The Definition of Creativity
If we were to ask ‘people to define creativity, it’s more than likely that many of the definitions offered would reflect a range of common myths associated with the creative construct. Most would associate creativity with the visual and performing arts, reflecting domain specific creative ‘products’, such as paintings, musical compositions and literature’ as Psychologist Dr Andrea Quinn points out. Over the years I’ve heard all kinds of explanations, definitions, metaphors and analogies, some are romantic notions attached to serendipity, others more mystical associations attached to things like alchemy. Then there are the one’s that are more scientific claiming ‘creativity’ to be more like chemistry because you’re adding substances together to create entirely new ones. However, I prefer Kyna Leski’s metaphor of creativity being more like the phenomena of the weather ’Storm’.
In 2004 I started on a path to try and understand this phenomenon. I was interested in learning how to understand the people that I surrounded myself with and in ‘how’ and ‘why’ I valued something so ambiguous. Which in retrospect has propelled me on a journey across a range of different but similar industry sectors learning all the while how to speak fairly different dialects that come from the same universal language — that is creativity. So as 2016 draws to and end I’ve decided to revisit my understanding and reevaluate how I define it:
Short Definition
Creativity is the natural occurrence and practice of curiosity that brings about change.
Extended Definition
Creativity is an innate human quality, a dynamic property of the human mind. A process of exploring ‘remote associates’, where cognitive abilities combine with affective valence to produce a state of intense concentration and productive absorption. It is the ability to imagine and realise — the bisociation of connecting stimuli and seeing patterns that connect with the act or tendency to create and communicate something original, unusual, novel and unique. As a way of operating its application is the result of biological, neurological and contextual conditions; certain forces, pressures, cycles and tensions that constrain and liberate the mind. It is the defeat of habit and complacency though originality.
‘Creativity, of course, cannot be distilled into a single mental process, or be captured in a snapshot’ (Andreasen 2014) though I do believe it should be more equated with sciences, engineering, design and art. The Krebbs cycle of creativity by Neri Oxman does this by providing us with a diagram that outlines the holistic nature of how creativity is perceived and connected but also by how it relates to other areas of intellectual digestion.
So after more than 80 years of investigation into ‘applied creativity’ and ‘creative intelligence’ thanks to predecessors like Alex Osborn, JP Guildford, Eugene Brunelle and Sid Parnes, I wonder what our future creators can evolve and improve on in this domain?
If you need help with understanding your own creative intelligence or would like to build on your organisations applied creative methods say hi on twitter or send me an email.
