WHY YOU NEED TO BUILD A CREATIVE HEART IN YOUR COMMUNITY

I spoke recently about creativity and talked about human ingenuity, the amazing ability that’s lurking in all of us, waiting as someone, rather graphically described it, “to seep out”. As Ken Robinson so engagingly said it’s there when we are children and they educate it out of us, they take the dancer from our body and instead make it a way of transporting our left brain from meeting to meeting.

We need to be creative in the same way as we need to be alert to danger. Indeed I think I’d argue that creativity is the equivalent of having an agile and effective sword arm in mediaeval times. In a world where so much is changing, where so much is unpredictable,  having our creative nerve pulsing away ready to find a new and a better way of doing things enables us to survive.

But can it do more than merely be a system of defence. My favourite quote is Maurice Saatchi’s “creativity is the last legal way to gain an unfair advantage”. Think about it. Imagine having the ingenuity of finding an unthinkable solution to an unspeakable problem; the imagination to see the problem through a new lens and the balls to try something brave and original. 

Put ten bright people in a room tickle their brains and start thinking positively and something amazing happens, something wonderful seeps out. Yes, creative ideas. The room becomes awash with “what ifs”, “why not’s?” and “yes, we could’s …”

And now the task is to let this permeate and shape the centre of your culture.

Tell people they can be creative.

Get them to talk about creativity and they become creative.

Creativity is infectious.

As the environment around us becomes more complex and competitive we need witty solutions that delight and amuse consumers, customers and clients alike. I know a few people who mistrust creativity and call it just a clever marketing idea. They also dislike jokes and laughter. Some of them are very rich. They don’t much like that either.

Think of one thing you love for its creativity and think about why it’s so great, why you love it and why you aren’t doing things in your life like this too.

Did you know the start button on the new Jaguar beats like a human heart as it waits to be pressed….now that puts creativity and the heart in the same place. It also makes a machine feel human. 

Awesome.