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The creative process — you know this —

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from the first idea to the final product,

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is a long process.

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It’s super-iterative, lots of refinement,

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blood, sweat, tears and years.

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And we’re not saying

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you’re going to go out for a walk

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and come back with the Sistine Chapel

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in your left hand.

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Right?

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So what frame of the creative process

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did we focus on?

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Just this first part.

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Just brainstorming,

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coming up with a new idea.

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So we actually ran four studies

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with a variety of people.

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You were either walking indoors or outdoors.

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And all of these studies

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found the same conclusion.

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I’m only going to tell you

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about one of them today.

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One of the tests we used for creativity

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was alternate uses.

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In this test, you have four minutes.

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Your job is to come up

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with as many other ways to use

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common everyday objects

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as you can think of.

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So, for example,

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what else would you do with a key,

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other than to use it

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for opening up a lock?

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Clearly,

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you could use it

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as a third eyeball

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for a giraffe, right?

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Maybe.

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That’s sort of interesting,

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kind of new.[br][br]

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But is it creative?

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So people came up with as many ideas

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as they could, and we had to decide:

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Is this creative or not?

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The definition of creativity

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that a lot of people go with

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is “appropriate novelty”.

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For something to be appropriate,

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it has to be realistic,

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so unfortunately,

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you can’t use a key as an eyeball.

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Boo!

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But “novel,” the second thing,

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is that nobody had to have said it.

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So for us, novelty

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had to be appropriate first,

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and then for novelty,

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nobody else in the entire population

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that we surveyed could have said it.

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So you might think you could use a key

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to scratch somebody’s car,

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but if somebody else said that,

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you didn’t get credit for it.

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Neither of you did.

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However, only one person said this:

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“If you were dying

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and it were a murder mystery,

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and you had to carve

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the name of the murderer into the ground

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with your dying words.”

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One person said this.

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And it’s a creative idea,

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because it’s appropriate and it’s novel.

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You either did this test

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and came up with ideas

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while you were seated

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or while you were walking on a treadmill.

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They did the test twice,

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with different objects.

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Three groups:

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the first group sat first

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and then sat again for the second test.

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The second group

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sat first and then did the second test

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while walking on a treadmill.

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The third group

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-and this is interesting-

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they walked on the treadmill first,

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and then they sat

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OK

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so the two groups

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that sat together for the first test,

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they looked pretty similar to each other,

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and they averaged about 20 creative ideas

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per person.

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The group that was walking on the treadmill

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did almost twice as well.

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And they were just walking on a treadmill

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in a windowless room.

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Remember, they took the test twice.

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The people who sat twice for that second test

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didn’t get any better;

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practice didn’t help.

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But these same people who were sitting

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and then went on the treadmill

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got a boost from walking.

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Here’s the interesting thing.

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The people who were walking on the treadmill

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still had a residue effect of the walking,

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and they were still creative afterwards.

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So the implication of this

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is that you should go for a walk

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before your next big meeting

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and just start brainstorming right away.

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We have five tips for you

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that will help make this the best effect possible.

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First, you want to pick a problem

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or a topic to brainstorm.

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So, this is not the shower effect,

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when you’re in the shower

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and all of a sudden, a new idea pops

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out of the shampoo bottle.

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This is something you’re thinking about

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ahead of time.

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They’re intentionally thinking about brainstorming

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a different perspective on the walk.

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Secondly — I get asked this a lot:

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Is this OK while running?

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Well, the answer for me

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is that if I were running,

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the only new idea I would have

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would be to stop running, so.

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But if running for you

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is a comfortable pace, good.

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It turns out, whatever physical activity

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is not taking a lot of attention.

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So just walking at a comfortable pace

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is a good choice.

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Also, you want to come up

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with as many ideas as you can.

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One key of creativity

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is to not lock on that first idea.

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Keep going.

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Keep coming up with new ones,

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until you pick one or two to pursue.

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You might worry that you don’t want

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to write them down,

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because what if you forget them?

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So the idea here is to speak them.

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Everybody was speaking their new ideas.

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So you can put your headphones on

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and record through your phone

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and then just pretend you’re having a creative conversation, right?

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Because the act of writing your idea down

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is already a filter.

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You’re going to be like,

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“Is this good enough to write down?”

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And then you write it down.

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So just speak as many as you can,

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record them and think about them later.

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And finally: don’t do this forever.

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Right?

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If you’re on the walk and that idea’s not coming to you,

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come back to it later at another time.

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So, I think we’re coming up on a break right now,

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so I have an idea:

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Why don’t you grab a leash

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and take your thoughts for a walk?

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Thank you.