One of the meanest things I hear people say about themselves is, "I'm not creative." Usually, those words indicate the person is equating creativity with art and/ or originality. Art is one kind of creative expression (probably my favorite kind) but it's only a sliver of the creativity pie. As for originality, I concur with Picasso and Godin and Kleon and many others—it doesn't exist. Creativity is largely an act of building upon ideas that came before.
Here's the truth: creativity is a human trait. We all have creative abilities but there's a range of how they're put to use. Here's how I look at it... On the far left of the scale, there are those refusing creativity outright, often because of a fear of failure. They're quick to accept the first thing that comes along, or worse, accept defeat saying, "I can't do it" or "It can't be done." In the middle, there are the people who are creating their ass off as they're living life, but don't recognize it as creativity (for example, making dinner with what's left in a nearly empty fridge, solving the problem of late TPS reports at work, finding a way to keep that one thing from falling over all the time, etc., etc., etc.). And on the far right are those who live with a creative mindset and value creativity as the thing that makes life better. People might slide up and down the scale during the day or during their life.
Eight Great Ways to Describe Creativity
If you look for a definition of creativity, you'll find an endless supply. Here are a few I found interesting.
Albert Einstein (Famous genius scientist, 1879-1955): Creativity is intelligence having fun.
American Psychological Association (A scientific and professional organization): The ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts.
Austin Kleon (A writer who draws): Taking what’s in front of you and everybody else and making something new out of it.
Britannica (Largest encyclopedia in the world): The ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.
Dorothy Parker (American poet, writer, critic, and satirist, 1893-1967): Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.
Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of the memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love": Constantly choosing the path of curiosity over the path of Fear.
Mary Lou Cook (American actress, singer, and dancer, 1908-2008): Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
Seth Godin (Writer, marketing wizard, and pretty smart guy): This might not work.
The advantage of not having a single, agreed-upon definition of creativity is that you get to choose your favorite (I'm partial to #7). Or even better, add your own to the list.
Side note: On my morning walk today, I started listening to a new book called Idea Flow. It's written by two faculty members at Stanford's d.school. Idea flow is their measure of creativity in business. The premise is that every problem is an idea problem. To get to innovative solutions you need to start with a lot of ideas—quantity over quality. A lot of ideas require a lot of creativity. Creativity comes in an environment where it's safe to think differently, share wild and crazy ideas that might not work, and take some risks. I'm noodling on how these business constructs of creativity intersect with creativity in art. Good and bad ideas are on the way.
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