressing creativity.

Learn the how, what, why and when of creativity. How we define creativity, when humans evolved to be creative, why we need to be creative and what’s going on in the creative brain.

Learn about the whole brain at work and how the brain can be rewired to become more creative. Then dissect problem solving to explore deliberate and spontaneous creative modes in action.

"Creativity is the innate quest for originality driven by an enduring human passion for novelty, the discovery of the new, solving of old challenges and the evoking of a new thrill."

Find Out More

We are not only born to be creative, we find greater fulfilment when we are creative.

The sentiment behind this statement provides insight into our need to express our individualism through creativity.

Find Out More

“The ability to change anything was the change that changed everything”

Our ability to think creativity isn’t just a nice thing to have, it evolved as a survival skill.

Find Out More

Let’s explore the neuroscience that provides an explanation as to what happens in the brain to uncover the brain regions that are most active during problem solving and creativity.

In this section we’ll cover

- A simple way to explain the two different forms of creativity we experience. These are known as the analysis and insight creative modes;

- we dispel the right and left brain creativity myth and introduce how the whole brain is involved in creative thinking;

- the role that imagination plays in generating creative ideas through its brain links;

- how the brain communicates with itself and how this relates to learning something new;

- and the fascinating new area of neuroplasticity and how the brain rewires to stay adaptative to life’s experiences.

Let’s consider what happens when you are confronted with a problem.

Do you sit down and analytically work through it, or do you more often just wait for a sudden insight where a solution pops into your head out of mid-air? More often than not, you probably have experienced both. These are the so called ‘analysis verses insight’ creative modes.

Find Out More

What’s actually going on in the brain, neuroscientists have begun to uncover the brain regions that are most active during problem solving and creativity.

Find Out More

There’s a lot of interest in the brain’s ability to change or rewire referred to as neuroplasticity. Appreciating the brain’s ability to learn helps us understand the potential for greater creative processes in our lives.

Find Out More

There’re numerous models that have been developed to explain the creative problem solving process. This lecture highlights two of these to help you to visualise the thought cycles we undergo during creative thinking, via both the analysis and insight modes. Both have a four step process that take us from problem to resolution phase. They both start with a question that has come to you either from an idea driven by curiosity or a challenge you’re grappling with.

Find Out More

Then undertake 2 activities to reinforce your learning's.

Step 3: Explore the Creative Elements

Learn how to manage the four elements that influence every creative outcome. They’re mindset and motivation, domain expertise, creative skillsets and your social and work environment. Understanding the science behind each element provides you with a means to leverage these to your creative advantage.

The Creative Elements Model provides a unifying model that helps makes sense of the various elements involved in building our internal creative capacity as well as how we might influence the external environment to achieve better creative results. When working together these elements can influence how creative an individual can become. When organisations understand and apply this model, this can support their staff to be their best creative selves.

Find Out More

The Creative Advantage program fosters a mindset that encourages an open mind, sees errors as opportunities to learn and recognises that creativity skills can be learnt and enhanced through practice.

Find Out More

The next element of the Creative Elements Model is called our Domain Expertise. Any Big C creative has worked hard to get to where they are, specifically in gaining the education, technical skills and knowledge needed to be the successful in their domain. Let’s focus on the additional value to be gained through deliberate practice. It turns out the way practice has a large bearing on how we can learn and the sorts of abilities that can be developed.

Find Out More

Let’s now explore how personality and our behavioural traits can influence our approach to creativity. In particular the specific skills you can develop to become more creative.

Find Out More

The final element of this model is an external element and refers to the areas of influence in across your personal, social and work environments.

Find Out More

In the early 20th century Einstein pretty much rewrote the way we thought about how the universe worked. Overtime he has become a symbol for creativity, intelligence and genius. Naturally researchers and historians have been curious about what made him tick.

Find Out More

Step 4 : Creating the Conditions for Creativity

Learn where ideas and creativity intersect to unlock how to generate more and better ideas. Increase your brain’s creative capacity to harness spontaneous insights, the value of slow motion multitasking, the unexpected benefits of procrastination and boredom and the power of play. Then learn how to leverage visualisation to rewire your brain power.

In Becoming More Creative we’ll cover

· The most important way to have good ideas, is to have a lot of ideas,

· New ideas are built upon existing, reusing and borrowing ideas,

· Environments like cafes and conferences, are not only conducive to social interaction, but are an important method to create, diffuse, share and combine ideas in new ways,

· People who are good at having creative ideas are good at seeing connections, connecting ideas and people, and

· The single most important thing you can do to increase creativity in the workplace… is to have a diverse workforce.

In much of the discussion about creativity, there’s a consistent theme that emerges about how we can generate creative ideas by having many ideas and from placing ourselves in a diverse and connected environment.

Find Out More

Certain environments enhance the brain’s natural capacity to make new associations and connect ideas. Creativity emerges when different people, from different disciples mix, even collide, in living, office or social environments.Its known as the ‘coffeehouse model’ of creativity.

