The creative is critical, and the critical is creative

Creativity refers to the art of turning imaginative or rather new ideas or thoughts into reality. Creativity often features the ability to; find previously unnoticed patterns, view the world in a new way, make connections between previously unrelated phenomena and generate solutions. Creativity can be summarized by two processes: thinking and later producing (Perry-Smith and Shalley, 2003, 92). The essence of creativity to human intelligence cannot be overlooked; creativity is grounded in every moment’s capacity. This includes the association of thoughts, perception, reminding, analogical thinking, reflecting on self-criticism as well as searching a structured problem-space.

Further, creativity involves much more than a cognitive dimension; it involves emotion and motivation it is also closely linked to personality factors and cultural context. Creativity from its definition above involves generation of new ideas. Generation of new ideas may appear in various forms as; combinational, exploratory and transformational. Combinational involves combining of familiar ideas, exploratory generation of new ideas through exploration while transformational involves the transformation of dimensions of an existing structure such that a new structure is generated.

From the above insight, the criticality of creativity beyond classwork cannot be emphasized enough. Creativity processes are used widely by both public and private sector organizations. These organizations range from; banking, construction companies, manufacturing and even services firms. The organizations use creativity to increase quality and efficiency in their businesses. The companies engage their strategic planning, research, and marketing departments among others in creativity to steer the organizations ahead. Further, still, small firms, sole proprietors, as well as innovative R&D (research and development) organizations are increasingly applying creative techniques with the aim of solving problems and improving the use of processes, skills, and techniques.

In addition to the role of creativity in organizations or businesses in general, creativity plays a pivotal role in education. One of the aims of a curriculum according to (QCDA, 2009) is to enable pupils to think critically and creatively with the aim of problem-solving. More so pupils are expected to make a difference for the better through creativity. Creative thinking in schools further enables students to; extend and generate ideas, come up with hypotheses, apply imaginations and look for innovative or alternative outcomes (Shaheen, 2010, 168). Further still, students while engaging in research activities employ creativity to come up with research proposals, suitable methodologies and befitting recommendations and conclusions.

Other than education, creativity is critical to Information Technology. For a long time, creativity in many workplaces has been debated, and its essence examined. Information technology as a discipline is very much in need of creative personnel. The field of technology is ever changing, every day the people in this sector are faced with opportunities and problems, to cope with these the individuals ought to be creative. The technology providers ought to be at par with their competitors, as such creativity is important to their continued survival.

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The contribution of creativity in environmental conservation efforts is commendable. The world is faced with constant threats of environmental degradation which results to extreme weather conditions and even direct health effects on human beings. Despite the constant threats, the world is on the verge of overcoming the same through creativity. In the past landfills have featured many cities, however through creativity waste to energy efforts are yielding positive results, further still, recycling efforts by a number of local authorities are paying off. More efforts are being made in relation to environmental conservation all being conceptions of creativity. Through creativity, alternative sources of energy that are more environmentally friendly including wind power, hydroelectric power, and even solar power are being used.

Creativity has, in addition to the contribution to environmental conservation, been pivotal to great strides made in the field of healthcare. Currently, successful healthcare organizations are prioritizing on the improvement of mindset attributes and reasoning skills throughout the organization. Healthcare organization heads have learnt that accumulation of experience does not necessarily translate to better thinking. Critical and creative thinking is important to progress in clinical reasoning.  Through creativity health professionals can; the question, interpret, analyze, evaluate and infer a situation. Further still research in the medical field can greatly be attributed to creativity. Through creativity, treatment of previously complex diseases has been achieved. Progresses in radiotherapy, chemotherapy, organ transplants among others are products of creativity.

While we appreciate the progress made in the medical field through creativity, we can’t fail to recognize an almost equivalent progress in the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry survives entirely on creativity. Entertainment comes in many forms including films, music, poetry, and television shows among others.  A lot of creativity goes into successful films and music. The forms of entertainment must be in such a way that they appeal to the various audiences. Further still, they must feature scenes that are fictional and replicate the real world experiences. People in the entertainment industry are at their best when they are original; originality is a component of creativity.

