Creativity in the workplace fosters better leadership, problem solving, and promotes teamwork, and ultimately will lead to improved innovation. "You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club," famous creative author Jack London once mused.
There are two types of creativity, technical creativity and artistic creativity. Technical creativity helps you problem solve and create new theories and ideas, while artistic creativity is a form of expression, and is also necessary for psychological well-being. Here are tools to push your creative bounds for both.
1. Mindtools
Mindtools works on your technical creativity and helps identify how creative you are and create a plan to start thinking differently. An example would be provocation - the tool Einstein used to develop the Theory of Relativity. Provocation is a tool that disrupts linear thinking patterns to find a new and better solution. The example Mindtools uses is driving to work. You typically use the same route everyday, but by creating a new route and using your mind to discover a new way, you've disrupted your brain's thinking pattern, and therefore may think of new ideas.
2. Brainplots
Brainstorming can be an effective tool in organizing tons of ideas creatively in one place, and refining those ideas over time. Letting your mind free flow even bad ideas from several different angles can allow the brain to process a problem from new direction. Using a brainstorming tool like Brainplots is helpful in revisiting and allowing others to look at the problem as well and giving feedback.
2. PaintNite
PaintNite is an opportunity to learn how to paint and tap into your inner expressive artist. A local artist teaches a group how to paint a selected piece that is rated on a scale of easy to advanced, and after a few hours the canvas is complete. Painting brings not only creativity but other important office soft skills to your brain. A German study found a group taking art classes had “a significant improvement in psychological resilience" and improved "functional connectivity" in their frontal, posterior, and temporal cortex. According to the study, creating art will enhance self-awareness, reduce stress, and overall has stabilizing effects on the neuroanatomy of the participant. So pick up a brush, head to a local bar, and bring home a masterpiece.
3. Doodlebuddy
Doodling can be a way your mind stays actively engaged and solves a problem. Even while listening to a leader, professor, speaker, or other engaging talks that require you to listen and think, doodling can be a form of expression and note taking that brings surprising results. Some people are visual learners, and the doodle allows those types of learners to translate words into pictorial meaning. Often during meetings allowing more creative people to doodle the meeting and keep artistic notes as a representation can bring surprising results. Using an app like doodle buddy can allow you to keep the images and express yourself.
4. AllTrails Hiking App
Going on a hike doesn't just facilitate blood flow to the brain, choose a place with greenery. A study showed the color green specifically enhances creativity. Using the AllTrails App, you can actually browse nearby hikes, see photos, and choose a hike that has the right distance and greenery for your needs.
5. SnapGuide
Snapguide provides users with Do It Yourself guides on all sorts of crowd sourced projects, whether its homemade beauty products, to delicious recipes. Not only can you find creative projects that can help you with a variety of different problems (phone hacks to migraines), you can contribute your own creativity.
6. Fyuse
Fyuse is one of the best apps for video/Fyusing that I've ever used. It helps me re-think and image photography and video into what they are calling a Fyuse. I've even incorporated this into my personal site to give a different angle into my online life. Worth checking out.
