If I told you I had created a cake, would you expect to be able to eat the cake?
Of course you would, because the word created literally means “to bring something into being; to cause something to become real in the world; to make something happen”.
It does not mean “to have an idea, to think up something or to think about how something might happen.”
Therefor, if I told you I “created” a cake, you have every right to expect to see a cake on the bench.
The word creative originally meant “possessing the power to create”, ie: possesing the power to get something done. Lately however, it’s come to mean “possessing the power to think things up”.
Regularly (enough for me to blog about it) I have people say to me “My problem is I never finish things because I’m too creative”.
I’ve also had people say to me “I’m not very creative, but I’m very good at getting things done.”
This tells me we have lost our way, when it comes to understanding what it means to be “creative”.
We’ve bought into the myth that what’s going on in someones head has value in the real world; It doesn’t.
Thinking about murdering someone doesn’t make you a murderer. Thinking about having a date with Pippa Middleton doesn’t make you prince charming. Thinking about a business idea, a product or a new service doesn’t make you a “creative”.
What makes you creative is your ability to bring it into the world in a way that other people can understand and value.
As long as it’s in your head, you haven’t created anything yet. You MUST get it out into the real world in a way that shows up as valuable.
We need to use the word “imaginative” for people who have a lot of ideas. Imaginative people love to dream things up but the word does not imply they have brought their ideas into the world.
I think we’ve diminished the value of what it really takes to be creative. Being creative isn’t easy, you need to imagine AN idea, decide upon it as THE idea and then do everything required to bring it into the world.
The process normally takes months or years to get a single creation completed. It’s blood, sweat, tears, risk and sacrifice. For that reason we should separate the dreamers from the doers and give more credit to the people who are truly creating things.
Ian Lynch
July 20, 2011
I think there is an implicit “original” that goes with creative. Bringing something original or new to the world rather than follow a sequence of instructions to do it. You can be original and creative in the abstract as Einstein was with Special Relativity. Enterprise could be defined as bringing new ideas to have impact on people. That involves original thought, and its communication in such a way that there is some measurable change in the way people behave.
Maggie Langley (@OfficeHounds)
October 11, 2011
Daniel – I love your writing. Business people who strongly define themselves as ‘creative’ are fooling themselves if they think that there are tasks that are beneath them because they’re ‘creatives’. I went to a meeting where some ‘creatives’ tried to show me a bunch of pictures they had printed off the internet and laid out on a table in a sequence. They tried to claim that this was their design vision. I politely listened as they tried to BS there way through what these images represented. (I remember asking, ‘so what does that cartoon frog have to do with my website?’) At this stage, they had still not created anything new. They claimed they were being creative, but it was just a pretentious way of communicating they hadn’t created any work on my project yet. Needless to say, they didn’t win my work! Now, if they had genuinely used those images to inspire their own sketches, it would have been a different story completely.
Hi Ian
I like your definition of enterprise, but do ideas really need to be new for them to be enterprising? For example, a window washer can be classed as enterprising because of the way the business is managed. Nothing new about window washing, but there could be something unique about the way he manages his business. Maybe he gives every customer a prism to hang in their window. Would that be enterprising? He’s still just washing windows, but he’s helping his customers to enjoy the light coming through those windows even more.
Do you think that you can be creative without being original?
Personally, I feel that there’s always some sequence that leads people to create anything. There might not be any instructions or precedence to that particular sequence, and that particular sequence is unlikely to have ever been followed in that exact same way making the sequence leading to the creation original and unique. That’s what makes creating exciting. You don’t have to idolise white spaces and make up a bunch of BS about the process behind your creative work to be creative.
(Hope you don’t mind my shameless link to my website. I’m always looking to create a little opportunity for my business.)
http://www.socialmediavirtualassistant.co.uk
alla tkachuk
May 31, 2012
Yes, creativity is muddled indeed.
Daniel, I do like your opinions too. Your idea Key Person Of Influence is fresh and clear. I also like your Idea Economy notion and would lie to read more about it. Have you elaborated on the topic?
Your suggestion to use the word “imaginative” for people who have a lot of ideas is valuable. To create literally means to bring something into being. However, to think up of an idea – it is also to bringing something to the world. It might be personal or inner-world; the business world is not the one of a value.
I do share though your frustration that people often separate creativity and action. I agree that we’ve diminished the value of what it really takes to be creative. Very oftern creativity is immediately associated with ‘the arts’ and its meaningles prettyness or ‘madness’.
I like the word ‘creative thinking’ instead of ‘creative’. The most of our thinking is recognition or description thinking though. Creative thinking is action thinking. Thrully creative people usually get inspired by their big ideas and thus motivated into action constantly guided by the strong vision of their ideas reaised. If they don’t act on their ideas, it might mean the ideas are not clear in vision yet.
thanks
Creativity-Gym