Creativity: a skill valued by employers. It holds a central place among the key skills of the 21st century. According to the OECD, it is also one of the "4Cs": Creativity, Cooperation, Communication, and Critical thinking. By recruiting creative individuals, companies ensure they have talent capable of projecting themselves into the future, adapting, and proposing innovative solutions, thus contributing to their success. It is defined as a thinking process that invites us to imagine multiple possibilities, build something new, and find original solutions. Everyone has the potential to stimulate their creativity and generate innovative ideas. Yet, we often feel that this ability is reserved for an intellectual elite. Are there techniques to more easily develop our creativity and thus generate innovative ideas? Yes, and that is what we are going to explore together.

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The creative cliff illusion (or the illusion of the creative cliff)

We tend to think that our most brilliant ideas are the ones that come at the beginning of the reflection phase, those that come to us spontaneously, and therefore that as time passes, our creativity declines. Brian Lucas, a professor at Cornell University in the city of Ithaca, New York State, demonstrated the opposite in 2021: our best ideas are not the first, but the last—the ones that take time, the ones that come through patience and perseverance. B. Lucas theorized what he called “the creative cliff illusion”, translated into French as “l’illusion de la falaise créativité”, a phenomenon highlighting the significant gap between the beliefs of individuals who see themselves as less creative over time and a reality that is quite different: individuals’ creativity improves or remains stable over time. A series of studies initiated by Cornell University clearly illustrates this cognitive bias of which we can be victims. We are sharing the results of these eight studies with you.

1. Experience in creativity reduces the creative cliff illusion:

   The first study reveals that individuals with extensive creativity experience are less prone to this illusion.

   
   

2. Predictions differ from actual performance:

   The second study, conducted with 165 adults involved in a charitable organization, shows that participants expect their creativity to decrease, but in reality, it increases.

   
   

3. Difficulties in predicting one’s own creativity persist:

   In the third study, 128 adults who had already worked for a charitable organization were assessed before and after a creative task. Despite task experience, participants continued to predict a decline in their creativity, which in reality turned out to be increasing.

   
   

4. The effects persist over a longer period:

   The fourth study, with 149 student participants, shows that the creative cliff illusion continues even over a 20-minute duration. Predictions about creativity do not match reality.

   
   

5. A slower decline than expected:

   In the fifth study, 144 adults generated creative ideas over several days. Although participants predicted a decline in their creativity, it actually decreased more slowly than expected.

   
   

6. Experience in creative tasks counteracts the illusion:

   The sixth study shows that individuals used to carrying out creative tasks in their professional and personal lives are less affected by the creative cliff illusion. Their open-mindedness and ability to generate innovative ideas protect them from this illusion.

   
   

7. Awareness has no significant impact:

   Despite information provided about the creative cliff illusion, the seventh study shows that knowledge of this cognitive bias does not influence participants’ results during ideation tasks.

   
   

8. The belief in declining creativity affects persistence:

   The eighth study highlights that believing one’s creativity is decreasing leads to lower persistence and reduced creative performance.

Awaken your inner genius

• Patience: Keep up your efforts

  As we saw with the creative cliff illusion, many of us mistakenly think that our most relevant ideas are those that come at the beginning of reflection. The peak of creativity is not reached immediately, but through patience. Many prominent figures share the opinion that producing relevant ideas does not depend on inspiration, but on work. As early as 1890, writer Mark Twain claimed that he did not need inspiration to write and that only regular work was necessary. In 1962, Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip "Peanuts," argued that he could not wait for inspiration to show up. He kept pursuing his tasks again and again; he persevered. Later, in 2006, during an interview with Joe Fig, artist Chuck Close declared: "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work." It is work that brings out innovative ideas. This quote was repeated by other public figures, notably writer Philip Roth in his novel "Everyman," and then by Stephen King.

  
  

• The art of discovery: Draw on your past actions

  Finding a relevant idea is not the result of chance, but rather the outcome of a set of prior actions that lead to that idea. This is akin to the notion of serendipity. Of course, an unexpected and useful discovery can occur following a chance event or a chance encounter, but it does not happen randomly.

  A perfect example is Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America. When he landed in the Bahamas in October 1492, this explorer did not expect to find America. However, his discovery would never have happened without a series of prior preparations. To reach Asia by sailing west, Christopher Columbus had designed a crossing plan. He had anticipated the length of the journey, accumulated valuable seafaring experience during earlier expeditions to Madeira, the Azores, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde. He had the support of the King and Queen of Spain and had obtained orders to prepare his fleet. In addition, he had received the means necessary to secure the best equipment and was accompanied by qualified sailors. In short, the discovery of America was not planned by Christopher Columbus, but it was not due to chance either. It was made possible thanks to prior work. Therefore, advance preparation is essential to encourage the emergence of exceptional ideas. It is not simply about passively waiting for inspiration to strike. On the contrary, by actively investing ourselves, developing our knowledge, skills, and experience, we create favorable conditions for ideas to emerge. Serendipity is not just a stroke of luck, but the result of methodical and rigorous preparation.

