Staying Creative

I was recently asked the question, “How do you keep your team creative during this time of COVID-19 when everyone is working from home?” In this entry of a Diary of a Fintech CMO, I’ll share some of the things my team does to keep sharp and stay creative, as well as some tips from others in my network. But first, I believe team creativity starts at the individual level. So, I’ll start by sharing some of the things I do to keep my mind open and fresh for innovative thinking.  

As oneself

When working at home, ironically there is so much more concentrated “noise.” Being constantly bombarded with Slack messages, texts, the (usually bad) news updates, social media... It is hard to escape (and I haven’t even mentioned the domestic duties that may be tugging at you during your workday). But to be creative, you must get rid of the noise and clear your mind. For me, I like to simplify this to the “3 Ms”: mediation, music, and movement.

Now I’m no mindfulness guru or even an ardent practitioner, but I do find periodic short meditation to be really helpful for clearing the noise in my mind and calming me from the stresses of the day. Once a week I try my hand (and other limbs) at yoga. The great thing about yoga is, as a novice, it is physically demanding enough that I don’t think about anything else except the movements and positions. It is therefore a great exercise to focus the mind.

Music has always been a very instrumental part of my life. Whether it is listening to Spotify every day to escape, or pulling out the guitar to stumble through chords, or my weekly jam session on the drums, engaging in music is my way to get rid of the noise (with another, more productive type of noise). Ah, and it just so happens that music exercises your creativity, whether passively listening or actively playing. Grab your headphones or an instrument and make music a regular part of your day.

A long time ago I read an interview with Peter Gabriel (linked here is a more recent video interview) where he revealed that when he was stuck in a lyrics-rut he would seek out traveling on trains for “peripheral visual stimulation,” as rapid mobility is a deep-seated human instinct to generate solutions. Although I’m limited in my train travel these days, I find that movement — through the visual and physical stimulation — helps me clear my thoughts and opens my mind to ideas. Since the weather has been nice, I run outside a few times a week and try to take daily walks for movement. Typically if I go into a run with a problem I usually have a better handle on a solution after. Yikes — in Chicago we only have a month or so of good weather left… But the key is finding the things that help you get “unstuck.” 

This advice might sound rudimentary or self-evident, but I have found that if you turn these activities into habits, it will pay dividends in your creative work.

Here are a few more ideas that others have shared with me:

• Get the ‘Calm’ app to guide meditation.
• Get outside just to be in a “new environment” — even try working in a different room or, if you have the space, alternate working from a few different work-nooks to switch up your perspective.
• Get back to nature.
• Try walking or running without headphones so you can truly take in your surroundings (unplug).
• Read actual books, not things on the internet. Not only will the substance inspire, but you can learn how authors convey their ideas.
• Create an “every morning journal” (inspired by Julia Cameron’s morning pages exercise); write stream-of-conscious style so you can get out your raw ideas, so that when you need to be creative you can start from the building blocks you’ve already laid out. 

As a team

It’s one thing to get creative yourself, but it’s also important to get your whole team’s juices flowing. To do this, you should allocate time every week for gathering a creative cohort. I attend at least one creative meeting a week, while my design and culture teams hold additional meetings for their own projects. This allows for critical collaboration, brainstorming, sharing of ideas, and a chance to be silly, have fun, and freely express points of views. This weekly meeting happens regardless of whether or not there is a specific task at hand. Moreover, the dedicated time gives the cohort permission to practice their imagination. 

Naturally, each participant brings their own tips for working from home and also what media they are consuming and things they are doing just to get through quarantine living: the latest on Netflix, what is really relevant in the news, interesting trends, latest food creations, etc… Before the pandemic, the topics discussed might have organically come up in the office, in hallway conversations, or over lunch. Since we are all remote now, gathering the cohort formally is necessary because all of this sharing contributes to developing real ideas and innovative solutions for our work projects.  

Since March, every other month we have been putting together virtual company meetings called “What’s On Tap.” We infuse the agenda with fun and creative bits that keep the attention of the audience in between the important business updates. Establishing that captivating vibe is critical, as you may have experienced either through sitting in on boring online presentations or just the “Zoom fatigue.” In preparation for these meetings, our design and culture team holds weekly brainstorming sessions and daily we share ideas on a Slack channel dedicated to random thoughts, inspirations, or just wild-ass ideas. I follow a few YouTube channels to get my inspiration, seeing others analyze artistic media — this is a form of creative “practice.”  My current favorites are Homeskoolin’ with Tom Bukovac and Corridor Crew. Ultimately, keeping that cadence helps to make for interesting and engaging virtual company meetings.

Here are a few additional ideas that you may consider bringing to your teams to spur and nurture (virtual) creativity:

• Have a weekly session for Jukebox games to have some fun while keeping the imaginative tools in practice.
• Build a virtual wall of creative for team members to contribute to (inspiration walls/ sandboxes); this is a group version of practicing idea generation and innovation without any specific tasks at hand.
• Schedule a weekly session to analyze or give reviews and recommendations on movies, TV shows, and music. This helps the team become channels for these shared ideas.
• Encourage your team members to participate in external cohorts; not only will that continue their practice but they will naturally start bringing in additional content from the outside.

On that last point, practice is the key to anything you want to perfect. This is a lesson I’m continually teaching my 14-year old son. Whether it’s in his studies, music, or just his own film projects. As a parent, one of my joys is sharing with him my favorite music, movies, TV shows, advertisements, etc. and analyzing the techniques and skills in the development of those media. Or engaging with him as he digs into his projects and problems. The residual benefit is that I, too, am practicing my creativity through him.

It’s hard to keep up with all these things, and I am not perfect with this practice. But I try to uphold these exercises to ensure my team and I are staying creatively sharp. I hope these thoughts help and motivate your creative dynamics in the time of COVID-19.

Thanks for checking this out. Looking forward to sharing more on these learnings in subsequent Diary of a Fintech CMO entries and I welcome your thoughts.