Take a listen to these thoughts on creativity from John Cleese of Monty Python fame. Here are my thoughts today. I hope we took some of these to heart.
Play For Play's Sake
Creatives play and it is just for the sake of playing. Your life needs to have space for play. That means you need to have time for it. The busyness of life destroys the creative flow. You have to build boundaries in your life to create space for play.
Breaking Through a Roadblock
Around 10 minutes John Cleese talks about how Alfred Hitchcock overcame creative blocks. He mentions that he, Hitchcock, would begin to tell a story that was totally unrelated to break the tension and open the creative flow. However, once the flow is open you have to swtich back to working on the creative pursuit.
Original Ideas
"Give your mind enough time to come up with something original"
Timeboxing yourself can often hinder coming up with creative solutions.
Humor Heals
Don't take yourself too seriously. Humor cuts through our self-importance.
"...giggle all you want."
Playing Together
Share your creative time with other people. Make sure that your play friends are people that you trust. Nothing kills creative work faster than the tension brought on by combining people who cannot work together.
Stamping Out Creativity
He ends his talk by sharing how managers could stamp out creativity in our subordinates.
1. Allow subordinates no humor
2. Undermine your employees confidence
3. Demand that people always be doing something