TIP 1 – We are all creative
So many people keep telling me they are not creative and they wish they were. So I’ve decided to write a series of blogs with simple tips on how you can unlock more of your creative potential. Some of these can be done with your team and organisation and some are better done alone.
Creativity is not a unique talent. We are all born creative. But futurists Watts and Wacker recently said:
“Creativity has become the most universally endangered species in the Twenty First Century.”
I believe that creativity is the strategic tool of the 21 century.
A recent IBM CEO Global Study of 1500 global CEOs ranked creativity as the number one leadership attribute in an increasingly complex and uncertain global environment.
Steve Jobs said that “creativity is just connecting things”.
Those “things” are all your experiences in life up until that moment when you want or need to be creative. So rather than desperately trying to be creative, the challenge is to make sure that you collect enough brave and broad experiences to fill up your toolkit for when you get creative.
Vincent Van Gogh (who was born in my birthplace Arnhem, Holland) famously instructed: “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
So let’s start off by silencing that voice that says we are not creative! As Picasso said: “All children are born artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”. A 15 country study by academic Kobus Neethling showed that 3-5 year olds exhibit 98% creative behaviour reducing to just 2% for those 25 and over!
Imagine if you could go back and reclaim some of that creativity. It’s yours for the taking. Over these next weeks I will share with you some of the ways in which you can unlock more of your creative potential.
TIP 2 – Watch an inspirational video
To inspire you and your team’s creative juices, please watch and share my recent TEDxMelbourne talk viewed by over 12,000 people so far!:) We are changing the world, one voice at a time!
And follow me on Twitter @TaniadeJong
