How To Energize Creative Momentum

By Les Mottosky

When our creativity is stalled, it’s natural to crave answers. To reach for something known. But progress lies in questions. Not all questions, though.

When something is working, the default question is “Why?”. It feels important. Like it's depth will reveal a breakthrough truth. But in creation mode, it’s often a dead end. For two reasons:

First, “Why?” pulls us backward. Like a time machine, it drags attention into the past. Into dissection, causation and narrative. Creating doesn’t require origin stories. It relies on now and future. Chasing “why,” risks trading movement for meaning, when the creative impulse is already energized by meaning.

Second, the answer to “Why?” is nearly always incomplete. Even if it sounds accurate, it’s just a version of a guess hiding in a pattern disguised as truth. Creating is too dynamic for neat, singular reasons. Ask five people why something happened and you’ll get five convincing half-truths believed by five innocently deluded minds.

So if “why?” isn't the direction to catalyze creativity, what is?

Open-ended questions. Questions with gravity and movement. I find these most often come from 'What' and "How' questions. "What else is possible here?", "How could we look at this from a different angle?", "What if we flipped our thinking upside-down?", "How is an assumption affecting our views?", "What are we missing with this conclusion?", "How would things be different if this was already solved?", "What needs to be true for us to achieve this 6 months faster?"

These kinds of questions aren’t about finding a root cause. Instead, they take a different tact and intention: they're meant to spark a shift. In creation mode, questions aren't tools of analysis, they're portals to possibility. Beginning a question with 'What' or 'How' gives us the choice to look forward. This can generate momentum simply by being asked.

'Why' puts our minds-eye in the rearview mirror.

‘What’ and ‘How’ don’t just spark creativity, they can rewrite the rules of reality.

The next time you find yourself in the mud of creation, spinning or searching for certainty: Don’t reach for the reason. Lunge for a better series of questions.

That’s where momentum is waiting.

TAGS: #Energizing Creativity #Creativity In Leadership #Questions At Work, #Observing #Adaptation As Innovation

Les Mottosky

Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.

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lesmottosky@mac.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/les-mottosky-9b94527/