Embrace Creativity No Matter Your Title

This post is the third post in a monthly series called The Curious Creative, which centers on creativity.

While networking at this month’s Connectover Cocktails, I met an AWC member with an engineering background who works in marketing for a tech company. She explained that her fellow engineers felt their world was so grounded in numbers and data there wasn’t much room for creativity. It sounded as if a line had been drawn in the office sand, with right brainers on one side and left brainers on the other.

Here’s the thing: creativity doesn’t care about departments. It doesn’t discriminate between a desk job and a coffee shop chair. That’s what’s so fantastic about it. Creativity can hit whenever, wherever, to whomever – unless it gets shut out with the mentality that your role doesn’t allow for it.

Take 3M, for example. The company went from selling sandpaper in the early 1900s to becoming one of today’s leading innovators, with up to 33 percent of sales each year from new products. Their scientists and engineers are likely knee-deep in numbers and data, yet they still manage to consistently innovate. Would 3M still be in business today if their employees believed creativity wasn’t welcomed?

Remember, there’s always a place for creativity on the job. Are you making room for it?

Photo uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons.