Would you call yourself creative?

by: Justin Brady, Test of Time Design

I hear the word “creativity” used so much, sometimes it makes me squint my eyes, fighting the gag reflex. That may sound harsh, but these days, the word has been freely tossed around and abused to the point it has almost completely lost its meaning. Yes, leaders make it the number one focus for their teams and new hires, but an alarming number completely misunderstand what creativity is and where it comes from. So, where does it come from?

The Iowa Creativity Summit is May 28 at Drake University in Des Moines, and TMG is one of our sponsors who has stepped up to help Iowans find that answer. This is no elitist event for the self-labeled “creative” industry. Sure, they are welcome, but if there is one theme that has developed during my time involved in the last two Iowa Creativity Summits, it’s that we have incorrectly labeled some people or ideas creative, and others as not creative.

I was reminded of this when I took a survey from Apple after purchasing something from the store. When asked to select my industry, there was no option for marketing, but instead “creative.” Is “creative” really an industry? Why have we labeled certain fields this way, namely marketers, designers, artists, architects or interior designers? It seems like an innocent thing, but the damage this does to our teams, companies and even community is troubling.

During our first Iowa Creativity Summit, we did on-the-street interviews to ask people a simple question: “Are you creative?” Overwhelmingly the answer was, “No” or, “I’m not that creative.” Person after person said something similar, but occasionally someone would pipe up and say they are creative. When asking why, they would site some art project they were working on, or perhaps they were in the marketing industry.

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