Creativity gets a bad rap in the business world. Some see it as arts and crafts. They think it encourages employees to goof off. It’s silly and it doesn’t contribute to the bottom line.

They assume creativity is for artists, not businesspeople.

This mentality misses a few key points.

Everyone is Creative

(Don’t tell this to artists. They like to feel special.) When I say everyone is creative, I don’t mean we all should be wearing berets and making oil paintings of lily ponds. I mean it in the sense that we are all meant to create; whether creating something practically from nothing, or combining two things to create a third, new thing. Even highly analytical people exhibit creativity, it just looks more like invention than artistry. Once you see creativity as more than something that fills the art museum galleries, then you can easily recognize its value in business.

Creativity Fuels a Critical Businesses Need

But, creativity isn’t just valuable to businesses, it is critical. Why is this? Because, creativity fuels change, and there’s never been greater need for change than there is today. The rate of change in technology, markets, trends, and more continues to accelerate, and puts pressure on businesses to adjust so they meet those changes. New businesses naturally encounter change as they have to learn and evolve to survive. Established businesses need to embrace change so they can innovate and stay ahead of market disruption.

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
–General Eric Shinseki, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff

This necessary change won’t happen without someone seeing the need for change, recognizing what needs to change, and envisioning what it should change into. These are creative skills, and the business leaders are cultivating these creative skills are also preparing their organizations to evolve and grow so they meet new challenges, survive and thrive as the business landscape around them changes.

Where Did All the Dinosaurs Go?

Look around and you won’t see any dinosaurs. They probably thought creativity was a silly excuse to goof off. Now they’re reduced to bones displayed in museums, which may be more than what will remain of businesses that believe the same.

If that’s a depressing thought, maybe this book will cheer you up.