How to Develop Your Creativity

Creativity is often confused with the arts. If you don’t think of yourself as artistic, you might not think it’s important to develop your creativity. And, we easily overlook how important creativity really is to each and every one of us.

If you accept that change is the only constant and you want to have the ability to bring about positive change, then you need your creativity.

Examples of creativity are all around us, whether we have paintings on our walls or not. The furniture around us is a result of human creativity, as well as all the products at a pharmacy, every new car model, and even the bad jokes that your father-in-law makes up. There are so many examples of creativity that we take it for granted. And the problem with taking creativity for granted is that if we don’t develop our own creativity, we miss the opportunity to make a positive impact on how our own lives unravel and the future of the world we share.

The fact is that creative thinking is a life skill: it’s like a muscle that you can learn to flex or that you can allow to weaken. The more you flex it the more you are able to problem-solve. That’s because creative thinking is a complex thinking skill, a higher-order cognitive skill (see?Bloom’s Taxonomy?for an understanding of how it relates to other thinking skills), and unfortunately, not one that is nourished in most educational systems.

How to Develop Your Creativity Using This Definition

There are many approaches to understanding creativity, making it hard to agree on a final definition. Here’s a simple definition of creativity that I like to use:

Creativity is the ability to bring original and meaningful ideas into reality.

Let’s break down this definition of creativity:

• If all you did was have ideas, but you never did anything with them, then the ideas are created in your imagination only.
• If all you do is bring original ideas into reality, but the ideas are not meaningful or useful in any way, that would be pure originality, but not creativity.
• If all you did was create useful and meaningful things that were not original, then you are just recreating existing ideas. And that’s all great as long as you don’t run into any new problems or you are expecting things to always remain the same.

If you accept that change is the only constant and you want to have the ability to bring about positive change, then you need your creativity.

The Levels of Creativity

Your level of creativity depends on the level of originality and meaningfulness. The types or levels of creativity are:

1. Mini C: The simplest level of creativity; what any of us do when we’re engaged in learning something for the first time.
2. Small C (also known as everyday creativity):?What you use naturally when solving day-to-day problems.
3. Professional C:?Relies on at least some specialized knowledge and expertise.
4. Big C (also known as Eminent C): Involves specialized knowledge or expertise AND has a widespread impact.

Something you do that is original and creative to you only and no one else is an example of Mini-C Creativity. On the opposite end of the spectrum is something that is original and meaningful to the world at large; that’s Big C or Eminent Creativity.

The difference between Mini C Creativity and Big C Creativity is like the difference between a child’s very original love note to a parent and Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Or the difference between your homemade patch to fix the garden hose and a government’s water conservation plan.

The Formula for Creativity

The common thread between the four types of creativity is that any type or level of creativity requires a level of ability. Creativity is an ability that all people have to varying degrees. And whatever your level of creative ability is, your creativity can be further developed.

To understand how to develop your creativity, it is useful to understand what’s involved in being creative. Well, guess what? There’s a mathematical formula for creativity.

Creativity is a function of an?Attitude multiplied by?Knowledge plus?Imagination and?Evaluation.

Attitude refers to the willingness to take risks, the ability to be tenacious and persistent, and the courage to make bold decisions that divert from tradition or from what others have done in the past.

The more knowledge you have in a certain area, the more impact you can have with your creativity, but only if you know how to tap into your imagination and evaluate options with a courageous attitude.

By the way, there’s a long list of inventions that we now take for granted and can easily recreate by following directions. The first people to create these inventions had to combine knowledge and imagination with some evaluation of what’s likely to work or not work (or a willingness to experiment), along with the courage to bring their idea into reality.

The formula for creativity reminds us that a balance of knowledge, imagination, and evaluation, with an attitude and willingness to fail and try new things, are what you need to develop your creativity. Let’s also remember that creativity doesn’t just lead to new fancy products; it also leads to the creation of new knowledge, which is important to move us forward in the important journey of creating a better world for everyone.

Neolé can help you develop your creativity with team training and individual coaching.?Contact us today.