Creativity is plentiful

Ten years ago, while enrolled in Disney’s lineup of classes for young college students, I took a course on creativity.

And, while it dove heavily into tactics—techniques for making the most of brainstorming and collaborating, with a short seminar on market research thrown in--to say that I learned how to be creative would be a gross exaggeration.

Because, of course, that’s not what creativity is.

It's taken me nearly a decade to figure it out, but I realize now that what it really means to be creative is nothing more than to be committed to solving for a better outcome. To do something you’ve never done before on your way to finding a way around a problem that’s not yet been solved.

In other words, being creative is nothing short of doing things that haven’t been tried, tested, or thought-up, on your way to creating something original or unique.

What makes creativity so scarce isn't that we don't have enough of it. What makes it scarce is that, often, organizations don't want you to fail. Your boss wants you to be creative and always be right. A paradox to say the least.

It's impossible to discover what might work if you're so preoccupied with what's guaranteed to not fail that you overlook a hundred potential solutions to your problem.

The lesson? There's no such thing as a creativity shortage. You have the skill. You have the ability.

A lack of creativity is merely an absence of permission.