CHAPTER 4
The Trinity of Creativity
T HROUGHOUT HISTORY, CREATIVITY has been shrouded in mystery. It is a realm only a few can access that forever shuts the rest of us out, a calling so high and noble that it is unobtainable by mere mortals. We are taught over and over that creativity is something you cannot learn. It is something you either have or don’t have. Those who have it possess some kind of other-worldly wisdom and grace that we can only wish we had.
The worst myth is that creativity relies on “inspiration.” In this view, the stars must align, and only then will inspiration strike in that special way; it’s something fleeting that happens only so often. We are told that inspiration is a limited resource that you will run out of one day. You will be forever bereft of a creative way to think as your finite supply of inspiration shrivels up and dies.
The truth is that all of those things are complete and utter baloney. Creativity is something that can be taught and moreover can be relearned, just as you are doing today. As you begin to awaken your long-lost inner creativity, you will need a formula to enable repeatable success no matter what business you are in or what you do. My Trinity of Creativity will guide you and your company to creative success. It will deliver the “how” that I believe is critical for all to see. The three points are what I call the Concept, the Idea, and the Execution. Let’s look a bit closer at each one individually and then see how they combine to create a powerful tool.
Take a look at Figure 4.1. At the top, you have the Concept, which is the widest view. Then, as we move toward the middle of the chart, we have the Idea. Notice how things get more and more focused and more and more defined as we go lower in the chart. Finally, as we get to the bottom, we have the Execution, the distilled essence of the process.
FIGURE 4.1
The Creative Process
THE CONCEPT
To get started, I want you to imagine the perspective of a satellite up in space looking at the Earth. What can you see from up that high? You probably see clouds, weather, the shapes of the continents, water, and more. This is the widest view of the Earth possible, but you can’t zoom in to see details. This view is what I call the Concept.
In applying the Concept to business, you take on the highest-level view of your career or business possible. Here you can see trends come and go. You can see where the company or your career should be headed several years into the future. You can see big-picture items but are not so good at seeing medium-level things, much less any details. This is the widest and highest perspective possible in which to frame your career or company.
For example, if you are a company that manufactures cars, the Concept could be mobility or transportation. There really is no “right” answer; it is whatever makes the most sense to you.
If you are looking at your career in, say, nursing, you might say that the Concept of your career is communication because keeping patients informed throughout their journey is the highest-level view of your job possible. Or you might say that care is the Concept of your career because what you do is care for people in different ways.
There is no right or wrong answer for the Concept of your career or business. The Concept needs to be what feels the best for you in your particular situation, and it needs to stay pretty broad but also important enough that you will stand behind it. Therefore, the Concept is the most significant category that your career or company encompasses. In a rush to identify your particular Concept, you may be tempted to take a shortcut and get too specific, but in identifying your Concept, you give your career or company the broadest meaning possible. What part of your career or company gives you the most meaning? That is your Concept.
I’d like you to do a brief exercise by writing down what the Concept of your business or career is. I’d like you to write it in the margins of this page or somewhere close by. Write down the Concept of your business or career in a word or a few words that encompass the highest level of meaning for you on what it is that you do. Write it down and circle it.
THE IDEA
Now that we have identified the Concept of your career or business, it is time to look at the next building block in my formula for making creativity happen. The Idea is a medium-level view that makes the Concept a bit more specific. Think of this as a street view that reveals far more details, almost like holding a camera and looking through it onto the street. With this view, details come into focus. We can see plants, animals, and people, all of which were impossible to see in the Concept satellite view.
When you apply the Idea view in your career or business, you can see more of the day-to-day details of what is going on. Think about hour-to-hour, week-to-week, and month-to-month interactions. You cannot see trends or patterns or the far outlook, but you sure can see what is going on in front of you!
The Idea will always follow the Concept as a more refined derivative of the Concept. Just as the Concept carries the most meaning to you, the Idea will carry the most practical view of your career or business. In the case of the nurse, your Idea is most likely a head nurse or a pediatric nurse. It further narrows your role down into the Idea but does not fully narrow it down into a lot of detail.
Below where you have written your Concept and circled it, I’d like you to write your Idea. There is no right or wrong Idea for your career or business; there is only what feels right to you. Write it down in the margin and circle it.
You may be tempted to get superspecific, but please resist that urge for now. The Idea should be a midlevel perspective of your company or career. It’s more or less what you tell someone who asks you what you do at a party.
THE EXECUTION
Finally, we have the Execution, which consists of the nitty-gritty details of the business. This is the electron-microscopic view. Here you can see nothing but the details and the minute-to-minute actions of your business or career. Here you can see, as the seconds of the clock go ticking by, the action, the drama, and the deep details of your everyday work.
If the Concept is the high-level view and the Idea is the midlevel view, the Execution is the view from deep within the trench. This consists of the constant fires that need to be put out and the everyday grievances of the staff. As is true when you look into a microscope, here we can see only the exact atoms, not the whole object the atoms make up.
For our nursing example, the Execution might be a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. It is the very specific Execution of your career as a derivative of the Idea and the Concept.
Below where you have written and circled your Concept and have written and circled your Idea, I’d like for you to write and circle your Execution. There is no right or wrong Execution to your career or business; there is only what feels right to you. It’s a very specific item, a laser-focused definition of what it is that your company offers or what you do in your career. Write it down in the margin.
