The Leap to Your Creativity

Jun 23, 2020

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At the moment, we’re navigating our work and personal lives in a very different and uncertain way, and given this ambiguity, it can be difficult for many of us to hold on to our creativity.

According to my guest, times of uncertainty and turmoil are particularly designed for creativity because they give us a nudge to be more adaptive and hyper-observant. With all the challenges and changes in the world, we have to tap into our improvisational nature more than ever and this can lead to exciting breakthroughs that we’ve probably never envisioned before.

Today, I wanted to find out from Natalie what are the ways and methods we can use to really boost our creativity and use it to support our teams and empower them to be more adaptive, emergent, and self-organizing. She talks about the importance of shifting from a solution-oriented culture to one that embraces mistakes and focuses on the process and shares a couple of frameworks that can help us make that transition.

Dr. Natalie Nixon is a creative strategist who happily integrates wonder and rigor into her life and work. As President of Figure 8 Thinking, she advises and emboldens companies to transform their business results by applying creativity. She is a global speaker, the author of the book “The Creativity Leap”, and a regular contributor to Inc. Magazine on creativity, design thinking, and the future of work.

Listen to Episode 10 of Roar, to learn how Natalie helps her clients become a more dynamic version of themselves and why now, during COVID-19, is the best time to enhance our creative skills.

Some questions I ask:

What stands out in your mind as a defining moment that really helped you find your roar? (08:22)
Which of your career pivots was the most challenging for you and really tested your roar? (18:02)
What are some of the commonalities between how jazz musicians perform their craft and how companies can optimize their culture for creativity and improvisation while at the same time optimizing productivity? (24:11)
How important is it to try to cultivate and nurture our creativity and our improvisation skills? (26:18)
What’s your favorite framework around creativity, and how can we put it to use in our lives? (38:45)
How can we start leveraging the improvisation concept in our organizations? (40:03)
What is the difference between creativity and innovation? (45:14)
How do we develop the creativity competency if we don’t have it? (47:52)

In this episode, you will learn:

Natalie’s background and how that shaped who she is today. (03:45)
How being an outsider and marginalized becomes an asset and a strength and translates into a higher emotional intelligence. (13:00)
Following your heart when making career choices can lead to the right path for you. (18:44)
The two components of creativity and how can companies toggle between them. (27:27)
The three R’s that can help leaders jumpstart creativity, both for their teams and for themselves. (29:25)
How setting a timer for your tasks can enhance your creativity. (31:49)
The tools within Zoom that companies should consider using, to allow their employees to have a more pleasant time during meetings. (33:03)
How the Ritz-Carlton came up with the acronym “MR. BIVS” to encourage their employees to embrace their mistakes and work together to improvise the best solutions to fix them. (41:10)
The importance of celebrating even the smallest successes. (44:23)
How Natalie’s book, “The Creativity Leap” came to life. (48:20)

Connect with Natalie:

Resources mentioned:

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