Are You Looking in the Wrong Place for Creativity?

No matter where we work, most of us agree that better creativity is key to addressing today’s global business challenges. CEO surveys, business polls, and the sheer number of articles in the business press (and LinkedIn posts alone!) all point to the importance of creativity in our business life. However, I think we’re going about it all wrong. 

Creativity is being framed as the pursuit—the silver bullet, the Holy Grail, the pièce de résistance—when creativity, instead, may simply be the means to a bigger end: releasing our own human potential. As we all know, when we don’t focus on the right target, our strategies and tactics can become misguided, subpar, and ineffective. Thus, using this wrong frame may be some of the reason we have been fragmented in our efforts to successfully improve creativity in the workplace.

So, why is focusing on how we release our human potential more important, and how can that, in turn, drive better creativity in the workplace?

In my research, I’ve found that business leaders often view creativity as limited to an exclusive compartment of people—something that you’re born with, or you’re not. I disagree. Perhaps a different way of thinking about creativity is that it’s part of our shared, primordial human essence. Physicist and philosopher F. David Peat describes a non-traditional perspective on creativity in his book, The Blackwinged Night. He offers that in a highly interconnected universe constantly changing and evolving, creativity is the homeostatic force that brings about the transition from what is (the “manifested”) to what will be (the potential or “manifesting”), maintaining delicate equilibrium and preventing the universe from collapsing into chaos. (For those who are interested, there are profound examples in cosmogony, symmetry breaking, and fractal geometry). To Peat, creativity is the catalyst of change, transforming the possible to the real, reconciling tensions between opposing forces, and bringing about stability.

We as humans are part of this interconnected universe, and as such, are born with an innate creative spirit. But, this human creativity shouldn’t be viewed as fixed or requiring a set form. There isn’t a mold or recipe, despite our business instincts and training to craft one; rather, I wonder what could happen if we view creativity instead as being about fully realizing—and fully expressing—who each of us uniquely is. One of my favorite books, Paul Coelho’s The Alchemist, tells the compelling story of a boy’s journey to find his personal legend, best described as “what you have always wanted to accomplish" but perhaps aren't fully realizing in the present moment. In the story, the boy learns that "everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is…[and despite seemingly hurdles and misdirection,] life wants you to achieve your Personal Legend”. The collected mix of diverse personal legends helps make our human existence interesting and meaningful, and in business, is a critical ingredient to solving complex, fast-paced problems.

I remember a conversation with a colleague who lamented how he’s just not a very creative person—that he’s more analytical instead. I challenged back to him, “it’s not that you’re not creative. It’s that you are wildly creative…in the analytical space”. As leaders, how are we tapping into the uniqueness of each of our employees—how are we nurturing his or her Personal Legend and how are we setting the conditions to inspire and release and express that energy? Yes, the power of human potential is fueled by creativity. And as leaders, if we likewise need that creative fuel to grow our business in a chaotic world, then we need to consider how we are feeding our employee’s human potential, how we are connecting, engaging, and fostering each of their individual gifts. Solving for that—and not better creativity—should be our leadership focus.