In high school and
in college I have been told over and over that my generation needs to be more
creative, but nobody ever told us how we could actually make this happen until
I read Creative Confidence by Tom and
David Kelly. I had my doubts about the effectiveness of these “creativity
challenges” but I decided I would try them anyway because it couldn’t hurt. The
first creativity challenge I did was called “thirty circles” and it was aimed
at jump-starting an ideation session. I had 3 minutes to turn as many of the
blank circles into recognizable objects as possible.
After 3 minutes had passed I was only able to
fill in 16 of the 30 circles, which was surprising because I figured I would be
able to fill in all or almost all of them. A circle is one of the most common
shapes seen everyday, so I wonder why I wasn’t able to think of more objects to
draw within the time constraint. I think it was also hard for me to fill in
more because I focused more on quality than quantity, which is the opposite of
what you should do in design thinking. A lot of my drawings are fairly
intricate and took more time that they needed to. This is something that I
struggle with because in school I am so used to focusing on quality over
quantity. Obviously it will take me some practice to be able to do things the
other way. Part of the activity was to analyze the things I did draw. I didn’t
really find a real pattern of things I drew, so I am wondering what in my
thought process caused me to draw these things. I was probably hungry at the
time, which was why I drew the apple and the plate of food. The turtle was most
likely because I was thinking about going to UMD and our mascot Testudo. The
Converse logo was because I was looking around my room and saw a pair of my
shoes. This activity was interesting and unique. It definitely piqued my
interest and caused me to think more about being innovative. Even after the
activity was over, I was still recognizing circular objects around me for the
rest of the day, wondering why I forgot to draw something else.
The second creativity challenge I completed
was the “customer journey map.” The aim of the activity was to emphasize with
customers, employees and other end users. I had to come up with a process of
journey that I wanted to map, and then write down every single step I could
think of. The journey I thought of was buying a pet. Then I was to organize the
steps into a visual map. I did this by using colored sticky notes and arranging
them on a white board. This is a good activity because it brings to light that
part of the sales experience that we might overlook. This is a process that
could be useful to companies trying to enhance the customer experience because
it is a way to build on top of other ideas. Doing this shows just how many
steps go into experiencing a product. Because I hope to be a marketing
executive in the future, I could definitely use this creativity challenge when
developing a product or brand. This way, nothing is overlooked when I am
planning to provide a positive customer experience throughout every single
step.
The last creativity challenge that I
completed was a long-term one called “increase your creative output.” According
to Tom and David Kelly, our short-term memory holds a thought for only 15-30
seconds. When I have a good idea or thought randomly pop into my head, I
shouldn’t just let it be a fleeting moment of wisdom and pass a few seconds
later, I should write it down and remember it. To complete this activity I went
to the Stamp and bought my own personal notebook where I would record my
thoughts. Anytime I thought of something I thought was clever or I woke up from
a weird dream, I would record it in this notebook. If I didn’t have the
notebook on me at the time I would take a note in my phone and transfer it to
my notebook later. One of the best ideas that I recorded was my random idea of
creating a live app that showed what areas in McKeldin library were open for
studying and which ones were occupied. This would save me and many other
students from wandering around all 7 floors searching for somewhere to study.
This activity was definitely the activity that gave me the most self-improvement.
It allowed me to have much more self-appreciation for my creative mind because
I had a whole portfolio of my thoughts and ideas in one single notebook at all
times.
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