What is creativity? And how to develop it?

This word we hear more and more often. Often in the summary, you can find the wording: "creative and original." Not yet fully, but we know how this affects the perception of our potential employer. However, in fact, what is creativity? And with what it is eaten? According to the dictionary, creativity is "the creation of something new and original." Expanding and supplementing the definition of what creativity is, it can be argued that this is a "mental process, an activity that entails the creation of new ideas, concepts, or new associations, links with already existing ideas and concepts." Creative thinking leads to truly innovative and effective solutions. Many believe that the term "creativity" determines what creativity is in the full sense. This, in fact, is simply the ability to create something new.

What is the difference between a man who is considered creative, from all others? In his work "Creativity, creativity or constant violation?" Psychologists dealing with this problem point to the fact that in many countries the word "creative" ("Creatifs", "creative", "Creativo") is used. It is from the point of view of creative self-expression and creativity.

However, one should not confuse the basic concepts. There are significant differences between creativity and creativity. What is creativity? This is a function that can characterize both the creative person and the object of her efforts (new posters for the film, for example, are creative). Whereas creativity is rather a process, a kind of phenomenon, a promise, while concrete work is usually connected with certain decisions.

It often happens that we specify character traits in the resume only because it is required. It is not surprising that this will be important for our work and for our employers. Even if it seems to us that we are creative people, we present creative summaries, in fact it can be far from the case. There is an unspoken principle: the more you try, the worse you look. Therefore, it is very good to think about how and in what form to present the employer our creative abilities. What is creativity in the understanding of a potential boss? This ability to think outside the box, find a way out of a difficult situation, improvisation when searching for new solutions to old problems. The employer will demand from you interesting proposals for solving the problem and the ability to quickly cope with a difficult situation. Therefore, when writing a resume, do not overdo it. It's one thing when you present yourself as a person of a free profession (designer, copywriter, journalist). In this case, everything is appropriate: creative flash drives at a business meeting, a non-standard resume, a funny site that is created in spite of all the templates. But it's different if you are a mid-level manager or even just an ordinary employee in a state institution. Here your resume will be viewed by personnel department employees who can be very far from the flight of thought and any "oddities" will simply be rejected without specifying the reason.

Nevertheless, it is always worth mentioning that you can create new works (let it be a program or a project), improve the process and procedures. Generally speaking, all your experience, which speaks about "improving" any indicators, will be perceived positively. The employer will require you to improve the effectiveness of certain measures, the creation of new texts, projects, ideas, detailing. Therefore, he does not need to explain what creativity is - he knows what will help him to achieve the prosperity of the enterprise.

There are also a number of ways to develop a creative approach. For example, random input. Select the main element that defines the problem, and then find completely random examples, a few words from the dictionary. Next, we will consider the relationship between them. This exercise helps to activate non-standard thinking. The use of reverse brainstorming allows us to replace certain opposite tasks with opposite ones - when we reject the next version, thereby we determine what is most important for us.

Another technique is slow gradual writing. For example, for a certain period of time (30 minutes, 1 hour), we write on the sheet of paper only our ideas related to the task, not thinking about whether they are reasonable or not. Do not analyze. This approach to finding solutions is widely used in the psychology of success.