Many of you might not know this, but I landed at Glitter Guide by chance. My background is in finance and I am SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources) certified. For all intents and purposes, I should be in a cubicle somewhere. I actually really enjoy the HR aspect of my training, as nerdy as that would seem. If you had told me five years ago how much creativity would affect my day-to-day job, I would have laughed. But, here we are.
We made the shift to focus on creativity here at Glitter Guide a little over a year ago, and I still worry that sometimes the articles might feel “out of reach” for people like me who don’t work in “creative” jobs and aren’t necessarily artistic in their off hours. So I hope if you’re reading this, you understand that I’m writing this just for you. Creativity isn’t just important for creative jobs. All jobs require some level of creativity, whether it’s in a visual art form or behind-the-scenes organization.
Problem-solving requires creativity. Noticing that something is broken is an essential prerequisite for coming up with a creative solution to fix. If you haven’t, I highly recommend reading Creative Confidence: Unleashing The Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley and David Kelley. It’s a fabulous read because it shatters the false belief that only some people are creative. Then it provides a smart, practical action plan for boosting your innovative capacities.
“It turns out that creativity isn’t some rare gift to be enjoyed by the lucky few—it’s a natural part of human thinking and behavior. In too many of us it gets blocked. But it can be unblocked. And unblocking that creative spark can have far-reaching implications for yourself, your organization, and your community.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a job that doesn’t require some degree of creativity, when you truly break it all down. Think about people like software or web developers, who solve problems all day long, or the accountant, who can look at figures in way that helps businesses maximize the efficiency of their revenue? Customer-facing people, too, work and communicate creatively—simultaneously—in unpredictable environments.
So how can you infuse creativity into your “uncreative” job?
Offer to create content
Do you enjoy writing? Or maybe you’re an amateur photog? Whether it’s the weekly company newsletter, an upcoming special event or just a policy change memo, there are endless opportunities for creativity. Tasks like designing layouts, brainstorming ideas, editing photos, sharing on social media and writing copy is a fun and helpful way to contribute in a creative way. You never know what new doors might open after awhile!
Streamline department workflows
As a complete organization nerd, I will be the first to tell you that organization and systems requires oodles of creativity. Think about a problem or inconvenience you have in one of your daily systems. Is your inbox near capacity each day? Is there a departmental workflow that could use some tweaking? Seek out a better system! Identify the problem and come up with some new options that could provide a creative solution. The best part about this tactic is it’s a living document so to speak, so you can always be revamping and restructuring your systems based on your creative ideas.
Bring creativity into your space
If you have a dedicated office or cubicle, use that space to visually inspire your creativity. Even if you aren’t routinely performing “creative” tasks, having a workspace that inspires your creativity can help you level up no matter what you’re working on. Make a vision board of decorate using colors, patterns and imagery that inspires you to dream big and think outside the box.
Learn a new skill
With technology at our fingertips, there seems to be a never-ending opportunity for learning a new skill. Whether it be taking an online accounting course or learning how to run a new batch of analytics, learning new skills automatically weaves creativity into your daily work routine. And like I mentioned before, you never know what learning this new skill might open the door for. If you learn how to create custom formulaic spreadsheets to track your new analytical data, that new skill could lead to coming up with creative solutions for your data findings. OK, I’m getting super nerdy now, but you get the gist.
You don’t have to have a creative career to be creative in your day-to-day job. All it takes is a little initiative and attention to detail!
