Where do you turn when your creative juices stop flowing and you’ve exhausted your capacity for how-to articles, but still need that quick and easy innovation / creativity boost?
Have you tried visual content?
Even more specifically, TED Talks.
TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is an organization committed to sharing thoughts and ideas, through–generally concise–influential talks. By spreading ideas verbally, the words that are being imparted have that much more influence.
If you want to know which TED Talks you should watch to regain your motivation and get past your “innovator’s block,” keep scrolling. We’ve compiled 5 of the best videos on innovation and creativity in business.
Add these to your watchlist:
1) The art of innovation, Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki was an Apple employee in 1984 and is a well respected marketing influencer and author.
In his talk, “The Art of Innovation,” Kawasaki mentions that he has learned a lot about innovation and that he would like to pass on, in what he refers to as his 10 Tips to Master the Art of Innovation.
From his ideology that we should be driven to make meaning as opposed to making money, all the way to his advocacy to perfect your pitch, Kawasaki’s talk is compelling, insightful, and sure to provide a new perspective to a standstill you may currently be facing.
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2) Why you should make useless things, Simone Giertz
Simone Giertz, a Swedish inventor, TV host, and Youtuber with over 1 million subscribers, has quite a bit to share about her perspective on why you should feel compelled to invent just about anything, whether or not it ultimately serves a purpose.
In her quirky yet insightful talk, Giertz humorously reveals the importance of constantly inventing, even if many or most of your innovations fail.
“The true beauty of making useless things [is] this acknowledgement that you don’t always know what the best answer is,” Giertz describes.
If you have innovative ideas floating in your head but don’t explore any of them for fear of failure or having the “wrong answer,” Giertz is here to tell you to go ahead and take the leap.
3) How to find a wonderful idea, OK Go
In this fascinating talk, OK Go supplies us with a bit of insight into how they come up with original ideas to incorporate into their elaborate, one-take music videos.
On paper, they’re a rock band, but their creativity methods are something that anyone in any field can learn from.
4) Success, failure and the drive to keep creating, Elizabeth Gilbert
Best known as the author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert is no stranger to failure.
In her talk, Gilbert describes how she grew up knowing she wanted to be a writer, but was constantly faced with rejection for nearly six years before she first was able to taste success.
She shares with us the importance of both success and failure, and the importance in continuing to create and expand within your line of work.
“You’ve got to identify the best, worthiest thing that you love most, and then build your house right on top of it, and don’t budge from it. If you should someday, somehow, get vaulted out of your home–by either great failure or great success–then your job is to fight your way back to that home.”
5) How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas, Manoush Zomorodi
An author, podcaster, and co-founder, Manoush Zomorodi explains how during the moments she sits down to brainstorm, she comes up barren; yet, when she would push her baby in a stroller for 10-15 miles every day postpartum, she found that ideas would pop into her head frequently.
In her talk, Zomorodi clues us in to the insight that when we are bored, “our body goes on autopilot,” and our brain gets “really busy” when it comes to daydreaming and brainstorming.
With her compelling language backed by verifiable research, Zomorodi’s talk is sure to make you eager to do nothing, be bored, and space out in order to uncover some of your best ideas.
What are some reliable visual content pieces you turn to when your creative juices are at a standstill?
Share in the comments below!