Acknowledge and embrace imperfections. Hiding from your weaknesses means you’ll never overcome them. Pick a weakness and improve it by at least neutralizing it and, at best, turning it into a strength.As a young man, this future entrepreneur was fired from the Kansas City Star because his boss thought he lacked creativity. He went on to create a small entertainment company. Using his natural salesmanship abilities, he raised $15,000 in startup money; however, he made a deal with a New York distributor, and when the distributor went out of business, he was forced to shut down the company. He could barely pay his rent and even resorted to eating dog food.
Broke but not defeated, he spent his last few dollars on a train ticket to Hollywood. He started another entertainment company with a simple product idea. Unfortunately, his troubles were not over. As his new company gained traction, the distributors he relied on told him that one of his key projects would fail because the main character, a mouse, would “terrify women.” Distributors rejected his next idea about three brothers with three houses because it needed more characters. They then rejected a project about a wooden puppet with a strange nose. But the entrepreneur believed he was creating a company that his customers would love because they could escape into the stories he was creating. And Walt Disney was right. His creativity, fueled by his “growth” mindset, combined with a lot of perseverance, created one of the best entertainment companies in the world.
Adopting a growth mindset is not just essential, it’s critical. Those with a growth mindset understand that knowledge can be acquired and intelligence can be developed. With a growth mindset, people focus on improvement instead of worrying about how smart they are. They work hard to learn more and get smarter. Based on years of research by Dr. Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell PhD at Stanford University, we know that students who adopt this mindset show greater motivation in school and get better grades and higher test scores.
In one 2007 study, Blackwell and her colleagues followed hundreds of students making the transition to seventh grade. They found that students with a growth mindset were more motivated to learn and exert effort and outperformed those with a fixed mindset in math—a gap that continued to increase over a two-year period. Although all of the students had entered seventh grade with similar past achievement, their math grades pulled significantly apart during this challenging time because of their mindsets. In another study, Blackwell and her colleagues divided students into two groups for a workshop on the brain and study skills. Half of them, the control group, were taught about the stages of memory; the other half received training in the growth mindset (how the brain grows with learning to make you smarter) and how to apply this idea to their schoolwork. Three times as many students in the growth-mindset group showed an increase in effort and engagement compared with the control group. After the training, the control group continued to show declining grades (they were not keeping up with the new learning), but the growth-mindset group showed continued increases in their grades.
A “growth mindset” thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. A “fixed mindset,” on the other hand, assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens that we can’t change in any meaningful way. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, comes our belief about whether or not we are creative. Here’s the good news. No matter your current mindset, you can adopt and nurture a growth mindset.
Most people have one mindset or the other. Some of us have a combination. The good news is that we can all adopt a growth mindset simply by putting ourselves in one. It’s easy to change. Just knowing about the two mindsets can make us think and act in new ways. Once we can spot the thoughts, words, and actions that go with the fixed and growth mindsets, we start catching ourselves in fixed mode and we can then learn to switch into growth mode. And once you know how to switch from a fixed to growth mindset, you can eventually stay there.
People with fixed mindsets believe they are limited to what they’re born with in terms of intelligence and skill. They believe these things can’t be developed much. It is possible to learn new things, but new learning doesn’t change our basic level of intelligence. It’s possible to practice new skills, but our natural ability is really what’s determinative. Some people are just “naturals” at certain things. They’re good at things because “it’s genetic.” A fixed mindset tells us that people are however they are and not a lot can be done to change that. We should spend our energy doing what we’re inherently good at. As a result, fixed-mindset people say things such as: “I am not athletic;” “I am bad at math;” “I can’t spell;” “I have no discipline;” “I tried that already and it didn’t work.” Mostly they say, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.”
And what do they do? They do only what they’re already good at. What they don’t do is anything they haven’t tried yet or that doesn’t come easily. They avoid risk at all costs for fear of looking bad, making a mistake, or failing. They progress only for the sake of progressing instead of validating their self-worth. Dweck explains why: “[The fixed mindset] makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.”
People with growth mindsets, however, believe that intelligence and qualities we’re born with are just the foundation for future development. They can be improved through learning and hard work. Some people can do certain things well with little or no training or practice, but others can learn to do those same things, just as well or better, with training and practice.
As a result, people with growth mindsets say things such as: “I have the rest of the week to get the project done.” “I realized I had a choice: I could sit in my misery or I could do something about it.” “All my life I’ve been playing up—I’ve challenged myself with players . . . older, bigger, more skillful, more experienced.” “I don’t walk on water. I just run faster than a lot of people.”
