How to Develop Creative Potential

Creative potential can be built

Source: Zorana Ivcevic Pringle

Creativity scholars are often asked whether everyone is creative. Not everyone is creative in the sense of having developed new products that enrich our lives or make them more convenient. However, everyone might be able to build their creative potential.

What do we mean by creative potential?

Creative potential is best described as including capacity for creative thinking and the drive for creativity. In other words, the potential means being able to think in original ways and being motivated to do so.

Creative thinking is called for when we are facing open-ended problems which cannot be addressed by following a precise step-by-step process. Scientists have devised tests that can assess how people think when multiple answers are possible.

Such tests might ask people to think of unusual uses for common objects (e.g., a tin can) or come up with ideas for what would happen in fanciful scenarios (e.g., if people could speak with animals). Responses are scored for how many ideas people generate, how original the ideas are, and how much they detail is included in the ideas.

The drive for creativity is based on intrinsic interest, our perceived value of creativity, and our confidence that we can be creative. Intrinsic interest means wanting to tackle new and complex problems, being curious, preferring to figure out things for oneself, and enjoying this process. We can be intrinsically interested in a category of activities (school or work) or something specific (art or writing). Related to intrinsic interest are attitudes that creativity is important, both to who we are as individuals, and as a means to an end (e.g., creativity as a way to solve problems we care about).

We tend to do that which we believe we can. Meeting people who exude creative confidence might make it seem that this is something they were born with. And it true that people with some traits—those who are more energetic and positive—come by creative confidence more easily. However, enduring confidence that is a foundation of creative drive is built from experience observing ourselves and others.

Building creative potential

It is a common belief that schools kill creativity. A meta-analysis of studies of creative thinking abilities from first to twelfth grade with more than 40,000 participants shows that this belief is not supported by evidence. To the contrary, creative thinking abilities tend to grow as students progress through school.

Why does the capacity to think creatively increase with schooling, although schools as a rule do not teach creative thinking explicitly? This is due to the nature of creative thinking itself. New ideas are built from knowledge and experience, often by applying it in new ways.

A student who takes a machining class might become more likely to think of unusual uses for a tin can, such as turning it into an organizer for different tools or creating shims to level machines. Similarly a theater class might inspire ideas how a tin can might be turned into a prop in a puppet show or a tool to make sound effects.

More varied experiences and broader knowledge build a base of idea fragments that people can mentally combine into new ideas. This learning does not happen exclusively through schooling, but in modern societies schooling is a major vehicle for acquisition of knowledge and building experiences.

Creative thinking abilities are built in adulthood too. When we expand our knowledge and skills—through hobbies and interests and jobs— we accumulate nodes in a mental network that can be connected to surface new ideas. They emerge when we wonder how one concept reminds us of another or when we draw surprising analogies.

Developing the drive for creativity is largely about implicit learning. We absorb messages about what matters and form our personal views without necessarily knowing where they come from. Research shows that creative confidence is built from experience with projects and activities that require creativity. But rarely do we consciously pause and say to ourselves, “I did well on that so I should be able to do it in the future too.”

Scientists have also shown that creative confidence is boosted when others, especially those in authority, such as mentors or leaders, expect us to be creative and encourage us. It is as if we think, “Well, they think I can, therefore I should be able to.” We are not aware of these subtle influences of experience and social reinforcement, but they are real nevertheless.

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We also get messages about what is valued by noticing what is supported and rewarded in important contexts like school and work. Although education increases student capacity to think creatively, schools might stress standardized performance at the expense of more open-ended projects that provide opportunities for creativity to such an extent that they end up communicating through their actions (choice of instructional methods and approaches) that creativity is not valued.

Even when educators provide opportunities for creativity, students might carry beliefs from prior experiences. Professor Ron Beghetto at Arizona State University has shown that a single experience of unusually harsh criticism, especially early in one’s educational career, can kill the drive for creativity. He called this creative mortification. It is an extreme example of a more common caution about possible negative social consequences of creativity.

If you aim to build creative potential, start small. The intention to be creative or an explicit request for creative ideas from others, helps, even if it seems counterintuitive. This signals a permission to pursue original directions.

Next, we should aim for multiple ideas. First ideas are rarely most creative. By asking for multiple options, we communicate an interest in quality and greenlight exploration. And finally, we should understand and model creativity as not linear. This means that changing ideas and directions, even part way through a project, is not only acceptable but indicates an interest in quality of our work.

Creative potential is not fixed; it grows as we expand what we know and how we see ourselves and creativity itself. By building potential, we create the foundation from which what we could do can transform into what we actually do.