Even Ken Robinson, the new pope of education, the one who wants to put creativity back at the center of the school system, Even he says it : “Creativity alone is not enough. You need to acquire knowledge and know-how in order to be able to develop and implement ideas.”
You really have to deconstruct this misconception that creativity is exclusively about having good ideas all the time. It's not true. Creativity is above all being able to Transform your ideas into reality. Whether it is those of a business, a work or an action of any kind. Because everyone has ideas, it doesn't require any particular talent. On the other hand, what will make the difference is your ability to challenge your ideas and to implement them, to the end, even if it means breaking your teeth once or twice before implementing THE right idea.
- An innovation is an idea transformed into a business
I talk about it regularly in my innovation conferences : creativity is above all a work process. It's 5% ideas and 95% work. Because even a brilliant idea, as long as it is not transformed, refined, and then implemented through thousands of hours of work, it remains a “lousy” idea (and I assume the term is a bit pejorative as I explain in this podcast). In this sense, I fully agree with the new “guru” of Silicon Valley, Gary Vaynerchuk (aka GaryVee) and his famous: “Ideas are shit, execution is the game.” Or what is usually said in the start-up world: it is not the idea that counts but its transformation. Even if you have to rotate 40 times to do something completely different from what was planned at the beginning.
Creativity is above all sweat and elbow grease after a Eureka moment (when you are lucky). This is what you need to teach in schools and businesses: to boost your creativity, get to work as quickly as possible. Do. Take action. Move forward. Plant yourself and start again.
