The Creative Process Workbox: This is gonna fix everything!
By: Cannon Hamaker
Tags: Create, Creativity, Tools, Business Strategy, Creative Process

I want to introduce a very fragile idea. Not that I’m afraid it will be broken, I know it will.

I want it to break.

It’s fragile because it’s still forming, so it needs to break down and be reformed again.

The Creative Process Workbox

The Creative Process Workbox is a simple 3 principle framework to creating better, more meaningful, more creative solutions and work. This post and the series to follow is meant to create a playbook for creators. The ability for you to speedily reference where you are in the process, and quickly identify what you may have missed, as well as the next steps. It’s got to be usable, accessible, and fast.

It’s a set of principles which need to be challenged, so I beg you to break them, tell me how you broke them, and help me create something incredible.

Creativity is the fundamental work of humans.

We survive and thrive on creation. It is what separates our species from all other forms of life.

However, we don’t really understand it well. Creators are too busy creating, and people who study creativity are too busy studying it. The studies get published, but rarely take a form which reaches and communicates well with creators. Many of the studies focus on tactics, single bits of the creative process. Not enough of them focus on the overall strategies and principles of creativity.

The Principles (An Introduction)

I know you are waiting with bated breath. So here is a quick intro to the framework, consider it the 1st 20th rough draft of the process.

Step 1: Create space

Creating space is the most important step in the creative process. You can’t skip it. It’s the pre work that supercharges your ability to create in step 2. It comprises 3 main principles:

Create space

Creating mental, physical, emotional distance from the problem or process. I’ve separated this because it’s so vital to the process. It’s the reason why people create skunkworks, hire consultants and counselors, and turn work to the walls so they can’t see it. The ability to step outside the problem is vital to the creator because you can’t solve the problem with the same mind that created it. You need to inhabit a different state of mind, that requires distance.

2. Create space in which you can create

You create your best in a certain state or space. Physical, mental states of mind change your creativity. This step asks a question about who your are and what you need in order to create. “Know thyself” is the key to this step

3. Create space in which the creation can live

Creation happens on the blank page, or canvas, or in the gaps and seams. It doesn’t come about in an endless void. It happens within a set of constraints or questions. “Know thy enemy” is one key aspect of this principle.

Step 2: Create

The actual act of creation. How to develop novel ideas, problems, questions, experiments, tests, creations and execute on them. Here is where we’ll get heavy on tactics and strategies to surmount the obstacle in front of you. This is the sandbox inside the workbox.

Step 3: Create Conversation

Creation becomes alive when it is put out into the world. This is the moment when the other half of creation begins. When you release your work into the world, people will react to it. But sticking your creation on a desert island (read website) doesn’t count. You need feedback for creation to gain meaning, it needs to go out into the world.

A few guidelines

You don’t have to go in order

But know a couple things. If you start in #2, you start with preconceived ideas filling in the blanks in #1. You almost always end up going back to #1 and fixing those, but sometimes it’s better to work that way. For most situations, introducing #3 into the process early makes better work.

This process is iterative

It happens multiple times within a single creation. Problems always arise and we need to check to see where really are in the process. Do you need to move back and create space? Has the work redefined the problem, forcing you to recreate the space for it? Has the conversation taught you new things about the meaning and usefulness of your creation, forcing you to redefine the problem? What tactics should you use to brainstorm?

The process steps are not mutually exclusive

You can be at multiple places at once in the process, however, you need to identify where you are and which pieces are missing in order to more quickly move through the process.

Mental leaps exist

The process is trustworthy, however, mental leaps can make it seem like you may have skipped parts of it. You didn’t, you just went through it at a different rate. Mental leaps often happen after spending a lot of time in preparation phases.

The workbox is open ended

How do you really define creativity and the process? The moment we crystallize ideas, they begin to change. Creativity is built around a cycle of chaos and order which destroys and builds. It seems natural that a definition of the process would be subject to that cycle.

That’s it. The basic introduction. I’ll be exploring this, and how to implement it, various strategies and tactics. As I build this out, I’ll be creating a playbook, visual representations, and ideas on how to use it. Along the way, I’ll bring in the best strategies and tactics from academic studies, thought leaders, as well as my own experience, as well as your feedback.

Why do I want to go on this ride? Because I believe in that creation is at the core of what we are. Each one of us is on a journey to overcome and to become.

You are the masterpiece, go create.