Credit union executives have to know a lot to perform in their demanding jobs. Ironically, their extensive knowledge won't help them think creatively for ideas to improve products or member services.

In a standing room-only session packed with credit union professionals at the Southeast Credit Union Conference last week in Orlando, Lara O'Connor Hodgson declared that creative thinking is not about what you know, it's about what you notice.

Hodgson knows a lot. She earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor's in aerospace engineering with highest honors from Georgia Tech. She admits, however, that her extensive knowledge wasn't responsible for her creative thinking that led to breakthrough ideas, helping her launch various product and service businesses over the years, including a successful CUSO payments company, called the NOW Corp. in 2011.

Before beginning her presentation on creative thinking, Hodgson asked whether anyone in the crowded room thought they were creative.

Only one credit union professional sitting in the back of the room raised his hand. That's a typical response.

Unfortunately, most people reach their peak of creativity at the age of five. The average five-year-old asks about 500 questions a day. Asking why is a critical step to thinking creatively. But as we grow older we stop asking why. The average adult asks about 150 questions a day.

What stops us from asking? School.

“We didn't teach our kids to keep asking,” Hodgson said. “We told them to get it and stop. That's why they called it the final exam.”

As adults, we also stop asking why because we don't want to look dumb, but in reality asking why is the smartest question.

“The fact that you don't know something may be a gift because you might just notice something that the guy who knows everything doesn't notice,” Hodgson said.

Her favorite definition of creativity is the ability to look at the same thing as everyone else but to see something different.

Hodgson said everyone has the ability to see things differently and she offered several tips on how to develop a different mindset and practice by tricking your brain to see things differently.

She believes the first step toward creative thinking is to change your mindset from success to significance.

Years ago, Hodgson realized that if her goal in life was to be a success, she was thinking small.

“There's a bigger goal in life, and that is significance, because to me significance is infinite. That means you did something that impacted somebody else that impacted somebody else which gets to the [people] helping people,” she explained. “And if you change your mindset to focus on significance, your life will really change. Because when you pursue significance your impact on people changes, but you [also] change.”

Because creativity comes from what you notice, not from what you know, Hodgson said there are ways you can trick your brain to push aside what you know so that you can start to notice things.

For example, Hodgson focuses on any object in her office once a day and thinks for about 30 seconds about how that object can be used differently. It's also important to use something, including any object, to remind you of a goal you want to accomplish because all of your ideas come from what you notice. If it's not there, then you're not going to notice it.

During brainstorming sessions at work, it's common for employees to throw out an idea and within eight seconds someone invariably says it won't work because we tried it before or the idea has a problem. It also could be your inner voice saying your idea is not worth putting on the table.

First, it's important, she said, not to judge your ideas or ideas that come from others on the team.

At your next brainstorm session when someone throws out an idea, for eight seconds only talk about what's right with the idea because that can help others in your group come up with even more ideas.

“You have all day to figure out what's wrong with it, but the minute you say what's wrong with it you killed it and it won't go any further,” she explained. It's also important to keep in mind that parts of a good idea should never be discarded because someone on the team may feel uncomfortable about them.

What's more, after asking a question, never settle on the first answer. In Hodgson's experience, it's better to keep asking questions until you get the best answer. The 10th right answer is always better than the first one. The problem, however, is that most people never get to the tenth right answer because they're happy to get the first one and just move on.

“Most of us spend the bulk of our life looking for answers,” Hodgson said. “The challenge is that all innovation comes from questions, not from answers. Answers are finite. Questions are not.”

Nevertheless, if after you ask a question, find out whether the answer you were given was accurate and ask more questions if your research supports your idea.

“It's always easy to say no,” Hodgson said. “But if you take the no and you stop, shame on you, because you might get to the fifth why before somebody figures out how to help you make it happen.”

Her mantra of “it's not what you know, it's what you notice,” and asking questions to answer challenges helped her cofound NOW Corp. a payments company based in Atlanta.

Hodgson knew nothing about the payments industry. But she kept asking why a payments issue was causing cash flow constraints for her small business, Nourish Inc., a formula-ready bottled water for babies.

She was initially selling her Nourish products to small retailers and airport shops that would pay via credit card or checks. Then, she received her first big orders from big retailers such as Whole Foods and Kroger. Those companies required Hodgson to submit a net 30-day invoice. Here's the problem: A net 30-day invoice does not mean you get paid in 30 days.

“My problem was that my customers were basically [using] my money for 60 days for free,” Hodgson said. “Everybody kept saying I just have a cash flow issue. Apparently everybody has this cash flow issue and I thought well, what causes these cash flow issues and I asked why over and over again.”

Taking out a line of credit and going into debt didn't make sense to Hodgson. Finally, she remembered how her mother had a credit account at a local retailer, though retailers today get paid immediately through credit and debit cards.

Thinking of this helped Hodgson develop the idea of a payment system that would enable a small business to get paid immediately after shipping products to their business or government customers. And it would feel exactly like taking a credit card, but the small business customers would still get an invoice and pay it on their schedule.

“Do you know who stepped up and said, 'That's a really interesting idea, let's run with it?'” Hodgson said. “The credit unions. Our first partners were credit union leagues of Georgia, Texas, California, Ohio and Iowa, who said this is an interesting opportunity because small businesses are not being served and credit unions have a history of serving people who are not served. So we launched this business, we've done over $300 million with small businesses so far. That's their own cash flow from operations that is allowing them to triple their business in less than a year.”