Imagination, resourcefulness, inspiration, brainpower, capacity, and creativity are words that are often used when considering how we approach our work and are key to productivity as well as our sense of self-worth.
Modern life has conditioned us to believe that productivity equals money, money equals success and success equals happiness. OK, so this view works for some people and that is fine.
My view however, is that whatever we do with our lives we should be feeling successful and happy on a more regular basis. All the time would be good!
So, how can we achieve this?
By being more creative!
When we are creative we enjoy what we are doing more because we have invested something personal into a task or a routine. I’m not talking about painting a picture or writing a poem at our desk or on the shop floor (although I totally advocate that!), I’m talking about coming up with new ideas on how to approach a task or how to inspire someone else to make changes in their routine. Having a creative open mind, or a growth mindset allows us to develop our work practice. In addition to this, combining our creative ideas with others connects people on many levels.
And by being creative we develop the confidence to express our ideas without fear of failure or worrying what others might think and this doesn’t always happen in isolation. I regularly find that my creativity is sparked and often fuelled by others.
Edward de Bono, an author and expert in the field of creativity and lateral thinking said,
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way,”
Here’s an example; I had been stuck in a rut for a few days feeling like I didn't know what to work on next. I was going through the motions with various tasks and despite having a really detailed schedule with each hour accounted for and a to-do-list as long as my arm, I just couldn’t seem to move forward. Procrastination set in and I was beginning to panic. The less productive I was, the more down-hearted and useless I felt.
I decided to break my routine and invited my brother over for a morning coffee with the intention of sharing my angst. Within 10 minutes of us discussing my work we had made significant headway on a project that I had become stuck on. The ideas bounced back and forth like balls in a Wimbledon final and we went on like this until we realised we really should stop for lunch. Our shared enthusiasm and excitement at how creative we were being was infectious.
It made me realise that I enjoy my work more when I have someone to bounce my ideas off of too. I like working on my own, but I do also like the human connection which allows me to grow creatively in different ways. I also noticed that I had felt more relaxed than I had in several weeks, but actually produced more work.
Finding ways to boost our creativity requires creative thinking in itself.
Quest challenges offers the opportunity to break out of existing daily patterns for a few hours and to boost the participants' creativity through its team building experiences. Engagement in a narrative and interaction with characters allows participants to use their imagination to explore different ways of communicating. The puzzles exercise brainpower and logic encouraging lateral thinking and the creative tasks to be completed require resourcefulness and inspiration from all of the team members. All of these aspects combined, increase the creative capacity of the participants and the final reflection activity puts the emphasis firmly on the value that each team member brings to the experience.
"What a fantastic way to start the new school year, bringing all staff together. The whole afternoon was specifically designed for our staff body; linking in a local historic story really brought the event to life. It was absolutely brilliant.” (Jo Ford, Head Teacher)
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