'Am I creative?' you may be asking? I’ll answer that with another question: ‘Are you human?’ If your answer is ‘yes’, then my response to you is, ‘Well then, you are creative.’

Why is there a creativity skills gap? 

If you don't feel particularly creative, don't fear. You are not alone. Studies show that as we get older, discipline, the pressures of life, fears and societal norms tend to make us ask fewer questions, laugh less, and display less creativity than we were as young children. In fact, our education system has historically favored knowledge and critical thinking over imagination and creative thinking to serve businesses in the industrial age. Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk “Do schools kill creativity?” is the most watched TED talk of all time. It has been viewed over 70 million times. The subject of creativity in education is clearly of interest to a great number of people.

^{Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk...}

Sometimes something is so simple that we miss it.

I am someone who inadvertently tends to overcomplicate things. Making something simple is not easy. Charlie Chaplin said: “Simplicity is not a simple thing.”

So, you can imagine my joy when I heard one of the fundamental principles of creativity summarised in a beautifully simple way by creativity expert, Dave Birss, in his ‘How to have fresh ideas’* course. The basic premise of this principle is: To be more creative, change your diet.

My diet? I hear you say.

Yup, but possibly not the diet you are thinking of. Let me rewind a little.

Creative thinking leaves obvious ideas behind in the dust

First, let’s clear something up. Creativity is not binary. It’s not like an idea is either creative or not. It’s not a light switch that is either on or off. It’s not as if some people are creative and some are not.

This is nonsense.

Creativity is the use of imagination to produce something that is...

How to stimulate your creativity out of a slump

From MEH to WOW in 3 easy steps? If you’re into Wordle right now, your brain is no-doubt whirring into action. No, the answer is not  

MEH

MEW

MOW

WOW

But I like the way you think!

The formula I’m going to give you combines three incredibly powerful creativity catalysts. So, make sure you get out your goggles and protective lab coat for this.

Time required: This exercise will take 10-15 minutes.

Here are your ingredients:

1. A mindset: Self-belief
2. A skill: Mind mapping
3. A competency: Pick one of 4 proven trainable creative competencies (more below)

Step 1: Believe that you can do this

The starting point of any creative endeavour is a creative mindset. Your mindset is the environment in which your creative experiment takes place. Think of your mindset like a chemistry lab. You can’t test the vapour pressure of gas if it is baking hot inside the lab or if a gale is howling through the open...

The first time I received a personality profile report, I was amazed at how accurate it was. Before completing the assessment, I was concerned about having my personality "boxed". Having worked with personality profiling for many years now, I understand better that, far from putting us in a box, a personality profile is a tool with broad-stroke themes to help us to get out of our self-created boxes. There is much value to be gained in holding up a mirror to our preferences, decision making tendencies and personal style.

Personality profiles can help us understand ourselves, understand others, and make the most of the relationships that affect us at work and at home. 

They also help us understand our potential creative strengths and weaknesses. 

How your personality impacts your creativity

Your creativity plays out through the lens of your personality. So, the better you understand your personality, the better you will understand your potential creative strengths,...

I have a fluffy white Maltese-ish dog. Her name is Popcorn. I say ‘ish’ because she is a rescue dog and apparently, she is a mixed breed. She is super cute. I thought I adopted her, but it seems she has adopted me. I am her Person. She follows me everywhere. She is always at my heels. She hops in the car and rides with me wherever I go. She is so cute.

When last did you last have that yearning feeling? (Not the small, craving, like the hankering after your favourite food, but the deep yearning of your soul.) Can you identify what you were yearning for?

Yearning is a kind of...

A mother and her young daughter were once driving up a quiet mountain pass when they came upon a traffic jam. As they rounded a corner, they could see that a large truck could not fit under the short tunnel up ahead. The truck could not reverse back down the winding pass, nor could it move forward into the tunnel. It was just a tiny bit too tall, and it was stuck.

The mother groaned in frustration, whilst her daughter lit up with wonder at the scene in front of them. There were police, fire trucks, a crane, lots of flashing lights, and uniformed people. “Please can we go see, mummy!” she cried. “Oh alright,” the mother replied. We aren’t going anywhere quickly.” The child raced towards the scene, with her mother tramping behind her, worrying about being stuck up there all day.

… and how to do better.

None of us want to be left behind. With reality morphing quickly and our business landscape shifting unnervingly under our feet, we need to be able to nurture fresh thinking and enable innovation in our teams.

Dr Roger Firestien, esteemed professor of creativity and author of Create in a Flash, puts it this way:     

“When the rules change, creativity is key.”

In the past, fresh thinking got us ahead of the pack. Now we need fresh thinking just to keep up.

You have most likely seen the need to reinvent some part of your work life this year so far. You probably needed to innovate for how you motivate your team, how you maintain team well-being, how you engage your clients or how you attract customers. There is no getting away from the need to innovate!  Therefore, there is no getting away from the need to develop creativity.

First let’s get clear about our definitions of creativity and innovation.

Before I...