I have encountered many situations where the solution wasn’t readily available. Perhaps “the plan” didn’t pan out or something “broke.”  What do you do?  You find a fix, a reasonable conclusion, or a theory to try so you can move forward. I’ve been told that I am creative and innovative. While I noticed my idea might be unique in that circle of people, I often wondered if I had truly been creative or just survived the circumstance by working the problem with a viable solution. Maybe I just found a new problem that no one else noticed and sought to fix it.

This topic comes up often with a dear friend and collaborative colleague of more than 25 years. Together we have been labeled as “super creative…a dynamic duo.”  We never see it that way. She says, “I have had to work at it. Everyone has creativity that comes out when given the right opportunities, and you surround yourself with people who allow you to be who you are and appreciate the talents and experiences you bring to the table.” I believe that we must acknowledge that personal perspective and a willingness to help find solutions drive how creative we become. Over time, you choose to improve that skill, or don’t.

Image created by B. Duke in Canva.

In this article, “Creativity Can Be Learned,” creativity is defined as generating new ideas. In a fast-changing world, new ideas and solving problems becomes more important than just knowledge. Dr. Tina Seeling believes we can learn this skill. In her TEDXStanford talk, “A crash course in creativity,” she shares her conclusion that our individual attitude, knowledge, and imagination (imagination engine) combined with our habitat, culture, and resources are the key to unlocking personal creativity.

Unfortunately, our life experiences have squelched potential, even discouraged looking beyond the box, the right answer, or the minimum required. Sir Ken Robinson made a case several years ago for school undermining creativity. George Land said that creativity has been buried by rules and regulations. We understand the importance of innovation and creativity in GIS. In fact, geospatial technologies are a collection of tools we use to research, document, analyze, and visualize both problems and solutions.

How do you jumpstart your creativity? Steven Kotler shares these three science-based strategies:

1. Make friends with your ACC. “Right before people viewed a problem that they’d eventually solve with insight, there was heightened activity in their brain’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC plays a role in salience and executive attention, and it’s the part that handles error correction by detecting conflicting signals in the brain.” The things we discussed in previous posts, will help fire up your ACC and in turn spawn your creativity.
2. Understand the importance of time. “We need to build non-time into our schedules. Non-time is time for daydreaming and psychological distancing. Daydreaming switches on the default mode network, enabling our subconscious to find remote associations between ideas. Non-time also gives us a little distance from our problems. That allows us to see things from multiple perspectives, to consider another’s point of view. If we don’t have the time to get that space from our emotions and take a break from the world, then we won’t have the luxury of alternative possibilities.”
3. Think inside the box. “That’s why one of my cardinal rules in work is: Always know your starts and your endings. If I have these twin cornerstones in place, whatever goes in between — a book, an article, a speech — is simply about connecting the dots. Without dots to connect, I can get stuck or waste time wandering into tangential territory (which helps explain why my first novel took 11 years to complete).”

Here are some things that help me “be creative,” when an answer doesn’t seem obvious:

• Phone a friend. Talk through the problem with a coworker or trusted friend. Two heads are most often better than one. Sometimes you just need to say it outloud, and bring it into the light for a new solution to make sense.
• Poll the audience. Crowdsourcing is almost “normal” today. With social media, forums, and open-source resources, you probably have good company in needing a solution.
• Research the topic. Often a simple internet search on the general topic leads me down a few rabbit holes of inspiration and enlightenment on the topic.

“Everyone has the key to their innovation engine, it’s up to them to turn it.” – Dr. Tina Seeling

If you need me, I’m already working on a new creative project!

Barbaree Duke
Geospatial Crusader