One of the main things people fear when bringing creativity to their business is the notion that creativity is chaotic. Businesspeople tend to want things controlled and planned for and bringing an element of chaos into that seems counterproductive. The truth, however, is that a little chaos can go a long way toward improving your business.
To begin, let’s look at exactly what creativity is. The dictionary described it as “… the ability to transcend traditional ideas and to create meaningful new ideas.” There are many ways to enhance that ability, even for people who don’t think of themselves as creative, but for any business person, being able to go beyond what has always been done, coming up with new ideas, is, perhaps, the only way to really expand your business.
For many, “creativity” seems the realm of the artist. We think of it as producing music, painting, writing. We think of it in terms of entertainment. We also think of artists as “seat-of-your-pants” type people. They somehow magically get ideas and run with them to completion. It is a mystery and therefor not something to imagine could be put into practice in a business. After all, successful business people like planning.
There are two things wrong with that way of thinking. The first is that creativity is not a mystery. It is simply opening up the communication between your conscious and subconscious mind and there are very practical ways to bring it forth in yourself. The second is that plans almost never play out the way they look on paper. As Woody Allen said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
The good news is that the two of these things work well with each other. In order to move forward, you must have plans and goals. You must also know ahead of time that you will meet some of those goals, miss others and have others completely transform in front of your eyes. Things will almost never work out exactly how you envisioned them. But if you don’t have a vision, if you don’t have a plan, they won’t work out at all.
That seems like chaos. However, if you embrace that chaos, you can meet those changes head on. You can meet them creatively. Allow yourself to learn to be creative, to open up the pathways between the conscious and subconscious mind so new ideas can appear as if from nowhere. Then continue to make your plans and set your goals, knowing that a little chaos will enter in to the process.