Find Out More

The term ‘contagion’ is used to describe the potential impact of our social connections. Seeking increased diversity in our networks, who we work with and our tribes can significantly support us to generate ideas.

Find Out More

While we’re having lots of ideas , how do we capture these? Filtering, sorting and storing ideas is a matter of creating a system that works for you.

Find Out More

Then undertake the activity. Making connections helps you see new options and create unusual solutions, often leading to original ideas. You can train your ability to see, make connections and improve your capacity to think creatively.

Let’s explore techniques to develop, capture and turn vague thoughts into creative ideas.

In this section we’ll cover

· How you can induce an aha creative insight,

· The value of having multiple projects on the go at the same time to cross fertilise and help to reframe problems ,

· Why it may not be a coincidence that some of the most original thinkers in history were procrastinators and how this could assist ideas subconsciously develop,

· What elite sportspeople, musicians and scientists all have in common, they all use visualisation to their advantage,

· From a neuroscience perspective, imagining an act and doing it are not as different as they sound.

Sometimes the brain needs time to incubate thoughts before they make sense. So how do we create the right conditions for this insight to be incubated? It's about noticing ‘breakout moments’ that can get you to the other side of a problem when you’re stuck.

Find Out More

Both artists and scientists have confirmed they use something called slow motion multitasking. While slow-motion multitasking feels counterintuitive, the term describes having multiple projects on the go at the same time and moving between these projects as your mood or situation demands. In essence it’s about slowing thinking down and enabling the connections between ideas to emerge.

Find Out More

It may not be a coincidence that some of the most original thinkers and inventors in history were procrastinators. Rather than seeing this as a negative behaviour, it might actually help you to be more creative.

Find Out More

Neuroscience points to the use of mental imagery as a technique used by sports people and encouraged by their sports psychologists as part of their preparation. Referred to as visualisation, it’s proven to provide a competitive advantage and increase confidence as it provides a way to mentally rehearse before an event.

Find Out More

Then undertake the activity and reflect on the many ways you can use this extraordinary advantage in your creative thinking.

We intuitively know that play is beneficial for children’s development, so what about in adults? In this lecture we’ll cover

· How animals evolved to incorporate play into our lives,

· The different ways you can express playfulness as an adult,

· And the growing research behind living a playful life can assist in the workplace, relationships , in our learning and to be more creative

Then undertake the activity to bring play back into your home, work and way of life.

With a culture obsessed with efficiency and productivity, how might we view our inner environment of daydreaming or boredom?

In this lecture we'll cover the latest research on both states of mind and its links to creativity.

Find Out More

Step 5: Enhance the Body - Brain Connection

Your creativity is dependent on your body and brain’s health. Learn how to manage this to enhance your creativity through the value of sleep, movement and restorative activities such as solitude, mediation and being in natural settings. Then understand how the design of your physical space is crucial to your creative output.

Introduction to the value of sleep to enhance creativity.  In this section we’ll cover

· The health benefits of sleep and the implications of poor quality and less quantity

· Why our bodies biologically need sleep

· Can we actually sleep on a problem to resolve it?

· Are naps worth it?

· Why teenagers need more sleep.

Then undertake the activity to assess your sleep hygiene.

Let's explore the health implications, with both the quality and quantity of sleep proving to be essential in maintaining a healthy immune system.

Find Out More

Sleep is a cognitively restorative time where learning occurs with evidence that we process, consolidate and stabilise memory during sleep. During sleep, we explore untried avenues and sharpen our brain’s ability to connect ideas and problem solve.

Then undertake the activity.

Introduction and more on the profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health from movement and exercise.

What we’ll cover

· The overall beneficial effects of movement and exercise and the links to creativity ,

· The evidence that exercise induces adult neurogenesis, that is, the birth of new neurons from stem cells and plays a significant role in brain plasticity,

· What we can learn from people who have reached 100 years of age , and

· What is the brain body connection?

Then undertake the activity.

Just as the body cycles during sleep, it also oscillates from high to low alertness every ninety minutes during the day. In effect, the body is asking for a break. We derive recovery not just by literally stopping what we’re doing, but by moving and physical activity.

Find Out More

Let's tap into solitude, meditation and being in nature. In this section we’ll cover

· How time alone, slowing down and avoiding distractions can incubate your creative ideas,

· The evidence that supports meditation and mindfulness ability to influence insight and problem solving, and

· How exposure to nature can decrease stress and improve performance on tasks measuring attention , expanding your thinking and jolting your creativity.

Then undertake the activity to work on your daily restorative breaks.

Time alone can enrich us. The key is to slow down, remove distractions, especially smartphones and other devices, and spend time with your inner thoughts, to enable a more relaxed wandering mind.

Find Out More

There’s a growing body of research showing that our fatigued brains feel restored and our mental performance can improve through being in nature.

Undertake the reading activity providing a summary of international studies showing the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain.

One of the most obvious influences on our creativity is the actual space we work, live and create in, none more so than the workplace. This section will cover the pros and cons of open plan verses more tailored work spaces.

