This article is the recipe for creativity in business problems.

(You don’t need an article for any other sort of creativity).

(Seriously).

The creative process has much in common with mechanically-separated, processed, congealed deli meats.

If you don’t get it, then you just don’t get it.

That’s fine.

Just be sure you’re not standing in the way of those who do get it.

So, if you are able to get it, then here’s the actual recipe, explained in this hyper-linked article.

(Why so many hyperlinks? They’re important to understanding how to read the entire recipe).

Don’t fear overthinking.

First, what do people even mean when they say ‘stop overthinking’?

What if your ‘thinking’ is what they think is ‘overthinking’?

Then aren’t they just under-thinking?

Or maybe you are overthinking even your own thinking, and are going so far ahead, exploring so many possibilities — that even you get lost in a cognitive web, and the tangential curvature in your logic brings you right back to the beginning — so that now, you’ve missed the point entirely.

I haven’t, though.

(Stick with me).

I think. And maybe that’s what people mean when they say ‘stop overthinking.’ What’s the alternative?

It’s stupidity.

So, if we think about it simply; we’re fucked either way.

Overthink.

Then, simplify.

I’m oversimplifying of course, but that is the essence of the creative process.

To anyone deep in the creative process, there is nothing more frustrating than to be accused of ‘over-thinking.’

Scattering the pieces and examining them is oftentimes the first step to start seeing what else they can become.

Scatter it all — and just play.

But first — speaking of meat.

To ask for simplicity before the (often necessary) over-thinking is finished, before it is simplified…is sort of like asking to taste the chef’s entree when all of the ingredients are still scattered across the various stations in the kitchen.

I have seen too many great ideas die before ever being plated, simply because they were still raw and those tasting them had no idea what to taste for. (I’m sure people can even become physically ill from some ideas that haven’t been filtered or fully cooked yet).

I’ve seen the same great ideas get plated, afterwards, by others who know how to let the process happen.

It doesn’t matter how talented any given chef or team may be, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve paid them; without the ability to do what it is they do, the final dishes probably won’t blow anyone away. In which case, you’ve wasted the talent, and whatever you paid for it.

So unless you are very familiar the creative process, have endured it, have delivered the results, then it’s best to stay out of the kitchen and trust it to deliver.

As a young waiter working at a nice restaurant who was once hit in the face by a knot of veal cuttings after challenging the sous chef, this is something I’ve absorbed deep into my being, and it informs my own process to this day:

Trust.

However, if you are familiar with and do understand the creative process, and you also trust that your team understands it, then don’t be afraid to share openly.

Share every part.

I’m often guilty of over-sharing and under-editing, but the creative process requires such vulnerability, exposure and honesty, or it will never get to the best results.

I tend to err on trusting that everyone else knows how the process works, and how individuals or teams may have their own idiosyncratic processes that deliver the best results.

I can still feel that veal.

I almost always hit send. (Unless it’s confidential, or it could open a door that leads to a chute that leads to HR. Sometimes, the finger just hovers as I let a series of complex calculations in my pre-frontal cortex take over and weigh the risks).

But if it’s an idea, it’s out there — it’s shared.

I’m sorry, but I don’t care.

I can’t care. I have to explore all ideas and fragments of ideas, good or bad.

That doesn’t mean I’m being unprofessional. It just means I’m doing my job.

I’d rather do my job well than look like I’m doing my job well.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Appearances cannot come at the expense of the real process.

Comfortable methods can run counter to our goals.

See, we cannot be afraid to appear, or to sound stupid.

That’s where new ideas often splash around.

Not many of us are willing to risk getting soaked to get those ideas though. Not many of us are willing to endure the risk of being seen as a fool.

Those who can, and do – are rewarded.

That’s why the creative process must often be protected from those who are not familiar with, nor adept at the creative process.

They can destroy creative thinking just by trying to keep it ‘focused’ and ‘organized’ and ‘facilitated’ — mistaking simplicity and efficiency for productivity.

That is very dangerous in the creative process, where the opposite is true and must be managed in its own way.

Never mistake any process for the actual creative process, which is random, exploratory and as indefinable as a slice of olive loaf.

Trust the process;

your creative process — the only one that matters.

“The work did not follow the idea.”

“The idea followed the work.” (as Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton put it)

I try to keep my own creative thinking process in equilibrium, evenly distributed between bewilderingly inane, so-so, and possibly groundbreaking meta-cognitive on a charted plot (like a New York Magazine approval matrix).

That’s my goal, anyway.

Sometimes the simplest (even dumbest and ugliest) ideas are the answers to the most complicated problems. They can be the most inspiring and interesting.

It’s always a struggle.

It’s very difficult to fire on all cylinders on a consistent basis. But that’s also my job. Even if, sometimes, it doesn’t seem like I’m thinking — that’s what the process looks like.

It’s a job, but only if I convince myself I’m doing it for fun.

So, how does the abstract process coexist and benefit the the linear and the logical?

Through play.

I’m quite experienced at it.

But I do need to remind myself regularly – especially when under pressure or in a not-very-fun environment that’s expecting my best output…that I still must play.

‘Practice’ doesn’t necessarily make perfect when it comes to creative thinking and problem solving

Of course, experience is very important. But practice is rote.

Practice is something that should be learned, understood, then immediately left behind.

Techniques and formulas can become traps if we’re not careful.

Everything must be open to dismemberment and reconstruction in the creative process.

This is not simply ‘remixing’, but seeing and forming new reconstructions that will emerge through your own personal sense of the world. That is what is often referred to as ‘talent’ — but talent is rare.

