Over several decades, companies have had a revolving-door policy when it comes to their employees, with entry-level and even experienced staff being swapped out every four to five years, elevating the idea of maintaining an array of workers with up-to-date skillsets over everything else.
Individuals who use innovation in their everyday tasks, on the other hand, seem to be cast in amber as those people emerged - in the eyes of companies - as invaluable because of their thinking style: out-of-the-box, imaginative, futuristic, creative; sometimes issuing edicts bordering on the insane.
One of the biggest examples of creative thinking in the workspace is Steve Job’s “Think Different” marketing campaign for Apple. He mentioned, in his speech to the company, over twenty years ago something that many organizations have started to embrace only recently: “To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world; it’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so, we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”
This marketing objective is now the norm for many successful companies across the world. The question is, how do we, as individuals, bring this level of creative thought into our future tasks as employees or entrepreneurs? It’s true that some creative geniuses are born, but it’s also true that creativity can be cultivated. Here are some steps that you can take to bring creativity into everything you do:
- Read: Even if you spend one hour every day reading an article, a book, a story, you will find that you can think of diverse perspectives now. Once you start thinking about your tasks or even an incident from different perspectives, you will automatically become more open-minded and innovative.
- Do something artistic: From writing to dancing to painting, doing artistic work will help the creative part of you activated. If you are not interested in artistic work, that’s okay. I have another tip for you.
- Think different: You heard that right! Apply the Apple motto to areas that you are passionate about. If you are passionate about Math, then instead of solving a problem with generic steps, think of other ways in which you can approach the same problem.
- Keep Learning: In case you are already in the workforce or are getting ready to enter the workforce, then apply the logic above in your area of expertise.
The key is Practice.
Practice designing. Practice developing. Practice creativity.