Using People
By Shane Shennan - Last updated: Saturday, September 20, 2008 - Save & Share - Leave a Comment
Being a creative/innovative person is a pretty good life, isn’t it? Yet, creativity/innovation doesn’t happen by itself. You have to feed your imagination if you want to remain fully creative.
One way to stay creative is to hang out with people who stimulate your thinking. There are at least three kinds of people who can help you in this area:
- Tacklers are those people who enjoy solving problems and doing thought experiments. My friend Peter is like this. All you have to do is mention an intriguing idea or interesting problem, and he tackles it like, um, someone tackling something. Tacklers are great people to hang out with when you are feeling creatively dry; they will fill your head with lots of new material.
- Brainstormers are those people whose greatest pleasure comes from making up ideas. My friend Steve is a classic brainstormer. Every time I have ever hung out with him, the same thing happens. He gets this happy look on his face, and he says, “You know what I just thought of?” Brainstormers are great people to hang out with when you are starting a project, especially when you are searching for an innovative direction for your project.
- Go-To People are those people who experts in their field. They don’t have to be professionals, but they have to be passionate about their topic. These are the people you go to when you need details. My roommate Matt is my go-to person whenever I have a car question. When I want to know the year and model of a car I see in a movie, I ask Matt, and he always knows! These people have a freaky amount of detailed knowledge. These are the people you talk to when you are in the middle of your project, and don’t want to look like an idiot because you got some key details wrong.
Of course, there is going to be some overlap. Steve is all three of these, with brainstorming as his strongest area.
Do I use people? You bet I do! My tacklers, brainstormers and go-to people keep my brain alive and my imagination running! Who wouldn’t take advantage of that?