By E. Brown
It’s funny how many people I speak with that say things like, “I am not creative,” or “I wish I was creative,” or the ever popular, “I do not have a creative bone in my body!” To which I respond, “You’re full of it!…”
…Creativity, that is.
I am a firm believer that everyone IS CREATIVE. Don’t let any art snob tell you differently. Just because you may not play music, perform, paint, draw, or sculpt does not mean you’re not creative. You exhibit creativity every day of your life.
I must say at this point that I do not in anyway endorse illegal forms of creativity. Yet, you must admit, some folks can be very creative in their attempts to break the law.
At WeirdGuy blog we talk a lot about learning, leadership, technology, and more — through the lens of creativity and fun. Solving any problem is a creative process whether it’s a business issue, people issue, technical issue, or any issue for that matter.
Learning
How do you teach, train, or communicate? In order to get in touch with your audience you look for creative ways to engage the “student” in learning. You look for creative ways to make learning stick. You want learning to be fun and memorable and to solve performance related problems so you need to use your creativity. There are many others ways too — tell me how you do it in your line of work.
Leadership
How do you generate income, protect your brand, or market your products? You may hire a creative firm, but the final say is yours, right? You know your audience and you know your culture. How do you keep employees excited and engaged? You allow them to exercise their creativity. How do you use creativity in your business or where you work? Share your ideas here.
Technology
How do you scale your technical infrastructure, protect your digital data, or enhance your online environment? I.T. folk rarely see themselves as creative, yet I see incredible forms of creativity in solving many coding and back-end related issues. For example, a UI designer may come up with a hip and cool look for a Web site, but unless the technology supports the graphics, it’s only eye-candy or a pretty picture. What are additional ways your technology team demonstrates creativity? Share with others here.
Community
How do you create community, drive involvement, and foster interaction? You look for creative ways to create and spur dialog. You open the community to forms of creative expression through customization. You look for way to creatively set yourself apart from the other social networks and communities. You look for creative interchange between you and the community members. And, there are more ways to creatively leverage community — share how you do it.
Creativity
Yes, creativity. How do you foster, manage, and incorporate creativity into your life (work and personal)? What do you do to stay motivated, captivated, and innovative? What kinds of books do you read, music do you listen to, podcasts do you subscribe to, programs and movies do you watch? How do you capture your thoughts and ideas for further inspiration and creative development? Share you examples here.
Bottom line, YOU ARE CREATIVE. Celebrate it. Exercise it. Look for new and fresh approaches to all that you do and above all, have fun while doing so. You’ll find it’s a natural by-product.
Related Reading
– Creativity In The Process
– Mandatory Ping Pong In The Workplace
– Peter Pan and Willy Wonka On Creative Thinking
– New Children’s Book Idea – Creative Learning is Fun!
– Creative Ways To Make Complex Information Simple
– Doctor Doctor Makes Learning Fun
WeirdGuy Creative 
Creativity is a fluid concept–how you use your imaginative faculties goes a long way in determining your level of success, regardless of your vocation. Much is made in business circles about “thinking outside the box”–there isn’t an artist in the world who doesn’t know the importance of such an approach. It’s all about innovation and creativity, qualities universally lauded, regardless of whether you move in the spheres of commerce, politics…or so-called “high” art…
I have been much interested in the creative process all of my life. The one thing that rises to the surface is the necessity to take risks – to try th improbabe nd the unexpected, to take permission to be playful. All too often, reading tomes on creativity, i come across prescriptions on how to be creative – and readers follow this to the letter. Comes to mind all the books on Artist’s Way that became popularized during the 80s. Many teachers of art adopted the methodology wholesale, without internalizing the concepts and proposing them in more personalized ways – talk about desiccating the whole approach – those books became mere How-to references for the lazy and unthinking. I am pleased to report that I have never spent any of my hard earned money on these books and have struggled to reinvent the wheel on my own terms. And it has worked for me well in my teaching and art practice. G
Love that flying sheep! G
I love what you both are saying — BE ORIGINAL!
-eb
There are two different types of creativity. Innovative – truely different out of the box creativity, break through ideas, and Adaptive Creativity – this is the ability to refine, modify, find new uses of old products, new ways to apply what you know. Both are required t bring innovative ideas to market.
Think about the light bulb Ben Franklin was the innovative, standing outside with a kie and a key proved the conductive power of electricity.
Thomas Edison, experimented, and refined, failing more than 100 times before he created a working light bulb. The combination of their two approachs is what led to the creation of the light bulb
not a recent but a nevertheless not dated ressource on the issue of creativity is julia cameron’s book “the artist’s way” (there is also a version for people at work) – see http://www.artistswayatwork.com/ – several of the methods recommended, especially “morning pages” and “artist’s dates” I have found immensely useful in my life – and i often recommend these to clients who feel creatively blocked.
cheers from berlin
msb
Creativity is often created where two different perspectives meet – and that happens plenty of times when someone has a career change and brings some of their prior learning to their new role. It becomes a fresh way of challenging norms. Diversity also really helps – just been reading Developing Strategic Thought by Prof Bob Garrett. There is a chapter in there that you will find most interesting on learning as it relates to international teams.
Great thought starter Eric, keep up the good work…
great article–and a perfect way to show anyone that its their ‘authenticity’ that really matters. thanks!