Creativity is a Skill

In General | 4 comments | permalink

I recently asked you if you thought creativity was something we are born with? Or can it be taught/learnt?

There were loads of replies, so many thanks to all of you.

Anyway, what is the answer?

The majority of you were right: Creativity is a skill, we are all born with it, and depending on many factors, some of us stop using that skill, others develop it even further.

But can creativity be taught?

Creativity has been successfully taught for decades to a wide variety of people:

… from 3 year old children to 95 year olds

… from Down’s syndrome children to Nobel prize winners

… from illiterate miners in Africa to top Execs in London and New York

The problem is that as we grow older, the school system, parents and a large part of the world around us, rewards routine, stability, logic, reason and control… for many of us, this means that creativity as a skill doesn’t develop further.

This is partly why so many people in the make money online industry look for blueprints and systems in which they can follow (the other reason is laziness).

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that like ANY skill, there will be certain people who are naturally better at it than others, just as there are singers, musicians, golfers etc… but we are all capable of using creativity in life in general and especially in business.

Stay tuned.

Dean

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4 COMMENTS

  • http://www.connexted.com/blog/ Craig Dewe

    Down with routine, stability, logic, reason and control!

    Up with randomness and lack of control…unless it involves a bladder.

    So do you have any exercises people have used to stimulate creativity latter in life when they thought it was already beaten out of them?

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  • http://allenweber.com Allen

    It all depends on how you can free your mind to look at things. If you have it locked up, you can not be creative. If you dare to release it, you get very creative.

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  • http://www.4urworld.com Teresa Caldwell

    I don’t know if creativity can be taught. All I know is that the creativity and artistic ability that me and my kids have we were born with. I believe in genetic memory. My Mother was very artistic and creative, since she was she may have fed our creativitiy as children by giving us crayolas and a blank piece of paper as we also watched her create her works of art. I let my children have paints and t-shirts to paint on when they were young instead of sitting them in front of a television set to keep them occupied. I think it you are born with it, but sometimes it has to be encouraged and also freedom of expression is so important. To stiffle someones creativity, because they may make a mess while creating is Bull Sh*t. Freedom enhances creativity. Let them be and express who they are. In one of my children, his creativity is through working on vehicles and and audio systems. Give them the freedom and opportunities and they will excell…..

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  • http://opensourceinnovation.wordpress.com Innovation Catalyst

    Sorry I missed this the first time around. I blog about creativity frequently. There is a difference between your LEVEL of creativity and your creative STYLE. STYLE can be visualized as a point between two opposite poles – doing BETTER, and doing DIFFERENT. Google ‘Kirton KAI’ and you’ll learn quite a bit about creative style.

    Creative STYLE is innate. Creative SKILLS can be learned. There are many books on the subject. One of the great ones is “Thinkertoys” by Michael Michalko.

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