To run a business or team of any type, you have to master the art of creative thinking. In the flooring business like many other businesses, we are often faced with problems that are so far past the realm of obvious thinking that the usual thought processes take you nowhere. Calculated organized thinking is necessary for daily survival, however there is a shrinking availability of people who have a truly unique thinking process. Many of us have grown up in a drive through society of speed eating, speed dating and scheduled workouts. Gone are the days of retreating into the backyard to a hidden world of pirates and maidens. To navigate business problems today, you cannot relay on problem solving by the book. You have to look outside the cover and discover a new way of thinking; a way of thinking that cannot be achieved without clearing your head and relaxing. We are at a place in time, where “relaxing” is not relaxing. Between rushing to a dinner date, driving kids to a soccer game and logging into Netflix, when does anybody today have a chance to relax. The inability to declutter our brains and unplug has a direct impact on our daily lives and on our children’s creativity and problem solving.
According to an article written for Fast Company Magazine, ” U.S. creativity is dropping: the average Torrance score of U.S. children had been rising steadily until 1990. But for the past 20 years it has been in decline.” ( death-creativity-death-innovation ) There is a connection between technological advances in problem solving and the dropping of creativity in our society. If you look at the computer history timeline published by computerhistory.org ( timeline/computers/ ), 1989 was the year that the microprocessor was released by Intel and the Palm Pilot was released in 1996. As computers have become smarter, our youth have become more dependent on them, letting the computers (phones) do the thinking for them. In 1993, I had the option to take hand drafting or CAD class while I was enrolled for an Environmental Design Degree from Texas A&M University; I opted for the hand drafting and missed out on the future of design but gained a wealth of hands on problem solving experience. Most of the graduates today will never lean the art of working through a problem with a pencil and eraser. When a designer uses copy and paste to create designs, many organic ideas are circumvented. While efficiency cannot be ignored, the art of creative problem solving needs to be preserved. From the invention of the microprocessor, that allowed for less expensive smaller technology to exist on every desk, to modern day handheld computers, there has been a loss of processing difficult problems in new and inventive ways. Solutions have become less human, and more predictable; much more efficient but less interesting and beautiful.
I had a very influential college dean who would take his freshman design class through breathing exercises while we sprawled out over the top of our drafting tables staring at the florescent lights above. He would tell us that we were at our most creative when we were relaxed and our minds were free of outside chatter. We all liked the extra time we had at the beginning of class, but I don’t think we appreciated the simple lesson that he was teaching us. Problem solving is tough work, and if you are thinking about who is going to take the dog to the vet this week, it makes it harder to figure out the logistics of completing whatever complicated task your job is throwing at you. Distractions can derail the creative mind in most cases, however many children today diagnosed with ADD or ADHD find that they can function better with background clutter. Weather this is a result of their surroundings, or a function of brain activity is an argument for the scientists, but their ability to hyper focus can still be achieved more efficiently in an unstressed relaxed state of mind.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS A HUGE TIME THIEF! I have witnessed first hand a loss of productivity directly related to social media. Most of the people working in our office are nearing middle age, and are not as influenced by their “social media image” as younger people, but as the younger generation enter the workforce, there has to be more attention given to reduce the distractions caused by the constant use of social media. Filling your brain with scrolling colorful images does nothing to boost personal creativity and problem solving. Moving forward, businesses are going to have to be proactive in including media in a way that is not only promotional for their business but also restrictive in personal promotion for their employees. This is a challenge that creative thinkers can use to benefit employees if channeled in a responsible way. Businesses are also going to have to strive to hold on to creative ways of problem solving without loosing relevance in the ever charging climate that we are living in.
Moral: I always try to end with a positive note or message, this one is easy: Work very hard and relax completely to recharge. Never let your teem or yourself get so berried that you cannot see a way out. Part of the fun in what we do everyday is finding creative ways to solve problems. If you take the time to relax your mind and take in some beautiful scenery now and then, you will find that you can solve any complex problem one piece at a time.
Resin Adviser 
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