How To Be a More Creative Person.
James Clampett
Principal | insight & foresight | Futures focused | Empowering leaders to think longer-term to make decisions for impact & future growth.
The answer to whether you can be more innovative is yes, and research proves it. According to the "equal-odds rule" by Professor Dean Keith Simonton*, your successes in creativity correlate with the total number of works that you create. In other terms, if you want to increase your chance of success, then create more.
So what distinguishes top-tier innovators from the rest?
In Simonton's research, as well as our findings, the answer is always the same: quantity. People who constantly innovate generate significantly more possibilities than average individuals.
In the creative process, quantity matters as much as quality. You don't have to be a genius to come up with innovative ideas - all you need is a lot of them. To increase your chance of success, experimenting and taking risks are essential. The more attempts you make and successes you experience, the better you become at creating something new. Each failure teaches us something, and it's important to not get discouraged by them.
Can you learn to be creative?
Creativity is also a learnable skill that can be improved through practice, study and experience. If you want to become more creative, then start reading up on different topics outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with unique problems. Additionally, surround yourself with creative people who can push you to think differently and come up with new solutions. Lastly, don't be afraid to take risks and make mistakes – if you never try something different, then you will never know what could have been. If you apply the same principles of practice and experimentation to your creative skills as an athlete does in training for a race, it's likely that eventually, you will improve as a creator.
By focusing on quantity over quality in innovation, creatives are more likely to succeed. With enough attempts, even non-geniuses can create something remarkable. So if you want to be more innovative, start getting out there and creating more frequently to increase your chance of success!
What are the benefits of creativity?
The benefits of increased creativity extend beyond personal achievements. Creative thinking can help with problem-solving in your professional or social life, and making connections between seemingly unrelated ideas can provide invaluable insights into a given situation. For example, in the business world, creative people can come up with solutions to complex problems that help their companies succeed.
Creativity also has implications for mental health: creative activities reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve mood and increase the sense of self-efficacy. Furthermore, engaging in creative activities helps people become more open-minded and flexible when faced with difficult challenges. Finally, creativity is linked to better academic performance in children, as the ability to think outside the box can help them find solutions that are not obvious.
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How can I increase my creativity?
If you're looking to increase your creativity, there are two key things you can do:
The first step is to simply generate more ideas. This may seem like an obvious solution, but it's worth repeating because it's so important. When you have more ideas, you have more opportunities to stumble upon a truly great one. And while it's impossible to say exactly how many ideas you need to generate to come up with a winner, there's evidence that suggests quantity begets quality.
The second step is to refine your process for generating and evaluating ideas. This means being strategic about how you come up with new concepts, and being critical about which ones you pursue further. One helpful exercise is "brainstorming." Brainstorming is when you gather a group of people together and generate as many ideas as possible in a short period (usually 20 minutes or less). The key here is not to worry about whether an idea is good or bad—just get it out there. Once you have a long list of possibilities, you can start to evaluate them and see which ones are worth pursuing further.
Creativity isn't some elusive quality that only a lucky few are born with—it's a skill that can be honed and developed through practice. If you want to be more innovative in your field, start by generating more ideas, and then refine your process for coming up with and evaluating those ideas. With enough time and effort, anyone can become a world-class innovator.
Get more creative at the insight & foresight blog: foresights.
*Simonton, D. K. (1997). Creative productivity: a predictive and explanatory model of career trajectories and landmarks.?Psychol. Rev.?104, 66–89.