The flexibility that leads to creativity is a habit that you can develop on many levels. There are micro-flexibility practices like getting up on the other side of the bed, writing a note with your non-dominant hand, or driving to the grocery store by a different route.  There are structured processes intended to cultivate flexible thinking about problem-solving, like the Design Thinking process developed at Stanford University and IDEO.

And then there’s a deeper flexibility of the kind Shannon Vallor talks about in Technology and the Virtues. As she says, “’Flexibility’ is a funny name for a virtue. When we think of someone who is ‘morally flexible,’ we usually mean someone wholly lacking in virtue!” But, as she explains, the ability when making decisions to make adjustments that address the specific circumstances is deeply embedded in ancient Greek, Chinese and Buddhist wisdom traditions.

And if flexibility was useful and even virtuous in the ancient world, how much truer is that today? In business, processes like Agile have grown in popularity because they promote flexibility. There’s no doubt that flexibility is an essential requirement for all of us as we face rapid technological and environmental changes. Here in Seattle, which is currently undergoing a massive building boom, it takes a fair amount of flexibility just to walk through a once-familiar neighborhood.

Taking on flexibility as a day-to-day practice in small and large ways is has a very substantial benefit for your creative capacity. It acclimatizes you to the somewhat disorienting and uncomfortable nature of the creative process, builds your stamina, and makes you less likely to fall back on tried and true habits of mind.

Try It: Do one small practice each day to cultivate flexibility: have something different for breakfast, or walk down the hall backwards, or wear (slightly or grossly) mismatching socks. While opportunities to practice flexibility as a virtue may not come every day, you might try maintaining a flexible outlook as you read the news or chat with friends about the state of the world, or the latest work challenge. Remember, it’s all the service of building your creativity!

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