Chasing the elusive myth of creative thinking and innovation

Creative thought often seems to stem from the rarest and most unexpected places. Like a mythical creature, we wonder at its appearance and value its input in many occasions as a revelation of some sort. Indeed, there’s an incomplete perception that is common to most people by which they find difficult to explain creative thinking and so are willing to entertain certain myths about creative people as muses channeling this otherworldly force.

Yet, is this really how it works? Are creative people really just chosen by destiny to be born as the bearers of innovation? A lot of people find these ideas easier to accept than just admitting to themselves that they haven’t put much reflection to it, nor have they done any research into creative thinking, because as you may be guessing by now creative thought can actually be related more to discipline and practice than to what we call fate.

Innovators in history have shown that the efforts to chase after creative thinking are necessary to achieve this ability, most are not born with it nor do they receive their ideas in dreams or ecstatic trance.

Innovation is closely related to legacy. Those leaders that can see beyond their limited time as head of companies often worry about what things will constitute their legacy. Since it is not always easy to step beyond what the immediate decision-making process demands, leaders aspiring to leave a significant legacy behind them are concerned about managing both decision making abilities for the present and how their long term decisions will impact on the future of the company and the rest of the employees.

The groundbreaking work of a leader make him more often than not an innovator, the result of such innovations are what constitutes his legacy. The source of such innovation is the ability to balance managing the present of the company while at the same time making enough time aside to simple think about the future of it.

What does this mean? Well, it has been pointed out recently that innovation can possibly be the result of sustained reflection on a subject matter for a period of time as a regular practice shaped by discipline, thinking about possibilities or different outcomes as implications in the decision making process of the present.

Don’t be fooled by those who want to separate creativity and discipline, as if both were mutually exclusive, when in fact many business innovators as well as artists and inventors in other areas have stated quite unequivocally that hard work and discipline are the foundations from which new ideas can emerge.

Whether it’s music or business, a disciplined daily practice can yield unexpected positive results in the field of creative thought as we step outside our strained present to focus on possibilities and probabilities, implications of long-term decision-making and the considerations for the next generation of workers who will inherit your legacy.