Lots of people think the only time they use creativity at work is during a brainstorm, but it’s actually a skill people use frequently throughout the day, often without realising it.
Anytime you’re trying to solve a problem – any problem – you’re using your creative thinking skills. You’re using those skills again whenever you improve someone else’s ideas. Or, when you want or need something, the right side of your head runs its own brainstorm to figure out ways to achieve it.
Probably the most common way that people use their creative skills at work is when they write. How you select your words, in what order, in what tone: that's all creativity.
Think about the last time you were writing something on the computer, and then it suddenly crashed, taking with it that important document you were typing. After you stopped cursing and began to re-write, didn't it improve the second time? Most likely you didn’t recreate it exactly: you used different words, phrasing or order. You essentially brainstormed another option, improving it the second time.
I'm not suggesting In the future to crash your computer to deliberately force yourself to be creative. But, you could try to write something once, set it aside for awhile, then re-write it a second or third time. Each version generally gets better.
Here’s another suggestion to improve your business writing. How many times – while typing – did you correct and edit yourself while you were also trying to write your document for the first time?
Writing is creative thinking. Editing is strategic thinking. It’s not efficient to try to apply both types of thinking at the same time because one skill slows down the other.
Any creative writing teacher will tell you it’s most effective to simply write – that is, to first create. Get all of your thoughts down on paper or via your keyboard so that you’ve completed a first draft. Then, once it’s written, then go back and edit. Now, you’re using both types of thinking, alone, at the proper time.