Creativity is the main component of art. Art includes sculptures, paintings, drawings, logos, packaging for products, and even advertising scenes. Art must be in such a way that it creates the intended impression. For sculpture, it must resemble the real person whether in absentia or not. As such the artist must be in a position to conceive a perfect image of the said object. Further still, for logos and company symbols the artist must ensure uniqueness of the logo and a very close relationship between the logo and the business. A lot of creativity also goes into scenes of advertisements in both print and electronic media. These scenes must be in such a way that they capture the audience’s attention and at the same time communicate adequately on the intended message.

The criticality of creativity goes beyond art to the problem- solving. Every day we are faced with challenges as individuals and as a society. The challenges are limitless, and so are the opportunities to be creative. The many dimensions of challenges that we face as a society requires us to be innovative- a component of creativity. The challenges we face include; harsh weather conditions, political challenges, budget crisis, litigations among others. Creative individuals survive through challenges by finding solutions as opposed to implementing the already existing standard solution. Creativity shifts the focus from conventional ways of approaching challenges to whole new ways.  Creativity has led to among others more efficient mode of transports such as air transport as opposed to the traditional water transport.

The banking sector has faced tremendous progress courtesy of creative thinking. In the past banks have used a number of ways to verify their clients. Through creativity and innovation, the banks have made their verification processes easier and more efficient. Biometric technology was a technique where clients could be uniquely identified through distinguishing biological traits such as hand, face, fingerprints and DNA features. Through creativity, some banks are offering touch and voice security features. Further still, facial recognition and smartwatches are available in some financial institutions. Other than progress in their client recognition, banks have also made progress in money transfer and payment methods.

Communication is critical to our lives, so is creativity. Not only has creativity contributed immensely to the development of communication modes such as telephones, emails among others but also through it we are able to communicate effectively. Creativity has led to great strides in the development of communication modes, in the past messengers were used to send letters, later came the wired telephones to the mobile phones. Currently, video calls are largely popular and numerous instant message applications. Further still, through creativity, one can evaluate the intended message communicated and respond appropriately. Creativity reduces misunderstanding during communication as a creative individual can adequately assess the non- verbal cues in a communication setting.

Other than communication, creativity helps us recollect our history and further still conserve our culture. Creativity helps people appreciate their past. Creative individuals can write what happened in the past either by drawing from existing evidence or by recalling having been in the past. Through images painted on walls of caves, creative people are able to come up with the history of people who existed back then. From the images they derive the economic activities the people engaged in, their social lives, what they fed and even the age they existed on earth. Excavated objects has led to informative publications on the history of human beings

Leaders like anyone else, if not more than, ought to be creative. Creativity in leadership cannot be overlooked. Leadership positions may be political, religious or social groupings leadership. Much is expected of any leader as the direction giver. A group faced by a dilemma looks up to the leader for decisions. Further, groups have various targets and dreams; it is upon the leader to moderate the expectations of group members and also, through creativity formulate ways through which the needs of various group members are met (Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009, 464). A political leader ought to propel his or her constituents to higher levels of prosperity; spiritual leaders should formulate a way through which his or her congregation is adequately spiritually nourished regardless of the surrounding circumstances.

Creativity in leadership requires that a leader will first and foremost engage the right people. In an employment setting, it is imperative that the leader recasts the role of employees. Secondly and equally important is the need to tap ideas from all ranks, as such the leader will have a huge pool of ideas to pick from. It is also upon the leader to enable and encourage collaboration. The two are pivotal to propelling the said group higher.

