In Search of Creativity

In the Developing Your Creative Leadership Capabilities programme which the Creative Leadership Forum offers, we always commence the day with a group dialogue based around the question "What is the most creative thing you have done in your life and how did it affect you?"

The conversations that evolve out of this question never cease to amaze me, no matter how many times I have conducted this session. Relationships are re-defined by these conversations. People who have worked side by side for decades suddenly discover new things about the person next door they would have never imagined. People begin to see that creativity manifests itself in many guises instead of just the stereotypical view of the creative person as the "arty" type.

Mary Katherine Bateson, writer and cultural anthropologist and Emeritus Professor, Anthropology and English at George Washington University observes this phenomenon when she proposes creativity exists in two forms - one inhabited by the muses, the artists of the world. The other form of creativity is the everyday activity of creative problem solving and that according to Bateson is how civilization has advanced.

The results of the Creative Leadership Forum's national research project entitled, "Is Australian management creative and innovative"? taken from a sample of 331 responses across a generic sample of 30,000 Australian workers confirms her thought. None of the people surveyed defined their profession as artist, yet:

70% agreed with the statement "People say I am creative."

88% agreed with the statement "I am creative" And only 1% disagreed.

79% agreed with the statement "I recognize when I am being creative."

Regardless of these statistics, the reality is that the popular myth of creativity as the repository of the artists is alive and well!!

I know, because when I ask the question face to face, "Do you think you are creative?" in any organisational context, or for that matter in any context, 9 times out of 10 the response I receive is "No".

So herein lies a business tension. If people find it difficult to discuss creativity, how can an organisation authentically consider the concept of innovation as part of its core values or culture? Innovation can't exist without creativity.

Creativity in all its guises seems to simmer just below the surface, constantly craving recognition and an outlet. Yet, generally, organisations simply do not allow the space for it to surface, or encourage creative discussion in any meaningful way as part of our working life.

So it is with some delight that I'd like to make the most of the opportunity Creativity Matters provides for people to get together and have those sorts of creative discussions which are largely absent from the workplace. Let's see if we can understand what creativity is, how it might affect us personally, and how we might translate it into an organisational context?

• What's the most creative thing you have done in your life and how did it affect you?