How to develop creativity at work?

At PerformanSe, if there is one theme that fascinates us, it is that of soft skills, emotional and behavioural skills that are often contrasted with hard skills, which are more technical in nature.

We love them so much that our brand new podcast "Soft skill, who are you?" is dedicated to them (in french for now, translation coming soon). The first episode is about creativity, a skill that, once you reach adulthood, is certainly not reserved only for artists. Indeed, stop the stereotypes, you don't need to have dyed your hair blue to be creative!

Here is a summary of what you need to know about this wonderful soft skill, and some advice on how to develop it better and boost your performance and fulfilment at work.

Creativity has several meanings. It can be understood as:

• the power of an individual to create, i.e. to imagine and realise something new
• and as the ability to discover a new, original solution to a given problem

However, one definition of creativity is accepted by most researchers in the field: that of the American psychologist Robert Sternberg. Creativity is seen as the ability to produce something that is both new and adapted to the context in which it occurs.

Here, creativity will be the process by which the imagination is transformed into reality, including times of preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. This is how we understand the notion of creativity applied to work: finding an original and innovative idea that respects the budgetary and time constraints as well as the resources that can be allocated to the project concerned.

This activates:

• your divergent thinking: brainstorming to find as many innovative ideas as possible
• and your convergent thinking: putting ideas together to produce an original idea that meets the requirements imposed

Even if this may seem paradoxical, we quickly realise that it is essential to set the framework within which we will let our creativity evolve, particularly at work or when setting up a new project. Without a framework, we get lost in the sometimes infinite possibilities, and it becomes difficult to materialise and make real what we imagine.