Why creativity could be what your team is missing
What we fail to tell our children is that creativity does in fact have a place in the workplace. Creative thinking allows a team to look at projects and decisions differently; to think outside the box; and, to figure out new ways of accomplishing old tasks.
We see it in the movies all the time … the student whose creative passion to sing, paint, or write is doubted as a possible career choice. Parents encourage their child to pursue something other than their creative choice with arguments of stability, finances, and long-term prospects. Those that do make it are depicted as the one in a million, the lucky ones who find a break, or stumble upon success.
The real world, however, isn’t so different from the movies. The creatives are often still pushed to make their creativity a plan b rather than a plan a.
What we fail to tell our children is that creativity does in fact have a place in the workplace. Creative thinking allows a team to look at projects and decisions differently; to think outside the box; and, to figure out new ways of accomplishing old tasks.
Being creative is a skill that can help many of us in our day to day careers. We often don’t recognize creativity as we should in the workplace, but the benefits of a creative soul on your team are surely there!
Take Kathleen Webster for example.
By day, Kathleen is a Senior Director with the Government of Canada. Her #OutsideEight, however, highlights the creativity she brings to her role.
“I fill my Outside8 with activities that help keep me balanced and healthier then I have ever been before. Among these activities, is painting. I started painting six years ago because I needed a creative outlet. There is a meditative quality to painting that allows me to relax, breathe, and just be in the moment.”
Being creative can mean and feel different for each of us. For me, writing is my creative outlet but I also write almost every day in my nine to five too. While the audience may be different from at work to at home, that creativity can still be applied to my career and allow me to tackle my work with a different mindset than perhaps the traditional role would assume.
For Kathleen, challenging her own assumptions is one of the biggest lessons learned she’s gained from painting.
With painting, you need to be able to challenge your own assumptions and biases: white is rarely white. Your brain may tell you something about the colour, the shape, the shading, and yet, it’s completely wrong. Instead, you learn to look at things differently. Sometimes, to free yourself of your own biases, you need to flip it upside down (literally) for a bit.
The same can be true of how how we challenge assumptions and biases at work, or how we reach decisions. By thinking both analytically and creatively, we’re able to reach decisions with an open mind and develop outcomes that are more well-rounded for our organizations.
While Kathleen is not a Senior Art Director, her creativity does help her in her nine to five … and it can help you too!
But how?
Creative thinking allows us to communicate, to think outside the box, and to take risks. As we see the in the video above, there are lots of great benefits to having a creative mind on your team.
Perhaps it’s up to us to be more creative in how we find these minds to join our teams!
