In a world dominated by McDonald’s,
Coca-Cola, and Apple, creativity is becoming more and more rare and
consequently more and more valuable. Today, we are surrounded by the generic,
standardized and the automatic. I’m not trying to overdramatize that being
creative and an individual is extinct, but there is a trend of uniformity in
thinking and in work. I’m not too afraid to admit that even in some of my
classes, I tend to study what I need to know just for an exam—nothing more (and
hopefully nothing less).
The biggest
lesson I took from the workshop was similar to last week’s lessons from
initiative: creativity is not a one step process. Creativity starts at the
nexus of imagination, innovation and critical thinking, but continues past that
point. Being creative also relies on adaptability and elaboration. It’s about
taking an idea, adjusting it to its surroundings and creating a more
meaningful, tangible product. For example, in our challenge to create a
miniature golf course, our group ran into problems with out to get the ball up
a ramp, into our ‘building’ and then down another ramp on the other side. With
no one in our group having an engineering background, we tried adding bumpers
to direct the ball. It might not have worked due to my putting skills during
the demonstration or the bumpers may have been ineffective, but we elaborated
perfectly by turning our plain, unrecognizable “White House box” into a mélange
of American symbols.
Creativity is essential to BLF and life
outside of our challenges. I talked with Don Davis this week, and he underlined
the need to be creative in our Operation Feed Campaign challenge and in his
profession. Companies and organizations get swamped with calls and requests
about fundraisers and campaigns, but he really challenged to take risks. To him
creativity is about taking risks to not only create something new, but
something memorable and impactful. A major part of his job is to be creative.
He makes trips across the world and only has one chance to ‘wow’ clients a year
in a one-hour meeting, so he has to make sure that he makes his webinars and
presentations stick out and be memorable.
Creativity is ultimately different
for everyone in every situation. There is not a formula or method to go about
it. I didn’t see myself as creative before this workshop, but after hearing
about a lot of other people’s hesitations towards their creative status I know
it’s more of a confidence issue than an ability one. Being creative was one of
the aspects I wanted to work on with my challenge coaches, but I know now it’s
not about necessarily about being active and working at it, but it’s about
giving myself the environment to be creative.
