Increase The Odds Of Creativity | Will Burns, Forbes

[T]here are at least three different “kinds” of creativity (that I’ve seen, anyway), each of which require slightly different creative skills, and each of which can be enhanced with different methods.

Understanding these three “kinds” of creativity, particularly within the context of marketing, and understanding how we can enhance our creative skills within each, I believe will increase the odds of creativity for everyone.

So writes Will Burns, an "agency pitch consultant" and founder and CEO of a virtual marketing-ideas company.

Here, briefly, are his three kinds of creativity. In the article, Burns describes each collision in more detail, with examples, and discuss how we can improve the odds of each kind of collision:

1. Conventional Collisions.

What is it: This is the most basic form of creativity in marketing, the “fender bender” of collisions, but needs to be at least acknowledged. Think of it as a “match maker” for two existing ideas. ...

2. Internal Collisions.

What is it: Internal Collisions come to us while thinking, brooding and actually contemplating. Or they come to us after some time for incubation, when the subconscious has time to slam concepts together from the millions to choose from in your brain. The ideas that result from Internal Collisions lead to those “Aha!” moments that we all experience from time to time. ... They come from recombinations of concepts within the confines of your own mind -- facts, experiences, preferences, emotions, and everything else. ...

3. Outside-in Collisions.

What is it: These are the collisions where one concept is already in your head and it collides with a fresh, new concept “out there” somewhere. ... Think of an Outside-in Collision as the “in-prov” of creativity and it doesn’t just require talent, it requires a certain mindset, or way of living, in order to happen frequently. ... Outside-in Collisions require an optimistic view and a feeling that anything out there could be an inspiration in here.

I see "planned serendipity" as a factor especially in Collision No. 3. "Lucky accidents" can inspire creativity if a person is ready, willing and able to act on them when they happen.

But as Burns write in his conclusion:

Be Ready For Anything.

Increasing the odds of a brilliant idea, regardless of which of the three kinds of idea collisions, is a waste of time if you do not have a way to capture those ideas as they happen.