When Archimedes first yelled out the word “eureka” after he found out that the water rose when he stepped into the wooden basket for his evening bath, the world changed immediately.

Archimedes found out that the amount of water risen is equal to the amount of mass of the body part he submerged. That was when the term the law of buoyancy was coined and triggered innovations by generations after. Back then, the information, in which we already learned in 4th grade’s Physics class, was a great discovery. That discovery later inspired mankind to create objects that can freely discover the ocean, known as submarines.

Comparing it to our usual daily lives, we might feel that getting that “eureka” moment like what Archimedes had is not as easy as it sounds. Things are changing constantly nowadays, innovations flow like flooded rivers and the limitations of what is considered as “novel inventions” are getting narrower. This framework of thinking to determine a “new thang” conceals our ability to think outside of the box, whereas it is widely demanded in a professional field as a requirement for being creative and innovative, especially in the ever-changing, fast-pace world.

The jargon “thinking outside of the box” is an everyday vocabulary for us workers to hear and usually used by the top-level management to squeeze out every drop of ideas for a literal and figurative innovation from their employees. In a creative industry, for instance, that jargon is injected by the team leader to our blood and used as a switch button to force new and fresh ideas to come out of the team. Sometimes they are working, but oftentimes they just plainly suck—thrown away and free falling into the nothingness bin for being “too out there” or “not at all realistic”.

“If the environment punishes mistakes, you will never be really tempted to go out of the box—you will remain in a safely known environment. So, if you want to stimulate an environment which is creative, you need to allow the existence of divergent information—in other words allow irrelevant information to come in…only in that case you will allow the environment prone to generation of ideas.”

—Giovanni Corazza, a professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum at the University of Bologna, during his lecture at Tedx Roma, 2014

So, you may be wondering: how can an idea be considered as creative and realistic at the same time? Is there any formula to thinking outside the box? Should we sit under a tree for an apple to fall on our heads?

According to an article written by Rafis Abazov, a professor at Al Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, there are five ways to improve creative and innovative thinking, which goes as follows:

 

Create the “three-ifs” questions

There is no shortcut for innovation, but as the saying goes, “there are many ways to Rome.” In his article, Abazov gave an example of how Steve Jobs invented Apple products and how was that even an idea to begin with.

Did he invent smartphones? Nope. Then, what did he do? What he did was that he asked the right hows-and-whys, found the missing link and helped fill the void. He answered the pain-points that he himself experienced—in other words he discovered an area to be improved and improved them.

From that, Abazov finds a way to ask the right hows-and-whys as well. To his students in his class, Abazov often challenges their train of thoughts with three simple questions which are later known as the “three-ifs”.

How can this correlate of being innovative and creative for us consultants in the creative industry? Well, we can certainly create our own “three-ifs” questions to brainstorm for ideas.

For instance, if client asks for an out-of-the-box plan for a campaign using influencer, then you can start composing the “three-ifs” questions, like:

•   What kind of content would I want to see if I were the target audience for this campaign?
•   What would I do if I had an unlimited budget for this campaign?
•   What are my opportunities and drawbacks if the campaign used my idea?

Then, you can bring your team together and new ideas would come one after the other. Maybe one of the ideas that came out is to utilize more Micro influencers and less Macros and make their content connected to one another by mentioning other influencers name on the caption—sort of like a chain message. Or maybe even crazier.

Then, after those crazy ideas are gathered, narrow them down and start cracking.

 

Practice to dream bigger

As a kid, we often dream about the impossible, like flying on a futuristic skateboard that shoots laser-beam with pet hamster sidekick named Bartholomew III on our shoulder; fighting an evil half-tarantula-half-eagle robot who wants to take over the world and annihilates humanity. If I pitched that idea to you now, I bet you would not even bat an eye and probably told me to “grow up”. Can we not dream anymore as an adult? Does our creativity fade out as our number goes up?

Using Steve Jobs’ success as our example once again proves that dream can come true. What was once an imagination, a wishful thinking, can turn into reality if channeled through the right set of actions.

As you learned how to practice being creative using the “three-ifs”, you certainly can learn how to leap over the boundary of possibilities in your brain. By doing so, as a consultant, you can find a new perspective of how to answer your client’s needs. All you need to do is to activate that childlike brain to find the most out-of-the-box and impossible ideas.

 

Think cohesively

Abazov said that what keeps us from being creative and innovative is that we a) don’t practice dreaming; and b) we don’t practice focusing on cohesive ideas.

You may be wondering—how can I start thinking cohesively?

Well, you can start by assessing your proposed idea(s) using the “three-ifs” questions by determining the cause and effect of the said idea(s). Since they might be wild, using a framework of “cause-and-effects” or other methods, such as SWOT analysis, will help you a lot in making those ideas plausible.

As a consultant, it is in our innate nature to ask questions of hows and whys to determine what you can bring to the client's table. Hopefully, with enough brain to storm, you can deliver the greatest advice money can’t buy to your client.

 

Pitch to perfect

If we take a look at Archimedes' story, we might think, “Well, anybody could’ve done that,” or, “I would’ve had the same ideas as he did.” However, what makes his idea different from the others? What makes it work?

The answer is: his pitching. He did not only think and experience it, but he is able to express and “sell” it.

Every consultant has had their fair-share of client’s pitching and every pitching needs a bitchin’ proposal to win. That circles back to having a creative and out-of-the-box idea(s). Brainstorming with your team to define the killing idea for a campaign might be a double-edged sword. Some might agree upon each other while some might argue like their lives depend on it.

You may have been in a situation where your coworker’s idea is not that great yet people are drawing closer toward them and ended up agreeing unanimously to that so-so idea. Meanwhile, you, sitting in front of your laptop, having this very great never-seen-before idea for a campaign and yet nobody is convinced. So, where did you go wrong?

Much like winning client’s trust through your deck, you have to win other people’s attention as well when pitching an idea. Make it short and concise—two, three sentences—and you will leave them with follow-up questions. That is called “the elevator pitch.”

When you are able to master that skill, you will not have any trouble with expressing your out-of-the-box ideas. Being creative is one thing, but being a creative person and able to pitch your idea is much better. So, practice your pitch!

 

Share and gather

As previously mentioned, having difficulties to translate your creative idea into reality is painful. Especially so if the proposal is due end-of-day. To overcome this issue, Abazov suggested that you bounce off your idea to your peers. Ask them about their thoughts and collect their inputs.

Their responses toward your idea might vary and that is why collecting feedback from your peers will help you to adjust your creative direction into the right place. You may also learn which areas you are lacking and take notes from there for next time. Therefore, this final step is utterly essential to hone your creative and innovative thinking skill.

 

Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

 

Those are the steps that you can do to achieve the creative and innovative skill. With enough practice, you will be ready to take on any brief and do not have to wait for an apple to fall on your heads for the out-of-the-box, creative and plausible idea to win your client’s approval.