And here’s what they do: They try new things. They experiment, make mistakes, and correct them along the way. They reject what doesn’t work after trying to see what might succeed. They tweak, iterate, and maintain an upward trajectory in effort and progress.
Here are some tips for transitioning from a fixed to growth mindset, all to drive your creativity potential:
Acknowledge and embrace imperfections. Hiding from your weaknesses means you’ll never overcome them. Pick a weakness and improve it by at least neutralizing it and, at best, turning it into a strength.
View challenges as opportunities. Having a growth mindset means relishing opportunities for self-improvement. Learn more about how to fail well. Attack a small challenge until you succeed.
Try different learning tactics. There’s no one-size-fits-all model for learning. What works for one person may not work for you. Take an online course and learn a new language or skill.
Replace the word “failing” with the word “learning.” When you make a mistake or fall short of a goal, you haven’t failed; you’ve learned. Instead of regretting a failure, study it for strategies to win in the future.
Stop seeking approval. When you prioritize approval over learning, you sacrifice your own potential for growth. Do something well at work and don’t tell anyone. Let the recognition come to you.
Value the process over the end result. Intelligent people enjoy the learning process and don’t mind when it continues beyond an expected time frame. I returned to school and got my MBA at age 52 so that I could teach at a university.
Emphasize growth over speed. Learning fast isn’t the same as learning well, and learning well sometimes requires allowing time for mistakes.
Reward actions, not traits. Tell employees or colleagues when they’re doing something smart, not just being smart.
Use criticism as a positive. You don’t have to use that hackneyed term “constructive criticism,” but you do have to believe in the concept that being positive leads to learning.
Cultivate some grit. People with that extra bit of determination and effort will be more likely to seek approval from themselves rather than others.
Take risks in front of others. Stop trying to save face all the time and just let yourself admit that you’re imperfect. It will make it easier to take risks in the future.
Own your attitude. Once you develop a growth mindset, own it. Acknowledge yourself as someone who possesses a growth mentality and be proud to let it guide you throughout your career.
Once you commit to a growth mindset, here are some things you can do immediately to fuel your creativity:
Draw something. Although we may have been reprimanded in school to “stop doodling and pay attention,” it’s time to bring back the doodle. Doodling, contrary to popular belief, does not demonstrate a lack of focus. In fact, doodling can help you stay present and engaged during an activity in which you might otherwise find your mind drifting. Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, notes that some of the greatest thinkers—from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs—used doodling to jump-start creativity. Doodling can enhance recall and activate unique neurological pathways, leading to new insights and cognitive breakthroughs. For every exercise in my Creativity and Innovation class, students must draw the solution they choose to present from their brainstormed ideas. Always.
Sign up for a class in something new to you. Creativity flourishes when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone and learn something new. Many communities offer evening adult education classes. These classes are often very casual, with plenty of beginner offerings. Try painting, pottery, or woodworking. How about learning a new language, picking up a new instrument, or taking a cooking class? Anyone for learning how to code a mobile app? What can you adapt from that skill to your profession?
Create the right environment. Google goes to great lengths to provide its employees with fun perks such as beach volleyball courts and free beer, a setup almost resembling an adult playground. The goal is to create an environment that lets employees feel relaxed and comfortable with vocalizing creative, even wacky ideas. Businesses that value creativity need to do their best to foster a creative, safe space where unusual ideas are celebrated and where creativity is nurtured. What can you do tomorrow? Paint one wall in your office a bright cinnamon red. Don’t have an office? Then put yourself into a coworking space that makes you feel creative.
Get up and get moving. If you’re stuck developing an idea or even thinking of one, get unstuck by literally getting away from your desk. Go for a walk. Exercise. Bring your work somewhere else. Physical movement has been shown to have a positive effect on creative thinking. The philosopher and author Henry Thoreau claimed that his thoughts began to flow “the moment my legs began to move.” Now scientists have discovered that taking part in regular exercise such as going for a walk or riding a bike really does improve creative thought. Professor Lorenza Colzato, a cognitive psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, found in her 2013 study that people who exercised four times a week were able to think more creatively than those with a more sedentary lifestyle. One of my course sessions, an observation lab, is held outdoors, and the students love the walk and change in environment as they brainstorm possible solutions while moving across our San Diego campus. But you can always take a brainstorming group to other places, like a science or discovery museum or a great architectural space.
Start a sketchbook. Sketching is a great way to preserve memories and make constructive use of time that might otherwise be spent fiddling on a phone. Buy a small, lightweight sketchbook that can easily fit in your bag. Start sketching whenever you have even a few spare minutes—draw the salt and pepper shaker on your table while waiting for your coffee, or the crumpled pile of newspaper on the subway. Though you may be disappointed in your sketches at first, the more you draw, the better you’ll get. Don’t overanalyze your results—simply draw for the enjoyment of the process, not the end piece. Creativity seeps across activities, so sketching just a few minutes a day can result in a major boost of workplace creativity.
