We don’t often think of creativity at work, not unless you badge it as innovation or out of the box thinking. Yet creativity is something we do without realising when we try something new, think of a new idea, look at a problem from a different angle. Many of us believe we don’t have a ‘creative bone in our body’ and align being creative with artistic skills, stopping before we even try.
So to help you tap into your innate creative talents here are ten different exercises and fun challenges to spark your creativity.
Exercises to Spark your Creativity
- 30 Circles – draw 30 circles and turn them into as many different recognisable objects such as pizza clock, apple etc.
- Alternative uses – look around the room and write down up to 10 objects. Then come up with as many alternative uses for them such as a mug for a hat, or shoulder pads etc.
- One plus one – with a partner, pick an object that starts with the same letter as your surname and now pair your two objects up. For instance ‘flowers’ and ‘crumpets’ – what would you invent, design or create?
- Blind fold portrait – find a partner and draw a picture of them whilst blindfolded.
- Other hand drawing – either draw or paint a picture using your other hand.
- Mindmap it – draw out a problem or a situation using clusters of thoughts instead of a list.
- Create a collage – print out or cut out pictures to demonstrate what you are thinking about. This can be a future project plan, a goal, or an ambition.
- Six Thinking Hats – take it in turn to wear the different hat perspectives of white (facts), yellow (optimistic), black (critical), green (possibilities), blue (keeping to the process), red (feelings).
- Marshmallow Challenge – building the highest structure with just spaghetti, tape, string and one marshmallow.
- Story telling – share some best practice stories with colleagues and coming the best elements from all the stories to create a super story to be inspired to action.
Tell us how you spark your creative talent at work, we’d love to know.