What Does Creativity Really Look Like?

Posted February 1, 2008 by Shingi

Creativity = Chaos

Creativity; what is it and where does it come from? It is creativity that gives rise to
Ideas.

The question is, can it be brought about by some systematic means, some sort of process? Creativity is production, is making things, it is to manufacture and the result is Ideas.

Manufacturing requires raw material. What is the raw material for the manufacture of Ideas?

The answer is…

Experience

But not just passive experience, in the sense of simply being a witness to things happening. I mean active experience, the sort of experience in which one is present, is aware and is “in the moment.” This is not the experience of driving home on the same road at about the same time everyday at approximately the same speed.

This is the experience of going skydiving for the first time or seeing the ocean for the first time.

Creativity is thinking outside the box; but what is the “box”?

The box is Monday morning meetings
The box is brainstorming sessions
The box is “creativity exercises.”
The box is the ordinary, the routine and the commonsensical.

Creativity is extraordinary, creativity is unusual and heterodox.

Creativity arises by taking a collection of experiences and jumbling them together to create new patterns of thought and avenues of exploration.

Creativity is Newton under the apple tree.

Creativity is Chaos.

Therefore creativity is fundamentally at odds with process.

Creativity is the synthesis of the known into the unknown.
So how do you foster creativity? Do things that take you outside your comfort zone, things that force you to acquire new skills and knowledge and things that that create new
Experiences.