Redefining Creativity
Everyone has the potential to be creative in some way, shape or form. Whether that is drawing or painting, or whether it is creating a meal from random things in the cupboard, designing your garden or playing games with your children. A salesperson can be creative in the development of their pitch and their adaptivity in responding to individuals as they talk, answering questions and objections to satisfy potential clients and make a sale. An engineer that innovates is using creative thinking to solve problems.
Everything has the capacity to be seen as creative if you allow yourself to see it. Every person has the capacity to be seen as creative if they allow themselves to create. We’re so preoccupied with labelling ourselves – particularly at school, as the sporty one, the smart one, the creative one, that we forget to take off the label and REALLY look at what it means to be creative.
Origins and Schisms Within Creativity
By the time of the Renaissance, there was an attempt to place it solely in the province of man and his intellect. Creativity was no longer seen as a conduit of the divine but the work of 'great men'.
In the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, imagination became linked with creativity. This created a divide between the concepts of 'genius' being those of imagination and originality and 'talent' as productive and well-practised but lacking originality. This compartmentalization of creatives continues to pervade to this day.
Compartmentalisation of Creativity
Below are just some of the ways creativity and creatives are compartmentalized in the industry.
Individuals
- Feeling like a creative person or not
- Sanctioning the tortured artist’s narrative and creating from a wounded space
- Sanctioning other people’s opinions on creative ability and requiring external permission to create
- Creating internal misalignment based on the sanctioned opinions of others
- Separation of Genius vs. Talent
- Lack of support leaving individual creatives feeling alone
- Feeling worthy or like they have something to offer the world/a legacy to leave
Education
- Forced compartmentalisation via ‘niching’ limits creative scope and creates internal misalignment
- Sanctioning external opinions of teachers/educators, family, friends and society
- Defining success and whether we’re allowed to achieve it, income expectations and worthiness to contribute to society
- Separation and elitism of modalities and professions
- Learning technical skills for a career while lacking skills in embodying the creative process
- Nurturing and supporting talent only inside narrative of acceptable creative roles
Industry-Wide
- Protectiveness/possessiveness of area and skillset limiting creative potential and ability to collaborate
- Access to money and/or privilege in order to be successful or build a career/business
- Elitism and pressure within full-time/part-time roles
- Devaluation of freelancing/only having permission to be a ‘side hustle’
- Separation/elitism of different modalities and professions
- Lack of support leaving individual creatives feeling alone
- Underrepresentation of working-class, women and BAME in senior/executive roles
Outside of Industry
- Devaluing creativity/consuming without paying creators their true worth
- Ignorance of the struggles of creatives and their process, only caring about the finished product
- Little understanding or compassion for the creative process/creators themselves
- Lack of understanding and lack of permission to create themselves leads to disliking and devaluing creativity/art
- Cheap labour and DIY tools devalue creators
- Lack of understanding of the impact and ROI of good design
Transforming The Narrative of Creativity
For too long, people have been fed the idea of the hero’s journey as part of the creative process which has perpetuated isolation among creatives. This isolation has been compounded by concepts such as the starving/suffering artist which means that it has become the norm for creators to feel they have to go it alone and struggle in silence.
Though creative industries have long worked at the expense of the creator themselves, we believe that change is possible at every level. Simply put, no one can create at their optimum when they feel stressed and unsafe. We believe this change of narrative starts on an individual level so as coaches we support the flow of creativity through mindset, self-worth and safety in order to bring more and more people into a space of creative joy and alignment.
Our work seeks to change that narrative by providing support through coaching in areas that are often overlooked such as the impact of mental well-being and work-life balance on creativity. We bridge the support gap in the creative industry as coach practitioners. Using our Interconnectivity Coaching Approach to support a whole person, not just as a job role or creative service.
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