Is Creativity on the Decline?
In researching a recent presentation to our local marketing association, we found some disturbing research that our collective abilities to be creative are in a freefall. But how can this be? We wanted to find out.
During the conversation with the group, we landed on some common struggles and clear signs that all hope is not lost.
Three Barriers to Creativity
- Overscheduling/Lack of downtime. Notably, having time when our brains are not engaged in consuming live or recorded content is an important barrier to creative thoughts. We’ve all heard that the best ideas can come in unexpected places when our minds can wander. Our brains are natural pattern recognizers; when left alone, they work on our behalf.
- Irregularity/Infrequent Practice. Just like most skills, practice is the key. Whether you consider yourself to be creative or not, we know that humans are born with the ability to create novel solutions to challenges, questions, or problems and without regular “exercise” this skill with wane. It’s important to make creativity a regular occurrence. Related to this, we learned that people become less creative as they age, suggesting that we unlearn rather than learn creativity skills.
- Safety. Although this is obvious, if people fear their ideas will be criticized, discarded, or ridiculed, they will keep ideas to themselves. Not only is this harmful to culture, but the omission of their ideas prevents others from hearing and being inspired by them leading to a big dip in possibilities.
Some of the articles we referenced are below if you want to dig deeper. Remember that EVERYONE is creative and that in the words of Maya Angelou,
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Related resources
- Why Creativity Is Tanking https://eastermichael.medium.com/why-creativity-is-tanking-c20029d8fa2a
- Research Suggests We’re All Getting Less Creative and Scientists Think They Know Why: Scores on standard tests of creativity have been declining for decades. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/creativity-crisis-torrance-test.html
- What is Creativity, and Why Do You Need it? https://www.cornerstone.edu/blog-post/what-is-creativity-and-why-do-you-need-it/
- Can Creativity be Taught? Here’s What the Research Says (References the George Land Study) https://www.creativityatwork.com/can-creativity-be-taught/
- A Harvard Researcher Invented a Fun 4-Minute Test That Can Tell You How Creative You Are: It’s just as accurate as more time-consuming assessments but way more fun. Try it yourself. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/harvard-researcher-creative-test-dat.html
- (The 4-min Creativity Test) The Divergent Association Task measures verbal creativity in under 4 minutes. https://www.datcreativity.com/
Podcasts/Videos/Notes on Creativity
Ten Percent Happier
- Rick Rubin on The Creative Life Blog: When you throw out a word like creativity, many people immediately assume they are left out of the conversation … and related podcast
- Gretchen Rubin on How to use your five senses to reduce anxiety, increase creativity, an improve your relationships
Hidden Brain
We Can Do Hard Things
Ted Talks
- The Failure of Success — info on creativity from kids to adults starts at 6:30m.
Creativity Bingo PDF
Have questions about an idea or want to team up on a creative project? Contact us or set up a consultation with our team.
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