Creativity is an in-demand skill, with studies showing that CEOs feel "innovation" is the number one priority for their business. But 77% of those CEOs also believe it's hard to find employees with creativity and innovation skills.But, in reality, plenty of people meet the criteria. The problem is in the societal and cultural conventions around working that prevent employees from being creative.

Organisations rarely foster creativity.

In working cultures, there is an underlying belief that "productivity requires speed". Therefore, organisations value people who work fast, make quick decisions and tick off their to-do list. In reality, this 'fast productivity' stifles creativity and innovation.

The Productivity Illusion

Our tendency to value fast productivity prevents us from keeping an open mind once we find a solution to a problem.To avoid this, you should encourage extra incubation of ideas toward the end of the decision-making process.

Resolving things too quickly prevents innovation.

Organisations tend to reward "smart-talkers", who sound more intelligent when they're critical of others, ideas, and works. When people engage in criticism, they appear (at face value) to be more competent and are rewarded by leaders.

The Intelligence Illusion

After taking over Pixar, Steve Jobs implemented a policy of "plussing", which led to great success. Plussing is a simple strategy where someone can only criticise an idea if they also offer a potential solution. This helps to improve on ideas, remove flaws, and generate new ideas.

Encourage positivity to generate more ideas.

Traditional group brainstorming isn't as productive as we think. Group brainstorming feels productive because we experience connection with others. But in reality, this type of brainstorming can prevent people from interjecting with their ideas, promote anxiety, and make disenfranchised employees feel unsafe.

The Brainstorming Illusion

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14748460.2012.691284">A Yale study</a> found that when individuals came up with ideas by themselves, there were double the amount generated during a group session.To capitalise on this, you should capture people's ideas before bringing them to the whole group. Then, once in the group, the ideas should be "plussed".

Individual ideation results in 2x the ideas.

<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.success.com%2F10-inspiring-quotes-on-innovation%2F&text=%E2%80%9CIf%20you%20want%20something%20new%2C%20you%20have%20to%20stop%20doing%20something%20old.%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93Peter%20F.%20Drucker&via=successmagazine&related=successmagazine">“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”</a>

Organisations want innovators, and creative people want to be supported in the workplace. So we need to change the way the workplace works for everyone's benefit.

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Personal Development

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Corporate Culture

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Problem Solving

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Teamwork

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Leadership & Management

3 Common Fallacies About Creativity

It can seem counterintuitive when you already feel overwhelmed and behind, but adults with ADHD need downtime to be productive.

ADHD adults need downtime to be productive.

Your brain can only work so hard before it conks out. When you overwork your brain, you become less productive.

Downtime is a key part of managing ADHD.

Your brain, much like the rest of your body, needs rest to stay healthy and operate at its highest level.

Your brain needs rest.

Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life.

There is a difference between being stimulated and overstimulated. When your brain is overstimulated, it can feel like running on a hamster wheel with no end in sight.

The ADHD brain needs to be stimulated so you must find a balance

An ADHD brain needs to get enough stimulation even while resting.Some activities that can be restful with a small level of stimulation include:<ul><li>"mindless" walks</li><li>light cleaning</li><li>pulling weeds</li><li>taking a bath</li><li>walking meditation</li><li>sleeping</li></ul>

Downtime may take more work for ADHD adults.

When you have so much to do, taking downtime can feel uncomfortable. This is partly because ADHD can make it hard for you to slow down, but it's also because you have developed a habit of "being busy".Because it's a habit, you need to take time and practice to unlearn "being busy".

Taking downtime will be uncomfortable at first.

Breaking the habit and forming a new one where you allow your brain time to rest and recharge is important. Because it's hard to do, you should start with a short time. Maybe just 15 minutes. There are some tasks you can do in 15 minutes that provide stimulation while being restful, like brewing a pot of tea or coffee, wiping down your kitchen benches, a short moving meditation, or interacting with a pet.

Start with a short amount of time.

ADHD adults need downtime to be productive. Really. See why this is true and how you can get the downtime you need.

