I had the opportunity to speak earlier this week at the Innovators Improv. It’s a monthly gathering that brings together a variety of interesting folks from the community to share experiences, discuss questions, and raise  ideas on a range of topics. I was invited to talk about “Sparking Creativity“. I wanted to share my talk as I think we all benefit from the opportunity to spark creativity in our everyday lives (stay tuned for video).

the shower and idea generation
When thinking about the idea sparking creativity I couldn’t help but think about where my own ideas are sparked – and quite often that’s in the shower. Why do our best ideas often come while we’re taking a shower …or walking the dog …or running to the bathroom between meetings? It seems so inconvenient.

The good news is that there is an actual reason for why this happens and in better understanding what’s underneath perhaps we can harness it and encourage it to happen during far more convenient (and needed) times throughout our day.

… the subtle suggestion of psychological distance seems to help people think outside the box. Jia, L. et al., “Lessons from a Faraway Land: The Effect of Spatial Distance on Creative Cognition,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming) (Boston Globe).

The focal point of cognitive distance as it pertains to our daily creativity is that as we further ourselves physically from the problem the more able we are to tackle that problem in a creative, innovative, and out of the box kind of way.

We see this applied in actual work environments especially in more progressive ones like Google. TOMS is another great example. They are encouraged to take breaks during the day to play (to surf, bike, run…) which better enables them to tackle their work with greater innovation … not mention passion and energy.

innovation in everyday places
I think we often have a very specific idea of what creativity looks like – we either associate with it or not. This can be incredibly limiting. Creativity can be found in tackling anything and everything – it means approaching a problem in a different way. No matter the industry we all benefit from innovative solutions.

As noted there’s Google workplace culture, but that’s not realistic for everyone. So how do we apply this idea of cognitive separation in a way that works within more traditional spaces and cultures? How do we create opportunities to separate ourselves from the problem in order to be creative? How do you make it culturally acceptable for individuals and teams to creatively explore together?

mental space and time to play
In creating cognitive distance to encourage creativity and innovative problem solving the trick is to foster it in a way that works for us (our lives, work, work styles). This doesn’t have to just be physical separation it can also be mental separation. Carving out space to mentally separate from a problem or task it just as powerful as taking a physical break.

A great example of the effectiveness of mental separation came from my friend, Amy. She had worked at a more traditional foundation where they were given the opportunity to use 10% of their weekly working time to ‘take a break’ from the norm. It was time used to explore ideas, current events, other industries, and more. This fostered mental separation that was a chance to not only cultivate knowledge expansion, but also knowledge sharing.  The group shared what they had learned during the week and created the chance to participate in collective creativity. In taking a break to explore and share they were better able to apply what was learned to their own work in more innovative ways.

the creative limitations of failure

The other reason why cognitive distance makes sense and why our best ideas may happen in the shower is because it’s safe. No one judges your ideas when you’re in the shower. To be creative and innovative we have to be unafraid to fail. Fear of failure hinders creativity. We often struggle to not only separate ourselves from the challenge, but the potential failures attached to solving the problem in a different way. To be creative and innovative in our approach we not only need to separate, but also be willing to fail. Sometimes it’s the third or fourth idea that sticks.

So the next time you are up against a challenge or problem take a break. Take a walk, read The Atlantic, or something you’re simply curious about and be open to the solutions that come to mind no matter the outcome. If worse comes to worse, you can always wait for that spark of creativity to strike when you’re in the shower the next day.

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