Be as detailed as possible. It is something you tell people after meeting them at a party and they show interest in what you do.
PUTTING THEM TOGETHER
All three views are critical for a business to function successfully with The Creator Mindset. It may be tempting to stay in the view you are most comfortable in, but to master the task of infusing creativity into your business, you must have visibility into all three.
Most of us are comfortable in only one of the views, and usually that view is the Execution: the electron-microscopic view. It is the view where we feel that most things get done, and it’s tempting to think that it’s the most important view. However, you must have visibility in all three sections. All three views are forever connected. You can’t dwell only in the area that is most comfortable for you, which far too many business owners (and folks in their careers) do. Just as a symphony needs the entire score of music to be moving, you can’t pluck one note from the score and expect it to be profound. It has no meaning on its own without being part of the whole ecosystem, the entire experience.
Now that we know the individual items of the Trinity of Creativity (Concept, Idea, and Execution), the question becomes, How can we use this to enhance creativity?
Let’s use an example to go along with the work you’re doing. Let’s pretend you own a pizza restaurant and work to identify all three of the pieces of the Trinity.
The Concept could be something like sustenance or nourishment. For this example, we will pick sustenance. Remember, this is the highest-level view of your product or service.
If the Concept is sustenance, the Idea would be something like food or, if you are a healthy pizza restaurant, low-fat food or gluten-free food. Let’s go with food for now.
For the last piece of the Trinity, the Execution could be something like a medium garlic meat superfan pizza that features sausage, pepperoni, meatballs, bell pepper, onion, and tomato-basil sauce, finished with a cheesy stuffed crust. It’s the specific laser-focused Execution that follows the Concept and the Idea.
LET’S MAKE CREATIVITY HAPPEN
Now that we understand the Trinity of Creativity, let’s start to make creativity happen! We’re not going to wait around for inspiration to strike; we’re going to create actively.
Let’s start by getting personal. Look at what you have written down and circled. The Trinity will enable you to develop new products creatively, innovate in new ways, and solve problems. It can be used for anything that plagues your business or career as a reliable formula to spark creativity.
Now let’s dive deeper into what you wrote down for the Execution. We start with the Execution because that is the most finite adjustment we can make, subtle yet effective. Any adjustments at the Execution level give us subtle shades of new creative ideas where we need to start before bringing in the bigger guns of the Idea and the Execution, where changes become more pronounced.
Stare at what you have written for the Execution long and hard. Are alternatives popping into your head? That’s creativity at work. Let your mind consider the variations and alternatives that pop up as you stare at what you have written without letting self-doubt creep in. Don’t let ugly thoughts such as self-consciousness and worrying about what others may think stop you from writing down every single idea that pops into your head. Don’t overthink but quickly consider what else comes to mind as variations on or alternatives to your Execution and write them down.
What you are doing here is coming up with subtle variations and alternatives that are based on your existing Execution. These subtle changes in the Execution offer you the seedlings of potential new creative products or even new directions in your career. The very act of focusing on your Execution and allowing your mind to come up with alternative variations is creativity beginning to work. Don’t block it. You’re not waiting for inspiration to strike. You are making it happen. While you are proposing alternatives to and variations on your Execution, you are activating the primordial mind that once championed creativity above all.
But you can’t stop there!
Next, let’s look at the Idea. Any tweaks here yield grander adjustments in creativity. Follow the familiar pattern of looking at the Idea you wrote down, letting your mind wander, and writing down any alternatives or variations that pop into your head. Again, don’t think too much; just explore what ideas pop up for you. There is no wrong answer and no pressure.
Finally, let’s do the same thing with the Concept of your business or career. Tweaks here will yield significant changes. Take a look at what you have written down and come up with one or two alternatives that are related to your Concept. Write them down so that you can generate options and allow creativity to take hold.
THE WORK WE JUST did enabled the creative mind to shut out the analytical mind so that it could actively practice doing creativity. In that creativity, innovation, new products, or different services will be revealed.
How?
By identifying the Execution, you should creatively enable:
Slight variations on your product, service, or career goal
Slight changes in the meaning of your product or service to you and the customer
Subtle changes in how the product, service, or the career goal works
By identifying the Idea, you should creatively enable:
Significant variations on new innovative products or services to take to market
Considerable improvement opportunities
A distinct and refreshed approach to existing problems
By identifying the Concept, you should creatively enable:
Radical changes to your product, service, or career
Extraordinary departures from your current path
Major momentous shifts in your completely new and refined product, service, or career
Writing out your Trinity of Creativity may save your business, make your foundation stronger, or even launch you into profitability levels you’ve never seen before. It also may make your career great again. Each time you’re stuck, no matter what the issue, complete this exercise. Each time you are frustrated by lack of promotion or advancement, use the Trinity. Heck, why not use it every quarter to keep fresh and nimble?
The work you do with the Trinity can be a way for you to look back and see how far you have come. Also, you can run the Trinity as a group, allowing your coworkers or staff to come up with different responses for each step of the Concept, Idea, and Execution. I use this exercise almost daily because it’s so powerful in its ability to keep up with change and keep you fresh and relevant. And it’s also one of my most popular requested workshops because its powerful process allows for endless creativity to be generated by anyone.