In our most recent Creative Confidence Series chat, David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school, and IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard sat down to discuss the core abilities of the most successful design thinking practitioners and personal stories and learnings from David’s friendships with several of today’s most innovative CEOs and leaders. Hear from more innovative leaders on the IDEO U podcast.

At IDEO, we know that our greatest tool for innovation and problem solving is creativity. But from the time we’re children, we’re taught that creativity is only for some people, or that it’s something you lose as you grow older. It’s considered fanciful, rather than intrinsic to good design, and even business. To us, it’s the most important part of what we do, and helps us open our minds to discovering new solutions to tough problems.

How do you move past challenges, even when constraints are tight and solutions are elusive? It’s all about supporting rather than managing, and showing grit, resilience, and optimism, even after several rounds of prototypes, or the realization it’s time to start asking new questions. Here are four ways to maintain momentum as you address a design challenge.

In our most recent Creative Confidence Series chat, Charles Hayes, Executive Managing Director of IDEO Asia, and IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard discussed creative leadership and a changing culture of innovation in China.

Try this activity to build trust among your teammates and uncover the skills and perspectives you can each bring forward.

We’ve all been there. Excited about a great idea and ready to run with it, but it gets squashed by the leadership team before it can ever see the light of day. So what do you do when the verdict on an innovative new concept is a no?

Keith Yamashita, SYPartners Chairman and Founder and instructor for our newest class From Superpowers to Great Teams, sat down with IDEO U Managing Director Coe Leta Stafford to discuss creative leadership and how great teams are built on a foundation of diversity, collaboration, trust, and self-awareness.

Brendan Boyle, Founder of the IDEO Toy Lab and a contributing instructor in our Unlocking Creativity class, has a knack for helping others insert more creativity and playfulness into their work. He recommends that you start every meeting with a creative workout to elevate the energy in the room. Here’s a simple activity in imagination play that Brendan uses to get the team into a more creative headspace.

Reflective self-awareness is the entry point to creative leadership. Being comfortable with not knowing the answers, learning from failure, and collaborating with others different from yourself are essential to creativity, and they all involve a healthy dose of self-awareness. Here are two actionable ways to put yourself in a reflective mode, and to help you discover the role you were meant to play, in your career and as a leader.

As Tim Brown says, old school models of leadership are not enough anymore. Top-down mandates and telling people what to do doesn’t lead to the creativity and innovation that allows modern companies to make an impact. Instead, leadership is about generating, embracing, and executing bold ideas—”even when the path is not clear.” And that all starts with asking questions.

If you’re a leader, chances are, you got to this point by showing results and having the right answers. But your next mission (should you choose to accept it) is to work on executing bigger and bolder ideas. In fact, it’s no secret that we all have to do this. We constantly have to move good ideas up the chain of command and into the market so that our organizations thrive and have an impact. To do this, one tip Tim Brown recommends is to make your ideas fitter so they can thrive.