Creativity: An Ability to Shape the Future

After you've been involved in an industry for long time, you tend to see the same kind of ideas and corporate habits over and over again. Sometimes think different is not very popular or is not encouraged. The purpose of thinking is to collect information and make the best possible use of it. The purpose of thinking is not to be right but to be effective and creativity it's a powerful tool to produce value.

Sometimes, just to get a different perspective, you must venture outside of your field and go explore something completely new. We live inside our sector silos and sometimes we don't recognize that industry borders are blurring.The unknown of what's out there leads to insecurity and makes us choose for the familiar, we extrapolate using the past as a reference for the future. We could lost in many ways if we don't see the potential of ideas and approaches from other areas and maybe lose a valuable insight from other companies to solve problems for our company.

When we think about creative process we probably come across something called flow state. Peter Diamandis on his bestseller, BOLD, describe flow this way:

Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best. If you’ve ever lost an afternoon to a great conversation or become so involved in a work project that all else was forgotten, then you’ve tasted the experience. Flow describes these moments of total absorption, when we become so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. All aspects of performance - mental and physical - go through the roof.

Flow and the creative process walk together and we can enjoy and use this connection to become more productive in our lives and jobs.

Nowadays, creativity is seen as one of the main forces for growth, development and profitability. Creativity could lead to a improved product, service or process that can creates value for business, government or society. One of the biggest challenge facing the modern organization is how to creative to solve problems across functions and locations.

Can Creativity be learned?

Most people think creativity is divinely-inspired, unpredictable and bestowed on only a lucky few. I have the belief that human beings were built for creation.

This brings us to a question, creativity could be defined? I think it can. And one of the best definitions that i know is this: Creativity is a tool to solve problems. And when our jobs challenge us to be creative on demand, we must develop novel, useful ideas that will keep our organizations competitive.

Creativity is not a linear process, in which you have to learn all the necessary skills before you get started.The path for a creative mind is having different kinds of experience, so embrace influence, collect ideas and insights , remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Begin collecting interesting and inspiring things and saving them on a notebook or a digital brain like Evernote. Anything inspirational, thoughtful, educational, or remotely interesting I throw into Evernote.Once all of the content is there, it's just a matter of connecting the dots.

Creativity is just connecting things. Creative people are able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. (Steve Jobs)

Richard Branson the founder of Virgin group has a mantra that runs through the DNA of Virgin companies. The mantra is A-B-C-D. (Always Be Connecting the Dots).

You must embrace your creative ability in order to thrive in today’s marketplace. This intermingling of ideas strengthens your understanding of the world and enlightens your understanding of your own industry. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself. Your mindset is more important than anything. It’s even more important than technology or income.The world’s most precious resource is a passionate mind.