Creativity and entrepreneurship are almost synonymous. Creativity has been tagged as a new source of competitiveness. Creativity has been defined  as coming up with something original and new; it is therefore associated with expressiveness, originality, innovation, invention, generative, pathfinder among other terms that are equally related to entrepreneurship. Globalization has led to greater competition, as such, entrepreneurs are adopting creative approaches to beat the competition and access the market with a considerably high level of opportunity. Creativity impacts permanently on the life of an entrepreneur. A creative, entrepreneurial approach grants the entrepreneur protection from ambiguity and uncertainty in decision making in the outside environment. (Dromereschi, 2014, 128 & 129)

Just like entrepreneurship, sports largely depend on creativity. Far too often, players, coaches, fans and team leadership cannot figure out on how to unleash their creativity and innovativeness. Yet the same people want improvement. A lot of input in terms serious exercise may output positive results, however, failure to yield results a team can result to more effective methods such as; change of game strategies, change of defense and offense schemes, conditioning regimes among others. Further still, the changes may involve alteration of the organization structure, practices, procedures, policies as well as organizational- decision-making approach. These changes should nevertheless be accompanied by the ability to tap both individual and team innovativeness and creativity (Memmert, Daniel, and Klaus 1428 & 1429). Creativity in sports ought to be well coordinated such that one team member’s move rhyme with the other. In addition creativity in sports ought to be swift and appropriately responsive to the opponent’s move.

We are continually faced by a number of social issues including; crime, advertising junk food to children, media propaganda, alcohol, and other drugs, corruption, poverty among others. Creative thinking is an avenue through which we can overcome the social issues facing us. As of now a number of steps have been taken in response to the issues raised. Through creative thinking, people have been educated on good eating habits. Further, through creativity, people have been sensitized against drug abuse. Through these ways, social issues are progressively being solved.

Fashion design tells a lot about an individual. It, however, does not end there; the source of a given design gives insight on the creativity of the designer. Fashion design is all about the creativity of the designer. A successful designer is one who is in a position to come up with a unique design of clothing that appeals to people. Further still, the designer should be in a position to shape the clothing in a way that it best fits the intended wearer. Fashion design is a dynamic field, for a designer to match up with the ever-changing field he or she ought to be in a position to change patterns, colors, and designs of clothing such that it befits the moment (Lanji-Krstić, S., 2012, 23).

Other than fashion design, people in the hospitality industry are met with demands of changing tastes of consumers. Further, competition from other restaurants and hotels has raised the bar and hence the need for unique recipes. For a restaurant to stand out in the competitive industry, it ought to have unique tastes and unique presentation of food being sold. These demands by the market can only be met through creativity. Through creativity, restaurants are able to source for new ingredients and more so mix them in unique ratios to output competitive tastes in the market.

Creativity also goes into managing finances in today’s economies. Financial managers are often faced with three dilemmas; growing the organization, focusing on the future or managing uncertainties. Balancing the three is not an easy agenda. The managers depend on their creative instincts to ensure continuity of the organization. In order to successfully tap into the said creativity, the financial managers ought to create a culture of continuous learning and being customer-centric. Financial managers are further expected to predict the profitability of a company in the future using available financial ratios (Sung and Choi, 2012, 6 & 7). The ability to deduct the future of the company with some level of accuracy largely depends on the creativity of the financial personnel.

The criminal justice system largely depends on the creativity of the personnel attached to the system. Through creativity, the personnel is able to deduce the steps to take in a given situation. From a short interrogation from a driver who has been pulled off the road, the personnel is in a position to tell what steps to take courtesy of creativity. While attending to their duties individuals in the criminal justice system are faced with many dilemmas in which they have to reconstruct and come up with a true position. These dilemmas may be presented as lies during the investigation, cover-ups and even false witnesses during the inquiry. During the investigation, the criminal justice system utilizes creativity to the best of their ability to collect undisputable evidence for successful conviction of offenders.

The myriad examples of applications of creativity only bring one to the conclusion that the creative is critical and the critical is creative. From above creativity is applied to nearly all, if not all, areas of the human life. Creativity is critical in that it is applied from the simplest areas of our lives including leisure all the way to our criminal justice system.  Failure to be creative in the many areas as above and more would lead to a collapse of systems; a non- creative leadership of a country will lead to strife, a non- creative medical personnel will lead to death a non- creative criminal justice system will lead to a violation of human rights. That is the criticality of creativity!