Thoughts on Creativity

When I was younger, I didn’t really like the word creativity for two reasons. First, creative was mainly a quality deemed to those who were good at art class (which I wasn’t), and second, creative writing was one of my least favorite subjects/activities. However, as I got older I began to understand creativity across many different areas, and how important it is in the thinking process.

My personal experiences with individual creativity involve school, work, and decoration. In high school I created 6 scrapbooks of pictures from when I was born til the end of high school, and I also created the scrapbook for my student council. For my personal scrapbook, sometimes I would scrapbook with my friends, and sometimes I would get ideas from the decorations in their rooms.  In my scrapbook for the student council, I worked on for the whole year, and I created each of the membesrs’ pages based on their interest and personality.  I really enjoyed making these scrapbooks, so I unintentionally thought about them often.  This helped me to get ideas when I was in a store and liked two colors put together, or when I was talking to one of the members and he/she did something I really thought should be incorporated into their page.

At work, I designed and developed our company website. To do this, I researched other sites that I remembered liking, and researched some of best site layouts. I drew from different formats and layouts, as well as looked into problems in our old site to design a more functional and visually appealing site. I haven’t had much experience at work with organizational creativity with the exception of building my website. Something that helped my creativity was the time that I was given to build the site. I don’t think creativity can be forced, so having time to think of the site outside of work, and maybe see a flyer that I like some part of the format of was very helpful in my design. I also worked with my boss and it helped to bounce ideas off of him. However, the office I worked in was pretty small with limited windows and lighting. It wasn’t the most creative space I have ever been in, and I think that hindered performance. We have moved to a bigger office since and I think it is a much better and more open space which helps as I continue to renovate the site.

I know I am capable of being creative. I now see that creativity is in everything, and I have learned that I really agree with Jonah Lehrer with how important relaxation and changing focus is for new ideas.  Giving myself time and clearing my mind are two of the best things for my personal creativity. I think the best way to describe my thinking is that I need to let ideas incubate in my head and grow and change when they need to.  Working out is one of the most important ways I have learned to clear my head completely and it has helped me it almost every aspect of my life including creativity. I think a group within an organization is capable of being creative as well. Like the activity in class, I think it is very helpful to bounce ideas off a group with little or no restriction. An important part of this group dynamic is that the group has some trust and is comfortable throwing out things that are crazy or have little relevance. I think that really helped our group in class.

When it comes to creativity, I don’t think there is every a right answer. Some creative processes can be better for some people, but I don’t think that there is a rule for any particular situation or process. I think experience is an important teacher of what can work and what doesn’t, but it shouldn’t be restricting or limiting to the approach you should take to a problem.