#sparkchamber 010421 — Natalie Nixon
Another year on the calendar starts another cycle of creation, curiosity, and quirk at #sparkchamber. Kicking it off right is Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist who happily integrates wonder and rigor into her life and work. “I change lives with ideas. That's my mission.” Natalie converted a 16-year career as a professor — “I’m a recovered academic” — into a successful consulting practice. Through her company, Figure 8 Thinking, she advises and emboldens individuals and organizations to transform their business results by applying creativity and strategic foresight — “so that they get paid their worth, make an impact and build their CQ [creativity quotient] and creative confidence for years to come.”
A hybrid thinker, Natalie brings her “loopy background in cultural anthropology and fashion,” — No joke! She earned a BA in Anthropology and Africana Studies from Vassar College; an MS in Global Textile Marketing from Jefferson University; and a PhD in Design Management from the University of Westminster in London — as well as her experiences living in Brazil, Israel, Germany, Sri Lanka, and Portugal to the mix.
She is the author of The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work — download a free sample chapter!; the editor of Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services, Experiences, and Beyond; and a regular contributor to Inc. Magazine [online].
Philly native, lifelong dancer — she studied Horton technique modern dance beginning at age 4 — and a Brasilófilo — she adores all things related to Brazil — Natalie brings the perfect zing — as in a-ma-zing! — to the new year in #sparkchamber.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Ideas come from movement, observation, active listening... AND, being still. They are in us, around us, and have birthdays. :)
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
To see what’s possible. I’m driven by insatiable curiosity/nosiness. One of the reasons I love my training in cultural anthropology is that it legitimizes my inclination to wonder why ... observe, and people watch.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I love working early in the morning. The quiet and stillness makes me feel cocooned and also like I’m part of the inkling of the day that is just about to begin. I need my space — like, literally the space on my desk, right in front of me — to be clear. It helps to clear my head. I practiced sensorial design long before I even knew it was a thing — so the visual, aural, and olfactory elements are important. I love burning incense and luxury candles to help get me in a comfortable state for focus. When I was writing The Creativity Leap I got really good at writing sprints — 30-40 minutes at a time — and I would turn off all notifications and putting my phone on airplane mode. That helps tons. I also believe in breaks! I schedule them and time them. Sometimes it’s a 3-minute daydream break, sometimes it’s a 5-15 minute walk. These breaks help my brain. It is important to pause.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
For a short stint of work: My body tells me — I literally am getting cramped up and need to stretch. That might be an advantage of having a dancer's training in my background. For long projects: You just gotta realize “you never arrive” — I also learned this from dance — in the relevé position. There could always be more, so relinquish control. Practice paying attention to the feeling of contentment — that's the vibe. You can always go back and iterate, build on it later. But at a certain point, it’s gotta be done.
