DO WE KNOW WHAT CREATIVITY IS?
The concept of creativity is in our minds, however, most of the time it is not well defined. We use it often, but it is a relatively new concept. Perhaps because of the romantic idea that has always been associated with it.
It has had changes from “the myth of creativity” (something one is born with) to a “theory of creativity” (it can be acquired), the dimensions where creativity is applied (person, process, product, environment), etc. And, a fundamental moment when in 1980 Teresa M. Amabile developed a model of the success of creative resolution with knowing the area added to the creative thinking process and something capital: the purpose.
Today, we know that All humans possess creativity, which provides progress to humanityand that generates changes in people’s brains, in their relationship with the world, with others and with themselves.
“Creativity is also driven by having a sense of purpose, of wanting to be better at something and having the freedom to work flexibly. That’s why, naturally demands and creates a bridge between the humanities and the sciences”, say researchers Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci of the University of Rochester.
DO WE KNOW WHAT LEADERSHIP IS?
This concept, of course, makes us return to ancient Greece, where some Philosophers wondered what made one individual a leader and another not.. In the beginning they saw the idea of leadership as “authority” within the home. Starting in 1960, it went from being related to power, strength, analytical skills, etc. (the leader had to achieve an objective through other people), to a concept of the leader understanding the motivations of each person and making them participate by aligning their objectives to the purpose. of the group.
During the 19th century, another idea (born or made) changed from the concept that an individual was born a leader to considering leadership a skill that can be worked on. The latest theories have highlighted three leadership skills: authenticity, empathy and adaptabilityimpacting their results by 27%.
CREATIVITY AND LEADERSHIP
We also hear that the world is changing faster and faster, that problems are more complex and transversal in areas, countries, sectors… To solve these great challenges, skills such as problem solving, exponential thinking or innovation make more sense than ever. . And, of course, the business world, this is already known. Especially when The “being” of a company and its monetization involve solving problems or meeting needs.
We began to be able to talk regarding creative leadership: “Creative leadership is the ability to create and implement innovative solutions, especially in the face of structurally complex or changing situations. It refers to those people who, when everything is changing and the new approaches that need to be taken to solve situations are not yet known, these people can still create clarity of purpose for their teams. These are leaders seeking to navigate – and even benefit from – the unpredictability around them. Not only for the organization or for themselves, but also, generally, for society, the ecology of the planet,” say M. Vernooij and R. Wolfe in The need for creative leadership. What is it and why is it important?
We have been doing creative leadership since the beginning of our times, in our daily lives when we solve new challenges and in ways that no one had told us regarding. Now we know that This leadership is also triggered by the search to improve societies and knowledge., and that when leaders foster a creative environment, group creativity increases. And they are the skills that people seem to lack the most.
WHY WOULD IT BE?
To answer this question we have to mix art and the humanities, education, creativity, science and technology and, of course, purpose. Logically, the easiest way to have creative adults is to educate creative boys and girls. According to a NASA study, 98% of children at 5 years old are already creative geniuses, but only 2% of adults are creative geniuses at 30 years old. This means that there is something in education, life and work that causes people to decrease their creativity.
In this regard, it is demonstrated that “Fear of failure” is one of the biggest blockers of creativity. One example is at Johns Hopkins University, where musicians’ brains were scanned while they improvised. In doing so, the brains turned off their error checkers and let the ideas come to the surface. The arts allow us to develop different creative skills, new ways of looking at situations, envisioning multiple solutions to the same thing. And they allow us to see complex situations and problems, not with fear, but as a great puzzle to solve.
Another fundamental factor of the arts is the ability to observe. According to the Association of Psychological Science, just looking at art can have an impact on our creativity, especially if it is deliberate (seeking to understand why a song or painting is the way it is) and if variety is observed (various styles). They are also beginning to be linked to the development of empathy, with a correlation, according to Greene et al., between andBeing exposed to the arts will improve empathy and tolerance. At the same time, in business/health it has proven to have an impact by reducing burn outs and increase employee retention.
One of the latest proposals in education deals with change from being “consumers of education” to “active creators” to generate these creative adults.
TECHNOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
It is easy to make a relationship between the arts and creativity. But what regarding science and technology? “The best scientists are artists too,” as Albert Einstein said.
Compartmentalized education and general culture have made us think that science and the arts have nothing to do with each other. However, multiple scientists have criticized it, such as Snow (1961), saying that the separation between sciences and humanities was detrimental to the success and future of the country, since many groundbreaking advances came from the mixture of humanities and sciences. Or studies where different types of creativity were measured in artists and scientists, concluding that their separation had no basis and that talented scientists and artists had something in common; his brain worked in a similar way when it came to “associating” ideas (today called “connecting the dots”).
