We Were Creative Once... And Young

Children act creative. Most adults don’t.

Children let their ideas bubble over, making up stories and games as they go. Ask them to think of how to do something, and they’ll likely come up with several ideas. Adults don’t act like that. When children are in groups, they toss ideas around like balls. Adults don’t act like that, either.

Adults should be creative like children because creativity is a natural human endowment. They’re not because school drives out creative behavior and most workplaces make sure it stays gone.

School and Work Drive Creativity Underground

When young children get to school, they discover a world where coming up with ideas isn’t valued much. The problems you get in school aren’t problems at all. They’re primarily puzzles because there’s an answer that someone else knows. That someone else is usually the person in the front of the room.

So, you get ahead by spouting the answer someone else has decided is “right.” That world of a single known answer is not natural.

In the rest of life, there are sometimes several answers that work. Sometimes, there is no right answer, just intelligent choices. Most of the time, answers, or pieces of answers, come from more than one place.

School reinforces the idea that authority figures have the (singular) correct answer. Too often, work tries to re-create the third grade. Children grow into adults who learn to keep those bubbling ideas out of sight.

If you aspire to write effectively, you must let the ideas bubble up. The clear thinking that makes clear writing starts with ideas. This is much easier than it sounds because creativity is a natural human trait. You’ve got this. All you have to do is confront the two major fallacies that have been drummed into our heads. Let me tell you a story to illustrate.

I was part of a team that developed an innovation and creativity course for a major oil company. In one of the early classes, we went around the room talking about creativity. When it was his turn, an exploration geologist shook his head and said, “I don’t know if this class will help. I’m just not creative.”

I was standing in the middle of a U of tables. I heard a snort from behind me. Another geologist asked, “How many patents have you got, Luke?”

“Four.”

“And you’re not creative?”

“Come on, John. Those were just little things, not like curing cancer or anything. Besides, it took me at least a couple of years to develop each one.”

Two Big Fallacies About Creativity

Luke did an excellent job of outlining two prevalent fallacies about creativity. The first one is that it doesn’t count unless it’s a really big thing. Here’s the truth.

Creativity is about coming up with ideas. They don’t have to be big, world-changing, disease-curing, world-hunger-eliminating ideas. Just ideas. I bet you do that. You’re human, after all.

The other fallacy that Luke illustrates is that good ideas show up whole, fully formed, and ready to work. That’s ridiculous. Most of the time, that first idea needs a whole lot of work before it turns into anything useful.

Forget that story about Mozart writing down music like he was taking dictation. It was made up by somebody else, and it’s certainly not true. Instead, think about Beethoven’s notebooks, which have lots of changes and crossing out. That’s how it works for most people most of the time.

Just like with Luke in his garage, that first idea must be tried, tinkered with, and tried again before it’s anything to brag about. You’ve got an idea. You write it down. Then, you begin the process of editing and revising.

Creativity Is Something You Do

Creativity is more than just coming up with good ideas. Every human being on the planet does that. If you’re human, you have a brain, and your brain makes connections between things. That’s where ideas come from.

The people that we call creative are people who take advantage of that natural human, idea-generating activity. They do three specific things with their ideas. You can do them, too.

Three Things You Can Do to Squeeze More Juice Out of Your Ideas

If you want to get the most from your ideas, the first thing to do is capture them. If you don’t, ideas will fly away like butterflies on the wind. Ten minutes later, you’ll be beating your head against the wall, trying to remember that good idea that you had.

That’s why most effective artists, writers, engineers, and businesspeople have a way to capture their ideas. Some people use small notebooks. Others use index cards. My preference is for a pocket digital voice recorder. The method doesn’t matter as long as it works for you. Find yourself a tool and start capturing your ideas.

Once you’ve got your ideas, review them and choose some to work on. You can review them daily, weekly, or every couple of months.

Tinker with your ideas. Try one, write it out. Combine ideas. Modify ideas. Rewriting and revising will improve your ideas and spark new ideas you can stir into the mix.

Trust your humanity. Expect to get good ideas. When you do, capture them, review them, and try them out to improve them.