First, creativity can be enhanced and improved, because it is essentially about thinking, and one can change the way one thinks.

Creativity is more than just artistic talent, it’s the ability to have ideas that help you do something. It is part of problem solving, decision making AND self expression. Most people only associate it with self expression. They believe in the other myths of creativity…that you either have it or you don’t (everyone has it), that it’s only for very intelligent people (all non-retarded people have some creative capacity), that it is infrequent and rare (it’s everywhere and almost all the time), that you have no control over it (you have a lot of control over it), and there is nothing you can do to improve it (you can improve creative effectivness dramatically, within your “level” of talent…in other words you can be the best you can be).

It’s true you can’t change your IQ. But you can change a lot of things. You can improve what you know — you can read, you can understand things better. Knowing things actually helps one become more creative because it expands what you can combine in your head. New combinations are a key to creative thinking.

Creativity is defined by the experts as “novelty that is useful.” So, if you want to feel more creative one way to get there is to have more ideas that apply to the challenges in your life.

And how might you have more ideas? Awareness of creative process. And focus. It seems crazy to think that creativity and a structured process can work well together, but they can, and it’s proven. By separating divergent thought and convergent thought, that alone, can make almost everyone more creatively effective. One simple thing is to simply start writing your ideas down and making lists of ideas to apply to your challenges. For instance, you mention you need more creativity in your job. Take a work challenge you have, don’t know what that it, but pick one, and just start listing ideas to address the challenge. It won’t feel creative until you get to idea #17 and you have a breakthrough. If you are not doing this kind of divergent thinking work, it’s no surprise why you don’t feel creative. It might take some time, but make a long list of ideas. If you keep pushing it over time you’ll come up with something creative and innovative.

I’ve listened to The Accidental Creative and I don’t agree with everything said in that podcast. However, there are indeed steps in the process of creative thinking. Creativity can “just happen” or it can be deliberately invited, focused, and used to solve the challenges in your life.

In short, there is a well known, 50 year old model for creative problem solving. It’s not “the truth” it’s an approach that works better than random creative thinking. If you want to know more about it, read “Jack’s Notebook” by Gregg Fraley. Or, search the web for “Osborn-Parnes” creative problem solving.

What kind of work do you do? What would you like to do? Creative problem solving begins with knowing what you want. Make a list of your wishes related to work…a long list.

Best of luck.

Best wishes,
Todd Henry
AccidentalCreative.com