The Creative Advantage Lifecycle

Enhance your creativity throughout all stages of your life

Maria Simonelli

• Publisher: Maria Simonelli
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780648939641
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Decision Making
• Index: Psychology

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Creativity is the most important asset we have to negotiate through this rapidly changing world.

From the way we manage our work life and conduct business, to how we learn a new skill, model behaviours for our children and shape the way we age to express our unique selves, the creative brain has no limits.

By broadening the applicability of creativity and recognising how it can elevate us both personally and professionally, we can start to realise the enormous reach we can have as parents, leaders, educators and in everyday life. We can establish the foundations of the creative advantage.

As leaders we can have more impact as we learn the skills of effective and creative leadership to enable us to manage the challenges faced by our workplace teams, organisations and the society at large.

As educators and parents, we’re discovering the role creativity plays in development and learning, with educational psychologists identifying that the creative process underpins classroom learning as well as critical informal learning from speaking our first language to engaging in group play.¹

As maturing adults we can tap into positive peak experiences, the ‘flow’ that contributes to happy, healthy and fulfilling lives, as well as face everyday problems that require creative responses.

We must nurture and take advantage of our own individual creative abilities if we’re to solve the pressing problems facing our world. This ultimately is the objective of this book, to lay out the science behind the apparent mystery of creativity, to not only appreciate our creative potential but to give us all the motivation and the tools to obtain a creative advantage in all aspects of life.

Neuroscience points to the growing understanding that while most of us may be born with more or less the same brain, our capacity to use it can be strengthened throughout our life by the way we strengthen our creative abilities.

While The Creative Advantage draws on many studies, it notes the important foundation led by Harvard Professor Teresa Amabile, whose work by her team over many years has had a profound impact on the way the topic has been understood, particularly in workplace culture.

What we’ll learn from their work is that there are four key elements to achieve creativity. Three of these are internal to us and we have the direct ability to enhance these:

	Intrinsic motivation – our willingness to engage, our mindset and desire to work with challenges
	Domain relevant skills defined by subject-area expertise to draw upon as we progress through a creative process
	Creative process skills and behaviours – while these may vary depending on our personality, they’re all conducive to problem-solving.

The fourth element that exists outside the individual is our environment. The family, social environments and our workplaces can have a profound influence, either positivity or negativity, to affect creative expression.²

The elegance of this model, that we’ll refer to as the Creative Elements Model, is that it’s applicable across all aspects of our lives. Motivation can be influenced through the design of schools, jobs and through following our curiosity. Domain expertise can be improved through the way we practice, and creative process skills can be learnt. Increasing research into the work environment has led to more awareness of its association with organisational innovation.

The advantage is when you have these elements all working in your favour, they can combine to give you a creative advantage. When supplemented by creative problem-solving tools, you can ensure a creative outcome every time.

The Creative Advantage demonstrates that we’re all born to be creative. It’s a necessary and innate ability, with an evolutionary basis that natural selection has favoured, to enable us to mix things up to stay on top of what life can throw at us. Like any ability, while we have a certain capacity, we can learn and improve them.

The first book in this series, The Creative Advantage: How the intersection of science and creativity reveals life’s ultimate advantage, explored this deep dive into the science that fuels creativity, through seven key themes.³

Briefly, they were the:

	Creative Fundamentals: The how, what, why and when of creativity
	Creative Elements Model: These are mindset and motivation, domain expertise, creative skill sets and your social and work environment
	Conditions for Creativity: To increase your brain’s creative capacity to harness spontaneous insights
	Body-Brain Connection: Recognises that creativity is dependent on your body and brain’s health
	Building Creative Routine: Leverage the neuroplasticity behind habits
	Creative Problem-Solving Tools: Learn practical tools for everyday and bigger problem-solving.

Ultimately, creativity is as much about what we do, as it is about how we do it and The Creative Advantag...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Section 1: What is the Creative Advantage?
• Chapter 2: The Creative Fundamentals
• Chapter 3: Introducing the Four Essential Creative Elements
• Section 2: Nurturing the Creative Advantage in Children
• Chapter 4: The Role of Parents, Educators and Mentors
• Chapter 5: The Power of Play
• Chapter 6: Transitioning from Home to School
• Section 3: Cultivating the Creative Advantage in the Workplace
• Chapter 7: Seeking Out Workplace Creativity
• Chapter 8: How the Work Environment Influences Motivation
• Chapter 9: Managing Creativity Versus Managing For Creativity
• Section 4: Optimising the Creative Advantage for Well-Being
• Chapter 10: The Significance of Everyday Creativity
• Chapter 11: Everyday Creativity Through the Arts
• Chapter 12: Maximising Our Creativity As We Age
• Creativity is our greatest asset
• Appendix
• The Essential Elements to Creativity
• References
• Endnotes