Cultivate Creativity
Creativity is our most valued American commodity and we can’t export it.
It’s difficult to be really creative when we’re in “survival mode” or the fear lock-down of workaholism. Nor can we necessarily be creative during prescribed times of the workday. Instead, creativity flourishes when we have the time and space to experiment with our unique recipe for individual reflection, community contact, and Positive Tension, that is, the variety and difference that can propel us to new ideas and vision.
But creativity isn’t a bed of roses… well, it is, if you include the thorns.
Instead, it is the ability to question, think critically, and expose yourself to new and not-so-new ideas, people, places, and things. Creativity means being patient with yourself because it takes time to build up to “Eureka!” moments. Moreover, much can be discovered on the way to those moments. It’s about understanding the ebb and flow of your own inspiration and making time for it, no matter what. It takes discipline and the ability to say no to being a workaholic and to letting fear and grasping for ‘security’ run away with you.
It’s not about being a genius; it is about making space for experimentation in the workplace laboratory every single day, even when (especially when?) it tests the limits of your comfort.
- Start with challenging your definition of what it means to be creative. Share one creative thing that you did in the last week with a friend or colleague. Own it. What was your idea or inspiration? What didn’t work, but you learned? How did you make a difference or hope to? If you get stuck, ask a couple of folks in your circle to share how and why they think you’re creative.
- Set aside 2 minutes a day every day to build your creativity muscle. Feel free to add time on, but start small. One of the quickest ways to kill creativity is to overwhelm yourself as you’re building it. Don’t expect yourself to produce anything in particular. The point is to grow positive discipline and give your creativity space. You might want to start with taking an issue or question from work, writing it on a piece of paper or recording it on your iphone and writing or speaking about your ideas to tackle it. Or, perhaps, you’re a cook or a painter, take a couple of minutes a day to plan a meal or outline a new painting.
- Intentionally reward the creativity you see in others. If we don’t support the creativity of others, then how can we realistically ask for anyone to support our creativity? Integral to fostering creative community is the realization that we need to spend three of our most precious commodities to make that happen: time, attention, and money. It’s easy to get everything at the box store in the strip mall and then plop down in front of the TV. If you want to inhabit creative spaces though, you need to get out there and experience the creative environments cultivated by others. So don’t throw out the flyer for that gallery opening, go! And, continuously ask your friends and colleagues how you can support their creativity on and off the job.
- Advocate for daily or weekly ‘creativity cultivation’ time at work. Sound far-fetched? Probably, because we’re not at all used to doing it. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t! Talk with your colleagues and even your boss about the positive effects that having space for creativity has had in your personal life and advocate for a ‘creativity experiment’, for example, 20 minutes of sacred time every Friday, which staff get to spend any way they see fit being creative. Collect data over the course of a few months to show what you have all created, and even how your productivity has increased (it likely will!), and use it to advocate for more ‘creativity cultivation’ time.
