¶ Creative Slumps and Empty Tanks
We've all been in slumps . It usually comes after those times when we've been doing the daily grind for a long time . We're not looking up much , but getting stuff done . After a while we get tired , worn down , uninspired .
We get so immersed in whatever we're doing that when we're finally asked to pull out something creative or do some sort of creative innovation , we're empty . Our tank is empty . Let's talk about ways to brighten our creative spark , cross-pollinating our way to innovation . After this brief introduction .
Hello and welcome to Quality During Design , the place to use quality thinking to create products . Others love for less . I'm your host , diana Deeney . I'm a senior level quality professional and engineer with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing and design . I consult with businesses and coach individuals and how to apply quality during design to their processes .
Listen in and then join us . Visit qualityduringdesigncom . Welcome back to the episode
¶ Post-Break Inspiration and Echo Chambers
. I am back from a family spring break trip . This was something that was scheduled way in advance and it was a sightseeing trip seeing the western part of the United States through a train ride .
I wasn't really feeling like I needed a break , but it was something where you know spring break is scheduled so everybody has time to spend together , to go do something if they want to .
What happened is I had a great time and I ended up filling my bucket , so to speak , time and I ended up filling my bucket , so to speak , and I hadn't even realized that I needed that break , because when I came back , getting back into work and my contracts and my business , I came back refreshed with new inspiration and bigger ideas .
What happened to me is that I was in deep immersion on a certain project and didn't even realize that I needed to sort of step away from it for a while to get refreshed . And I know this happens to you too .
We get so immersed in whatever product we're working on or within working in our industry , and we get stuck in our usual patterns , using the same tools and techniques all the time that we start to develop these echo chambers for our own ideas , we start to create trends of habits that we just kind of follow and we're not critically evaluating the ideas that we're
coming up with . We're sort of in a slump or in a rut .
And then , when we have an opportunity to be creative or are in a rut , and then when we have an opportunity to be creative , we're kind of stuck or we don't have a lot of creativity or we can feel a little bit frustrated that we're not coming up with the sort of ideas that we think we ought to be able to .
So really , the question that we're asking ourselves today is how can I reliably inject fresh , innovative thinking into my design process , especially when I feel creatively blocked ?
¶ Three Keys to Reliable Creativity
Stuart Walsh wrote a book just for engineers . It's called Introduction to Creativity and Innovation for Engineers . He was interviewed by the Engineering Management Institute for the Civil Engineering Podcast . I'll link to it in the show notes With all of Stu's experiences and insights . There are three things that work consistently for him .
One is timing activities in your day . Doing heavy thinking first thing in the morning that's what works for him . Exercising and reading books . When the interviewer asked him what are the things that work the most for him , those are the three things that he listed Timing activities , exercising and reading books and I wholeheartedly agree .
I use those three things myself For Stu . He realized at the time of day where he was the most creative and can do his best , work was first thing when he's fresh . For you it might be a different part of the day . Knowing that about ourselves helps us to organize our day so that we can maximize our creativity when we're feeling the most creative .
Exercising helps to get our blood moving . Even taking a shower , taking a walk , doing an activity while we're thinking about something , can help us . And then he mentioned reading books .
All of these things that Stu mentioned have to do with scheduling activities , and I want to take what Stu came up with , which I agree with , to a next step , the next step further , because we want to brighten our
¶ Scheduling Dedicated Exploration Time
creative spark . So let's schedule some dedicated exploration time . This could be travel , like I did with my family on spring break going to museums , signing up to go to conferences conferences that are related to the work topics that you do now , or maybe it's a tangentially related work topic , maybe something that one of your cross-functional teammates would go to .
For example , I went to some regulatory conferences when I was working as a product design engineer , or it could be a conference that's just completely different . What we really want to do is to schedule some time to see some new patterns , problems and solutions , so we can start cross-pollinating ideas from other places into our own creative processes .
An easy thing to do , which is something that Stu mentioned , was reading books . I enjoy reading on my own . Reading with a friend is the most fun , but that doesn't happen often , so I also enjoy listening to podcasts of others who have read the same thing .
