We normally look for the
“right” solution but creativity works better where we seek multiple
solutions – first one idea, then another, then another. Creativity
thrives on abundance.
Being faced with hundreds of
choices – doesn’t that just lead to indecision? Don’t confuse idea
generating with decision-making. How many meetings have you been to
where the first good idea is short down in lames? Ideas are tentative,
fragile things that in their early stages can’t stand up to the strong
light of decision-making. Forcing a decision too early simply crushes
creative thinking. We must allow ourselves space to PLAY with ideas,
with possibilities, to allow life to be open-ended.
People tend to avoid creative "planning"
because they do what feels safe. They will be aware of some creativity
in their lives but they probably have two key strategies for
suppressing it:
1. I'm not a creative person. This generally
means: I'm not good at arranging designing/painting/writing
poems. These are only aspects of creativity.
2. Creativity is all right in its place. This is
an equally powerful restrainer. "Creativity is about fun. That's OK
for leisure time. Reality is about hard work." Creativity is seen as
an optional add-on rather than a tool for living.
The problem is that these can become
self-fulfilling prophecies. The only major difference between creative
and less creative people are whether they think they are creative or
not. People who didn't think they were creative never put themselves
in a position where they could use their creativity.
Even in work, too many people see creativity as a
"soft skill" reserved for those in roles such as advertising or
design. Creative solutions are supposedly find for marketing but not
for accounting. If you put creativity in a box, you are deliberating
switching off part of your brain, switching off possibilities and
failing to make connections between what you learn and what you can do
tomorrow.
Yet creativity can be expressed in
(conventionally) unusual areas. We might:
