05 Dec 11

Can creativity be developed by us all, or is it a special gift?

by Euan Ross, Director of Business Insight

There are plenty of myths surrounding creativity (and have done for many years); it’s a ‘black box’ of tricks beyond rational understanding; it’s the preserve of a few gifted individuals; you can’t learn how to be creative, you’ve either got it or you haven’t.

Nonsense! It is part of the human condition; we are born with it and it is vital for our survival, success and advancement. Creativity is the process of solving problems and exploiting opportunities – a skill we all possess, and use every day. So surely we can therefore all get better at it?

Well a recent piece of research developed by Emetrixx has culminated in a new model, the me2 model, which explains the traits and characteristics that lie behind creativity. This model now enables creativity, like any skill or process, to be broken down, understood, developed and honed.

The me2 model breaks open the ‘black box’ and illustrates how we approach being creative. Fundamentally it is driven by how we use and generate ideas, our personality traits, what motivates us and how confident we are to be creative. Understanding these 4 dimensions of creativity, we can begin to identify our own creative style, learn where our strengths and weaknesses lie and provide a focus for the specific areas we need to develop to improve.

Job done…..what’s stopping you?