Creativity has without doubt enabled us to become the species we are. And I'm not just talking creativity in terms of fine art, music, performing arts, architecture, and the like. I'm talking about a humbler definition of creativity: the ability to dream a different future and bring ideas to life. When you think of creativity this way, it becomes startingly clear that we all have the ability to be creative, and most of us use that ability every day—whether you're an artist or an accountant.
Creativity is the act of turning imaginative ideas into reality. Therefore, to be creative is to go through two processes: thinking and then producing. The producing part is key. You may have amazing ideas, but if you don't act on those ideas, you're not creating. In other words, imagination isn't the same as creativity; creativity means bringing ideas to life. Again, this doesn't mean you have to produce a museum-worthy piece of art to be deemed creative; producing solutions to a problem by imagining different scenarios is creative. Whatever the outcome, we're talking about bringing something new into the world.
In his book The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, Augustin Fuentes argues that this ability to imagine something and then make it real is what differentiates us from other species—and has driven the evolution of the human race. From creating complex (and beautiful) tools to domesticating plants and animals, creativity has helped us feed ourselves and overcome challenges for hundreds of thousands of years. By seeing the world as it is, imagining how it could be, and then turning those ideas into actions, creativity has allowed our species to shape the world around us. And that is what makes us different.
Thinking of creativity in this way—as a fundamental human skill that we all have, and have had for as long as our species has existed—explodes the notion that creativity is something that only special, “gifted” people have (and are born with). To bust this myth, researchers at Exeter University in the UK studied outstanding performances in the arts, sports, and mathematics to discover whether excellence was determined by innate talent (i.e. from birth). The study concluded that excellence was achieved through a combination of training, motivation, encouragement, opportunities, and, most of all, practice.1 To put it another way, even Mozart had to work his butt off before he created a masterpiece.
So the next time you hear someone say they're not creative, you can gently correct them. Because we all have the ability to create. It isn't a rare gift handed out to a chosen few at birth.
Creativity will be a must-have ingredient for success in the fourth industrial revolution. Let's explore why.
Creativity is often confused with innovation, but they're not strictly the same thing. Innovation is the process of creating value by introducing new goods and services, or improving existing goods and services. But since this isn't possible without creativity, I think it's fair to say that innovation and creativity are inextricably linked. Therefore, anyone who wants to be innovative in their job, or any organization that wants to be innovative, needs to foster creativity.
This is important to recognize because creativity and work aren't always seen as natural bedfellows. Creativity (rightly or wrongly) implies freedom and fun, while work implies, well, work: sitting at a desk or standing on a shop floor, or wherever, for eight hours a day. But creativity absolutely belongs in the workplace. It enables creative thinking (i.e. coming up with new ideas, imagining beyond the status quo), and problem-solving (implementing ideas to fix issues or make things better).
In this way, creativity makes use of skills that are highly attractive in the workplace, including:
Given this connection between creativity and other desirable attributes—not to mention innovation—it's hardly surprising that the World Economic Forum listed creativity as one of the 10 essential skills needed to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution (in any profession or industry, not just creative ones); in fact, creativity ranked third, just behind problem-solving and critical thinking.2
In another report, 58 percent of employers said they expected creativity to grow in importance in the coming years.3 Why? It's because the nature of work itself is changing.
In his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel Pink argues that the sort of left-brain linear thinking that's prized in many of today's workplaces will ultimately be replaced by right-brain skills such as creativity and empathy. These right-brain skills will drive a new age of economic development that Pink refers to as the Conceptual Age (which follows the Information Age, which has been driven by knowledge workers, and the Industrial Age before that, which was driven by factory workers, and the Agriculture Age before that, which was driven by farmers). In Pink's vision, creativity will drive competitive advantage. The future will belong to creative thinkers, he says.
What's behind this bold claim? Quite simply, because the “knowledge work” that has powered economic growth in recent decades is increasingly being done by machines. And as more and more knowledge tasks are automated, human workers will transition into more thoughtful, innovative, creative work.
