The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work
By: M Ainsley Blackman
Tags: Book Review, Work, Creativity, Books

The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work

December book review

The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work, Natalie Nixon, 2020: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc

Consider this scenario. A kindergarten class is asked who would like to be an artist and most of the children put their hands up. A high school class is asked the same question and maybe ten per cent of the class put their hands up.

Consider another scenario. You are discussing creativity with a group of people. The consensus is that creativity is a good thing. Do you say, self-deprecatingly, something like “I wish I was creative. I don’t have a creative bone in my body”?

Natalie Nixon examines the underlying assumptions and beliefs behind these scenarios. In her book, she posits that creativity is not something that some lucky people are born with but something that all humans have. Creativity is abundant in the early years (think about those kindergarteners who love to paint, tell stories, move their bodies) but is gradually killed off by the structures of our schools and workplaces. What if we were taught how to use and develop our creativity instead of relegating it to the realm of the arts? How much more fulfilling would our personal and professional lives be if we could unleash the creativity that is inside all of us?

Nixon defines creativity as “the ability to toggle between wonder and rigor in order to solve problems and deliver novel value”. She identifies three practices that anyone can implement to increase their creative competency: inquiry, improvisation, and intuition. Each of these practices are discussed in detail with interviews with people from a wide variety of people; actors, perfumieres, restaurateurs, farmers, and more.

Now that we are living in the fourth industrial revolution (cloud technology, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, increased automation of jobs), creativity is more important than ever. Technology is intersecting with our lives in ways that it never has before. Nixon states that a ‘love/hate’ relationship with technology is not viable. Instead, we need creative thinking to ensure that technology is made human-centric and we have the capacity to solve new problems.

The Creativity Leap is easy to read. The ideas are clearly laid out and explained with useful analogies and examples. You could read this in a day if you wanted to, but there is a lot to digest so I suggest taking your time with the exercises. Each chapter ends with suggested creativity leap exercises for you and for your organisation. I liked the personal suggested exercise from Chapter 1: Create like your life depends on it: “Become a clumsy student at something”. This was something I advocated for when teaching students with learning disabilities. I found that many of my colleagues, well-meaning or otherwise, had either forgotten what it was like to be a student in the classroom or did not have the imagination to put themselves in the shoes of a student with a learning disability. The best teachers are creative and encourage creativity.

As we try to imagine a post-pandemic world, we need creative thinkers and doers who can envision how to improve society for all people. But that is not a job for a select, gifted few. It is something that we should all contribute to. So consider this, take a creativity leap and work on your creative competency, for yourself and your communities.