Sparking: Creativity

Mark Henson: Hi I’m Mark Henson, the founder of Sparkspace in Columbus, Ohio. This is Jason Barger. Author of “Step Back from the Baggage Claim.” And, today we are talking about creativity. And, Jason, Jason’s got the best uh, metaphor I’ve ever heard of, of what it means to be innovative. What it means to be creative. And, you talk about turning the ketchup bottle upside down right?
Jason: Yeah, it. Absolutely, well often times when anybody’s talking about creativity or how organizations are. You know, we think of creativity as this big thing, that you’ve gotta have this huge idea. And often times, as you know, we have talked a lot. I think it’s the small things. The small little ideas that really are the most creative things I remember when I was growing up there was this glass Heinz 57 bottles.
Mark Henson: The ones that you gotta beat on the side? And get the ketchup out. Do it just the right way.
Jason: Yeah. Yeah. They were on every table in every restaurant everywhere. But, everybody had their own method of how you get the ketchup out. You either, you have to hit the back of the bottle real hard and it was always a pain to get the ketchup out.
Mark Henson: Especially when you get to that, last little bit in the bottom and it’s kinda stuck there.
Jason: It never comes out so, you either, you have this method. You had some people that subscribed to that little, like there was that little sweet spot on the bottle. That little, right there on the 57.
Mark Henson: Yeah.
Jason: A lot of people had that. Yeah, you gotta hit that. Other people would turn it sideways and take a knife in. Then they, the ketchup would come out. Well, this is the reason I find this interesting. I wonder why it took so long for somebody, and, I would like to think it was in a real creative space. Like, you are in here at Sparkspace. The smoke in the room and all these executives were there and. But, probably in, in reality, it was probably in term in a room and somebody just said, hey, I got an idea, why don’t we just turn the ketchup bottle upside down and let gravity work? And so now, no bottles are glass anymore, but now you can see these wonderful bottles with the bottom oriented towards the bottom of the bottle. So, it just flows out nice and easily.
Mark Henson: Yeah it’s beautiful and it lasts 100 years.
Jason: And, the point is that, every single organization in the world right now and every leadership team everywhere, there are little examples uh, that are we even to ask the question that what does it mean for us even if we make a small adjustment and turn the ketchup bottle upside down in our organization. How would we do it differently?
Mark Henson: Yeah, and you know, people are always asking me uh, because of what I do they imagine that I am so creative.
Jason: You are. You are.
Mark Henson: And, so why are you so creative? How do you keep up with all of these ideas? And, really, I think I don’t think I am really any more creative than anyone else. I think I just look around more.
Jason: Yeah.
Mark Henson: I look at things like, ketchup bottles and I turn them upside down and I, I give it a shot and see. Um, so it’s that idea of just sort of constantly being on the lookout.
Jason: Yeah.
Mark Henson: That I think that makes a big difference for one of those little things like you said that we could change that could actually turn everything upside down for us. It’s the tiny things that make a big difference.
Jason: Yeah.
Mark Henson: So, if you had just one piece of advise cause, you know that people ask me, how can I be more creative? What is one thing that you can tell me to be more creative?
Jason: I think what I would say is get out of your routine. That all of us act in our own routines and often times in our personal lives and our organizations we stay within the same boundaries? And, what I often encourage people to do is to just try something different. Dwell on possibilities for a little while. I know a story I tell in my book. I was getting dressed for a meeting one morning and my son Willy’s three years old at the time. He comes walking up to me as he is watching me get dressed. And, he looks at me and he says, “why don’t you put your shoes on before your pants?” And, I looked at the little guy and I was like “well, you idiot, you don’t put You can’t put your shoes on before your pants because, then your pants wouldn’t fit and it just. That is just not the way that it works.” And, he looked up at me with these giant blue eyes and he said “just try.” And, so I looked at him, I was late for a meeting but, I figured I would slow down and be attendant to the little guy. So, and I figured it was also a teachable moment. So, I take off my pants, I put on my shoes. I go to put my pants on. I look at him right in the eyes just to make my point. And sure enough, my pants slip on right over the top of my shoes and his giant blue eyes looks at me and he says “see, I was right.” So, I often tell people that we have to get out of our routines. We have to be willing to just try.
Mark Henson: Yep.
Jason: And, it’s in those small moments, if we’re willing to just try to do things slightly differently that that’s when creativity and innovation arises
Mark Henson: Thank you for not demonstrating that by the way and taking your pants off again. It is always a plus when we’re on video.
Jason: You’re welcome.
Mark Henson: Step Back from the Baggage Claim is Jason’s workshop where he talks about stepping back, being more creative, getting more out of what you want in your life and your business. And, we do programs here at Sparkspace as well, that can help jazz up your creativity and get you thinking differently. Not to mention, our pretty darn cool creative space here is helpful for that too. You can find out more about Jason and how he can help you with creativity at Step Back from the Baggage Claim dot com. You can find out more about Sparkspace and how to get your team off site to think more creatively together and as individuals as well, at Sparkspace dot com. So, get out there. Be more creative Take that road, let’s travel. Try something . Any other metaphors you wanna throw out there?
Jason: I think that’s good.
Mark Henson: Alright.