The Creativity Formula - Techniques for being creative in work and life

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Left Hand Clench: how squeezing your left hand can increase creativity

Activities involving the left-hand side of our bodies activate the right hemisphere of our brains and vice versa. The right hemisphere is thought to contain the area of intuition and insight which allows the individual to be holistic and creative. In left-handed or ambidextrous people, the functions might be reversed or differently configured. Studies have not yet clarified this however.

Nicola Baumann and her colleagues decided to explore a method people could use to deliberately activate the right-hand side of their brains. They divided participants into two groups. One group had to squeeze a ball with their left hands while the other group had to squeeze a ball with their right hands. Participants then had to undergo a series of tasks to determine whether the ball squeezing activated different regions of the brain.

The researchers found that squeezing a ball with one hand activated the opposite side of the brain. People who squeezed the ball with their left hands activated the right hemispheres in their brains, and vice versa for the right hand.

Baumann and her fellow researchers noted that when participants activated their right hemispheres, this activation spread to several areas. Specifically, they found that squeezing a ball in the left hand activated a brain circuit associated with thinking holistically and intuitively, and thus more creatively.

For individuals:
- Before undertaking a task that requires creative thought, squeeze your left hand for a couple of minutes.

- For organisations:
Encourage employees to squeeze their left hands prior to creative thinking tasks, meetings and workshops.

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Constraint Setting: Why setting constraints can boost creativity

Letting your mind wander wherever it needs to, starting with a blank canvas and being free of rules are all considered conducive to creativity. However, the latest psychological research has shown the complete opposite.

In one study, a group of adults was asked to make a construction using Lego. One group was given no constraints; they were told that they could build whatever they liked. The other group had several constraints placed upon them; they were told that their construction must contain no right-angled joints and they could only use one kind of brick. The constructions built by the ‘constraints’ group were judged to be significantly more creative and lateral than those in the ‘free expression’ group.

So why does this happen? When completing tasks, we typically draw on what we know rather than seeking new ideas and opinions. Often, information retrieval becomes automated in our brains because it is useful and saves us having to come up with new solutions every time we face a problem. In other words, when we are assigned a task to complete, our brains switch into autopilot if it is a familiar problem.

However, this autopilot mode dramatically impairs performance when we have to think of completely novel ideas. Constraining the way we think forces us to search for new and creative ways of completing the task or solving the problem. In a paradoxical way, putting constraints on our tasks lifts the constraints on our thought processing.

For individuals:
- Try to avoid taking on tasks that are open-ended and overly broad. If you find yourself in this situation, challenge yourself to apply a constraint to the task to make yourself perform more creatively.
- Whenever you feel yourself going into autopilot, ask your boss to apply a constraint to the task (or do it yourself).

For organisations:
- Try challenging your team to a task that has a constraint this week. Ask them to create a presentation without PowerPoint or express an idea without speaking.
Whenever you do set people specific projects that require creativity, make sure you give them at least one or two constraints.

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