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Productivity

The 3 Reasons ADHD Adults Need Downtime to Be Productive

Some of the greatest achievements have relied on creativity, imagination, curiosity, and empathy, not just IQ.

IQ isn't the be-all end-all

"Cognitive flexibility" is a skill that enables us to switch between different concepts, and to adapt behaviour to achieve goals in changing environments.

Cognitive flexibility combines all these skills.

Cognitive flexibility is about learning to learn and being able to be flexible about the way you learn.

If you normally take the same route to work, but there are now roadworks, what do you do? Some people stick to the original plan, despite the delay. People with more cognitive flexibility adapt and problem-solve to find a solution.

We use cognitive flexibility every day.

Flexible thinking is key to creativity.

Unlike working memory (how much you can remember at a certain time), cognitive flexibility does not rely on IQ.

Flexible thinking is independent of IQ.

Creativity is an important part in science and innovation, making flexible thinking important for innovation.

Science and innovation needs creativity.

Flexible thinking helps people recognise potential faults and find solutions.

Cognitive flexibility protects against bias.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and structural learning are ways to improve cognitive flexibility.

You can build cognitive flexibility.

Cognitive flexibility is essential for society to flourish.

Are you good at changing perspectives? If so, it may benefit you in more ways than you imagine.

IQ tests can't measure it, but 'cognitive flexibility' is key to learning and creativity

For freelancers, clients don't usually care about your working hours, as long as you get projects in on time. Introduce a routine that works around when you are most productive, even if it means working in the evening instead of the morning. Just make sure you have a set start time and a set finish time.

1. Introduce routine

Start the day with a list of everything that needs to be completed by the end of the day. Prioritise them, and tick things off as you go.If you are easily overwhelmed, break each task down into small manageable chunks so it's easier to do one step at a time.Only write down tasks that need to be completed today. If you get those done, you can add more later. This helps you feel motivated and like you've achieved what you set out to do.

2. Prioritise tasks

You might like to work with something happening in the background, and that's okay. But you should minimise other distractions. That might mean turning off notifications, staying off social media, or setting an autoresponder to emails.

3. Avoid distractions

Multitasking isn't effective—it lowers productivity and can lead to feeling overwhelmed. <ul><li>Focus on one task until it's complete.</li><li>Say no to work that you don't need to do or can be done by someone else.</li><li>Don't keep too many tabs or screens open.</li></ul>Clients will respect you more when you consistently do a good job, not because you take on too many jobs at once.

4. Stay focused

Find a productivity technique that works for you. Try the pomodoro technique—set a 25 minute timer, focus only on the one task, then take a 5 minute break.

5. Manage your time

<ul><li>Use your lunchbreak to go outside.</li><li>Take your laptop to a coffee shop or library for a change of scenery.</li></ul>

6. Minimise cabin fever

Done is better than perfect.

Give yourself permission to make mistakes. When we make mistakes, we learn, and we grow.

7. Curb perfectionism

7 tips to boost productivity and stop procrastination – whether you're an experienced freelancer or new to working from home.

Driven to distraction? 7 top tips to stop procrastination when working from home - Sarah Townsend Editorial

It's a myth that creative geniuses like Mozart or scientific geniuses like Darwin rarely failed. Creative geniuses fail often, but rather than stopping, they persevere.

Failure-Free is a Myth

Creative people do more experiements. Their "stroke of genius" don't come about because they succeed more often than others - they just make more attempts, so are more likely to succeed.

Creative geniuses take more shots

If you want more success, you have to be prepared to shrug off more failure.

Thomas Edison understood that an experiment that ended in failure was not a failed experiment, as long as constructive learning is gained in the process.

Experiments ending in failure are not failed experiments

The faster you find weaknesses during the innovation cycle, the faster you can improve.

Early failure is crucial for successful innovation

Geniuses like Edison, the Wright brothers, and modern day creatives are not defensive or embarrased about using trial and error. If you ask any seasoned innovator, they will probably have a collection of "war stories" about failures before their success.

