Breathing Creativity back into your Life (and Organisations)

Take a moment. Really think about it.

Was it yesterday? Last month? A few years ago?

Don’t worry if you can’t remember – you wouldn’t be the only one.

75% of us feel we’re not living up to our creative potential. Yet 80% believe creativity is key to economic growth.

This isn’t just feel-good talk. Companies that foster creativity are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers in revenue growth.

The question isn’t whether we should be more creative – it’s how to unleash a skillset many of us feel has been lost since our childhoods. The World Economic Forum states Creativity to be among the top 3 skills we’ll need in 2025, alongside analytical thinking and innovation.

And that makes perfect sense.

An ever-accelerating world

The rate of change is only accelerating, fueled by rapid technology cycles that just dropped AI into our laps.

If we keep doing the same things, our impact will inevitably decline as best practices become outdated.

Evolving slightly might keep our heads above water.

Being creative means trying new things, with no guarantee they will work. But with the right frameworks in place. Being creative makes you competitive with the rate of change, embracing the opportunities of change into your impact.

Two Warnings Before We Start

Make Space for Growth

Does your diary look like this?

To add insult to injury the average knowledge worker is interrupted every 11 minutes and takes 23 minutes to get back into flow.

Add 146 notifications hitting your phone daily (240 if you’re a teen), and creativity doesn’t stand a chance.

To bring creativity back into your life, you need time (doesn’t that look more creative already).

Actually you’ll need three types of time:

⚠️ Want to make more space for creativity in your life?

Start simple: switch off notifications on apps you rarely use. Braver? Delete social media from your phone entirely (if you really need it, log in from a computer instead). The extreme version? Like Jerry Seinfeld, book a return flight to Hawaii for uninterrupted creation time (but maybe start with the notifications).

Break Free from Routines

Routines are fantastic – imagine waking up every morning and having to rethink every step from your bed to your front door. I know if I did that, I would likely go out half-dressed without my keys.

Routines keep us safe and allow us to function efficiently and make up the lion’s share of our days. But routines also stifle innovation.

There’s also nothing like a “brainstorming session” or it’s slightly awkward second cousin the “thought shower” to send chills down anyone’s spine.  “BE CREATIVE NOW” is a sure way of burying any hope of great ideas being born.

Instead, breathe creativity into your existing routines by becoming an “event DJ”.

At it’s core every event in your calendar has:

Small changes to any these variables can have a massive impact. Take location, for example – Research from the University of Minnesota showed that rooms with 10-foot ceilings improved people’s abstract thinking and creativity by up to 50% (known as the Cathedral Effect). A simple change of environment can transform how we think.

Here are more ways to remix your routine:

Risk is Your Friend

Ever had an idea that scares you”

The scarier it is, the more impactful it could be – that’s exactly why it’s scary. Risk is fertile ground for innovation.

The uncomfortable truth is that if you’re not failing, it’s likely you’re not taking enough risk. The key is to fail small and fail fast. Want to test something out? Don’t spend months planning – create a small experiments, learn from them and adapt quickly.

A painter might seek to test a new medium on small throw away projects before moving onto bigger pieces.

For organisations, you might have a fantastic idea to launch a monthly membership – but instead of endless conversations, months fleshing out perks and creating the infrastructure… Why not announce the membership in your newsletter and when users click subscribe let them know it’s coming soon. This proves appetite and makes a stronger case to your stakeholders to invest more time in the idea.

This approach doesn’t just reduce risk – it creates buy-in. Remember those creative permissions we discussed? When you show stakeholders real results from small experiments, you transform gut reactions into tangible decisions.

Your most powerful tool

Want to know the secret to unlocking creativity?

Learning to say “No.”

Having lots of ideas is fantastic, but you need to prioritize the impactful ones – not the easy ones. Kill off less impactful ideas early to make space for what matters. Unfinished tasks occupy up to 20% more cognitive resources than completed ones (Psychologists call this the Zeigarnik Effect) – so best clear those out.

If you manage others saying “no” to their ideas is likely to stop them being creative – in this case move away from saying no to everything and instead focus on saying Yes to very few things.

You might also want to create a regular forum to discuss ideas – it helps your team understand why some ideas are chosen over others and gives them a stake in the decision-making.

Putting it all together

Creativity is a never-ending cycle of exploration and experimentation.

Everything you experience in your lives allow it to flourish. Ensuring you make space for these ideas to hit you is vital in a world which is increasingly fighting for your attention (for the wrong reasons).

You don’t need to learn creativity, that’s innate – you just need to remove what’s blocking it.