CREATIVITY
Creativity is experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking the rules, making mistakes, and, most importantly, having fun.
Creativity is something that differs from one person to another. No two people can have the same level or type of creativity.
If I can put it into simple words, then creativity is the ability of a person or group through the use of imagination or original ideas to create something valuable, useful, and new.
Creativity is a two-step process –
- Thinking
- Taking action
If you have ideas, but you can’t implement them, then you are imaginative but nor creative.
CREATIVITY VS KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT?
When we talk about creativity and knowledge, both play an essential role, but in today’s era, knowledge is the information that is available to each of us with just a click. Anyone can get access to knowledge, but creativity is using the existing knowledge to come up with some new results and solutions.
Knowledge, no doubt, has a vital role to play without knowledge; creativity does not have any substance to work. Creativity puts together the already available knowledge and then generates new results.
You all can relate to this; in school, there are two types of students: one who does every question from the book, he mugs up everything but does not try to understand it, and another who just does some questions but understands every method and reasoning behind the problem.
Now in the exam, if some questions came out of the book, then the first person might not be able to do it and panic, but the other student would solve every problem.
WAYS TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT ENCOURAGES CREATIVITY
- Praise them for their work
The productivity and dedication of a person increase when his hard work is valued.
For instance, take a scenario of a company where the boss praises his staff for their hard work there, the people would try to come up with new ideas and innovations.
- Know their interest
Every person is different; people come from different backgrounds, different surroundings, have different skills, and like to get involved in a variety of activities according to their interests.
When you allow them to get involved in the work which interests them, it is very natural that they will be able to produce more creative work.
- Encourage teamwork
As already discussed above, no person has the same level of creativity. Every person has a different mindset and a distinct personality.
When people work together in a team, they generate more creative ideas together. Each person will have their opinion, and then through teamwork and cross-pollination of ideas, they will finally get something very creative to work.
- Ask them to communicate
A person who fails to deliver fails to learn. Teach them the value of getting involved in communication with others. Give them a space where they have the freedom to speak what they think is right or wrong according to their intuitions and mindset. This process will also make them an honest person.
- It is okay to take risk
The biggest fear of people is to take risks, they fear that they might lose everything or things may go haywire. But you can go in and around the world and read about the successful people they all have taken many risks to be at a position in which they are now.
Taking risks is an essential part of encouraging creativity among people and pushing them to think something out of the box.
- Promote innovations
Sometimes people come up with great ideas and even can implement them in a significant way, but they never get any credit for their hard work, and this makes them lose hope, and they are not able to give their best.
Always give them credit or show them the result of their innovations so that they keep on working with the same level of dedication and hard work to create something new.
Take, For example, chefs who are daily involved in making something new through their creativity get to see how their customers are enjoying dishes made by them. This will give them a boost, and they will try to prepare more and innovative new meals.
- Importance of learning and teaching
Some people think that they know everything and so they are never involved in learning anything and neither in sharing their knowledge. Then some people know less, but through the constant process of sharing ideas, learning from people, and also teaching them can improve his understanding.Always try to make them understand the importance of learning from their surroundings and helping people as and when required.Encourage them to learn new skills and techniques from every person or activity they can. This process will also help their mind to keep thinking and developing new ideas.
