Posted by James Allen

Creativity Q&A: Lee Jackson

Name: Lee Jackson

Occupation: Professional speaker to young people and adults

How do you define creativity? Creativity is in all of us its in our God-given DNA, its a spark that stops us in our tracks or a different plan to push through a challenge.

How creative are you? I reckon I am just as creative as everyone else. Although maybe i write down and action more of my ideas – as creativity is my job. If I have nothing to say that helps people then I don’t have a job. (note: I’m not some kind of guru by the way – just a normal bloke who likes to help people find the good stuff that will help them!)

Where do you get your ideas from? Anywhere and everywhere, for me it is literally about writing them down. Everyone should make notes, little scraps of paper and napkins in your pocket at the end of the day are a good sign. If you see something funny or different write it down, take a picture on your phone and file it away. I have a bank of stuff that is stories from everyday life which have happened to me and to others. I rarely get ideas from Google! We have to step away from our laptops everyday. I use whiteboards and blank notebooks a lot.

How important is feedback? If I am speaking to young people in schools – the feedback doesn’t come on a form – it is instant, I have told stories that really work totally by accident, and others I thought were great just weren’t. Try stuff out but wrap it in stuff that will rescue you if it doesn’t. Take calculated and rescuable risks.

Who do you admire for their creativity and why? I love comedy and so comedians always inspire me, i saw Rhod Gilbert last month on his “Rhod Gilbert and the cat that looked like Nicholas Lyndhurst” tour. He spoke and ranted for two hours and brought the whole night back to his opening line about his washing machine – he was amazing. I also love Milton Jones, Vic Reeves, Tim Vine, Les Dawson and many others. Ted.com is also fun – Sir Ken Robinson is great.

What is the difference between creativity and innovation? I’m not sure to be honest, but we need both, they are interlinked. Maybe innovation is the practical outworking of creativity? The most important thing is to get on with it. Spend less time talking and more time doing, then we have more time just to ‘be’.

Any other thoughts? Never use ruled paper, always use blank paper and if you are stuck then speak your ideas into a dictaphone and transcribe that. Enjoy your creativity, have fun with it, work smart not just hard – but above all be yourself, not an imitation of someone else.

Lee can be contacted via www.leejackson.org

Forgotten all about this – hope it helps.