Elephants, Monkeys, and Increasing Your Creativity
By Jared Smith, Principal, Incite Solutions Inc.
Recently, I was asked to speak on the topic of creativity and storytelling. The audience was a group of business students from the U of A. I love students, they're naïve enough to believe they can do anything, and as a result, they usually can! These particular students wanted to know how to increase their creativity in order to improve their ability to present cases at an upcoming business case competition.
On reflection, it occurred to me that the most creative people that I know in my business and personal life all share one thing in common. They've experienced really cool things, they've travelled to new places, and they know all kinds of people. These experiences and relationships become the well from which they draw their creative juices. After having this revelation, I felt compelled to tell the story about the elephants and monkeys.
First, let me make it clear that romping through the jungle on a big elephant in the stifling heat isn't my idea of a good time. I prefer the beach when I'm on vacation. But after six straight days of 12-hour shifts on the beach volleyball court at a resort in Koh Samui, Thailand, my wife, Jessica, had finally coerced me into venturing off the beach for some "local culture"–in this case, elephant riding.
Our elephant seemed particularly sluggish and was part of a long procession consisting of other sluggish elephants. This slow-moving group hauled tourists through the forest on 20-minute rides that went no further than 100 metres into "nature" and back. The extremely short Thai elephant whisperer who was steering our elephant must have sensed my boredom because, upon seeing a little family of monkeys (a mother and her small babies), he gave me a piece of stale bread to throw at them. This activity kept me occupied me for a few minutes, until I decided that it would be more amusing to flick a few pieces at the passengers on the elephant directly in front of us. This immediately got me disapproving looks from Jessica.
I suppose most accidents happen quickly and can't always be anticipated, and this one was no exception. One of my bread pieces landed between the hind legs of the elephant directly in front of us, and the monkey family naturally scurried over to eat the bread. Just as the monkeys settled in to enjoy their meal, the elephant directly above them decided to take a dump. Now, I'm not sure whether or not you've seen an elephant dump before, but let me tell you, it's a sight to behold. Amazingly, the pile of elephant dump buried the whole family, and as far as we know, the monkeys died–poor little guys. Jessica cried, I laughed, and life went on (at least, for us it did).
Back to the topic at hand: if you want to become more creative, colour your storytelling pallet with experience. Travel, meet new people, do unusual things, and get outside of your comfort zone. Then, when you have something important to communicate, draw from these experiences to get your point across. Oh, and one more piece of advice, if you're telling a story and you really want to tell something creative and memorable, throw in some elephants and dead monkeys. Trust me, it works every time.
