A ‘fresh pair of eyes’ brings a new perspective to a situation

Careers have been constantly advancing, which demands active use of know-how. That’s what Gisela Kassoy, a consultant expert in creativity and innovation, states. ‘Knowledge is renewed constantly, once external circumstances vary and are umpredictable. One cannot think that totally masters their capacity of performing certain tasks because they must always be reinvented. Therefore, the executive needs to be creative all the time’, says Kassoy, who has already delivered lectures for Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Unilever and Wyeth, for instance.

In order to rise your inner creativity and be successful professionaly, the consultant offers five hints to Top Team readers. Write them down and put them into practice:

- Understand how the brain works: every time we think, our neurones take a certain way. When we establish a mental association for the first time, such way is like a small trail in a forest. Every time the association is repeated, the trail turns into a wider and more comfortable way, until it becomes a wide and free highway that you can’t wait to take. Therefore, the first step is to force your mind so that it is free from routine. Forget the myth that creativity simply blooms. Ideas hardly ever come up when we deal with old problems, especially when they bother us.

- Look at a new situation with fresh eyes. Think about it, for instance, without any essential component. Let’s suppose you had to set up a unique restaurant. You could, for example, get rid of the chairs by creating the ‘cocktail restaurant’, where people eat while standing and are able to talk to each other meanwhile.

- Ask yourself questions that estimulate the creative thought. For instance, an executive must quit searching the solution and firstly think of several solutions. The question should always be ‘how could I ...’?.

- Another good question is ‘what if...’ This kind of questioning stimulates the imagination and opens one’s mind.

- A third question would be ‘why not?’, normally asked when we face a new or odd situation.