Creative Confidence summary

Introduction

Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelly Everyone can unlock their creative potential and apply it to all aspects of life. Do you remember when teachers would chastise you for drawing pictures, telling you to do proper work instead? Of course, math and history are important, and these teachers might mean well. However, insisting on facts over flexing our creative muscle dampens our ingenuity.

This lack of appreciation for creativity is outdated, and today's companies actively seek out creative minds. What is more, creativity is a key factor in designing your life to match your values and aspirations. Luckily, you can never lose your creativity entirely. As it is always there to be nurtured, creative confidence helps you rediscover your creativity, showing you how to exercise your innovative muscles.

This is done by drawing on the authors' experiences at the design and innovation firm, IDEO. It also includes the lessons they learned and imparted to others at the Dee School at Stanford University. Here, you will learn how everyone, not just those in creative professions, can benefit from exercising their imagination.

Creativity as Imaginative Innovation

Creativity as Imaginative Innovation. Creativity is about all kinds of imaginative innovation, not just genius masterpieces. What is creativity? Is it doing breathtaking paintings, sculpting Greek icons, or writing sonorous music?

Great creativity sometimes finds its expression in the fine arts, but it actually has a much broader application. Creativity means simply using your imagination to create something new. This broader definition embraces many different aspects of creative work that otherwise go unseen. It includes the work of artists, as well as analytical types like CEO or computer programmers.

Indeed, these analytical types express their creativity whenever they make something new. For example, a computer programmer creates a web interface or a CEO develops a new business strategy. When we employ this broader definition of creativity, we discover that we are all born to be creative. As young children, we finger-painted, danced around the room, and built treehouses with our own hands.

We also found interesting solutions to the problems we Unfortunately, as we grow older, we stop acting out our creativity, but we never lose the ability altogether. In fact, you can think of your creativity as a muscle that you can train to find innovative solutions. Although you may not have flexed it for a while, training and hard work will make it strong again. Just look at MRI technician Doug Dietz, who is very much the type.

He struggled to help children feel safe in intimidating scanners, but he trained his creative muscle for a solution. His solution involved changing the look of these clinical machines, making them into pirate ships or UFO. The kids then saw getting scanned as an exciting adventure rather than something dreadful.