I was giving a talk recently to a group of women engineers and asked the question:

Which is the most creative of all the disciplines, across the humanities, arts, sciences, engineering and social sciences?

There was no question in the minds of the group – it had to be one of the arts.

Drama maybe? After all Tom Stoppard was pretty revolutionary in stretching the boundary between actor, play and audience.

What do you think?

Let me ask you another question:

Which discipline has seen the most change in the last 100 years in terms of impact on our everyday lives? The arts? Or engineering?

Artists have not cornered the market on creativity – far from it.

For all the creativity of the arts and the developments seen in other disciplines, nothing would shock our great-grandparents as much as the great strides seen in engineering over the last 100 years.

And yet so many scientists and engineers claim that they’re ‘not creative’ or ‘don’t do creativity’. I beg to disagree.

I believe we are all creative in some way, shape or form.

Creativity has many forms and you can be just as creative if you’re introvert, analytical and dressed in tweed as you can if you’re extrovert, flamboyant and artistic.

Creativity isn’t just about coming up with new ideas. It’s about being able to research, analyse, process and implement those ideas in a way that is meaningful for others.

So my last question for you is:

How are you creative?

Our Strategic Planning public course looks at how to bring creative ideas to fruition. If you’re interested in exploring creativity in general and how it ties in with strategic thinking why not come along.

 

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