Design Thinking starts with empathy.

If we were making a widget or any solution to meet an external user’s need, we’d want that empathy to begin with the people for whom our solution was designed. But what about art? Is it a solution? And if so, who is that solution designed for? The artist? The audience?

I do think that art is a solution. For me, first, art is a solution to a question that will not let me go. Through the process of making the artwork—whether it’s a story, a live production, an illustration—I have the opportunity to wrestle with my question. And by the end of the process, ideally, I can come to a place of peace, even if I don’t find a complete answer.

In today’s episode, we’ll discuss where empathy can fit into our creative process, and why including empathy as part of our work can boost our creative confidence.

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A huge thank you to Alex Doherty, who records and edits Creative Lift.

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The Five Whys Activity

IDEO U: Insights to Innovation

d.School Starter Kit

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The more original, the more interesting, the more important your creative work is, the harder you have to work to craft the bridge between what’s in your mind and the person on the other side of the conversation. Too often we ask ourselves to do that work in the echo chamber of our own heads, thinking we’re protecting our ideas. What if, instead, we’re building bridges to nowhere, because we haven’t taken the time, or maybe we’re even afraid, to study the landscape on the other side?

Design Thinking offers artists a way to study that landscape, and in this season of Creative Lift, we’re going to explore what that approach might look like, keeping in mind both sides of that bridge—your own innovative vision AND the eventual audience for your work. Today’s episode kicks off our exploration with an overview of what Design Thinking is and how writers might make use of its tools and mindsets.

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EPISODE LINKS:

IDEO U: Insights to Innovation

d.School Starter Kit

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While it may be more obvious to play while brainstorming new ideas, play is also valuable throughout the other phases of the creative process. Play is the trap door into the creative process that plunges us into the hard things before we know they are hard, so that our natural courage shows up when we needed it, and so we could prove to ourselves what we are capable of doing. Ideating isn’t the only hard thing. Every part of the creative process poses challenges.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore strategies for mining the mess that might pile up during a brainstorm with a puzzle-solving mindset to find the gold. Next, we’ll use critical thinking tools to figure out where and how those chosen pieces might best fit into your overall project.

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How seriously do you take decisions? Do you hover on the edge of decisions as though you’re paused on a diving board, anticipating the cold impact of the water? Or do you plunge on in, but pop out again nearly immediately, letting yourself change your mind over and over again?

What does decision making look like for you? And how does decision-making play into your creative practice?

In today’s episode, we’ll consider a variety of decision making styles and play with the idea of making educated guesses in those situations where we don’t yet have an answer. 

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Today’s episode focuses on what can sometimes be an unpopular subject. Failure.

Before you decide to skip this one, know this: failure is a key part of playing games.

Play is our most valuable learning strategy. Play is how humans, throughout time, have learned to do things they don’t yet know how to do.

The way we level up is to experiment, fail, learn, and then find a new answer. No matter what kind of game you’re learning to play, the more open you are to failure, the faster you will be able to test theories and learn. In this episode, we’ll look at failure through a prism of perspectives. We’ll acknowledge that it is both hard and helpful, and brainstorm how we might make the most of failure experiences as a tool to push onward in our creative work.

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Fail Forward and Level Up Guided Activity

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Whether you enjoy visualization, or it’s a stretch for you, our exploration in this episode will help you see more clearly how to put this skill to use in your creative thinking.

Whatever kind of writer or storytelling artist you are, being able to “see” the world of your story in your mind will multiply your effectiveness in many ways.

Today, we’ll focus on how this skill will help you play games more effectively, whether they are intended to help you reflect, ideate, revise, learn, or collaborate.

Ready to play your way to the page with me?

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Do you prefer to personalize your approach or stick exactly to prescribed guidelines? Either way, by starting with a simple recipe, you give your creativity a play space in which to innovate.

In Season Two of Creative Lift, we’re putting the discoveries from Season One’s Hero’s Journey to practical use. In today’s episode, we’ll explore how to use the simple recipes in improv and other similar games to jumpstart creative thinking.

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Reflect Playfully: The Five Whys

Ideate Playfully: Build a Scene

Revise Playfully: The Shape of Words on a Page

Collaborate Playfully: Make the Most of Feedback

Learn Playfully: Profile Three Experts

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As an improv teacher, one of my very first goals in a workshop is to unlock the power of “Yes, and…” in our classroom. “Yes, and…” is what allows players to actually have fun while improvising. Working with writers, I’ve discovered that developing this mindset is equally important. No matter what kind of storytelling artist we are, we need to say “Yes and…” to our own hunches, and also to external clues like prompts, new information that shows up with unexpected serendipity, or even to feedback from caring collaborators.

In Season Two of Creative Lift, we’re putting the discoveries from Season One’s Hero’s Journey to practical use. In today’s episode, we’ll explore the “Yes, and…” mindset, and its variations, that each play their own roles as part of the creative process.

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Wikipedia – Neils Bohr

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Do you remember playing make-believe as a kid? Maybe you had an ongoing world you would step into, where the story was always waiting to sweep you away. Whether you played long-form make-believe or just popped into imaginary worlds now and then, I wonder: What was your doorway in?

In Season Two of Creative Lift, we’re putting the discoveries from Season One’s Hero’s Journey to practical use. Knowing that play is important and actually playing as part of your creative practice are two completely different things. And while a general openness to play will be valuable in all aspects of your life, play can become a reliable creative tool when you have a couple elements in place. So, what are those elements? And what impossibilities might play make possible?

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