Lately I've been choosing books based on what podcasters are talking about , just so I can listen in and take a deeper dive into the material . Just so I can listen in and take a deeper dive into the material . I have my own favorite book podcasters for fiction books , for nonfiction books .
I can offer some of our previous episodes that included a book review discussion , and they're all books that are related to engineering . I'll link to all of those in the show notes . You can also look for author interviews . They provide some deeper insights into why they wrote the book or focus in on one or more aspects of it .
Do you have a nonfiction book you're reading or you want to read ? Do an internet search on the author and or the book title , or ask ChatGPT or Gemini with this prompt . Find podcast episodes related to this author and book title . Then find podcast episodes where this author was a guest List , all episodes by date published .
If there are any , I'm sure they will come up with a list that maybe you can explore to take your book reading to the next level . So that was our step number one toward brightening our creative spark , which was scheduling activities , purposely choosing things to explore our world in new ways . So that first step will help us get started .
But then there's a One is to just practice analogy
¶ Practicing Analogy Thinking
thinking . We can ask ourselves how is my challenge that I'm stewing on and trying to figure out ? How is that ? Like this concept from another field ? One of my favorite stories was about a potato chip manufacturer . They wanted to make a potato chip that was extra crispy and didn't have as much oil on it , and they were stuck .
They had done all the usual things or they wanted to create a new type of potato chip for the consumer that was less greasy . They had to look out of whatever they had been doing for years and outside of their own food manufacturing to come up with a solution .
And actually it was a violinist who came up with a solution , somebody that played a musical instrument that was more knowledgeable about sound waves and how that could shake the excess oil off the potato chip to create a crisper chip .
That is practicing analogy thinking Combining knowledge about musical instruments and sound waves to a food product to make something different , to do something in a new way . A more structured approach to this kind of thinking could be TRIZ , t-r-i-z , which is Theory of Inventive Thinking . I have another previous episode on TRIZ that I'll link to in the show notes .
Really , with practicing analogy thinking , you want to map structures and relationships from one domain to another domain , and doing this will often reveal some novel approaches that you otherwise wouldn't have thought of . Back to our topic ways to brighten our creative spark .
We've talked about scheduling activities for ourselves that are purposely exposing us to different domains . Another one is practicing analogy thinking , where we're starting to map different domains together to form new ideas . And the last one that we'll talk about today is to keep a cross-pollination journal or a swipe file . Here's the thing
¶ Cross-Pollination Journals and Action Steps
We've been out experiencing things and we're thinking about things and making new connections . Now we want to write it down somewhere . If we come up with an idea , just jot it down our initial thoughts of how it might relate back to design and the kind of things that we're working on . Even if it's a stretch , take a note of it .
What you want in the end is a personal repository of ideas that you can revisit when you're facing a design challenge . I used to have a friend that preferred to do these things in a Word document so that he could do a search on it .
You can write it in a physical book , keeping a table of contents in the front to what idea you put where , just as long as you can refer back to it later when you're stuck and you need that creative spark Really . We don't want to just focus on more ideas , but different kinds of ideas , want to just focus on more ideas , but different kinds of ideas .
So we started our episode here with a problem of just not having a pool of creativity to pull from , and we talked about three things that we could do . One is to schedule activities . The second thing was for us to practice analogy thinking , and the third was to keep a cross-pollination journal or a swipe file that we can reference later .
What's today's insight to action ? Creativity isn't mystical . It thrives on diverse inputs . So your next great design breakthrough might be waiting in a history book , a nature documentary or a conversation with someone from a completely different profession . So I recommend your action this week is to schedule 90 minutes for intentional , non-design exploration .
Pick something from the list that we discussed a museum , a documentary , a walk with observational intent . Go in curious . Don't force connections immediately . Just absorb Afterwards . Spend 15 minutes jotting down anything that caught your attention and one potential , even loose , connection to a design problem you're mauling over .
I'd love to hear about your own cross-pollination experiments . What unexpected places have you found design inspiration ? Share your experience . Just click the send us a text link . That's at the top of the show notes . And , speaking of show notes , there's also a blog post with extra information and links that you can refer to .
I mentioned quite a few during the episode . They'll all be there in the blog post at Quality During Design . This has been a production of Dini Enterprises . Thanks for listening .