Everyone gets stuck at times. You know that feeling where you want to be creative, but it's just not happening. Instead you procrastinate, you avoid the project, or you do other "important" things. This episode explains reasons why we get stuck and provides solutions to move into full creative breakthrough mode. Ready to get unstuck? Just click play!

Try out one of the tips or tools shared this week. How did it go? Share your experiences below in the comments section.

A strong sense of purpose is one of the most powerful elements impacting a team's creative success. In this episode hear what the research says about team purpose, as well as stories from my personal life where the power of purpose has been important.

• How team purpose impacts a team's success
• Two elements critical to a team's sense of purpose

• Book: Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong by Larson & LaFasto
• Book: Drive by Daniel Pink
• Research: Pinto, J. K., & Prescott, J. E. (1987). Changes in critical success factor importance over the life of a project. New Orleans. 328-332.
• Research: Pearce, C. L., & Ensley, M. D. (2004). A reciprocal and longitudinal investigation of the innovation process: The central role of shared vision in product and process innovation teams (PPITs). Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(2), 259-278.
• Book: The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenbach & Smith
• Book: Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni
• Episode 17: Seven Norms of Collaboration

Invite your team to talk about their purpose. At your next team meeting, ask each team member to write down on a Post-It Note what they believe is the team's purpose. Hang each on the wall and gather around to read them. What do you notice? Is there alignment or confusion about the team purpose? Then, facilitate a conversation to clarify that team purpose, if needed.

In this episode, Keith Sawyer talks about the Zig Zag model of creativity, one that he developed after years of research with creative teams. He explains how he developed the model, how to use it, and shares a few practical tips you can implement right away to help your team, or yourself, be more creative.

Dr. Keith Sawyer is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity, collaboration, and learning. A professor of education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he studies creativity, learning, and collaboration. After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, he began his career with a two-year stint designing videogames for Atari. His titles included Food Fight, Neon, and Magician. From 1984 to 1990, he was a principal at Kenan Systems Corporation, where he worked as a management consultant on innovation technologies. His clients included Citicorp, AT&T, and U.S. West. In 1990, Dr. Sawyer began his doctoral studies in psychology, where he studied creativity with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of best selling books such as Flow and Creativity). Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1994, he has dedicated his career to research on creativity, collaboration, and learning. He has been a jazz pianist for over 30 years, and spent several years playing piano with Chicago improv theater groups.

Dr. Sawyer has published fourteen books and over 80 scientific articles. His research has been featured on CNN, Fox News, TIME, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR and other media. A popular speaker, he lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world on creativity and innovation.

Engage in the third step of the Zig Zag "Look" and take yourself on a field trip to a new art museum or a new town. Pay attention to what is different. What do you notice? What inspiration do you find? You can find this idea and many others in Keith Sawyer's deck of Zig Zag Cards.

This episode brings together topics from three previous episodes: 9, 34, and 35. I explain the connection between Stages of Group Development (episode 9), Three Elements Teams Need to Succeed (episode 34), and the Leadership Continuum (episode 35). Understanding all of these together and can help your team move into the Performing Stage and become amazing and more creative.

Download the Cheat Sheet and teach your team about the stages of group development, the leadership styles, and about task, process, and relationship. Then, invite feedback on your leadership style.

Teams need to attend to three elements in order to be successful in their work: task, relationship, and process. Balancing and attending to these three can lead to high functioning, creative, successful teams. This episode explains what each of these are and how to attend to all three.

• The difference between task, relationship, and process for teams
• Why teams need to attend to task, relationship, and process, but not at exactly the same time.

• Episode 23 - How Conflict Impact Creativity
• Episode 8 - FourSight, an Interview with Blair Miller
• Episode 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - The Creative Problem Solving Process
• Climer Consulting Facebook Page
• Amy's Twitter Feed

Take a look at the team(s) you are in. Where can they make the most improvement - in task, relationship, or in process? Talk with your team about the importance of each of these and dialogue about how you can improve to make the team even stronger.

• The definition of a team and working group and why you need to know the difference.

• The Wisdom of Team by Katzenbach & Smith

Assess the groups you are a part of, which are teams and which are working groups? Talk with the group and come to a consensus. Talk about why it matters.