Fortunately, this relationship between the two worlds is growing internationally, valuing the great humanistic questions, not only as useful in philosophy, but as a basis for how we should build the world and the organizations of the future. redirecting attention from processes, methods and machines to what is important to people.
SO DOES CREATIVITY HAVE A PURPOSE?
Rather, purpose is the driving force of creativity. The purpose does not have to be a great challenge to solve throughout a lifetime (as we might imagine thanks to literature, adventures and movies), Creativity can be motivated by small purposes that we want to resolve in our day. in favor of a better lifestyle, greater well-being, etc.
We all have creativity that we use to solve our daily challenges (problem solving) in the way we can, where we are more creative than we think. But, there is another area in which we practice it enormously: according to studies of highly creative people, They all liked what they did and enjoyed the creation process (not just the result obtained).
Today, we also know that to keep people creative, “prizes” work in the short term, but maintaining creativity over time has to be linked to a greater purpose that gives meaning to those who are already making their lives.
“The best creativity comes from the desire to contribute to the lives of others, whether it be introducing something new that improves the quality of their lives or showing people that something thought impossible is in fact possible. When you change people’s perceptions of what can be achieved or achieved, you contribute to their humanity in the richest way possible. You give them hope for the future,” says entrepreneurship expert Dan Pallotta in Harvard Business Review.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MOST TECHNOLOGICAL BUSINESSES?
Do words like creativity and purpose make sense there? It is precisely exponential technology and the urgency of capitalism that makes the world so rapidly changing. Consumers being people, and those who are going to use technology to work in business as well, It makes sense to think that yes, they need creativity and purpose behind them.
They need them to create, to adapt to a changing world, to rethink new solutions, to see how people can use these technologies to benefit the companyor how to motivate these profiles so that they do not go to the competition with all the knowledge acquired.
In this regard, it was Adobe who conducted a study trying to see how creativity affected the business, He called it “the creative dividend” and it was seen that it had a direct impact on the income statement.. McKinsey saw a winning combination in 2021 with the “creativity, analytics and purpose” triplet, implying twice the growth of organizations that did not invest in these three.
From a creative industries perspective, perhaps a more positive one, we have another way of doing things in the business world. “The creative industries are perhaps leading the way in exploring how The richness of the human condition can make invaluable contributions to new forms of business models and new modes of business thinking,” say Danah Henriksen and Punya Mishra in the book Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business.
TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERS
Being able to see the world with new “glasses” has allowed humanity to evolve thanks to changing the way of looking and, therefore, of doing things. In his 1991 book Other people’s tardes, Primo Levi stated: “I have traveled as a loner and have followed a winding path, forming a random culture full of gaps in some knowledge. In reward, I have enjoyed looking at the world from unusual angles, inventing, so to speak, the methods; examining matters of technique with the gaze of a writer and of literature with the gaze of a technician.”
In the technology sector, a third of the directors of Fortune 500 They have graduated in liberal arts degrees. In the book The Fuzzy and the techie by Scott Hartley values himself the ability of people in the arts and humanities to identify “why” “You need a solution and to work with a technician who knows “how” to build it.”
Media Alpha CEO Steve Yi, who trained in Asian Studies at Harvard, said: the liberal arts train students to thrive on subjectivity and ambiguitya necessary skill in the technological world where few things are black or white.
HOW TO BUILD OUR WORLD?
The humanities have been a fundamental part of “good” education since the first Universities were created. Today, in a world that is so uncertain, changing, with complex, transversal, global and digital problems, It is more urgent than ever to put the humanities at the center.
Being creativity, along with other humanistic characteristics, something fundamental for new technological leaders, organizations and people, We find ourselves in a world where these skills are not worked on through education., where they are blocked by the fear of failure, the sealed compartments of the subjects and passivity instead of activity in learning. At the same time, it is interesting to see how a high number of technological leaders do possess and demand these skills, most of them coming from humanities and artistic fields.
If, as humanity, we want to be able to decide what our future will be and build it so that it is so, The great humanistic questions “why” and “what for” must be placed at the center of technological developments and business. This being tremendously complex, in a demanding and changing context, we must put our hope in education and leadership, not only for companies but also at the individual level in which each person lives their life and perhaps, the arts, can help us achieve it.
*Carlota Corzo Álvarez is co-founder and CEO of Lázzaro, patron of the Youth Business Spain Foundation, expert in digital transformation of Los 100 de Cotec and multidisciplinary artist.
