I make no apology for being a disciple of John Cleese. My formative years were spent with a set of cassette tapes, on which were the whole twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers.

I knew every beat of the show, and would often talk along with each episode. Even though it has aged a little, and the 70s language and racial slurs don’t do it any favours, it remains, for me at least, a masterpiece of comedy.

I couldn’t resist sharing the above. A brilliant example of the wordplay, timing and physical comedy that Cleese and company generated in every episode.

But I don’t really want to discuss the excellence of Fawlty Towers. I want to talk about creativity, the power of play and the need to never say no to any idea.

Here is John Cleese again, this time lecturing a group of business people. He provides some crucial insight into how you need to behave when trying to create something new.

This mindset is really useful in any career. Yes, essential to the creative arts but when tasked with trying to come up with an idea in business, sport, or every day life, finding a mindset where ‘no answer is a wrong answer’ is a really good environment to have.

But that can be difficult. And often this is dictated by the labels and status that we might ‘own’.

Identity is important. It gives us safety and security, but it can also cause issues: getting involved in things it shouldn’t, acting like an officious bouncer outside a club; ‘no’ becomes its favourite word. A bit like ‘our monkey’, we don’t want identity to interfere when we are thinking creatively.

Let me explain. For many years, I taught English at an all-boys independent school (I was Head of English for a while before stepping down to pursue other opportunities). And as such, I often needed to get creativity out of my classes. There were many times that I wanted loads of ideas up on the whiteboard and I would need my class’s help to explore options.

However, in the year groups I was teaching, the school operated a ‘streaming’ system (setting the boys into higher-ability and lower-ability classes) and it was in these particular environments where creativity was stifled. Not in the low ability sets I might add, but in the high. And it’s all to do with identity.

When you give someone a label like ‘intelligent’ or ‘clever’, it becomes part of their identity. And these identity labels, while seemingly pleasing to receive, are often prohibitive.

Once you are told that you are ‘clever’, your ‘ego-self/monkey’ does not want to do anything to risk losing that label. And the easiest way to stay ‘clever’ is to not put forth any information or statements that might not be seen as ‘clever’. Thus not risking losing your status. It is best to just not say anything.

So, my ‘high ability sets’ would sit there, shifting their glances from side to side, their lips tights shut, hoping someone else would step forward. Hardly an environment conducive to creativity. Quite the opposite.

If you think of any ‘good’ labels. The same worries apply. If you’re referred to as ‘trendy’, your immediate thought is to your next outfit. How do you stay ‘trendy’?

Same with funny, witty, charming, polite, athletic, romantic, sporty, studious, even organised!

In fact, you could suggest it is one of the drawbacks of success. Being good at something means that the future expectations (from yourself and others) will be high. You will have to maintain the identity. Here’s a well-known sporting great talking about the trouble with identity.

“I went from thinking I could be an important person by winning things to realising that winning things doesn’t make you important. I realised that, in fact, it’s better to be no-one. Because that is freedom. As soon as you have an identity, you have to work to keep it alive.”

Jonny Wilkinson’s struggles with what success brought him are well-documented. He continues to work through the issue and produces some key thinking and insight with his “I am” podcast.

Being no-one and it providing freedom is an interesting one. If you think of some of your happiest places, the times when you were most content, it is unlikely that identity was playing a part.

A woodland walk, on a sunny day, the light dappled by the trees, with the birds and wildlife creating a subtle but harmonious soundscape; hand in hand with a loved one, you walk along the woodland path, breathing in the air, soaking in the glory of nature, totally and utterly relaxed.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Just the words and your imagination can make you feel at peace and happy. Being there would be even better.

But being there would not be reliant on any identity. In fact, one of the main reasons that walk is endearing is that it has no reliance on anything the past has given you. No titles, no history, no events or achievements colouring who you are: nothing. You are just you. This is genuine freedom. Which is feels so good and why so many people are drawn to it.

To return to the idea of play and generating creativity: there is no room for identity. Labels, hierarchy, previous achievements must all be left at the door if you are to fully embrace a creative process. You cannot worry about getting things wrong, you cannot say ‘no’ to any idea and you must be free from the constraints of identity to fully develop.

And as a side note: some of your best creative moments will come to you outside of your normal set-up. Struggling to come up with an idea, find an answer or think differently? Go for a walk, run, cycle, take yourself out of your current environment and the answer could well appear.