What Is Creativity? Understanding It Before Putting It to Work
Creativity at work is about generating ideas that create real, usable value, not novelty for its own sake. It's a skill anyone can develop, not just artists or designers. While creativity sparks the idea, innovation is putting it into practice. At work, it usually takes one of four forms: artistic, problem-solving, strategic, or process creativity.
Many people assume that “creativity” is a talent reserved for artists, designers or anyone in a creative role. In reality, creativity is a skill everyone has and can develop further, whether you work in accounting, engineering, marketing or HR. This article looks at what creativity actually means, how it differs from “innovation”, and why it matters for both employees and organisations.
A Simple Definition
Creativity means the ability to look at a problem or situation and come up with new, valuable ideas, perspectives or solutions that can genuinely be put into practice.
In other words, creativity at work isn't measured by novelty alone. It usually needs to come with usefulness too. Many organisations don't consider an idea that's original but impossible to use in practice to be fully creative.
Creativity generally involves:
- Originality: seeing angles others overlook
- Flexibility: adapting your perspective and thinking in different ways
- Fluency: producing a large number of ideas within a limited time
- Usefulness: the idea genuinely solves a problem or creates value
Creativity vs Innovation: What's the Difference?
Many people use these two words interchangeably, but they actually mean quite different things.
| - | Creativity | Innovation |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Coming up with new ideas | Turning ideas into reality |
| Stage | Starts at the idea | Builds on the idea to produce a result, product or service |
| Example | Coming up with an idea to cut down a work process | Turning that idea into a system the whole organisation can actually use |
To put it simply, creativity is the starting point and innovation is the destination. An organisation that only generates ideas without acting on them can't yet be called an innovative organisation.
Types of Creativity
Creativity isn't just one thing, and it doesn't always have to be about art or design. It's generally grouped into several types, such as:
- Artistic creativity: design, storytelling, visual creation
- Problem-solving creativity: finding new solutions to stuck problems, such as cutting costs or reducing time spent
- Strategic creativity: identifying new business opportunities or business models
- Process creativity: designing more efficient ways of working
This shows that people in any role can express creativity in their own way.
Why Everyone Can Be Creative, Not Just “The Talented Few”
A large body of research in the psychology of creativity points to the same conclusion: creativity isn't purely an innate trait. It's a skill that can be trained and developed through:
- Exposure to new experiences and perspectives
- Practising questioning things you once assumed “had to be done this way
- An environment that allows trial and error without judgement
- Consistent practice, such as through workshops or dedicated skill-building tools
This is why forward-thinking organisations are now starting to systematically “measure” and “develop” employees' creativity, rather than leaving it to chance or individual talent.
In Summary
Creativity is the ability to think of something new that creates real value. It's a skill everyone can develop, and it forms an important foundation before an organisation can reach the stage of “innovation”. In the next article, we'll look more closely at why creativity matters, both for individual employees and for the organisation as a whole.
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