Then undertake the activity to help you apply this learning to how you might leverage this to create a creative advantage.

Step 6 Build a Creative Routine

Build your creative practice by identifying and establishing a creative routine. Learn the creative rhythm method to leverage the neuroplasticity behind habit. Then overcome barriers, capture the benefits of failure and create strategies to overcome what gets in your way.

Are you too busy to pause and reflect? This is about identifying if the way you manage external commitments, devices, or time might be acting as a barrier to creativity.

What we’ll cover:

· how understanding both habits and routines can reduce overwhelm,

· the value of daily practices, with a focus on establishing routines that free up time and energy for creative outcomes and

· harnessing your habits to build creative muscle.

We humans are creatures of habit. It’s thought that 95 percent of our behaviour occurs out of habit, either consciously or unconsciously, or in reaction to external demands.

Find Out More

Let’s explore how we can maintain a space for creativity while working with the natural rhythms of the creative process. Consider your approach to the following and identify if any could be limiting your ability to set up healthy and creative daily routines. When we have practices that build a foundation, our overall creative capacity can benefit.

Find Out More

Let’s consider our most limited resource, that is, time. The measurement of the effect of time of day on brainpower shows that people have a preference for when they learn and remember things.

Find Out More

Then undertake two activities to harness your habits and build creative muscle.

This is a time to pause. Up to now we’ve focussed on exploring your approach to creativity, your skillset and motivation.

But lots of things can get in the way of living a creative life, if it were easy, you’d already be leveraging these advantages.

Let’s identify what could get in the way. This section is designed to assist you to

· Identify what’s holding you back either through self imposed or external factors,

· Build strategies to overcome them,

· Provide alternative ways to think about failure.

How we imprint experiences or respond to a trigger, both point to the power of the brain. The more we experience something the more we lay down neural pathways reinforcing the brain’s pattern recognition. This can influence how we might respond to a similar future experience.

Find Out More

Then undertake the activity.

The Creative Advantage has laid down a foundation for how we can approach overcoming barriers that could be limiting you. Let’s reflect on the take home messages to reinforce how we might use these to engage in creative practices that minimise barriers.

Find Out More

The biggest barrier, even enemy of creativity, is the fear of failure. Let's explore the Dyson story as a great example of how failure and error can be a great instrument for learning.

Find Out More

Then undertake the activity.

Step 7: Learn Creative Problem Solving Tools

Go from ideas to action with tools that you can use for every day and bigger problem solving. Be transformed by applying the information learned and make creativity a way of life.

We’ve learnt that we have two modes we can undertake to develop ideas. The key is to enable us to use both modes and to move fluidly between them. They both require us to be motivated, have domain /subject expertise, can be facilitated with attention to our skillsets and can benefit from the environment we are situated within.

This section focuses on the deliberate mode and outlines how we can increase our creativity capacity through a universal model known as the Creative Problem Solving Process.

There are four stages to the Creative Problem Solving Process: You’re already familiar with this:

· Clarify where we identify the challenges to be worked on,

· Ideate where we begin to generate ideas,

· Develop initial concepts and ideas into solutions,

· Implement where we move into action.

This lecture will focus on Step one Clarify and Step 2 Ideate.

Find Out More and undertake the activity as you progress through the four steps.

Converge after idea generation. This is about focus and refining ideas to ensure the best one is identified. This uses our ability to evaluate and transform many broad ideas into one specific workable solution that responds to the challenge statement we intend to address.

Implement and move into action. The implementation step brings all the efforts together to assist you to create a solid plan to achieve the goal set out in the challenge statement.

Selling the idea for broad acceptance:

If the idea you are actioning is to be of true value, it needs to be embraced by others. The environment your idea is entering needs to be assessed for supporters and resistors.

Creative problem solving process summary:

Our goal in this section is to explore the universal creative process by improving our creative thinking, identifying goals, to making plans and then to implementing these.

Further advice on when to use these tools.

If you’ve got this far this is a sign that you appreciate there’s something to be gained in investing in your capacity to achieve a creative advantage.

This section provides further practical tools and activities to help develop these creative thinking skills.

What we’ll cover:

· a reminder about the activities provided throughout this program,

· a cheat sheet highlighting useful everyday creative prompts, and

· an invitation to undertake the personalised Creativity Fitness Assessment.

What you’ll need: a notebook, pens and some dedicated alone time.

Reflect on your creative journey. Your task now is to create a roadmap to your creative advantage and in doing so, you’ll not only develop your problem solving capacities to help you through life’s difficulties, you’ll be choosing a pathway of creativity to enable you to lead your best life.

I congratulate you for completing this program and hope that the information contained will increase your understanding of the creativity process and inspire you to tap into its power to achieve greater personal and professional outcomes.

A special free bonus now awaits!

Bonus Module - Understanding What’s Defining the World Today and access to an additional online program.

The Resource Library is also available for further access.

Find Out More