Creativity? A Good Reason to Get Excited (By Hector Ramos)

The creative process is intrinsically exciting. If you have been at any creative thinking workshop it is difficult not to come out full of enthusiasm and ideas for new business or new approaches for your current endeavors. Nevertheless, this excitement can work both for you and against you:

1) Excitement that works against you

If you come up with ideas do not get too excited prematurely. You may think it is a big winner, but your bosses and colleagues see its flaws a mile away. It is emotional attachment to ideas that often hinders us from viewing different perspectives. If this excitement is not checked it may lead us to oversell our ideas and hinder our credibility.

2) Excitement that works for you

Excitement is none the less essential in the creative process. It motivates to create, it helps to endure the resistance from colleagues or the target audience. It also sustains future creative efforts. Excitement in the creative process is mostly positive and productive. In fact, it can help groups to bond together and gel over a common strategy or goal.

We can get some practice at managing emotions when dealing with ideas by:

a) sharing exciting ideas with friends outside the office.

b) giving ideas time so you can cool down. Sleep over them and try to see a different angle in the morning.

c) invite an outsider to criticize your idea and try to defend it constructively being open to its limitations.

d) exercising with thinking tools and techniques that help you assess ideas

Excitement is extremely important in the creative and innovative process. Do not let it work against you.

Hector Ramos is a consultant, facilitator and trainer of creative thinking and innovation in South East Asia. His conducts workshops to empower employees to inject innovation in the workplace through experiential and cooperative learning methods using personalized thinking tools and strategies. Companies and participants benefit from innovative team assessment to apply in their leadership and teamwork. His clients include Citibank, Schneider, Marcus Evans, Aljunied Town Council and many others. He can be reached at http://www.creativityventures.com