Creative geniuses are not embarrassed by "failure"

The lessons learned from failures may make us smarter—even stronger.

Fear of failure holds us back from learning new skills, taking risks, and tackling new challenges. When we approach fear of failure head on, we can experience and learn new things.

Facing failure wipes away our fears

In our experience, one of the scariest snakes in the room is the fear of failure, which manifests itself in many ways like fear of being judged, fear of getting started, fear of the unknown.

Designers Must Learn to Embrace Failure | TIME.com

The attention span of internet users has dropped from <a href="https://www.go-gulf.ae/blog/how-people-read-content-online/">12 seconds to 8 seconds</a>. That means you’ve got to grab your readers and convince them to stay. Or, at the very least, quickly give them something they can take away.

Keep Sentences and Paragraphs Short

Subheadings can<a href="https://www.copyblogger.com/smart-subheads/"> act as signposts, </a>ensuring that distracted readers stay engaged with your content.Google also finds headings helpful. The search engine uses heading tags to understand the structure of a webpage and assess how relevant the content is to the search request.

Use Headings

A sentence in active voice focuses on the subject performing an action, buta passive sentence focuses on the receiver of the action.

Active writing is more powerful.

One of the most popular ways to <a href="https://www.grammarly.com/blog/a-scary-easy-way-to-help-you-find-passive-voice/">identify passive voice</a> is by adding “by zombies” after the action. If the sentence still makes sense, it’s passive. Here are some examples showing the difference.<ul><li>“Mistakes were made [by zombies]” vs “I made a mistake [by zombies].”</li><li>“The sandwich was eaten [by zombies]” vs “Greg ate the sandwich [by zombies].”</li><li>“The essay was written [by zombies]” vs, “The student wrote the essay [by zombies].”</li></ul>

Passive writing is written by zombies.

There are a lot of ways you can encourage sharing of your content, including:<ul><li>Adding images — posts with relevant images get <a href="https://www.mdgadvertising.com/marketing-insights/infographics/its-all-about-the-images-infographic/">94% more views</a> than those without images and have 352% more engagement than links</li><li>Using easy social share buttons, like the bar on the bottom of this page</li><li>Implementing <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/click-to-tweet-by-todaymade/">click to tweet</a> functionality</li></ul>

Say it with social

There's always room for improvement in writing, especially when your blog is competing for attention on Google. Check out these 6 quick tips.

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6 Simple Tips for Bloggers - Improve your Blog Writing Now!

Creativity is something you practice, not just a talent you’re born with.

You are creative. 

Even when we want to embrace our creative ideas, acting on them presents its own challenges. Creative efforts are hardest at the beginning. To overcome this inertia, good ideas are not enough. You need to stop planning and just get started—and the best way to do that is to stop focusing on the huge overall task and find a small piece you can tackle right away.Our mantra is “Don’t get ready, get started!” The first step will seem much less daunting if you make it a tiny one and you force yourself to do it right now . Rather than stalling and allowing your anxiety to build, just start inching toward the snake.

Don't get ready; get started. 

Confidence doesn’t simply mean believing your ideas are good. It means having the humility to let go of ideas that aren’t working and to accept good ideas from other people. When you abandon the status quo and work collaboratively, you sacrifice control over your product, your team, and your business. But the creative gains can more than compensate. Again, you can start small. If you’re facing a tough challenge, try calling a meeting with people fresh to the topic. Or break the routine of a weekly meeting by letting the most junior person in the room set the agenda and lead it. Look for opportunities to cede control and leverage different perspectives.

Humility builds confidence. 

How to get over the fears that block your best ideas

3 Common Fallacies About Creativity

The 3 Reasons ADHD Adults Need Downtime to Be Productive

IQ tests can't measure it, but 'cognitive flexibility' is key to learning and creativity

Driven to distraction? 7 top tips to stop procrastination when working from home - Sarah Townsend Editorial

Designers Must Learn to Embrace Failure | TIME.com

Teagan Sincock