Creative thinking and art are already a well-matched pairing. But what if you throw business meetings and workplace discussions into the mix? You may think these things are mutually exclusive to art and creativity, but Harvard professors will tell you that creative thinking is a valuable skill in any workplace. Learn more on how art can be great for your career here
First, What Is Creative Thinking?
Creative thinking is looking at a current problem and providing unique and innovative solutions. It is having the ability to approach a problem or discussions and offer ideas that nobody else around the table has thought of or suggested.
You could easily be fooled into thinking that creativity is a skill that is only valuable to those working in the design industry, artist types and possibly architects and engineers. However, creative thinking can provide benefits to all professions.
The reason that creative thinking is in demand across workforces is that every business has a current problem to overcome or a process to improve. No matter what the industry or sector, creative thinking is the turnkey solution to real business problems, regardless of the business’s industry.
How Art Develops Creative Thinking
Art has been argued to be a vehicle for developing creative thinking. When people ‘get creative’ by both analysing and creating artistic works, whether it be painting, sculpting or something else.
This has been argued extensively by Harvard professor,David Perkins. He suggests that looking at and making art causes us to enhance what he names ‘thinking dispositions’ and improve creative thinking. The reason art is so good at this is because individuals can look at the art at the same time as thinking about it or questioning it. Moreover, art is engaging to most people and encourages us to make connections between things in the art and the real world, i.e. think
outside of the canvas.
Yet, art does not just develop creative thinking within the art world. Professor Perkins has also argued – quite successfully – that the creative thinking skills developed with art crossover into other areas of personal and professional life.
Why Creative Thinking Is Good for Your Career
Creative thinking was already discussed as being good for businesses by fostering more staff with innovative problem-solving skills. But that’s not all. Creative skills are also beneficial to the individual staff members and their personal career:
- Creative thinking skills and the outcomes of innovative ideas are easily identifiable, unlike more generic skills such as leadership or communication. This means having creative thinking skills is easier to reference in further job interviews.
- These types of skills can also make you stand out within a large team. If a big team is charged with coming up with solutions or a project together, being the employee with creative ideas makes people take note of you and your contributions.
- Developing creativity also makes you more confident to suggest new ideas. Not all of those ideas will work, but it prepares you to take chances and builds confidence within meetings and workplace discussions.This is why there has been a rise in the number of corporate environments utilising art workshops to help their staff become more creative, and why staff are happy to be enrolled in them.
- Creative thinking skills are often hard for bosses to develop within their teams, but they are finding solutions to their problem by turning to art – and art-driven workshops.
Develop Your Employees at Studio 83
Studio 83 provides artistic and creative workshops to help companies get the most out of their employees. Our art sessions help your employees unlock their creativity, while simultaneously developing essential workplace skills such as leadership, communication and teamwork.
Upgrade your staff training events with the help of Studio 83, soon!