Becoming More Creative -- What We Can Learn From Disney (By Michele Pariza Wacek)

When you think about the legacies Walt Disney left us, do
talking mice and a multigizillion dollar company come to
mind? Actually, those are only the products of his prodigious
and rich creativity — dig deeper and you start to realize one
of the most intriguing heritages Disney left was his
processes.

Disney was a creative and problem-solving genius. He
knew how to make fantasy come alive in the minds and
hearts of millions of people around the world. He employed
several techniques to do this, but one of the most
interesting is his ability to seamlessly slip into different
creative "people" or "roles."

The dreamer, the realist, the critic

One of Disney's coworkers once said: "There were actually
three different Walts [and] you never knew which one was
coming to your meeting." Robert Dilts, a scientist who
studied Disney, called the three different Walts "the
dreamer, the realist and the critic." Each persona had a
specific role in the creative process, and only together did it
become "Disney magic."

• Dream a little dream — The dreamer

  Roger von Oech, creative consultant and author of A Kick in
  the Seat of the Pants, actually divides the dreamer into two
  different roles. The explorer, where you search for tidbits of
  information and interesting facts, and the artist, where you
  rearrange all the different pieces of information to make new
  and interesting patterns.

  Being the dreamer means you let your imagination go wild
  — combine random thoughts in new and unusual ways; ask
  what if?; try every possibility then think of a few more. There
  are no stupid ideas at the dreamer stage — every idea has
  some possibility, no matter how remote.

• Now for the real world — The realist

  That idea may sound good on paper, but how do you make
  it come to life? That's what the realist does. The realist, or
  warrior in von Oech's language, figures out a way to
  implement the idea — after all, it doesn't do a lick of good
  lying flat on the paper.

• But is it any good — The critic

  Okay, you've thought of a new and unusual idea and you've
  figured out a way to make it work. Now, the question you
  have to ask yourself is should you? Here's the place where
  you can finally label all those ideas as being really cool or
  really stupid. Von Oech also called this persona judge.
  Evaluate the idea, look for drawbacks and benefits and
  critically weigh the evidence — only then will you know if it's
  worth pursuing or not.

How can I get all this to work in my life?
Say you're looking for a new way to market your business, or
you're trying to figure out a way to beat the competition, or
you need a new sales tactic. Whatever your business
problem, you can use these techniques to fire up your
creativity.

Bryan W. Mattimore, creative consultant and author of 99%
Inspiration: Tips, Tales and Techniques for Liberating your
Business Creativity (where, incidentally, he goes into much
more depth on Disney's creative process), recommends
setting up three different rooms — a dreamer room, a realist
room and a critic room. When you want to take on a different
persona, you go into a different room.

Don't have three rooms? Why not put three chalk marks on
the floor? This exercise, taught to me by Organizational
Consultant Tracy Puett, has you physically moving to a
different circle on the floor depending on which role you
want to invoke. The physical act of moving helps many
people take on the different persona.

Or, a third possibility invented by creativity expert and author
Dr. Edward DeBono is to use different colored hats. Each
color represents a different persona. When you want to think
like that persona, put on a different hat. You can even add
additional colors for other moods, such as feeling an
emotional point of view, if you want.

But, the real point of creativity is to try to break the mold.
Once you're able to step out of habits and old ways of
thinking, then you re ready to let your creativity soar.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com