Applied Creativity - Introductions

It started when I dropped out of Uni, to live and train in a Kung Fu school, my parents weren’t happy, they were concerned about my ‘future’. Secretly auditioning for acting college probably didn’t help either, from there it was all downhill…

Acting and writing for theatre and screen, street photography, travelling to London, I didn’t land my first ‘real job’ until I was 25—by this stage I had already worked in a cabaret lounge, acted in a few short films, been a private eye for a week (wild story), and optioned two television concepts; one to the BBC, the other a new online movie service, something called Netflix?

I describe the next fifteen years as ‘hopscotch between corporate and creative’; juggling tech start-ups, WB films, designing L&D assessments, performing fringe theatre and founding production companies.

Then a pandemic arrived… and all of a sudden… creativity was hot.

Not just hot… critical.

Standard process failed. Standard thinking stalled. Employees refuse to return to the office. Crypto and NFT's rose and burst. War erupted in Europe. Recessions are looming.

Unprecedented times would require unprecedented thinking.

In 2022, a report by the World Economic Forum (WEC) cited the ‘Top 10 Skills Required by 2025’—skills like innovation, complex problem solving, critical thinking, originality, reasoning and ideation.

Basically, creativity.

But the second half of the of the article is where things take a turn.

The WEC offers how we should develop our creativity and issues a shopping list of technical skills: content writing, sales, marketing, date entry, AI, cloud computing and engineering.

It seems creativity is defined by its relevance to corporate and STEM… and nothing else.

It is curious to me that those seeking creativity, ignore fields where creative skills, intelligence, process and outcomes are demonstrable, abundant and replicable.

Basically, the arts.

When we use the word ‘creative’ we immediately associate it with the arts: your ability to draw, dance, sing or act, seems to define whether or not you are creative.

Artists are known to be radical thinkers, who thrive on inspiration and are capable of extraordinary feats beyond the reach of mere mortals; to an artist, the corporate discussion of ‘creativity’ makes as much sense as an opera ensemble discussing financial accounting.

It is as if the two, corporate and the arts, speak two very different languages—both insisting they know what creativity is—both dismissing the other as having any relevance.

What if these languages were in fact the same? That these are two villages, with common roots, who settled either side of a river and were raised to believe... “them on the other side is weird”.

This book is your bridge between two worlds—a creativity translator, of sorts—leading you to a brighter, creative future.?

The luxury of having such a diverse career, is that it allowed me to observe the function and practical application of creativity in work, education and life.

It also helps that I'm a professional creative with a diverse body of work: screenplays, theatre, street photography, blog articles, film/video, occasional card magic and even this book… rather than an academic studying a foreign process.

What I’ve found is creativity is less a formula to produce ‘magic’—more a language to be learned.

Everyone speaks a little; fluency requires skill, knowledge and application.

And like any language, you can learn it, objectively measure it and begin to apply it immediately.

The catch is, like any language, you need others who understand you.

If there is one trait synonymous with creativity, it’s that creatives, creative process and creative ideas are more often misunderstood, invalidated, dismissed or feared.

In this book I’m going to show you:

1. Where the current demand for creativity comes from and why.
2. What you observe as creativity, is a result of six specific skill sets.
3. That the key to optimal creative process lies in you, the individual.
4. Why you avoid your own creativity and how to overcome risk.
5. A comprehensive breakdown of the Six Creative Skill Sets, how they behave and how they apply to you.

My goal is to prove that creativity is grander and far more potent than currently defined, at the same time, I’ll dismiss the mysticism and elitism that often clouds creative process.

I’ll detail the pitfalls and misconceptions of creativity and the thinking that leads us here.

And by the end of this book you will have a crystal clear understanding of exactly what creativity is, what creative strengths you already possess and actionable steps to develop these skills for yourself.

I applaud you for being here, this isn’t for the feint of heart and I’m here to challenge much of what you believe to be true… that’s a creatives job.

What better place to start than a hotel room in regional Australia…