6 Ways to get creative and overcome mental blocks

Individual Creativity
Written By Ben Weinlick

From an Edmonton based web design blog, threefifty (no longer available)

Why do good ideas come to us when they do?

This is the question asked by Jonah Lehrer in his article “The Eureka Hunt” (no longer available).

As Lehrer points out, “Eureka moments” or “experiences of insight” almost always go hand-in-hand with a mental block—the agonizing, excruciating, frustrating time spent trying to come up with an idea.

Nice to have a few key, practical things one can do enhance creativity.

  1. Get Out of the Studio and Relax

  2. Read a Book

  3. Have a Nap

  4. Talk to Someone from a Different Field

  5. Document Your Ideas

  6. Try Something Completely Different

Ben Weinlick

Ben Weinlick is the founder of Think Jar Collective.

Currently Ben is also the Executive Director of Skills Society. Skills Society is one of largest and most innovative social service organizations in Canada. Stewarding an amazing collective of 500 employee, and a 25 million a year budget, Skills Society has a long and unique history related to social innovation and systems change around the rights and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. Ben and colleagues of Skills are known internationally for quality human centered services and creating tangible social innovations. Before becoming Executive Director in 2019, Ben stewarded Social Innovation Research & Development through an innovation lab he helped launch in 2015 called the Action Lab. The Action Lab focuses on systems change and innovation around some of the most wicked and entangled problems that humans are facing today. He is also the co-founder of MyCompass Planning which is on a mission to humanize social service case management systems where people served are centered in shaping their support services.

As the founder of Think Jar Collective and his expertise in disciplined innovation culture and methods, he regularly is asked by Universities, Businesses, Governments, and Non-Profits to help grow capacity to problem solve better and in more holistic ways. He offers keynotes on human centered service design thinking, social innovation labs and the tools and culture of disciplined innovation. Along the way striving to nudge positive systems change over the last 20+ years, he has had stellar mentors and colleagues that he shares credit with for accomplishments and awards.

He is deeply driven by the desire to help people, organizations and community to get better at navigating complex challenges together.

https://www.thinkjarcollective.com
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