“There are creative thinkers and conventional thinkers,” explained one teacher. “Creative thinkers spend a lot of time clarifying the ‘what’. They then find imaginative ways to reach the goals. Conventional thinkers quickly jump to the ‘how’. They fail to see how the accepted ways can succeed – so then say things are impossible. Creative thinkers often follow the shape of a heart. They go around obstacles to reach the goal.”

The setting for this insight was conventional – the lecture hall at Keele University. The teacher stood on stage and explained that some people were suited to university, whilst others were not. The first group established credibility by following the system and gaining qualifications. The second group went around the system to reach their goals. They invented a product, published a book, made a film or whatever. They used their qualities to build credibility.

The teacher’s words made sense. I was a ‘mature’ first year student, having gained late entry to university after running therapeutic communities. But academic life was not for me and I yearned to return to working with people. The teacher’s model provided a way forward. So I left university to start my own business.

Can you think of a time when you employed this approach? You went around obstacles to reach the goal? You may have used it to find a job, solve a problem or produce an imaginative solution. Let’s explore how you can employ it in your life and work.

1) You can clarify the goal – the ‘what’.

Creative thinkers clarify the ‘what’ – the real results to achieve. The inventor of the ‘Walkman’ said: “I want to be able to walk around whilst also listening to my favourite music.” The pioneers of telephone banking said: “We want to enable customer to do transactions over the phone – rather than stand in line at a crowded bank. We also want to provide excellent service.” “I want to sell a guide to Alternative London,” said Nicholas Carr-Saunders, who published the book in 1970. “But I want to by-pass the normal sales routes. How can I make this happen?” Instead of dismissing such ideas out of hand, all these thinkers kept going until they found ways to deliver the goals. Nowadays their solutions seem obvious. At the time, however, they provided models for others who wanted to follow the creative road.

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe a specific challenge you would like to tackle. For example: “How to get paid for doing work I love; how to work with more positive people; how to encourage my child to get through school; how to help somebody to achieve a sense of success,” or whatever. Second, describe the ‘what’. Brainstorm all the results you want to achieve – then list these in order of priority. Try completing the following sentences.

The specific challenge I want to tackle is:

*

The specific ‘what’ – the real results I want to achieve are:

*

*

*

2) You can keep asking ‘how’ – and find creative ways to reach the goal.

This requires creativity and patience. Creativity calls for asking: “What are the real results to achieve? How can I/we achieve that result?” Patience calls for continually asking these questions until an answer emerges. Creativity can stem from imitation – learning from what has worked – or innovation. Imaginative thinking means asking questions like: “How can we use our strengths to reach the goal? What do we know works - and how can we expand that approach? If we had a blank piece of paper, what would we do to achieve the result? How can we go around obstacles to reach the goals? How can we create a prototype – a new system - that is more successful?” This is more likely to produce fresh ideas and find the creative road. Institutionalised thinking uses the present mind-set and asks: “How can we remove the barriers? How can we change the system?” This often results in following the conventional road and getting frustrated.

Nicholas Carr-Saunders, for example, adopted imaginative ways to sell Alternative London. In 1970 books were sold in bookshops – virtually nowhere else. Nicholas hired people to sell the book outside train stations, in Carnaby Street and other tourist attractions. The sellers paid cash up-front, then made their money from the commission. “But that is common practice,” somebody may say. Yes, it is today, but at the time it was quite different. Nicholas then moved on to his next creative project, protecting Covent Garden’s buildings from developers and founding Neal’s Yard. This venture was described in his obituary in The Independent.

“In 1976 he had fallen in love with and bought a warehouse in Neal’s Yard, then let as a store for theatrical scenery. The end of its lease coincided with the closing of the old fruit market and the start of the new Covent Garden. Saunders knew many young people who had skills and wanted to work for themselves, and didn’t have financial backing to do this. He enjoyed either starting himself or enabling others to run new ventures; and these were often soon copied elsewhere. Though always a firm buyer of ready-cooked meals from Marks and Spencer for himself, he welcomed the new demand for whole food and by packing it in large quantities made it available at a more reasonable price. Gradually he bought up other buildings in the yard, where he helped to finance a cooperative bakery, dairy, flour mill, apothecary and cafe. He planted trees in tubs, covered the buildings with window boxes so that a profusion of flowers trailed down the walls and imported white doves who fluttered overhead. In fine weather the yard was crowded with office workers, tourists and regulars eating their lunch … Two buildings at one end of the yard were rebuilt and there, having been excited early on by the potential of computers, Saunders started the first Desk Top Publishing Studio, where people could hire computers by the hour and be given professional help.”

During the 70s I spent time with Nicholas and other entrepreneurs around the world, such as the SeFram group in Sweden. They founded the world’s first school for ‘intrapreneurs’ – people who wanted to be entrepreneurs within their present organisation. Interestingly, such creative people did not follow the cliché of ‘thinking outside the box’. They did not even recognise a box existed! Today’s generation have grown-up publishing their music on YouTube or MySpace – rather than trudging round record companies. But even these new approaches will become institutionalised, so then people will invent fresh ways to reach their goal.

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. Start by focusing on the ‘what’ - the real results you want to achieve. Then brainstorm lots of ‘hows’. Keep going until you find possible ways to reach your goal. Don’t worry if you don’t find the answer straight away. Get lots of ideas into the open, give yourself time for reflection and then settle on the route – or routes - you want to follow. Try completing the following sentence.

The possible ‘hows’ I can follow to reach the goal are:

*

*

*

The route – or routes – I want to follow to reach the goal is:

*

3) You can implement the ‘when’ – and follow the creative road to reach the goal.

Creative people often go through the process of innovation, implementation and impact. After settling on their strategy, they demonstrate the desire and discipline required to reach their goals. JK Rowling, for example, followed her daily routine for writing the Harry Potter books. But success does not always come overnight. Speaking to 15,000 people at the 2008 Harvard Graduation ceremony, she talked about the benefits of failure. Looking back at her own university days, she chose to study literature. The subject seemed unlikely to lead to reasonably paid work, however, especially as she then studied Classics. Her graduation was soon followed by setbacks, but these ultimately proved vital. JK Rowling explained:

“Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself and what those closest to me expected of me. I was convinced the only thing I wanted to do was write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view my over-active imagination was an amusing quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.

“What I feared most was not poverty, but failure. I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had for me, and that I had for myself, had come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter I adored, an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life … The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and has been worth more to me than any qualification.”

Pioneers demonstrate persistence. Let’s assume you are happy with your ‘what’ and ‘how. Then it is on to the ‘when’ – translating the plan into action. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to pursue the
creative road towards achieving my goal are:

*

*

*

So how to achieve results? One approach is to follow the institutional route; another is to be innovative. The creative art is sometimes to follow the shape of a heart. It is to find imaginative ways to reach your goals.

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You can find JK Rowling’s Harvard address at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L445BmUEXH4&feature=related

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