What is the most creative thing you have ever done?
This was the question we asked guests at the recent launch event for Coaching for Innovation held in Switzerland (the country where both Maureen and Cristina live). Big, small, inventive, funny, serious – everyone has at one time or another done something creative. People were asked to write a brief description of their creative moment onto a card in order to enter a prize draw – we had two copies of the book to give away to the lucky winners.
With the kind permission of our guests, here are a few of their creative moments to inspire you:
“As I was trying to raise funds for a good cause and wanted to have some fun as well, I asked a good friend to cook at my home. I invited people who then had to make a minimal contribution – good fun, very good friends and I raised nearly CHF 10,000.”
“Creating light bulb cupcakes.”
“During a bad period of my personal life, I was obliged to look deeper into myself and there was a puzzle to be used to build a new me…And I was very creative then…building a new me step by step with help from very interesting people…finally I liked me. I vote for creativity and the courage to change!”
“Implementing a mobility plan for an international hub at work, involving all employees, on-boarding leadership and living it by example, using a rewarding culture rather than a must-do culture”
“Building Lego from scratch with my son.”
“A self-made carnival created as a child when I was nine.”
“Doing nothing.”
“I made the curtains of my new house before the house was built.”
“To ask for creative birthday presents – outings with a smile.”
“Two wonderful children.”
“Coming from the environmental sector to studying gemmology to become an expert in this new field.”
“Adapting Romeo and Juliet to make it approachable to a teenage audience.”
“I wanted to leave for six months sabbatical leave. At the same time, my employee had the opportunity to move to the global team. My manager said to me, “Only one of you can leave the team. You can decide who it will be.” Thanks to my out-of-the-box thinking and understanding the real needs and fear of my manager, I found a solution that enabled both of us to go for our dreams. And my manager was happy waiting for me with my job to come back to.”
“Leave everything behind to discover the world.”
“I invented a new way of talking via Skype with my four and six year old nephews. They would say, “Ask us a question and we will respond with a smiley” – then I asked questions like, “How are you today?” or “What happened at school?” They loved to choose and send different smileys and the conversation developed from there…”
“The doctors I worked with could not understand “corporate issues”. One day, I brought some baseball caps to a brainstorming session, asked them to put our “corporate hat on” and assigned the jobs of VP Sales, VP Marketing, VP Finance and they were able to understand our corporate issues as if by magic.”
“I won the World Essay Competition with a creative essay, “Dictionary of Winds” but I honestly believe there is room for immense creativity everywhere.”
“Thinking out-of-the-box to combine work, family, study with humour.”
“To promote sailing to young kids, I created a fun workbook with games, puzzles, etc. The book clipped onto a lanyard worn around the child’s neck – brand visibility and appreciated by the kids.”
“?”
Clearly, the last creative moment has not yet crystallized but is still in the making!
We would love to hear from you – what is the most creative thing you have ever done?