The need for more creativity has been drilled into the head of business owners for years now. Becoming more creative can be difficult, especially if you haven’t been trained in “how to be creative”. In Your Creative Element: The Formula for Creative Success in Business provides a recipe of tools and strategies that any business, whether it is in a”creative” industry or not, can use to add a little more creative thinking to its workplace. Using the latest scientific research, In Your Creative Element offers a look at the art and science of creativity applied to business.
What is In Your Creative Element About?
Engineering creativity in your workplace begins with you, the potential reader. Everyone, as In Your Creative Element shares, has the capacity to be creative. The problem is our education squashes the “creative bug” rather early for most of us. As a result, we assume that creativity is for “creative people” who still have the “creative bug” in them alive and kicking. We tend to marvel at the products these “creative” people create, but we fail to consider how they do it.
The grown-up world of work isn’t a big help to creativity, either. We’re often funneled into clearly organized and siloed work departments, work under tight deadlines, and face cultural influences (like maintaining the status quo) that keep us from going “too far out of the lines”. This certainly isn’t a recipe for creative thinking. It’s the blueprint for an unmotivated robot.
Integrating creativity into the workplace requires undoing all of the mental and cultural barriers in today’s business environment. This is something that In Your Creative Element is uniquely qualified to address. The book details both the art and science of creativity in the brain, whether you are looking to address external barriers, mental barriers or a combination of external and mental barriers to creativity. Using the book’s tools, readers can craft their own set of strategies to integrate more creative thinking into their workplace at whatever level makes them comfortable. Readers can then return to the book, as needed, to integrate even more creative thinking into the workplace.
Author Claire Bridges is the founder and Chief Spark of Now Go Create. A trainer, speaker, consultant, and judge, Bridges started Now Go Create after a 20-year background in PR working for big-name brands including Starbucks, Kellogg’s, and Unilever. She has a Master of Science in Innovation, Creativity, and Description, one of only 55 people to hold that degree.
What Was Best About In Your Creative Element?
In Your Creative Element does an excellent job at matching the art of creativity with the science (particularly neuroscience) of what makes people creative. Bridges’ book illustrates the creative brain is not a special gift reserved only for “creative people”. While everyone has genetic tendencies and/or environments that facilitate creative thinking, the book reinforces, every person can improve their ability to think creatively. For those readers ready to take that next step into creative thinking, the book provides a plethora of tools and strategies to select and customize.
What Could Have Been Done Differently?
In Your Creative Element does an excellent job at matching art with science but more attention needs to be applied to the creative process of more specific business applications. The book approaches the topic of creative thinking from various angles (convergent thinking, design thinking, incubation, creative briefs, etc.) but these topics are presented briefly without detailed case studies showing businesses from a wide variety of industries using the book’s method. Information, particularly on the challenges these businesses face or would face while trying to be more creative would be especially helpful.
Why Read In Your Creative Element?
In Your Creative Element offers value for both individuals and businesses seeking to be more creative. For individuals, the book offers a peek into the art and science of creativity from an individual’s perspective, something that is rarely done in a book on creativity. This reinforces the book’s claim that anyone can integrate more creative thinking into their lives. For businesses, the focus should be on content that starts after Chapter 5, where the author delves into creativity on a larger scale than the individual. The book provides an assortment of tools for conducting potential creative experiments in a business.
This article, “In Your Creative Element Reveals the Formula for … Well, Creativity!” was first published on Small Business Trends