August 29, 2023
Creativity is a skill that opens doors to exciting possibilities. But, unlocking your creative potential takes more than raw talent.
The key to success is to develop a strong mental network. We have to nourish our daily lives with a diverse range of experiences, knowledge, and exposure to new ideas.
Are you an aspiring artist? A budding accountant? A business executive? Whoever you are, you need to nurture your creative potential.
Let’s take a look at how important it is to experience the world around you, so you can connect the dots and fuel your creativity and innovative thinking.
Quick Takeaways
- Research shows that 73% of creative people believe that creativity can be taught
- “Dots” represent everyday experiences, knowledge, and exposure to new ideas
- Expanding your collection of “dots” has the power to ignite your innovative thinking
- Seeking diverse experiences, reading, and exposing yourself to imaginative ideas will enhance your creative potential
Discover how connecting the dots can unlock possibilities and invite exciting opportunities.
What are “dots”?
Research shows that 73% of creative people believe that creativity can be taught.
That’s because it stems from our ability to “connect the dots”. These “dots” represent our everyday experiences, knowledge, and exposure to new ideas.
Remember the old elementary school “connect-the-dots” activity? By following the sequence of numbered points correctly, you would reveal a fun illustration.
This is the same idea. Except now, each dot represents an inspirational experience, and reveals a new creative idea instead of an illustration.
But there’s also a catch – in order to connect the dots, you have to find them first and pay attention to their potential meaning.
If you let these experiences pass you by without paying attention to them, you’ll miss out on inspiration for new creative ideas.
Innovative people constantly fill their lives with inspirations that lead them to new perspectives. Because of this, they have a strong mental network that lets them dive into endless possibilities.
Believe it or not, masters of innovation have lived by different versions of this idea for decades.
Benjamin Franklin and his 5-hour rule
Every day, Monday through Friday, Benjamin Franklin dedicated one hour to education and self-improvement. He believed in the power of learning something new every day. He had a hunch that making time to expand what he knew would pay off.
Ben would divide his hour into several activities, like:
- Reading
- Meditating
- Experimenting
- Engaging in meaningful conversations
By investing time in his own personal development, Ben was able to connect the dots. He actively invited new ways of thinking, and was pretty much a genius in many areas throughout his life.
Jeff Hoffman and info-sponging
Global entrepreneur, billionaire, and Founder of priceline.com, Jeff Hoffman, is another example of someone who knows how to connect the dots. Except, he calls it something different.
Jeff named this technique “info-sponging”. He talks about it as a way of taking time every day to learn something outside of your industry or business. To become a sponge for new and different information.
Each day, he would make a small note of things that stood out to him. Then, at the end of every month, he would look through all of his notes.
Jeff quickly learned that this method worked as a way to spark new ideas.
How to fuel creativity and innovative thinking
When you notice new ideas on a daily basis, it’s easier to see opportunities for ways to test them in your own world.
This applies to anyone who wants to become a more creative thinker– because no matter what you do for work, you are meant to take advantage of innovative thinking.
By constantly collecting dots, you can tap into inspiration from anywhere and use it to come up with ideas for anything.
Ready to get started? Here’s my five-step Wheel of Innovation process to fuel your creativity and supercharge your innovative thinking.
1. Observe
Great innovators start the process by keeping their eyes peeled. It’s so easy for us to zone out and just focus on what’s right in front of us.
But when you catch yourself in a daze and hit the pause button, you can take a breather and really soak up your environment. That’s when you’ll start to see the world through a new lens and see things that are right in front of you, but you’ve always missed.
2. Distill
Take a good hard look at what you’ve observed, and start to notice patterns. These patterns have meaning and you connect the dots between the world around you and the work that you do.
3. Relate
Next, really look at the patterns you’ve noticed and think about how they relate to the work that you do.
It all starts with taking ideas from the world around you and asking yourself, “How might we create a version of this that relates to our situation?” Then, you can make a meaningful connection between your outside world experiences and your work.
4. Generate
New ideas need a fuel source to sprout and grow. That’s what the three steps leading up to generating ideas do. They fuel your brainstorm and strategy sessions with inspiration and fresh perspectives,
5. Pitch
People stress out over putting a pitch together. But the great part about the Wheel of Innovation is that by the time you get to the pitch, you’ve already done the work! Because a pitch is the story of the journey of your idea. What did you observe? What patterns did you see? How did that relate to your situation? And how did that inspire your idea? There’s your pitch.
Harness the power of creativity and innovative thinking
Creativity and innovative thinking start with connecting the dots from the world around you with the work that you do every day. By actively looking for new experiences, new things to learn, and ideas, you can nurture your creative potential and become prolific innovators. Are you ready to start connecting the dots? As the world’s leading Innovation Architect, I can help. Read more on my blog page now, or email me today to learn how you can turn your dot collection into innovative thinking!
