Question: Where did you get your inspiration for what you do and how do you increase creativity in your role?

Charlotte Slade answered on 1 Jul 2025:

That is an absolutely brilliant question, and it covers two of my favourite topics: where ideas come from, and how you can get more of them.

Part 1: My Inspiration

My inspiration has always come from a simple, deep-seated need to understand how things work.

When I was a kid, I was the one who would take things apart. Old radios, broken toys, anything I could get my hands on. I had to know what was inside and how all the little pieces fit together to make it function. I wasn’t always successful at putting them back together, but that process of discovery was fascinating to me.

That same curiosity is exactly what drove me to do a PhD in Physics. I was still taking things apart, just on a much, much smaller scale, trying to understand the fundamental rules of how atoms build the world around us.

And today, in my job as a strategist, I do the exact same thing, but with ideas and businesses. I look at a complex problem or a new technology and my first thought is, “Right, let’s take this apart. What are the core pieces? How do they connect? And how can we put them together in a new way to build something even better?”

Part 2: How I Increase Creativity

This is the really fun part. You can’t just wait for a great idea to strike you like lightning. The secret is to create an environment where good ideas have a chance to grow. Here are my three main rules for myself and my teams:

Cross-Pollinate Your Brain:
The best ideas often happen when you smash two different worlds together. I make a point of talking to people completely outside my field: artists, doctors, historians, entrepreneurs. They see the world through a different lens, and their perspective can often unlock a problem I’ve been stuck on. Creativity loves fresh input.

There Are No “Silly” Questions:
This is the most important rule. In any team I lead, we have a firm policy that the only bad question is the one you don’t ask. Often, the question that feels the most basic or “silly” is the one that cuts through all the jargon and exposes a core assumption that everyone else missed. You have to create a space where everyone feels safe to be curious.

Change Your Scenery:
You can’t solve a new problem by staring at the same four walls. I get some of my best ideas when I’m completely disconnected from work, like when I’m out walking my rescue husky, working on a DIY project in my garage, or reading a sci-fi novel. Letting your brain switch off and do something completely different allows your subconscious to connect the dots in the background.

So it’s a mix of relentless curiosity and deliberately building a life that allows for new ideas to pop up when you least expect them.