Creativity is the future of your business.

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What is Creativity?

We have all sat in a meeting where we were supposed to produce innovative ideas to solve a problem that turned into a discussion of all the things that would not work, moving us nowhere. What if I told you, that was due to a faulty definition and a lack of proper training not a lack of your creative capacity?

There are two common reasons we might lack creativity skills. First, many of us do not identify ourselves as creative. That can be because we often think creative means the same thing as artistic. While the arts utilize creativity, creativity is a much broader construct than just being artistic. Creativity is an umbrella for mindsets, thinking processes, comfort with ambiguity and possible failure, our uniques experiences, and skills that can lead us to innovative concepts, processes, and products. Each of us holds a unique combination of creativity skills and capacities. And while creativity is innate, it can be strengthened through training and practice. When we think about creativity as a problem-solving process, and we have all solved many problems, we are more likely to see ourselves as having creative capacities.

Secondly, many school systems train us to look for the single right answer at the exclusion of all else. When asked to answer two plus two, it is obvious, it always equals four. There is only one correct answer. What if I asked you “what might be all the ways you could make four?” That is a vastly different question and demands that you produce multiple options that equal four, all of them being correct answers. Most problems that we are faced with have multiple possible correct answers and if we can produce multiple ways to solve a problem then we have a greater chance of success. When you are looking to solve unfamiliar problems or solve old problems in new ways, then you need to retrain yourself to look for many possibilities.

Creativity is a process of developing original ideas that have value - Sir Ken Robinson

Creative processes help us to come up with multiple possible options to solve our challenges. I believe that we are all innately creative and that we can enhance those innate abilities with proper training. In our world of constant change, most problems will be new to us in some way and can be solved in multiple ways. It is essential that we can tap into our innate creative capacities to turn problems into possibilities.

Why Creativity Matters:

Creativity is a driving economic force

Significant economic growth has come from the creative economy driving knowledge transfer and innovation (UNCTAD Creative Economy Program, 2015). The Covid19 pandemic has forced robotic automation to move faster than previously predicted making quintessentially human skills, like creativity, even more important to our future workforce. “Success for the next generation of workers will come down to making an impact in ways robots cannot (Belsky, 2020).” According to World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey in 2018, creativity, originality, innovation, collaboration, empathy, and complex problem-solving will all be essential skills needed in the workforce (Whiting, 2019).

Creativity can increase equity

Training in creative problem solving can empower equitable approaches to design, communication, and collaboration. Studies by Richmond (2014) show that openness to new experiences is not only part of a creative mindset it is also key to developing equitable thinking. The creative economy thrives on diverse individuals and expressions. “Additionally, creativity research suggests that creative individuals are shown to be less likely to participate in stereotyping and bias (Tadmor, et al., 2013, p.3).” Training in creative processes bolsters our efforts to build equitable organizations.

Creativity improves problem solving

Tang et al. (2021) in their cross-cultural study found that identifying a problem, producing ideas to solve it, and developing solutions increased well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The results of the study add evidence to the positive hidden potential of creativity (Richards, 2007; Kaufman, 2018), thus having profound implications for crisis management, personal development, and positive functioning of individuals and society” (Tang et al., 2021).

Creativity enhances collaboration

Greater cognitive flexibility, which is enhanced by creativity training, has more impact on student success in school, entrepreneurial success in business, or our ability to collaborate than intelligence (World Economic Forum, 2021).

Creativity can change the world

Our VUCA world requires us to adjust to an elevated level of change while faced with global problems (Puccio & Lohiser, 2020). We need to adapt quickly and develop new and effective solutions requiring creative thinking. “Ultimately too, the creative economy has influential power to inspire present and future generations, to protect our planet, people, cultures and natural resources and therefore contribute to a more sustainable development path” (UNCTAD Creative Economy Program, 2015, p. 11). Empowering our innate creative potential builds a creative edge which can change our world.