It’s rare only because, while most of us are born with creative talent, that talent is rarely nurtured in a world that relies so heavily on linear thinking.

Even more rare, is for creative talent to be nurtured and allowed to thrive in business, because the very innovation most industries are looking for relies on our instincts — and instinct is one of the most frightening words to any business that is built on practice (ie; most businesses).

That’s why creativity, lateral thinking, is such an advantage in a linear world.

It’s those ‘crazy’, instinctive ideas, though, that can change the world. So the more we have, the better. (That might be a bit of an over-promise, especially if all you need in your particular world is a great idea to sell more laundry detergent – but it’s all about context and scale here).

Which brings us to the source of all creative thoughts…

Ideas don’t come from anywhere. Ideas come from somewhere. The inspiration and ingredients to ideas can come from anywhere.

This is such an important semantic distinction because it reveals who inherently understands the process, even if they don’t fully comprehend how it works.

Most of us have only a basic clue, but we get this part.

Ideas can come from any one person, and they can be transformed by any group of people. There is no limit to who can think up an idea, or can improve on one, and there is no ownership of an idea once it’s out in the world.

(Unless it’s copyrighted and patented, in which case, consult a lawyer — not me).

Every idea is open for adoption and for re-configuring with other ideas.

But without the original sources of creative thinking —any one of us — there are no new ideas.

We all have ideas.

Ideas sprout and spark inside of us. (I imagine they sound like a slice of olive loaf slapping onto a wall).

Ideas don’t just appear.

So since ideas don’t just form from the ether, we should also — in our collective rush to examine and dissect creative thinking, desperately searching for the perfect formula that will democratize and distill creativity into a single button —not discount sources (ourselves or others) in the process.

Enabling and respecting the appropriate conditions for the sources of ideas to thrive, and each individual’s optimal conditions, is the only way to ensure there will be fresh thinking and continued crops of creativity.

(Even then, you can still hit walls — but they’re also part of the process).

The most important part of any creative talent — instinct – is just the gestalt spark that appears when all of your knowledge and experience and stimuli mix and react.

That’s the magic.

You can chase the magic away if you look the process in the eye, even if acting on creative instinct might not be exactly the same as hunting wild game.

We’re still sticking with the meat analogies.

You have to go with your own gut.

The real thinking, the deepest insights, the most creative ideas — they are inside of your gut.

The splashing that their dancing causes is what you can taste in your throat when your idea is out in the open. That’s why it’s so hard to swallow when a great, insightful idea dies.

That’s also why the creative process often takes a physical toll on us — just to get to those ideas.

Studies show gut-led thinking is very often an advanced method of thinking.

This is how we can access our gut (which is actually in our mind):

You have to sneak up on great ideas.

You have to walk up slow and sucker-punch the paper.

Stab it with your pen.

Otherwise the ideas will get spooked and run away.

You have to trick your mind sometimes, to make it believe it’s all just a silly game — especially when it’s not — or your mind might stiffen up like day old aspic.

Because it is a game, mathematically speaking.

There is a beat to the logic that you can freestyle dance to, if you can hear the music.

But we have to trust the beat is there, shut up and stop trying to listen for it.

Just let it play.

“Combinatory play” is the essence of creative problem solving, as Einstein put it. I’m no Einstein, but I wouldn’t accuse him of over-thinking anything.

Even simple solutions will come from complicated, yet loose equations; there is no math for the new.

You can only create a new formula by allowing for (and enabling) random discoveries.

Disorganization = discovery = reassembling = creativity.

But the achilles of creative people is, of course, productivity.

Though it can happen concurrently, the opposite of the creative process is production …in that (usually) the most fertile environment and stimuli for either is reversed.

Productivity in any creative endeavor is worthless is you’re not producing anything creative.

So you have to let yourself overthink, yet also try to learn to juggle between the two.

That’s not easy by any means, especially at the same time, which is why so many artists have agents, writers have editors and creators have producers.

It’s also why so many creative people end up ‘plugging into’ careers that have a system to produce their ideas even if it means giving up on their own dreams of autonomy.

They know, without that discipline, they would just remain dreams.

Getting any creative idea realized is an accomplishment in itself.

The only people who will tell you otherwise are the very lucky few who can manage both — or (more likely) those who don’t produce anything very creative themselves.

So allow for the anarchy.

But be precise in picking out the gold. Be disciplined in bringing it to realization.

In other words, willingly strap into the rollercoaster but know it’s not easy to tick boxes while doing the tangential loopty-loops.

Tangentially speaking, of course, that brings us right back to the beginning;

the olive loaf.

The olive loaf represents the totality of the cognitive, creative process at its simplest.

Don’t overthink it.

It’s just meat. (*16:00–17:20)

• Note: I will continue to update links in this article that I feel help add context where applicable. While this doesn’t read like a ‘4 easy steps to unlocking your creativity’ article; that’s exactly why it doesn’t. This article is just my way of trying to explain what I have always felt innately — no different than breathing or eating. But by observing my own behaviors and the creative process of others while in management, instructor or collaborating partner roles, it’s helped me see what is lacking in so much discussion about creative problem-solving when applied to anything outside of pure ‘art’ — especially in businesses. “Creativity” itself is written and spoken of as if it’s a dialect. It’s more of a different language altogether. Without knowing that language — (which, comparatively, would be more like a color or number or potato perhaps), then no technique in the world will be effective in harnessing your creative potential in any way that leads to the kind of breakthrough ideas you may be searching for. For that, you must change your entire approach and your perspectives, constantly, in the process.