Creativity is the foundation of all innovation, whether in art, finance or technology.Katelyn Truong
Steve Jobs studied calligraphy. Microsoft hosts an annual Hackathon for employee passion projects. Google has invited inspirational figures like Lady Gaga and now-retired NASA chief scientist Jim Green to speak to its staff.
Creativity is the foundation of all innovation, whether in art, finance or technology. Companies that have figured out how to hone creativity are often on the leading edge of any sector. Yet, the typical workplace is not exactly an incubator of ingenuity, suggests Eve-Marie Blouin-Hudon, a psychologist and founder of Ottawa-based Bevy Creative, which provides workshops and creativity coaching a range of organizations.
“A lot of the time, especially in the workplace, we approach our work very cognitively … everything is planned and prepared for,” says Ms. Blouin-Hudon, who also teaches an undergraduate course on creativity, play and workplace innovation at Carleton University.
The creative process doesn’t thrive that way, she says. Inspiration is more likely to come from listening to music, watching a movie, taking a walk or even doing the dishes.
Children have inherent creativity, she says.
“Children just express themselves. They’ll explore. They’re curious. They’ll play around and deconstruct things and put things back together just for the enjoyment of it or out of curiosity,” says Ms. Blouin-Hudon, who is also a senior organizational psychologist at Shopify.
Adults feel self-conscious, she says, worrying people will think they’re wasting their time.
“And we feel guilt because we’re trying to be productive at all times, and we don’t necessarily want to do something that might not create an output that is useful.”
Ms. Blouin-Hudon encourages play as a means to reconnect with creativity. She’s brought out Lego, silly putty and crayons in classes and workshops. She encourages daydreaming.
By cultivating this practice over time, people can rewire their brains to make room for creative thought to emerge.
“You can absolutely do it in a work environment. It’s just about being intentional about creating that space,” she says.
Still, when you earn a living from your creativity, it might require a recharge.
Hal Brolund’s livelihood as a blues musician and songwriter depends on being creative. Known as Manitoba Hal, Mr. Brolund has recorded 11 albums, toured Canada many times, performed in Australia and New Zealand, crisscrossed Europe, and spent last Canada Day on stage in France.
He has a creativity coach, Nicole Colbeck of Ottawa-based Little Acorn Creative Coaching, who regularly sends him writing prompts to help get his creative juices flowing.
“Three or four of the songs on every one of my recordings might have come from one of her prompts and the creative work that she does,” says the musician who now calls Shelburne, N.S., home. “A lot of artists suffer from the idea that they’re waiting for the muse, waiting for the idea to strike, and she takes that part out; she gives the idea and you use your tools. That really helped me many times to come up with songs.”
Ms. Colbeck also believes creativity isn’t a rare gift but a skill all humans have that sometimes needs to be relearned in adulthood.
“We all start out being really creative,” she says.
To reconnect with it, Ms. Colbeck suggests creating a space that doesn’t have to be cleaned up and put away at the end of the day. It’s easier to sit down and create if the tools are ready, she says.
She also recommends scheduling time during the day or week to create and stick to it. It’s a time without television or social media scrolling to rest your brain and give your mind time to expand.
“I believe exercising and strengthening those muscles can only serve in helping us broaden the way we think no matter what we are approaching, whether it’s cooking a meal, knitting a sock or creating an entire event, or whatever it is,” she says.
This is your brain on creativity
When we are sitting and doing nothing, our brains are not. There are networks in the brain that are more active when we’re doing nothing, and neuroscientists believe this is when the creative magic may happen.
This “default mode network” is a fairly recent discovery made by accident, says Olav Krigolson, a neuroscientist who runs the Theoretical and Applied Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Victoria, known as the Krigolson Lab.
Researchers studying brain activity noticed certain areas of the brain were lighting up more during rest breaks than when participants were involved in experimental tasks, Dr. Krigolson explains.
“You might assume that when you don’t do anything, that your brain activity just goes flat but that’s not true. There is this network within the brain that’s actually more activated,” Dr. Krigolson says. “The [theory] is that this is necessary for things like creativity, when your brain gets to wander a bit, daydream, things like this.”
There are other elements that more definitively contribute to creativity, he says. First and foremost is overall brain health.
“If you have a healthier brain, you’re going to be more creative,” Dr. Krigolson says. “That comes down to sleep, diet and exercise. The evidence for all of that is pretty clear.”
He says that activities that engage the brain and social engagement are also important to brain health. Mindfulness also has an effect, and activities like yoga, breathing exercise or whatever puts your brain into a more mindful state are beneficial, he adds.
Experience is an important ingredient. To be able to create, you have to have a lot of experience or what scientists call building a bigger schema, he says. For example, he explains that someone who has only heard a single song can’t compose a new piece of music.
“Our brains do better when we experience more,” he says.
The brain’s prefrontal cortex is related to high-level thought and is also associated with creativity.
“People who are more creative tend to have more activity in the prefrontal cortex as a whole,” Dr. Krigolson says.
Some of that is nature, but people can develop their prefrontal cortex by engaging the brain to think hard. For example, seniors can do Sudoku and puzzles to improve brain function, he says.
The brain is obviously not a muscle, he says.
“But you can exercise your brain in a sense. If you want to get better at thinking, then you need to think more, just as if you wanted to get better at reading, you need to read more,” he says.
There is a genetic factor, Dr. Krigolson says. Geniuses don’t have bigger brains than anyone else, but they have more neural connections, meaning different brain areas are better connected.
“Einstein, for instance, was born with a couple of advantages. I’m sure his childhood included things that helped his prefrontal cortex and experience, but at the same time, his brain was probably wired a bit differently. It’s not left- versus right-brain. It’s more about this interconnectivity between regions.”
The brain’s attentional system also seems to be a factor. These are regions of the brain linked to focus.
The theory is that creative people tend to have more flexibility with their attentional system, able to hyper-focus and relax, he says.
All of these are related to creativity.
“Creativity doesn’t stem from one magical spot of the brain,” Dr. Krigolson says. “It stems from a range of brain regions and brain systems working together.”