Business tends to like the word “innovation,” but not the word “creativity.”

Things that are innovative are good and to be desired, but creativity is treated as a soft skill, and is therefore thought of as “foreign” to “business.”

Personally, I think this is due to a misunderstanding of the word “creativity.”

Creativity is not pulling something out of thin air. “Being creative” is not something the Art Department does, but Operations does not. Creativity is not knowing the company logo should be a particular shade of orange.

No, creativity is simply the solving of problems under constraints.

People solve problems under constraints all day long. In fact, that’s pretty much all we humans do. Cooking dinner for your kids tonight, when all you have at home is spaghetti and butter? That’s creative. Figuring out how to not smell bad even though the city is working on the water main and you can’t take a shower? That’s creative.

Wherever there is a constraint, there’s probably someone trying to figure out how to get around it.

And therefore creativity is all around us.

Creativity is not an other. It is us, all the time.

What does this have to do with your presentations? Maybe something, maybe nothing. I’m not going to try tying this into presentations today. I’m just going to stand on my soapbox a bit and rag on this misconception that “business” and “creativity” are somehow occupying different worlds. 😉

You are creative even if you think you’re not. Broaden your definition of the word.