Guild Tips on Sparking Creativity Within Your Work

Creativity is key when it comes to learning and performance. It gives learning professionals the tools to harness the possibilities presented by new technologies and produce innovative learning and performance solutions. Here at The eLearning Guild, we value creativity in many aspects of our work. From our design team to our programming team, each of us has to find our creative spark at one point or another and apply it to our work. With that in mind, we got together and shared insights on how we get the creative juices flowing. Here’s what we came up with.

The Development & Design Team

• Creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Experience something new. Listen to music. Look at art. Talk to people. Look at how other people have approached what you are attempting.

• Collaboration—our team is really energetic so when we get together and bounce ideas off of each other, we can take something that’s mediocre or a small seedling of an idea and really develop it into something well-balanced and much better. Each person brings their own individual background, experiences, and perspectives, which enhance the overall concept process.

• I love to go out alone and surround myself in nature a couple times a week to help clear my mind and allow random thoughts to stream through my brain.

• Creativity takes time, patience, and iteration.

•  I look to my peers in the industry to try and expand my knowledge and gain creative energy from their output.

The Marketing Team

• Music fuels my creativity. A good beat and some headphones is all I need to rev up those creative engines!

•  I look for ideas when I am out and about. When I see advertising that I like or see a clever idea, I look for ways that I can apply elements from it to my own work.

• When I need a new idea, I look for inspiration from things that are completely unrelated to my work. Whether it’s a TV show, new book I’m reading, or something else, when I’m looking for new ideas I often look in places that are the furthest from my industry to find fresh ideas that haven’t been tried in my work before.

The Programming Team

• I’m always pinning examples of designs to a Pinterest board I created just for that purpose, even if they’re something I don’t currently have a use for. Looking at a bunch of great designs usually ends up inspiring a few new ideas for the project I’m stuck on.

• It’s important to remember not to confuse creativity with art skills. Creativity is as simple as coming up with new ideas, new approaches, or new insights, and we do that all the time in our work.

• Make capturing sparks of creativity a habit. When there’s a spark of an idea, write it down, leave yourself a message, take a picture, etc. Just capture the inspiration so you don’t lose it.

• Play devil’s advocate. Looking at the flip side leaves you open to ideas your preferences may blind you to.

• Be aware – Notice the times when you are most creative? Is it a certain time of the day? Is it with a certain group of people? A certain place? Once you know, exploit it.

Want to get even more creative inspiration? Download our free eBook, 183 Tips on Sparking Design Creativity. This eBook includes insights on sparking creativity from members of The eLearning Guild community.