7 Secrets for Creating Creativity

1. BAN BRAINSTORMING MEETINGS: Creativity is spontaneous. Formal meetings are a poor forum for creation. People choke because they show up for a limited time with a narrow agenda.

2. PRACTICE DA VINCI'S CODE: When your organization tackles a problem or a project, wipe the board clean of all asumptions and prior knowledge. "Tabula rasa."

3. PLAY NICE WITH OTHERS: New technologies grow out of a process of tweaks and upgrades, with a variety of contributors adding their own nuts and bolts. Collective thinking doesn't play well with prima donnas.

4. BURN THE CORPORATE POLICY MANUAL: To think freely, you have to act freely. A fanatical dedication to free speech unencumbered by top-down prohibitions causes unproductive behavior to melt away of its own accord.

5. RULE OUT "DEGREE-ITIS": There is no hierarchy based on titles and the lowest member of team should received the same hearing as the Ph.D.

6. MASTER THE ART OF INTERDISCIPLINE: Big breakthroughs are often the result of people crossing disciplines. Rotate your specialists out of their specialties and promote generalists ahead of narrowly focused experts.

7. TRASH YOUR OUTLOOK CALENDAR: Okay... not literally (I wouldn't have a brain anymore!!!) What I'm saying is to give up time-management techniques and devote each hour of every workday to whatever task or inspiration arises spontaneously. With all those meetings and infinitesimal tasks, don't snuff out your creative sparks before they have a chance to fly!