Have you ever tried to do a creativity test? In contrast to an intelligence test, which tests you logical thinking, a creativity test looks for your ability to think in associations. This post outlines four behavior patterns that will help you flex your creativity muscles, push the limits and help you develop more creative and innovative thoughts, processes and products. Get inspired how we push the limits in IFS Labs.
Let us first run a quick creativity test called RAT (Remote Associate Test). Please add the missing word to these two sequences. Use the comment field at the end of this post to add your answers to A and B.
A: SHELF, READ, END, ?
B: MOUSE, SHARP, BLUE, ?
That was the warm-up to help answer the question of which creative type you are.
Below are four different kinds of innovative personalities. Do you represent one or several? Please remember, that you can train yourself to be more creative by changing your mindset and behavior.
THE CURIOUS
This personality always has tons of questions and long to learn and understand. They want to understand and see the problem or challenge from different angles. They want to understand the background of the problem and come up with solution that very often evolves and changes as they learn and understand more.
Tip: Use the five-why technique. Ask “why” five times in a row to really dig into the details of a particular question or challenge. We need a new product! Why? Because customers are requesting it! Why? Because…
THE OBSERVER
This personality observes and gets inspiration from other people, products or industries. Other industries may have different solutions and benefits, but if you try to apply your business challenges on their solutions, it may end up with very interesting new thoughts.
Tip: Browse five different company home pages every month and try to apply your own product offerings and benefits on their products and marketing messages.
THE NETWORKER
These folks are very social and can interact with any personality type. They have a large group of individuals and organization to get inspiration from. They always have their radar on, to listen and observe how other people from other industries solve their challenges.
Tip: Next time you are sitting on a flight or train, initiate a discussion with the person next to you and ask what his / her top three industry challenges and solutions are – they may be very relevant to you too.
THE ENGINEER
When questions are not enough, you have to start your own experiments. If it concerns technical products or software you may disassemble products or processes to really understand how it’s engineered and designed.
Tip: Tough to give a tip here depending on what you want to tear down. Make sure you use the right tool for the right device – sledgehammer, screwdriver or Google….
At IFS we try to mix different personalities in our development projects. We let customers and people from IFS regions work in tight collaboration together with staff from IFS R&D. When we want to try things that are way out of the box, we use IFS Labs – a team of software geeks with no limits when it comes to ideas and innovations.
Please contact David Andersson, Director of IFS Labs for more inspiration.
Recommendation
When you are working on a project could you make sure you line-up these four types of characters in your team? Next time you are about to start a project or change the organization, ask yourself who will take the role(s) as the curious, the observer, the networker and the engineer.
- Who will be the one with the curious and demanding questions and always challenge you with questions such as “so what” and “what’s in it for the customer”
- Who will be the one who will think outside the box and get inspiration from other people and industries
- Who will be the one who can invite people outside the building to test and challenge the way you think and want to design the new product
- Who will be the one who loves to dig into the techy details and understand all bits and pieces how competitors or industry stakeholders have solved a particular problem
Is being creative more important than being intelligent?
“Imagination is more important than knowledge” Albert Einstein
