Creativity is one of the most demanded personality traits in the realities of the modern world. However, it is worth noting that despite the fact that the word “creativity” itself has become a fairly dense part of our everyday life, most people will not be able to explain what it characterizes. Let’s take a look at what creativity is, what it consists of and how to develop it.
What is creativity?
Creativity is the ability of a person to go beyond the boundaries and frameworks of traditional ideas, rules and patterns, which allows creating new unique ideas, methods, forms of interpretation, etc. Also, creativity implies a progressive approach, imagination and originality. The term comes from the English “creativity”, which translates as “creation”.
Creativity combines 2 characteristics – intelligence + imagination. Intelligence allows a person to think, work with information , analyze cause-and-effect relationships, and form conclusions based on the information received. Through imagination, you can go beyond the familiar tools and patterns that are usually used by a person in the course of his activities. Also, imagination allows you to get rid of the most common stereotypes, discover innovative ways of solving problems.
A creative person is someone whose out-of-the-box thinking, as well as the ability to evaluate an object from different points of view, allows you to find a unique and unexpected solution to problems that arise , which other people would not even think of. This category includes people who are innovators and revolutionaries, whose courageous activity allows them to discover new horizons and go beyond the boundaries of standard thinking. Such people are the main engine of progress.
The main ingredients of creativity
The main components of creativity were formulated and characterized by the famous American psychologist and researcher of creativity Ellis Paul Torrance. He identified 5 main components, using which you can determine the degree of creativity of a particular person.
- Fluency is the ability of a person to come up with a large number of ideas in short periods of time. A person who has really developed this skill is able to come up with more than 20 original ways of using an object, for example, a pencil, within a minute.
- Flexibility is the ability to take a versatile approach to solving an arising problem, as well as to use a variety of algorithms and ways to solve it. Thanks to flexibility, a person has the ability to quite quickly determine connections with various phenomena, highlight patterns, and also find common parts in seemingly incompatible objects.
- Originality is a person’s skill to generate unique, non-standard or completely unexpected ideas, as well as to deviate from the generally accepted pattern. Originality allows a person to overcome any emergency situations.
- Elaboration – the ability to complement and develop all formed unique ideas. A similar trait is characteristic of various engineers and designers.
- Closure resistance is a skill due to which a person always remains open to the perception of new information. This allows you not to get stuck on one of the sides of the object, but to choose exactly the solution that seems most suitable. This trait of character and personality contributes to the constant expansion of horizons, as well as the accumulation of useful information.
Examples of creativity
Let’s take a look at some amazing, yet revealing examples of creativity:
How Nike solved the theft problem
When Nike began to expand and establish production around the world, some factories opened in rather poor countries. Such activities began to bring huge losses, since the high level of theft of finished products by workers did not allow the process to be established. The highest level of theft was manifested in the countries of Africa and Asia, where there was the lowest standard of living.
It is worth noting that in these countries the cost of one pair of sneakers was comparable to the annual income of workers, which is why they were eager to take the finished product for themselves. As a result, all the villagers began to walk in Nike sneakers. Any attempts to hire or reinforce guards were unsuccessful as the guards also loved Nike products. The problem was also in the fact that in such a situation, the expenses for the maintenance of all the representatives of the guards increased significantly.
The entire Nike general staff has been racking their brains over a long period of time trying to come up with a solution to this problem. And they found it thanks to their creative collaborator. He proposed to divide the production of right and left sneakers into different factories: one factory made only the left sneaker, and the second factory made only the right one, and these factories were far from each other. This led to the fact that the locals did not have any sense in stealing – do not they walk in the same sneaker?
How Sears Roebuck Increased Directory Sales
The situation with Sears Roebuck over 100 years ago is also extremely interesting. At that time, the company was engaged in the release of catalogs for the sale of goods by mail, but at one point, sales fell seriously due to a competitor.
One of the specialists came up with a brilliant idea – to start making catalogs in smaller sizes. This approach led to the fact that they began to be placed on the store shelves on top, as the smallest ones, and more bulky samples from competitors were placed on the bottom. Sales went up and competitors went bankrupt.
Differences between creativity and creativity
If you do not go into deep meaning, then creativity is a special type of activity, and creativity is a predisposition to this type of activity. It is worth noting here that this is not only natural abilities and a desire to create, but also a set of personality traits, psyche and character, which provide maximum activity and purposefulness of a person, as well as ensure his decisiveness.
Thus, not all people who have a high creative potential can be called creative. Only those people are creative who are active enough to translate their own ideas into reality. Also, an extremely important factor can be called not only the ability to generate ideas, but also the ability to translate them into reality.
The benefits of creativity
In the event that you recognize your creativity and finally decide to become a creative person, then your life will be significantly transformed, since creativity will allow you to completely reconsider your views in life and experience more positive emotions.
In life, creativity can help:
- express new ideas;
- identify ideas worthy of implementation;
- choose the optimal learning environment;
- learn to express thoughts clearly and correctly;
- solve your problems thanks to original solutions;
- become more self-confident regardless of the type of activity.
- to increase the efficiency of cooperation with other people;
- determine what advice is worth listening to, whose criticism to listen to;
- increase your own initiative and success;
- follow your heart and make your dreams come true.
How to develop creativity?
There are 5 simple tips to help you take your first steps in developing creativity:
1. Develop a positive attitude towards the problem solving process
The process of finding a solution is extremely inspiring from the point of view of a creative person, so if you want to become one of them, then you must love to deal with certain problems that require you to find an appropriate solution and a way out of the situation. As you face new problems and find solutions, you will become more and more creative.
2. Try to find not one, but several ways out of any situation
Always try to come up with several solutions to a problem, even if the first one that comes to mind seems to be the most appropriate. What if you still managed to come up with something better? Don’t limit yourself.
3. Broaden your horizons
Depending on how much you know, you can find suitable solutions, since they do not come out of nowhere, but are part of your knowledge. Develop versatile – communicate more with people, attend trainings, seminars, train yourself to read books.
4. Get creative with your daily routine
Be creative and inventive in everything you do, even if it seems boring and repetitive. What if there is a better and faster way to accomplish them? Never stop.
5. Learn to see the unusual even in the ordinary
Try to notice something unique even in the objects you are familiar with. This will allow you to discover many new unique solutions and opportunities.
Conclusion
Creativity is not only talent and the ability to create new ideas, but also a habit. Without constant training, you cannot become a truly creative person, therefore this skill needs to be constantly developed.