  
  

• Lateral thinking and Bono’s 6 hats: Adopt every worldview

  To stimulate our creativity, a promising approach is to adopt lateral thinking. This method invites us to step back from a subject and look at it from a different angle. In 1985, psychologist Edward de Bono developed a theory aligned with this approach: Bono’s 6 hats. According to him, there are six main ways of perceiving the world, each represented by a hat of a different color. The white hat is associated with facts, evidence, and objectivity. The red hat represents a worldview based on emotions, feelings, and subjectivity. The yellow hat symbolizes the perception of opportunities and solutions in a given situation. The black hat emphasizes the risks and limits of a situation. The green hat evokes creativity and innovative out-of-the-box ideas. Finally, the blue hat refers to the big-picture view and organization.

  In our training sessions at Seven, when we support participants in generating ideas, we rely precisely on Edward de Bono’s theory, except that we replace hats with glasses! Starting from a given topic, we form groups and ask participants to focus on only one perspective at a time for a set period. For example, for 10 minutes, they think only with the red hat, connecting with their emotions. Then they move to the white hat for 10 minutes, focusing only on facts. They repeat this process until they have adopted all six perspectives. At the end, participants gather their ideas, sort them, and select the most relevant ones. By forcing themselves to adopt perspectives they are less used to, they manage to generate more ideas. This approach allows them to explore new paths and discover innovative solutions. By practicing lateral thinking with Bono’s 6 hats, you unlock your creative potential by stepping outside habitual thought patterns. You open yourself to new perspectives and access a reservoir of rich and varied ideas.

  
  

• Brainstorming: Rely on the power of the collective

  Just above, we mentioned the 6 hats workshop by Bono that we offer at Seven in our training sessions. During it, participants adopt different world perspectives based on a given topic, issue, or situation. Beyond the obvious benefits in terms of creativity development, this exercise also aims to foster teamwork and the confrontation of ideas. Another workshop we are particularly fond of for highlighting the power of the collective is the NASA game, during which participants are invited to individually rank 15 objects according to their importance and usefulness for a 300 km trip to the Moon. Then they meet in groups to, during a brainstorming, reach a consensus on the final ranking.

  During each NASA game session, most of our participants observe that their group ranking is the one that comes closest to the official ranking provided by NASA. This exercise highlights the importance of collaboration and idea-sharing in achieving more accurate and relevant results. By working together, participants can benefit from the knowledge and perspectives of other team members. They are encouraged to challenge their own ideas, actively listen to others’ contributions, and develop more innovative and comprehensive solutions. Beyond individual skills, these workshops strengthen participants’ ability to engage in a co-creation process, establish constructive dialogue, and leverage the diversity of talents within a team. By integrating these practices into our training, we seek to cultivate a collaborative culture and stimulate collective intelligence.The next time you face a complex issue, do not hesitate to harness the power of the collective. Adopt different perspectives, listen to others’ ideas, and explore the possibilities offered by collaboration. You will be surprised by the results you can achieve by working together toward a common goal.

  
  

• Mind mapping: Visually represent your main and secondary ideas on a map

  Mind mapping is a powerful technique for stimulating your creativity and generating all kinds of innovative ideas. To create your mind map, you should start with the central idea or main subject and place it visually at the center of the page. This will help you structure your thinking and keep an overall view. Then comes the moment when you let your mind wander, writing down or drawing whatever comes to mind. For this to be effective, the goal is not to judge yourself and to generate as many possibilities as possible. Next, you can build on each idea you have written to develop it further. Let ideas branch out naturally and connect them to the main concepts. This approach will allow you to explore each notion more deeply and broaden your thinking. You are not forced to make obvious or predictable associations; you can try unexpected links between ideas—that is where you will develop creative solutions. To make understanding easier, you can use color codes, icons, or symbols to categorize and group your ideas. Once you have explored a wide range of ideas, step back and review your mind map as a whole. Identify the most relevant ideas and the most interesting connections. Then refine your map by removing redundant or less significant ideas.

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Cultivating creativity is within everyone’s reach. By abandoning the preconceived notion of exclusivity reserved for a privileged few, we open the doors to our own creative development. There is in fact a cognitive bias that prevents us from developing our ideas and considering our best ideas: the creative cliff illusion. It shows that our predictions about our creativity are often out of sync with reality. Indeed, many of us struggle to accurately predict our own creativity; we underestimate our productivity, which impacts our creativity. The effects are lessened when we are trained to generate innovative ideas. Several approaches and methods exist to nurture our creativity. Patience comes first: our best ideas are not necessarily those that come at the beginning. Continuing our efforts, our reflections, our missions, and becoming curious would also lead us down the path of creativity. By exploring new fields, questioning preconceived ideas, and asking questions, we feed our minds with new ideas, open horizons conducive to chance discoveries, and therefore to serendipity. Added to this is lateral thinking, a method inviting us to adopt all worldviews, including those with which we are least familiar, so as to explore angles we use less often. Team brainstorming and mind mapping are also good techniques for unleashing our creative potential. Finally, regularly practicing artistic and creative activities can be another way to encourage our creativity. In short, it is a skill accessible to everyone. By understanding its importance, using appropriate techniques, and cultivating our curiosity, we can unleash our creativity, generate innovative ideas, and become agents of change in a constantly evolving world.