Is everyone Creative?

When I was younger, I firmly believed that I wasn’t creative. I suspect this was partly due to the rather uninspiring way we were taught at school way back then. I hated art lessons, and was firmly told I wasn’t very good. As a young person growing up, arty-ness seemed to equate to creativity and I believed that wasn’t really me.

It wasn’t until much later on, when doing VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) that I first had a real opportunity to think and do things differently. Volunteering abroad with few resources and a lot to get done meant that creative thinking was absolutely necessary. Work (and life) challenges presented themselves left right and centre. Having to come up with solutions got my creative energy flowing. I discovered that I was actually quite creative and that it is not about how good you are at drawing or making works of art. Instead, creativity is about using your imagination and your ideas to come up with new or better things.

Now, as a business owner and Professional Facilitator, I get to use my creativity all the time. When meeting clients, I receive a broad brief that we work on together. I use my skills and creativity to come up with process plans and tools and activities that work for the client. Sometimes there are challenges to overcome which require a certain amount of head scratching and working out. This is the kind of creativity that I like!

The way I see it, everyone is creative. They just need the right opportunity and the right tools to crack open their creativity. Not everyone gets excited by the prompt to: ‘be creative’. In fact, forcing people to get creative usually doesn’t work. I remember back in lockdown completely running out of inspiration and enthusiasm for pretty much anything, much less being able to ignite any sparks of creativity. My creative well was, quite literally, dry (or had been used up on finding fun ways to keep my children somewhat educated!) For me, creativity doesn’t just flow from within like a fountain. My creativity is sparked by external stimuli – something to nudge those creative thoughts along.

In my case, and for many other people, the issue isn’t about not being creative. The issue is lacking the thing that allows creativity to appear, and then nurturing it in the right way. Quite often, this may actually be something simple such as conversations with new people, or being in a different environment.

It pains me to hear people say that they aren’t creative. It pops up often in workshops – people will often say something like: ‘I’m not the creative one’ or ‘so and so is better at that’. While we all have our strengths and natural tendencies in the way we work or approach things, we also all have the ability to be creative when the situation is right.

Why is creativity so important?

Being able to think outside the proverbial box means that we are well placed to solve problems when they come our way. It also means we can be adaptable and flexible when things don’t quite go the way we expect. Coming up with new ways of doing things and working out how to overcome the blockers and barriers to succeeding is an important part of moving towards those goals.

New ideas and innovative products or services are also what makes your business thrive. In a crowded marketplace, your creative ideas will help you stand out and attract the right sort of attention!

Finding ways to be creative and having opportunities to explore and stretch and flex is also important for your team members – both as a team and as individuals. Giving people time and space to be allowed to play around with ideas and come up with new creations helps to keep the work interesting, and fresh.

Recognising that creativity means different things to different people, and that different conditions are required to tap into it is an excellent starting point.

It doesn’t really matter whether you are looking for more visible forms of creativity, perhaps from people who are more outwardly expressive: works of art, a creative sense of dress, making funky music or coming up with new inventions. Or that kind of quiet creativity you will see in other members of your team – the problem solvers, the ones who spot connections between disparate things, or those who can see how leftover or broken parts from one project can be used to start another. Both are incredibly valuable.

All different forms of creativity; all require the right conditions to thrive.

Everyone can be creative if they have the opportunity and if they have the correct support, mindset and tools available to them. That’s why a facilitated workshop can bring out the most incredible ideas – we give people the tools and space they need to create.

Just like the athletes in the Olympics start with innate talent, but only reach the upper echelons of their sport with the right nutrition, coaching and practice, we provide the external stimuli to get creativity flowing. Whether through art, problem-solving or innovation, we believe that everyone has the potential to be enormously creative, given the right start.

Give us a buzz to find out if we can get your team thinking big about a problem that has been foxing you for a while.