PurpleLine Consulting

"Creativity takes courage" ~ Matisse

"Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity" ~ T.S. Eliot

"We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops" ~ John Cleese

Recently there was a Colour on the radio feature on Radio 2 - turning the spotlight on visual arts.

I was bemused at first by the idea. How is it possible to explore colour - for which you normally use your eyes, through a medium for which you use your ears? Yet actually you need to be creative to do just that.

It got me thinking about creativity and the benefits of being creative.

As I've got older I have got more and more interested in creativity. I've gone from thinking that I didn't have a creative cell in my body to experimenting with a number of different forms, whether playing around with scissors paper and glue, photography, gardening, writing, dancing or cooking.

The thing about creativity is that there is no failure, only feedback. That's because creativity is the process of bringing something into existence that wasn't there before and that has meaning or value for the creator. There are no definitive answers.

What are the benefits of being creative? Lots - including:

• generating something new
• doing something better
• coming up with a new idea
• achieving a goal
• enjoying yourself!

Discoveries and experimentation necessarily mean you're not going to get it right first time. Do you give yourself space and more importantly permission to do that? And whilst creativity might be encouraged in your work place, how is failure perceived? Does this behaviour sound familiar?

Here are some suggestions for getting creative:

• be curious. Ask lots of questions to generate new ideas, especially in groups.
• seek inspiration from completely different sources. At work for example, look at what different department or industries are doing.
• if you get stuck, get moving. Go for a walk. Take a different route from the one your normally use.
• look for inspiration in the street, in art, in nature. What do you see that you had never noticed before?
• seek out different experience such as reading different types of newspaper, books or magazines. If you normally read about sport, read the arts or business pages.

The more you experiment the more creative you will become - and it becomes easier with practice.

How will you ignite your creativity?