Skip to main content

Creativity to taste

How many of us get this request at work "I made something. Can you add some creativity to this?"

How would you like it if you went to a restaurant and the chef said, "I made a dish, please add salt to it?"

Yet that is how we expect it to work and think we are doing a great job of it.

If our work life was a recipe and there was a salt equivalent to it - then creativity would be it. People would write the work recipe as "Add creativity to taste". Just the way they treat salt. Without salt, your dish would be bland, almost inedible in most cases. Also salt does some wonderful things - it does not just make your dish salty.It does wonderful things to food. The trick is when to add salt - you cannot always add it at the end and that is a technique in itself.

Which is the same thing with creativity. Creativity is not an add-on. If it has not existed in the thought process, very unlikely that it will exist at the end when someone who has no clue about your thought process is asked to make it creative. If you do this, the very least you can do is to let your creative salt adder ask questions. If not, well, be happy with your insipid product and get on with it. If you think that creativity belongs to the artist types - those who will come in and that dash of creativity to your project that will suddenly make it a work of art - then all the best to you.

And if that is what you do, most likely, that creativity would be a distraction. As Edward Tufte says, most likely, that creativity is being used to construct decorations - and not decorate your construction. The difference need not be explained, but if  you dont 'get' it, you are probably doing the above - getting someone to garnish your insipid dish with creative onions.

Creativity is all about the process. It is about re-imagining the thing that you are putting together - or imagining in the first place. It is about questioning, at every stage, if there is a better way to do it - better for your customers and usually better for yourself - not just the latter. It is also opening up to a different world view - among other things.

Think about it the next time you want 'creativity to taste'

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The power of jotting down ideas

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented. 

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...