Keep toys on your desk. Many creative design companies encourage employees to keep toys on their desks—from Lego blocks and Lincoln Logs to Play-Doh and origami paper. Building something physically with your hands, as opposed to typing on a keyboard, can be just the creative jolt you need. If you were to visit employee offices at Google or Pixar, you would find some amazing workspaces with whimsical and personal decorations. One employee at Pixar converted his workspace into a real garden shed.
Try the thirty circles test. This great creative exercise comes from researcher Bob McKim and is featured in Tim Brown’s TED talk on creativity and play. Take a piece of paper and draw thirty circles on the paper. Now, in one minute, adapt as many circles as you can into objects. For example, one circle could become a sun. Another could become a globe. How many can you do in a minute? (Take quantity over quality into consideration.) The result: Most people have a hard time getting to thirty, largely because we have a tendency as adults to self-edit. Children are great at simply exploring possibilities without being self-critical, whereas adults have a harder time. Sometimes, even the desire to be original can be a form of self-editing. Don’t forget—good artists copy, great artists steal (and by “steal,” T. S. Eliot meant transform in the theft and make one’s own).
Skim through a magazine, online or offline. Visual aids can often help in the creative process, so skimming through a magazine relevant to what you’re working on may help. For instance, if you’re looking for design inspiration, page through a home improvement publication. If you want to make a delicious meal for houseguests, look through a cooking magazine. There are magazines for virtually everything you can think of, so you should be able to find something that piques your creativity rather easily. Or just roam through Pinterest randomly or with a purpose.
Anticipate the future. What’s great about thinking about the future is that it’s yet to be written. In your version, you’re the author, which means there are endless possibilities. Tap into your creativity by thinking about life ten years from now. And think big, for goodness’ sake. Your future will be what you make it. I was once asked in 2007 to write a manifesto on where technology would be taking us by 2015. It’s really cool to see how you imagine the future from a present point of view. Working with clients? Write their ten-year industry manifesto. . . . What does it look like?
One of my biggest creative challenges in my career came while working on the Amazon account. Our agency had been tasked with coming up with the then startup’s new marketing strategy, which included the identity (logo), a new website design, a complete integrated advertising campaign, a media strategy, and an affiliate strategy to get Amazon’s square tile (affiliate commission link) on 50,000 websites. I pulled together the core team from our agency’s Portland office and we spent several weeks working on defining the brand from a few different perspectives. One of the tasks we were struggling with was the possible “tagline” that would go with the new corporate identity to properly position the brand. Amazon in early 1996 did not have wide public awareness; most people had no clue what the company was or what it sold. After three weeks of brainstorming sessions and rejecting more than 100 taglines and getting nowhere, I broke up the team and brought in three new people. They had no idea what Amazon did. One of the people on the team asked me a question: “How many books are in the average bookstore?” “About 50,000 titles,” I said. He asked, “Where does Amazon get its books?” I replied that the books come from two key distributors, and the distributors themselves are massive and have quite a few books in inventory. “How many?” he asked. “More than a million titles,” I replied. He said, “Wow, that would make Amazon Earth’s biggest bookstore.” That became our positioning line to launch the new campaign. Amazon.com. Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.
At times to solve a problem, you might need to change your perspective or mix up the team. Sometimes it’s the simplest questions that can lead to the biggest breakthroughs. Other times it is hard work. Either way, you need a growth mindset that believes you can solve the problem. Another thing you will need is an amazing environment, one driven by great leadership and culture (which we’ll tackle in Chapter 4).
CREATIVE / INNOVATIVE INSIGHT
This startup team got one thing right when they got started: They loved working on solutions for software operating systems. They introduced security software for handheld PCs right as personal digital assistants (PDAs) started to come into the market. While their product was good, the handheld computer market did not take off. Then the team focused on creating an electronic wallet for PDAs. It turned out to be a great product, but again the product did not get much traction. Wrong timing, wrong marketplace. Then one of the team members heard that some people were using part of their software product on auction-based websites like eBay. But the team could not agree on what marketplace they should serve. One of the cofounders suggested they support these new online auction customers. The other cofounder thought this was a terrible idea because it was not the purpose for which they had designed the product. Another six months went by before the cofounders agreed to focus on the customers that loved their product. PayPal was born.
Key Takeaway
A creative growth mindset among a mission-driven team is an awesome thing. You will agree just as often as you will disagree. In the end, just remember to listen to your customers.