Feeling Our Way Through the Creative Process

“You can never hide the traces of yourself and your way of being: they always show up in your work,” Sarah Stein Greenberg writes in Creative Acts for Curious People. Executive Director of the Stanford d.school, encouraging students to feel is core to Sarah’s mission and her team’s design thinking philosophy. How do they achieve it when creativity is often a rollercoaster of emotions? By expanding our ability to see what is, imagine what can be, and navigate ambiguity as we create it. Sarah shares exercises to thrive in each stage of the creative process, from incorporating more play into our work to “setting the conditions” to do our best thinking. We quickly learn that design thinking doesn’t solely amplify our creativity. It offers a dynamic lens to navigate our lives.