Why Creativity Matters for Noncreatives (and how to tap into it)

Creativity has been heralded as one of — or the — most important skills for the workforce (though many have yet to get the memo). It’s promoted as the answer to problem-solving, innovation, collaboration, and engagement at work. All that might be true, but the concept is still, let's face it, vague and abstract to the average knowledge worker or professional.

I’ve found that creativity is an even more important ingredient when it comes to personal and career development. This dimension of creativity is about doing something different, no matter how big or small, to begin forging a different, stronger, and better Future YOU.?

In this next article in my series on Current YOU and Future YOU, let’s explore how creativity can fuel your work and life and how to tap into it.

What Is Creativity (for Noncreatives)... and Why Does It Matter?

I was watching the Disney documentary on Stan Lee, the comic book writer and creator of Spiderman, the Hulk, the Black Panther, and so many other superheroes (with his Marvel collaborators). There’s a scene during the early Marvel days where Lee and his teammates are jumping on their desks and acting out the storylines they’re working on. While watching it, I couldn’t help but feel a smidge of jealousy. Clearly, my workday looks nothing like that!?

For most of us, let’s call us the “noncreatives” — accountants, auditors, engineers, lawyers, analysts, coordinators, administrators, and many more in the corporate world — we might rank ourselves low (or at zero) on the creativity scale. But we all have the capacity to use our innate creative spirit to spark curiosity, energy, joy, confidence, and growth.?

Creativity combined with productivity are essential ingredients for improving Current YOU and developing Future YOU. They are two sides of the same coin, and their energies have a natural yin and yang.

Productivity is about the road you’re on. You can think of it like trying to get better mileage or fuel efficiency in what you’re doing already. Productivity gets you from A to B, only faster and with more ease.

Creativity is about taking the other route—the shortcut, detour, or windy road with unplanned destinations. It's about fighting the pull of “going through the motions” and missing out on business and personal opportunities that could be career or life changing.

If you want to develop Future YOU, it’s usually not enough just to do things better. You need to do things differently, too.?

We can be so focused on getting from A to B that taking the creative, unfamiliar path can be daunting. Let’s explore what gets in the way.

What Sabotages Our Creativity?

We have unlimited access to ideas to improve our creativity. But three particular sabotagers can limit or extinguish our impulse to try new things.

The cult of busyness.

Creativity needs space to breathe. Our work cultures of meetings and busyness are suffocating our ability to create. If you want to do something new — even something small — you need to take some time out of your day to try the new path. You may find a solution that makes you more effective, efficient, and happier in the long run. Then again, maybe you will fail (or fall in the ditch, to continue the driving metaphor). But the point is that creativity takes space and time to experiment.

Ballooning regulations and compliance requirements.

Over the last few decades, the corporate world has been hit with a perfect storm of regulations and compliance standards—data privacy laws, email opt-in rules, the Freedom of Information Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). I read recently that financial compliance requirements have gone up 3,000% in the past 75 years! While I am not saying legislation is all bad, it does create a risk of over-focusing on “getting through” requirements and sabotaging innovative thinking and judgment.

Thinking within the “boxes” of our organizations, profession, and where we live.

We all want our teams and organizations to “think outside of the box.” Unfortunately, we forget to think about the actual boxes we’re working in. Boxes are constructs or boundaries that shape how we think, especially these big 3:?

• the organization(s) in which we work
• our profession
• where we live or are from?

These boxes dictate how we do things–make decisions, approach problems, plan projects, and spur change (or maintain the status quo). (For more on this, read here.)

We need to get a handle on boxes, or beliefs, that limit our thinking before we have any hope of “thinking outside” of them.

4 Steps to Foster Your Own Creativity

There is never a perfect time to add more creativity into your work life. But there are steps to take to let creativity in—using time, space, intentions, and practical ways to get inspired.?

1. Clear your backlog to make space for creativity.

Ironically, as I sat down to write this article, I couldn’t come up with a single creative thought. I had a major case of amateur writer’s block. As luck would have it, I stumbled on David Allen’s fabulous book Ready for Anything in my office bookshelf (a companion to Getting Things Done). David Allen had the answer I was looking for: Creativity can come from clearing your backlog. The book has so many inspiring lines and urges you to get your “stuff” (or a barnyard term I could substitute) in order:

“Cleaning up creates new directions.”

“Closing open loops releases energy.”

“Stability on one level opens creativity on another level.”

It turned out that getting a handle on some of my backlog was exactly what I needed. Getting a clear head isn’t about having everything in order. But there is a psychological and practical dimension to getting that reasonable chunk of work in order to avoid holding you back.

Think about ...

• What is the backlog on your plate right now that you can clear for better creativity?

2. Make a commitment to do something creative.

For us noncreatives, it’s almost our default?to avoid anything screaming “creative.” First of all, it’s not in our normal routine. Therefore, embarking on a creative task takes more energy than we’d like just to get it in motion. And secondly, our noncreative (you could say “productive”) work will consume all of our time if we let it. (I have never met a Corporate Controller who doesn’t have a gazillion tasks and projects on the go.)

I am not a naturally creative person, but I’m working on changing that limiting self-description. To develop new areas of work and gain new experiences that excite (and stretch me), I commit to write articles, give presentations, and organize events, and along the way have chosen visuals, experimented with new tools, and tiptoed into new platforms. While these are not hugely creative endeavors, they have stretched my creative muscles to develop my voice and style of presenting.

Think about ....

• What is one creative thing you will commit to doing and signing-up to doing in the next month?

3. Get ideas and information out of your head and onto your computer (and paper).

Creativity is about getting sparks of insight and ideas and then bringing them to life. If you want to make things happen, you need to see them (or hear, taste, or experience them). The creative process works best when you start from a well of ideas—it’s like having a running start.?

I recommend that you regularly dump your ideas, thoughts, inspiring quotes, problems, quotes, observations, and rough drafts into files on your computer or note-taking apps.

I also recommend that you also practice putting some ideas onto paper at certain times of the day (even if this sounds like a throwback to the Jurassic Age). Writing by hand may work best first thing in the morning and later in the evening before bed, which gives you space to write thoughts free of distraction.

Think about ....

• How can you get more ideas, creative inspiration, and ideas out of your head and onto the computer and paper to jump-start more creativity in your day?

4. Work with a buddy who fuels your creativity.

Group brainstorming has its place to set strategy and build connections and more. But a thinking partner or creative buddy can be an even more powerful (and more accessible) way to support and expand your creative efforts.?

I have used a creative buddy to help me with articles, presentations, marketing, organizing events, and throwing parties for friends and clients. In running my audit and internal controls firm Risk Oversight, we find that the most efficient –and creative! – team size is usually 2 strong people (a buddy system) to allow one to produce and the other to review. With my team, we rotate roles — I am often the reviewer, but sometimes I produce, and others review. Two people can iterate work through ideas and drive each other’s output.?

You can make any work more creative and dynamic when you work as a strong team that can bounce ideas off each other.

Stan Lee would pick a comic artist to partner with for each work. The Marvel universe was truly a team affair. We can all do the same in our own (albeit less grand) universe thing by reaching out for the right kind of help.

Think about ...

• How can you get more creative on a project by working with a buddy to help you brainstorm and execute?

Whatever your creative identity and place in your career, I challenge you to take the risk and do that one next thing that is new. The creative challenge will have rewards—and tons of learning. I’m sure of it.

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