This exercise is a simple and fun one – and a great reason to get outside and get some vitamin D.
Hopefully your neck of the woods today has a sky full of those big, white fluffy clouds – your goal is simply to try and make interesting SHAPES from them. Maybe you can see a shark in one – perhaps there’s another one nearby that looks like a dolphin that your shark is chasing. You might spot faces or buildings – anything, really.
Great – but how does this help with your creativity?
Well, you’re reminding yourself that everything is not always as it first seems. There are a thousand ways to look at things – and it’s very useful to keep this in mind during the ideation process.
Looking at familiar objects in a new way or from a new angle yields different results.
Head out and look to the clouds – see if you can find at least five different shapes, and if you’re playing with others, offer a prize for the best find. Take a picture of anything you find.
If there are no clouds today, you can try the same thing with tea leaves, coffee grounds, the foam in your cappuccino, or check out the wonderfully named Cloud Appreciation Society. This is a website that celebrates looking up. They say:
We believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.
We think that they are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them.
We believe that clouds are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save money on psychoanalysis bills.
Did you know? Klecksography is the art of making art and images from inkblots – taking the random and making sense of it. The history of using inkblots as tools for stimulating imagination can be traced back as far as the late 1400’s. Both Leonardo da Vinci and Boticelli used them.
Perhaps the idea of blue sky thinking and cloud-watching is not so bonkers after all!
Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By th’ mass and ’tis: like a camel indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale.
Polonius: Very like a whale.
– Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Act III, Scene 2
So, look up and remember to live life with your head in the clouds! And if you’re still not sure how you’ll convince the boss tell them this:
“Breaks are not a deviation from performance, but are actually a part of it.” – Dan Pink