Nearly everyone in business are looking for more creativity for

themselves and their organizations. They attend trainings, hire

consultants, conduct brainstorming sessions, etc. But most of

them still thinks that they do not have enough. Creativity is

needed even more intensively in today’s super-fast pace of

changes in our business environment.

I am not going to teach you another surefire “system” for

creativity. My aim is just getting back to basic. There are some

basic stuff to make yourself creative, no matter you are applying

any or no creativity system. Here are my top 5 ways to double

your creativity.

1. Accept the fact that we are creative. We, human beings are

creative or else we can’t survive and rule the world with such a

“weak” body, as compared with other animals. Just imagine how

much our lives are easier than in the past. Human have created

so many innovations to make our world progressing in a high

speed.

2. Gather information. Gather every pieces of information that

interests you. Make them into electronic format for easier storage

and reference. Glance through them whenever you have spare

time. This database is your raw material for creativity. Innovating

out of nothing is a myth. You need something for your mind to

work on and start with.

3. Being nosy, being curious is not enough. As mentioned

in above, we must have lots of raw material for our creativity.

You must be nosy. Broaden your interests. Have an attitude of

wanting to know and understand when something interests you.

4. Make it safe to be creative. Human are naturally creative.

If someone is not creative, it is just a matter of safety. It seems

to be dangerous to talk about something new and strange.

Make it safe for yourself and anyone talking about new and

strange ideas. It is OK to talk about it. It just doesn’t hurt anything.

Doing it is another story. You can always trial run something

before full implementation. This makes being creative much

safer.

5. Ask stupid questions. Something not stupid might not be

smart. Usually they are just conventional. It is safe but it will

never be creative. Stupid questions are usually those obvious

questions. Great ideas are usually something obvious. Stupid

questions are also those questions addressing the situation

from a strange point of view. Great ideas are also usually