Creativity: The Business World is Finally Catching On

I should have been happy to see this but just I sighed.

I sighed because in 2017, I did a TEDx Talk on why our students need creative and financial literacy to increase their success as productive human beings.

*crickets*

I sighed because in 2006, Sir Ken Robinson challenged America with the question, “Are Schools Killing Creativity?”

*Yea we watched it but who cares??*

We have been trying to enlighten people of this important and necessary skill we all need, especially in these times of massive transformation in the workforce, but it seemed as if the business world never took us seriously.

“Genein, go have fun with your puppets and play-do. We’re over here doing ‘real work’.”

Well, I’m glad you’re finally listening. By the way, here’s your play-do!

What It Means To Be Creative

After reading this headline, I saw that this was also an attempt to market the LinkedIn Learning programs. The first section was creativity and they offered a ‘Creativity Bootcamp’ for free for the month of January.

So I decided to check it out. I’m glad I did.

Instructor Stefan Mumaw did a fantastic job on the class and stated, “Many people think being creative means being talented in the arts but artistry and creativity are two different things.”

This concept made me ponder upon my current belief of creativity. I challenged it. I wrestled with it. I took it all the way to the ground. Then I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with him at the same time.

The main byproduct of the misconception that creativity is only artisry is that there are so many people thinking they are not creative because they can’t sing well, do the two step and their drawings look like cave stick figures. So they go through life rehearsing a dangerous mental lie that they aren’t creative. This simply isn’t true (we’ll see why later).

Now while creativity isn’t exclusive to the arts (music, dance, theater, visual arts and media arts), these artistry forms CAN and DO strengthen creativity in other non-artistry fields.

This is what I do, what I teach and what I believe.

Allowing The Creative Arts To Improve Your Creative Thinking in Business

As an educator, I have spent my entire career advocating and fighting for the creative arts to have a place in the classroom, and now, the boardroom. This isn’t because I think each one of my students is going to become a professional musician or dancer, it’s because I know training in the creative arts lends itself to a more robust imaginative capacity. It also increases risk taking and enhances expression of creative ideas that can support growth in other fields.

Plus, it just makes life better.

Looking at my own family proves my point. All of my siblings work in non-artistry fields but because of their arts training throughout their youth, they are all excelling, creatively and professionally, in their jobs. My brother Joseph works for NASA and has been recognized repeatedly because of his creative ideas to the Cassini Mission and other projects. My twin, Genae is in astrophysics and my little sister, Genette is in nursing. Genette claims her dance background and being in live dance performances helped her in the unpredictable high tense environment of the ER rooms. It increased her flexibility and adaptability during thosr critical situations.

This is why I teach educators and business leaders to incorporate creative arts into their development trainings. Training in the creative arts gives students and employees a myriad of ways to express their thoughts and multiple ways to look at problems using different modalities.

The arts can also build empathy. In business, you need to be able to connect with your clients and empathize with them. PwC produced a study claiming that in addition to creativity, other skills such as empathy, adaptability and innovation are needed in this ‘future of work’ in which we are headed.

The creative arts can develop these skills as well.

When I work with educators, companies and organizations on their creative growth plan for their employees and students, I bring in these same simple techniques. How do you approach a problem with creative thinking and how can you communicate your ideas through the creative arts?

Get the body moving to get the brain thinking. Improvisation is important and play is necessary!

The Redefining Creativity

Stefan Mumaw states creativity is ‘problem solving with relevance and novelty.’ Relevance means actually solving the problem at hand. Novelty, which is harder to judge, means solving a problem in an original way. So basically, creativity is solving problems in original ways.

I would like to add to this and present the concept of perspective and communication. If you are able to view your problem from multiple of vantage points AND communicate the problem, the creative process and the possible solutions in various ways, you are better able to understand the depth of what you are producing and communicating.

By having students and employees communicate problems and possible solutions through different methods, not just using words, it opens up their scope of observation and possibility, rather than only having one way to share their ideas.

Trust me. It works.

So while I am excited that the business world FINALLY gets that creative training is crucial to business development, I urge stakeholders in both education and business to incorporate the creative arts into their creativity training. You’ll be amazed at the level of quality ideas produced and the personal and professional growth experienced by your students and staff.

Now go out there and create!