We think of creativity as a uniquely human skill. But you might be surprised to learn that AI is getting better at stereotypically creative tasks like composing music and writing novels. For example, an AI algorithm created an artwork called Portrait of Edmond de Belamy that was later sold by Christies for a whopping $432,500.4 To create the portrait, the AI was fed a data set of 15,000 portraits spanning six centuries. In another example, choreographer Wayne McGregor used AI to suggest choreography options based on hundreds of hours of video footage of dancers.5
What you'll notice from these examples is that the AI learns from other (human) artists' works and then uses those models to suggest or create new versions. This is certainly impressive, but it doesn't replace, or even equate to, human creativity. An AI can compose a piece of music in the style of Mozart, but it can't come up with a completely new model for composing. Machine creativity relies on human creativity for the underlying models. Therefore, it's humans—not machines—who will continue to drive the creative process and push the boundaries of creativity.
That said, I do believe machines will play a greater role in aiding the creative process, for example, by suggesting new product designs based on parameters and specifications set by a human designer. This is precisely what happened when designer Philippe Starck worked with AI to design a new chair that was unveiled at Milan Design Week.6
This notion of humans working alongside AI to create something new is known as co-creativity, and I believe we'll see a lot more co-creativity in the future. As Professor Marcus du Sautoy, author of The Creativity Code, puts it, the role of AI will be to act as a “catalyst to push our human creativity.” Therefore, creative skills must, in my view, go hand in hand with digital literacy skills (see Chapter 1).
Will machines ever truly be creative, without human intervention? Given that we've barely scratched the surface of what AI is capable of, it's certainly possible. But I believe the biggest potential lies in enhancing the creative work that humans do—whether it's creating an artwork, designing a new product, coming up with a marketing campaign, or solving customers' biggest problems.
I'll move on to boosting your own creative skills next, but first let me briefly discuss the importance of creativity in education. Given that creativity will be a vital skill for success in the future, I believe schools should be placing as much emphasis on artistic subjects as they do on subjects like science and math. I'm a governor at a local school, and I was surprised to find that the school was struggling to attract students to the arts subjects on offer at the school, probably because so much emphasis has been placed on the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects for future success.
Therefore, schools (and parents, for that matter) have much work to do if they're to sell creativity as an important skill. One way to do this, in my opinion, is to highlight the link between creativity and other, more traditional topics, such as technology and math. Technology, for example, is all about coming up with new ideas and solutions.
So instead of talking about the importance of STEM education, we should be talking about STEAM education (the A stands for arts). And yes, I know that creativity isn't just about the arts, but by creating opportunities for young people to be artistic, we lay the groundwork for the types of creative thinking and creative problem-solving that are necessary for success. (This is backed up by one interesting study that showed nearly all Nobel laureates in the sciences practice some form of art as adults, such as painting or singing.7)
It's vital, then, that schools and parents begin selling the importance of creativity, and preparing young people for the kinds of jobs that will exist in the fourth industrial revolution—those right-brain jobs, as Daniel Pink puts it, rather than the left-brain jobs that can be performed easily by intelligent machines.
Bearing in mind that creativity isn't some divine gift handed down at birth, what practical steps can individuals and organizations take to enhance creative skills?
Some of my favorite ways to boost creativity include:
It's vital organizations create an environment in which people feel able to create. Google, for example, has famously told its teams that at least 20 percent of their time should be spent exploring or working on projects that won't pay any immediate dividends—but may lead to bigger opportunities in the future. People are free to spend a fifth of their time working on whatever they think may best benefit Google at some point in the future, while recognizing that this creative time may, ultimately, lead to nothing. The company credits this “20-percent rule” for delivering many of its biggest advances.9
This sounds great, but we have to recognize that it's difficult for people to create when they're bogged down in the minutia of everyday work and life. Science tells us as much. For example, research has shown that primates are more creative when their basic needs for food are taken care of. Conversely, people with low incomes have been shown to perform worse in problem-solving tests when reminded of their financial worries.10 In other words, creativity thrives when the basics are taken care of. So how can you take care of the basics and allow people the space to be creative? In a workplace context, this may mean using technology and automation to cover more of the mundane tasks, thereby freeing up people's time and energy for more valuable work.
Looking at the bigger picture, people need to know it's okay to be creative and take risks, even if that ultimately leads to failure. As part of this, you'll want to build a culture that recognizes and celebrates creativity—which may mean rethinking things like performance management and metrics.
In this chapter we've learned:
Creativity has enabled our species to shape our world, but this wouldn't have been possible without collaboration. After all, bringing ideas to fruition generally requires us to communicate and engage with others, and enlist their help to turn ideas into reality. Therefore, creativity is more of a social process than you might think. Which brings us neatly onto our next vital future skill: collaboration.