The surprising secret to becoming more creative

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A nurse's dilemma

Evening falls, and nurse Bianca begins her shift at the nursing home. She makes her usual rounds, visiting each resident to see how they are doing and administer their daily medication. It is a demanding shift; staffing is under pressure because several team members are off sick, so that evening Bianca is responsible for the care of 23 residents all by herself.

Halfway through her round, she encounters a problem. One resident’s pills for the day are missing, and Bianca faces a dilemma. If she goes to get a new supply, she has to walk all the way to the medicine cabinet on the other side of the building, which is easily a ten-minute walk. But if she does that, she is bound to run out of time and leave 23 residents temporarily unsupervised.

Then she gets an idea. The pills are packaged on a roll. She unrolls it completely, takes the very last pill and gives it to the resident. Afterwards, she immediately orders a new supply of medication to prevent future shortages. This allows her to help the resident effectively, and Bianca completes her entire round on time and without any problems.

The misconception about creativity

Ask Bianca if she considers herself creative, and she will almost certainly say no. Many people think they are not creative because, for example, they feel they cannot draw well or play music. They see creativity as something separate from their work. But in reality, it has everything to do with it, as Bianca’s example shows.

Simply put, creativity in everyday life means being able to solve problems in a smart, innovative way. The more resourceful we are, the better we can respond to unexpected situations.

And actually, that is within everyone’s reach, because every human being is naturally creative. You can see this when you look at children. Give them a box and a marker, and before you know it, they have turned it into a spaceship and are flying to the moon. But as we get older, we increasingly unlearn that kind of free thinking. Some of us more than others.

The greatest danger to free thinking

Whereas children act from a place of imagination and possibility, adults tend to ask what is realistic and workable. They are looking for a quick fix or a quick answer. If it takes too long, a feeling of uncertainty starts to surface. This is because our brains do not like loose ends. As soon as we enter uncharted territory, face an open question or encounter uncertainty, we want the situation to end as quickly as possible. So we immediately start looking for information, come up with an answer and feel a sense of relief as soon as we think we know it.

Psychologist Donald MacKinnon investigated the difference between creative and less creative people. He asked the most creative and least creative architects in detail about what they did from the moment they got up until they went to bed. MacKinnon discovered just two differences. The creative ones played with all kinds of different ideas and postponed making decisions for as long as possible. They were in no rush to reach a solution, leaving room for wonder, doubt and new possibilities. Instead of avoiding uncertainty and confusion, they embraced them as an important part of the creative process.

Brainstorming sessions don’t work

The urge for closure can therefore severely hinder creativity. After all, the rush to come up with answers quickly rarely leads us to the most inventive, and often much better and more sustainable, solution. Our brains need time to let things simmer. Magical things can happen in the subconscious: seemingly unrelated ideas and experiences can be combined into something brilliant. But we usually do not allow ourselves that time. And so we settle for mediocre solutions that may work in the short term but only make the situation more complex in the long run.

This is also why those brainstorming sessions at the office can be so problematic. A problem is presented, and the group is given a stack of Post-it notes and asked to come up with ideas. After fifteen minutes, the creative process has to stop, and it is time to work towards concrete solutions, because a clear and workable plan must be in place by the end of the session. This can work perfectly well for simpler problems, but not when things become more complicated and multiple interests are at play.

A higher tolerance for discomfort

Research shows that the most creative people are those who are best able to tolerate the uncomfortable feelings that uncertainty brings. However, this seems to be becoming an increasingly difficult challenge. In a society where we are getting more and more accustomed to having everything immediately available, and where AI answers almost all our questions in no time, the temptation is strong to stop thinking deeply for ourselves and move on rather than sit with a problem or question for a while.

To be creative, therefore, the question is not whether you can get to work with Post-it notes and quickly come up with ten ideas, but whether you dare to be patient and give discomfort room, for it is precisely that irritation and friction within you that can give the pearl its lustre.

This article was originally published in Dutch on MT/Sprout, the most popular business and management platform in the Netherlands.

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