A 5 Step Creative Process

James Webb Young was an advertising executive and in the 1940's he published a short book titled, "A Technique for Producing Ideas". The theory he posits in his book is that creative thinking is not the pursuit of thinking of something completely original, but rather making connections between existing ideas.

I find this to be a very powerful concept for some people that believe they aren't truly 'creative' unless they ideate or create something completely original. The only way that technology has increased is through the combination and melding of concepts and ideas. With that being said, let's jump straight into James Young's 5 steps on creativity.

1. Gather new material. Considering how the brain works...it requires an input to create an output. Research and consuming new ideas, experiences, and more is a huge benefit to creativity. I always recommend new creatives to experience as much of life as you can because it widens the proverbial net of your brain and allows an increase in creativity because your brain has that much more to work with. In this specific stage it is more localized to the specific problem you are trying to solve.

2. Thoroughly work over the materials in your mind. Once you have sufficiently studied and consumed in the area of the problem you are trying to solve you being to ideate. Ideate is a fancy word for: thinking. In the ideation phase it is important to not judge your ideas. I was taught that you write down every single idea that comes into your head, good or bad. Many creatives have a tendency to shut an idea down before they even write it down. This is bad. Remember that creativity is about making CONNECTIONS. That idea you thought was terrible could connect with other ideas and make a great idea.

3. Step away from the problem. This step is similar to Issue #1 of Creative Fu where I talked about stepping away for a while and doing something monotonous to allow your brain to wander, like doing the dishes, going on a walk, taking a shower, etc. Allow your brain to do it's job, step away, and allow it to wander and make subconscious connections.

4. Let your idea return to you. Eventually, your brain will make some connections on its own. At this point it's time to return to what has been 'given' to you.

5. Shape and develop your idea based on feedback. Feedback is paramount. Creating in isolation is a death sentence for creativity. Remember how the brain needs input to create output? Yeah, you need that too! You may have great ideas, but receiving external feedback is so important to fully develop an idea! Just remember: You don't have to implement every single piece of feedback you receive, that can get messy!

I hope these steps have been helpful to you on this Saturday! If you are interested in buying the book then you can find it here on amazon for only $7.

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