1. Space “You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you are under pressure.”Cleese’s model for creativity is based on our two modes of operating — open, where we take a wide-angle, abstract view of the problem and allow the mind to consider possible solutions, and closed, where we zoom in on implementing a specific solution with narrow precision. We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem — but — once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it.
2. Time “It’s not enough to create space; you have to create your space for a specific period of time.”
3. (More) time “Giving your mind as long as possible to come up with something original,” and learning to tolerate the discomfort of pondering time and indecision.
4. Confidence “Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making mistakes”
5. Humor “The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.”
When leading change our role as leaders are to respect those modes, to release control in ideation phase and ignore how it fits in, or will be implemented in our current operations. Then magic will happen!