*This article is a transcript of The Nontrepreneur podcast episode titled Lead or Participate. Listen here.
When we think about the most valuable companies today, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alibaba…creativity is in their DNA.
But what is Creativity? And why is it so vital to your personal success and professional success? Let’s dive into that and let’s debunk, once and for all the myth of creative people vs non-creative people.
We are all creative people. You are creative!
Einstein said: “Imagination is more important that knowledge”.
So, what is Creativity?
By definition it’s the use of imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.
But creativity takes so many amazing forms. Inventiveness, ingenuity, artistry, individuality, inspiration, vision and yes, imagination and innovation.
I assure you – you are creative. You have the ability to see the same thing you saw yesterday and see if differently tomorrow.
Even if somewhere along the line someone suggested that there are creative people and non-creative people and decided to lump you in the non-creative category – that’s just not true.
Or worse – if you did it to yourself. You decided to tell yourself at some point, you weren’t creative. You believed the myths:
Myth 1: You’re either born creative or you’re not.
Myth 2: You have to be “right brained”.
Myth 3: You have to be crazy to be truly creative. (ok, so there might be something to this)
I’m going to prove to you, that no matter how you’ve labeled yourself up until know, that you are indeed creative. And that creativity can and will be a source of personal and profession success for you.
So why do so many people consider themselves not creative?
In 1968, George Land devised a research study for NASA to help them select innovative engineers and scientists. Now if you remember from your history class, in 1961 President Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This was 1968 – Nasa was nervous – they needed problem solvers, not just brilliant engineers.
The goal of the test was to identify people with the ability to look at a problem and come up with new, different and innovative ideas and solutions.
It was in essence, a creativity test.
It worked.
Land then used that same test to gauge the creativity of 1,600 children ages three-to-five. He re-tested the same children at 10, and 15 years old.
Now remember, this was a test to find the ability to look at a problem and come up with creative and innovative ideas and solutions. Again, basically – are you creative?
The results?
Well, you’re probably not surprised to learn that 98% of the five-year olds scored in the creative genius range. What was surprising to George and his team was that the same exact children just 5 years later as 10-year old’s - only 30% scored as high. The same kids at 15 years old, a mere 12%.
What had happened? 98% of these kids at age five could generate dozens of new ideas for a single problem. Now at 15 years old only 12% of them could do the same.
He then administered the exact same test to 280,000 adults: a mere 2% registered as creative.
In his book Breaking Point and Beyond. George Land wrote:
“What we have concluded, is that non-creative behavior is learned.”
You see, you were born creative. You were born curious, imaginative and playful.
So what happened to those 280k adults? What happened to so many of us to believe that we are just not creative?
To start, lets understand what goes on in the brain.
In his TEDx Tucson talk, Land describes that there are two kinds of thinking that occurring the brain and they use very different parts of the brain.
One is called divergent; this is the thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring as many solutions as possible. It’s imagination, innovation, generating new ideas.
The other is called convergent. It generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer. So you criticize the information you have in your head in order to form the “right answer”, you’re immediately judging and evaluating.
What happens in education is that children are taught to do both kinds of thinking simultaneously. This prepares them to be successful during things like standardized testing, where there are indeed, right and wrong answers.
So when someone asks you to come up with a new idea, as you start the process, you’re taught to immediately evaluate the merits of the idea, figure out why they won’t work, or what’s “wrong” with the idea to ensure that you generate the “correct” answer.
That’s why creativity is so often associated with the arts. We are taught there’s no “wrong” answer in the arts.
Now, I’m not an artist , so when I talk about creativity being critical to your success – I’m not talking about artistic endeavors.
I’m talking about future-proofing your career or your company’s success through constant innovation and reinvention – both of which originate from a place of creativity.
Think about all of the creative disruptor brands out there!
What Airbnb did to the hospitality, what Purple did to the mattress industry, SpaceX, Uber, then Lyft, 23andMe, Canada Goose, Oscar Health, Peloton, WeWork, Rent The Runway.
If I didn’t hit a disruptor brand that impacts your industry, I promise there’s one being dreamed up right now. There’s someone using creativity to innovate changes in your industry that you haven’t even thought of yet.
I’m suggesting that consistently looking for new ways to do things, coming up with creative solutions will not only help your company be successful it will also fast-track your career and honestly bring you so much personal happiness.
Back to what George Land said:
“non-creative behavior is learned.”
So, how can you unlearn non-creative behavior? How can you be more creative?
I’m going to offer a few exercises to try, but my biggest suggestion, my biggest encouragement is that you learn to get playful again, that you learn to get curious again.
Get back in touch with the same inquisitiveness that causes a three and a half year old to just keep asking why and how…
Why is that dog brown?
How do the clouds move?
Why do I have to wear shoes?
How are chickens made?
Why?
How?
According to the British online news site The Independent; on average young children ask 73 questions a day! How many questions are you asking?
Remember one of the characteristics of The Nontrepreneur is being curious and open to new ideas.
Asking silly questions will start is to teach your brain to look at something it’s always seen, in a completely new light. Start with “what it” and get as absurd as you can. Then, what if you applied “what if thinking” to your job, your industry or your life?
Here are three simple things you can try right now to boost or inspire creativity.
First - Find novelty.
Do something you’ve never done before. Sign up for an improv class, a dance lesson, pottery, painting, try meditation.
Do something you’ve never done before. It can be as small - brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Getting home a totally different way than you usually do.
What if you finally walked into that yoga class you’ve been curious about!?
Second - Daydream.
Daydreaming involves the same processes associated with imagination and creativity. When you daydream as your mind naturally cycles through difference modes of thinking, the analytical or convergent parts tend to shut down.
So daydream big! Get lost in crazy happy thought.
Third - Doodle.
Draw, sketch. I can’t draw anything recognizable, yet every notebook I have has patterns, hearts, and squiggly lines in the boarders.
Researcher Bob McKim has a creative exercise where you draw 30 circles on a piece of paper. Then in one minute adapt as many circles as you can into objects. Baseball, Sun, tires on a car…whatever.
These are just three simple ways to begin to spark or play with your own creativity.
Remember, The Nontrepreneur is open to new ideas, not afraid to take risks, not afraid to fail.
Forbes contributor Steven Kotler wrote
“Creatives fail and the really good ones fail often”.
You are creative. You were born curious, and playful and wonderfully creative.
Maybe you need to flex those muscles a little more than you do?
Maybe you need to get back in touch with that five-year-old who scored a 98 percent on a creativity test.
The good news, you can. You will. And by doing so, by being The Nontrepreneur who creativity thinks like a disruptor brand, like a start-up, you will bring greater value to your job, your career and your life.
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