Debunking 5 Big Creativity Myths
When I was little, there used to be a constant competition between me and my cousins about scoring high grades in class. The adults at that time associated the word ‘intelligence’ with high grades. An intelligent child was the one who came first in every subject of every class and could do anything. Intelligence was also thought to be linked to creativity. So if I didn’t attain good marks, it meant I was not intelligent and hence not creative.
I had this concept ingrained in my mind. I always thought of myself to be one of those unfortunate ones who aren’t creative and had no idea that it is a skill that can be learnt. It was only when I grew up, went to college and started using my brain that I realised that creativity is not limited to some but extends to each one of us.
According to Cambridge dictionary:
“Creativity is an ability to come up with original ideas or use ideas in a unique manner”.
After realising the fact that I am creative too, I just had to find a way to unleash my creative power. For that, I searched the internet, read a book and came across a masterclass on the stages of the creative process. But before going into further details, I would like to highlight some common myths about creativity.
Here are some myths about creativity:
Myth #1: Only people with high IQ level are creative
It is a common belief that only highly intelligent people can be creative.
The classical definition of intelligence is “the ability to acquire and utilize knowledge”.
Creativity means coming up with ideas based on your existing knowledge to solve a problem. Your ideas don’t necessarily have to be revolutionary.
For you to be creative, you don’t have to have a high intelligence quotient to be able to come up with ideas like Einstein, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs once said:
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.”
Myth #2: Creativity is for artists
People misunderstand creativity for art because when they see intricate or abstract paintings in an art gallery, they become intimidated and confuse the skill of the art to be created. You don’t have to come up with useful ideas to be an artist but to acquire the skill of painting to produce art. As Dave Briss mentions in his book How to get to great ideas:
“But art is only one subset of the far larger world of creativity”
To come up with ideas, you don’t need to be an artist, creativity is for everyone.
“Creativity isn’t about art. We tend to conflate the two because it’s easier to believe every thing outside of art has unbreakable rules”.
Tanner Christensen[August 28, 2016]
Myth #3: You need resources to be creative
If you are running a company then you would need to have a certain amount of resources for the innovative ideas to take a shape but on a personal level, there is no strong relationship between the presence of resources and creativity. In fact, some people tend to be more creative with fewer resources as it pushes them out of their comfort zone.
Teresa M. Amabile in Harvard Business Review says:
“Money doesn’t necessarily stop people from being creative, but in many situations, it doesn’t help.”
Myth #4: Only experts can come up with useful ideas
Companies hire experts for a creative team who are thought to be the only creatives to come up with ideas and innovations for the company making it sound like coming up with unusual ideas is only limited to a few people which is not right.
In today’s modern age, being creative is every individual’s need and it requires coming up with ideas that can help understand a situation at hand and to solve it.
Myth #5: Creativity is inherent
It is not wrong to say that every single one of us is born with creativity within us. So in a way, it is inherent. Only some of us choose to use it wisely while others lose it as they grow up. If we lose creativity then we can learn again to be innovative. And it won’t be something that we have to start from scratch, we just have to find it within us and revive it.
According to Sir Ken Robinson, author of the best selling book, ‘Out of our Minds: Learning to be creative’:
“Everybody has tremendous creative capacities”.
The creative process is a manifestation of an idea that evolves and progresses into its final form through the skilful use of critical thinking and problem-solving.
Stay tuned for the 5 stages of the creative process!
