Build Confidence to Communicate Your Ideas
Do you feel confident championing your creative ideas? Whether it’s sharing your thoughts in a meeting or feeling sure enough to communicate your vision in a brainstorming session, it’s impossible to know just how many ground-breaking ideas have been lost, simply because they haven’t been voiced.
The reasons for this are:
We don’t believe we’re creative, so we’re scared our ideas will be rejected.
Sharing our ideas in public can be a daunting prospect.
We don’t feel our knowledge is relevant.
We don’t feel we know enough about the topic.
"As an instructional designer, I support subject matter experts through the process of creating online learning content. The nature of my work dictates that I am rarely, if ever, an expert myself in the content I'm managing. This can be intimidating at times, but the trick to succeeding as an instructional designer is to leverage my lack of knowledge as a strength, even a tool. While the expert has to make an effort to think outside the box, I'm already there, outside the box of expertise, and by posing naive questions about the subject matter, I can help the expert think of the content from new angles, ensuring a creative approach to instructional design." - Colin, instructional designer
Condition Yourself to Accept Rejection
How do you respond to rejection? Studies have shown that rejection can be interpreted as a threat to our safety. There’s something about sharing your creative ideas that’s very personal, so to avoid this, it’s easier not to share them.
Highly-creative people, however, seem to be conditioned to deal with rejection differently. To change your mindset, try out the following strategies:
Separate Yourself From Your Idea
Recognize that a failed idea does not mean you’re a failure. It is one of many hundreds of ideas you will have in your lifetime. So, don’t become preoccupied with this one or with what people might think about you. It’s not about you; it’s about your idea.
Listen to what Guillaume Parrou has to say about ownership of creative ideas:
What Do You Wish You Knew About Collaborative Creativity Three Years Ago?
Turn Rejection Into Action
Rejection is upsetting, so feeling frustrated, angry, or disillusioned is perfectly understandable. Be compassionate with yourself, acknowledge how you feel, then move on. Accept criticism and use it constructively. Follow these steps to get the best from feedback:
Listen without reaction.
Ask further questions to help your understanding.
Take time out to think about and reflect on the feedback you’ve received.
Develop your idea or explore new ones.
Take Action
Try Jia Jang’s 30-day rejection challenge: Rejection Therapy Game. Keep a record of each challenge. How does your perception of rejection change each time? How do you respond to it? Did the way you respond change during the challenge? What have you learned about rejection?
Create Opportunities to Share Your Ideas
To feel more confident communicating your ideas, develop your ability to share them. Try this:
Map out your ideas before a meeting.
Start a blog, vlog, or podcast to practice speaking about your views on topics that interest you.
Attend events and talks; ask questions from the audience.
Respect Creative Diversity
How easily do you accept ideas that are very different from your own? Even when we think of ourselves as diverse thinkers, we can easily dismiss ideas we may not agree with or even fully understand.
Creative diversity comes in two forms:
Demographic or surface diversity – observable traits such as age, gender or race.
Deep-level diversity – non-observable traits such as beliefs, attitudes, norms and values, expertise.
Many people tend to think of demographics when asked about diversity because they recognize that diverse experiences and backgrounds lead to diverse ideas. However, the more psychological traits of deep-level diversity are just as important to group creativity.
Why are they important?
Research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology has shown that although demographically diverse teams are particularly good when it comes to idea generation or thinking divergently, the advantages wane when the same team has to decide which ideas to develop and implement.
Instead, this part of the creative process (convergent thinking) benefits from effective project management, expertise, and good leadership (i.e., a team with similar deep-level traits and beliefs).
When ideating, work with demographically-rich teams to generate as many ideas as possible. But when deciding what to develop, it is best to avoid a "too many cooks" approach! 😉
How can I be more productive in creative brainstorms?
Here are a few strategies to try:
Clarify the Creative Goals
Do you know what’s expected of you before a meeting? Is the aim just to come up with lots of ideas? Or will there be a viable solution to a problem? If you’re unsure, confirm this beforehand. You’ll need time to think before the meeting, so you feel more prepared.
Follow Group Creativity Etiquette
It’s important that everyone’s ideas are heard and respected. Remember these tips:
Never shoot anyone’s ideas down.
Encourage open discussion.
Keep a record of all ideas, not just the ones you think are best.
See the problem with fresh eyes (i.e., involve people from all parts of the business for a range of perspectives, knowledge, and experiences).
Aim for quantity, not quality.
Facilitate Feedback in a Variety of Ways
The more outlets for sharing ideas that your team/company adopts, the better. Remember, if there’s just one outlet, great ideas are easily lost. Try:
Working in pairs to brainstorm ideas before offering feedback to the larger group.
Using images, pictures, or drawings to communicate your ideas.
Writing your ideas down.
Sharing ideas anonymously – such as through a physical Ideas Dropbox in your workplace.
Brainstorming alone before or after meetings.
Boost Your Performance With Gaming
Games make us feel excited, intrigued, and happy. They’re also fun, which means they create less stressful working environments. Gamification is the use of key elements of the gaming world in non-gaming environments.
Air miles rewards and supermarket loyalty programs are examples of how businesses use gamification to develop customer loyalty. Let’s explore how the same principle can be used to generate ideas:
Reward teams that produce the most ideas. Staff feel more motivated if they know their hard work will be rewarded. Rewards can be personal (cash prizes, vouchers, etc.) or linked to the business (an idea featured on the company intranet, a LinkedIn recommendation, an invitation to guest blog on the company website).
Introduce competitions with time limits. People are competitive by nature. When we compete, the desire to win drives us to perform better. And, you’ve already seen how setting time restrictions can boost creativity even further!
Set up a leaderboard. Use a virtual or physical leaderboard so staff can see how each team or individual is performing.
Celebrate all contributions. Award staff with points for their ideas. Remember, points should be handed out for every idea. Think quantity, not quality!
Embrace Distractions
In the same way that gaming techniques work well to boost creativity, so does actual play. According to a New York University study, using fidget widgets as a distraction was shown to improve creativity.
Researchers found that the hand movements associated with common desk gadgets such as puzzles, desk toys, or even paperclips improved focus and helped spark creativity.
When brainstorming, make sure there are lots of toys in the room. Anything that can be used as a distraction can help you think more creatively.
Complete Your Creative Journal
Do: Take the Fresh Eye approach. Think of a problem you face in your current role. Apart from the obvious colleagues/departments, make a list of the people you would never normally approach for an opinion. Even if the suggestions seem wild and wacky, add them to your list anyway. Then ask them what they think of the problem.
Reflect: How do their perspectives differ from yours, from your team? What value could their opinions bring? Did they suggest an idea you hadn’t thought about?
Let’s Recap!
It’s possible to transform rejection into action.
Diversity involves demographics such as age, race, gender, and deeper-level traits such as personality, values, or experience.
Demographic diversity reflects social groups’ attitudes/beliefs, but deeper-level diversity focuses more on individuals.
Demographically diverse groups are especially effective at idea generation.
Gamification techniques can be used to boost creativity and idea generation.
Distractions such as puzzles and desk toys boost creativity.
Now that you’ve explored how to facilitate group creativity, you’re ready to discover how to develop a positive, creative workspace.
