Replace traditional mission statements with a “mission question” starting with “How might we…” and share it with the entire company. This fosters collaborative inquiry, engages all employees in pursuing a shared, aspirational goal, and signals confidence and humility.
Ensure every employee feels they are contributing to answering the company’s “big question” or mission question. This significantly increases employee engagement and fosters a sense of shared purpose.
Leaders should communicate a company’s aspirations through honest and humble “mission questions.” This signals extreme confidence, avoids bragging, and clearly articulates what the company truly aims to achieve.
Avoid creating separate “innovation groups” or “creative departments” that implicitly label others as non-creative. This sends a negative message, disengages employees by implying creativity isn’t part of their job, and can lead to finger-pointing.
Design office cultures and spaces that balance interaction and openness with providing individuals the private space needed for deep thinking and creative work. A hybrid approach respects individual needs and fosters both collaboration and focused output.
Reduce constant stimulation and incoming information to prevent being stuck in “react mode.” This makes it easier to shift into “create mode,” which is essential for creativity.
Separate your day into distinct online and offline portions. This prevents the online part of your day from taking over and allows for focused creative work.
Create an “offline cave” – a dedicated workspace without internet connection for uninterrupted creative work. This eliminates distractions and forces you into “create mode” by having no choice but to produce something.
Schedule large, uninterrupted blocks of time for creative work, free from meetings, phone calls, or other interruptions. This “creator’s schedule” allows for deep focus and flow, often leading to breakthroughs midway through the block.
Identify your personal creative peak time. This allows you to schedule your creative blocks during periods when you are most naturally productive and focused.
Be willing to revisit past failures to extract lessons and identify “seeds for success” for future efforts. Failures often contain valuable insights and opportunities for follow-up efforts, even though it’s difficult to confront them.
Acknowledge and feel the pain of failure, but then be willing to examine it to extract lessons and potential gains. Disappointment is a natural human reaction to unachieved goals, but reflection is crucial for progress.
Allow some time to pass after a failure before engaging in deep reflection and evaluation. It’s difficult to gain perspective and extract gems from failure while still in a negative mindset.
When reflecting on failure, actively seek out the “gems” – the good elements or insights that were buried in the mess. This allows you to leverage positive aspects from a failed endeavor and approach them in a fresh, potentially successful way.
Take personal ownership of marketing and publicity efforts for your work, starting early with activities like blog posts. Don’t solely rely on publishers or external parties; proactive self-marketing makes a significant difference in success.
To get the best outcomes, start with the best possible questions. This enables innovation, problem-solving, progress, gaining perspective, and honing in on variables that truly matter.
Become conscious about how you are questioning. This is crucial for improving the skill, as questioning is not formally taught and often done unconsciously.
Ensure your questions are rooted in authentic curiosity. Authentic curiosity is the fundamental standard for a “good question,” distinguishing it from questions asked for criticism or confirmation.
Take ownership of interesting questions by actively pursuing answers and exploring solutions. Innovators don’t just ask questions; they commit to finding out why something is the way it is or how it could be better.
Foster a culture where the value of all curiosity-rooted questions is understood and appreciated. This prevents negative reactions to seemingly naive questions and encourages fresh perspectives and worthwhile discussions.
Reward questioning, not just answering, in educational and professional environments. People tend to do what they are rewarded for, and currently, questioning is often seen as inefficient or a distraction.
Conduct research and learn about a subject before asking questions. Being informed allows you to ask more precise and “better” questions, even if outsider questions also have value.
Cultivate an “outsider” or “novice” perspective to ask fundamental “why” questions about established practices. Insiders often don’t question conventional wisdom, so an outsider’s naive question can reveal overlooked assumptions.
When asked a question, explore it collaboratively with the asker by turning the question back to them. This fosters a more engaging conversation and encourages the asker to reflect on their own thoughts.
When asked a question in a group setting, invite the group to contribute to the answer. This generates “interesting group thinking” and fosters collaborative inquiry, moving beyond a single definitive answer.
Encourage children’s questions and provide focus or direction, but don’t feel obligated to answer every question yourself. This nurtures curiosity and prevents parents/teachers from feeling like “answer machines.”
As a parent or teacher, act as a coach by validating interesting questions and guiding children on how to find answers themselves. This teaches young people that questions are valuable and encourages them to take ownership of their inquiry.
Walk daily, especially outdoors. Walking helps to organize thoughts, make connections in thinking, and generate new ideas, particularly when done in nature.
Engage in “low-immersion” activities that allow for daydreaming and thinking, such as walking in nature or visiting a museum. These activities provide gentle stimulation without overwhelming the mind, creating a “sweet spot” for creative thought.
When losing focus, get up and walk around for a short break. Walking helps to regain focus and make connections in thinking, but avoid straying too far from the task.
Commit to returning to your work after a short break, even if it feels difficult or unproductive. It’s easy to give up when work isn’t flowing, but pushing past the initial struggle often leads to breakthroughs.
Consistently produce outlines for your work. Outlining helps to organize complex subjects effectively, making a significant difference in clarity and structure.
Perform initial creative work like outlining and scribbling longhand on paper. It feels more creative and allows for visual thinking, easier manipulation of ideas, and structural planning before transitioning to digital writing.
When structuring complex ideas, arrange information visually, such as spreading out outlines over multiple pages to see everything simultaneously. This visual approach aids in structural thinking and helps identify how different ideas connect and should be organized.
Collect interesting information from the internet by printing it and organizing it into physical paper files by subject. This creates a tangible archive of research material for later use in writing and thinking.
When organizing research, create a “B-level” folder for less relevant but potentially useful information. This allows you to declutter your primary research while retaining access to information your brain knows is available if needed later.
Stop reading books or articles that are not compelling or good. This avoids wasting time on unengaging content and prioritizes material that genuinely shifts your understanding.
Follow your interests in your career. This can lead to a natural progression and deeper engagement with subjects you find compelling.
As a freelance writer, use social media, blogs, and podcasts to promote yourself and your brand. There are more opportunities than ever before to get your name out to readers, potential outlets, and clients.
Carefully evaluate travel opportunities, especially for events, by ensuring there will be sufficient activity, attendance, and energy. This avoids regretting time spent on events that don’t live up to their description or provide enough value.