On Wednesday evening, I was in the local pub. There, I admit it, I was out with friends in the middle of the week. Shocking. It’s a large pub, and it was packed. As we sat there tucking into our evening meal, we discovered why. In a separate bar area known as “the lower bar”, we could see a small crowd gathering, wearing orange aprons. They sat down, and on the tables were small easels and some paints. The people had assembled for an evening of painting organised by Brush and Tipple.
From where we sat, we could see a couple of pictures being created, and gradually, stroke by stroke, a colourful picture of a cockerel emerged. It turned out that some people at the event were our friends. So, after they had completed their work, they brought their paintings to show us. They were rightly very proud of their final artworks, which they were going to take home to frame.
One member of our group, however, said she couldn’t do such fantastic artwork because she wasn’t creative. The successful painters told her that was nonsense and that the professional artist leading the session had given easy-to-follow instructions.
It is a common misconception that only some people have creative abilities. We look at fantastic artworks and think, “I could never do that”. Or we wonder where the architects of amazing buildings got their ideas. And we are amazed in the cinema by the creative geniuses that keep us entertained. Yet, most of us think we don’t have that creative spark to achieve any of these things.
We are, of course, wrong. Those creative individuals are just people who had pretty much the same basic education as the rest of us. No specific set of genes makes you creative. Each of us has the opportunity to be creative, even you.
In fact, new research suggests adults are more creative than children, despite the popular view that youngsters have more creativity. Researchers at the University of Graz found that adults produced more original ideas than preschoolers, yet felt less confident and more anxious while doing so. That was exactly my friend’s situation on Wednesday. It wasn’t that she lacked creativity. Rather, her confidence was low.
In business, this suggests that many people can come up with creative solutions but hold back from trying them because they lack confidence. That’s a problem because, as research from earlier this year in the USA showed, the main required outcome of creativity is increased sales. Three-quarters of marketing professionals measure creativity’s effectiveness by sales or conversions. So, if you hold back on your creative ideas because you lack confidence, you could be reducing your business performance.
Businesses are responding to the need for more creativity by investing in “creative intelligence”. This integrates artificial intelligence and data analytics to deconstruct, measure, predict, and optimise marketing. Yet, according to a report from the consulting firm Winterberry Group, only 11% of businesses do this at a significant level. Still, the idea behind “creative intelligence” is to identify which creative work performs best.
But if you think about it, “creative intelligence” isn’t really the right phrase. There is no creativity here. Instead, it is data analysis using artificial intelligence. An alternative meaning for creative intelligence is where AI itself is creative. For example, you can use tools like Canva or ChatGPT for intelligent image generation. Perhaps we let them do the creativity because we don’t feel confident.
Now, be honest, I’m sure you have tried the creative genius of artificial intelligence. You might have asked it to produce some presentation slides for you, for example. It whirred away and produced some impressive results. But were they as creative as you could have produced if you had the time? We ask AI to help us produce slides for two reasons. One is to save time, but the other is a lack of confidence. I am sure you have seen presentations and remarked how good the slides were and then said, “I wish I could produce slides like that.” You are revealing a lack of confidence, not a lack of creativity.
Creative intelligence might help you do some business analysis. AI tools like Canva could help you create impressive images. But in business, what we need is a confidence boost. You can be creative and drive additional sales if only you would try. You just need to trust yourself and remember you are more creative than a child.
So, here’s how to boost your creativity by building your confidence. First, set a five-minute time limit for work on a project. Just produce anything in those five minutes, even if you think it is rubbish. This starts the habit of being creative. Second, accept anything less than perfect. You are not going to be instantly brilliant. Third, keep your early attempts private and don’t share them with anyone. Over time, you can look back on what you have done and see that you are making progress. Finally, keep a logbook of what you are doing so you can see that there is creativity inside you. You can find out more about building creative confidence, rather than creative intelligence, at Psychology Today. And who knows, once you’re more confident, I might see you at the pub in your orange apron.
