Creativity Unleashed: Debunking the Myth of the ‘Non-Creative’

Yuen 

Are you creative? 

Mike 

No. Why would I need to be creative? I'm a clinician. 

Yuen 

If you don't think you need to be, think again. 

Mike 

Today, we'll focus on creativity. My name is Mike. 

Yuen 

And it's Yuen. 

Mike 

Welcome to The Imperfect Clinician. 

Today we wanted to talk about creativity. It is quite a big one I think. And are we all creative? 

Yuen 

What I've found in the healthcare world. Is one else people do you see? Yourself as a creative. Oh, no, no. No, I can't do any of the artistic stuff. So no, I'm not a creative. When I ask students. Are you creative? Ohh, no, I don't need to be. I just want to be more clinical. 

Mike 

OK, so there is a perception of creativity that leads us to a conclusion that creative person needs to be able to make something out of nothing. So let's go into the definition. What is creativity for you? 

Yuen 

I think creativity for me is thinking outside the box. When you say creating something out of nothing, I see that quite regularly as a problem solving skill. If it's something that's new, you have to think of different ways of dealing with it. If. The usual inverted commas usual way of dealing with the problem doesn't work, so I see that as a creativity or when you have to look at the problem and solve it creatively. 

Mike 

OK, solve creatively so creativity. You first mentioned about when you ask people whether they are creative. They make this connotation with art or being able to, I don't know, have some manual skills or I don't know, music or whatever. But now we're talking. About the skill solving, where is the relation? Is there a common ground or are they completely two different things? 

Yuen 

I think we are creative, innately looking at a baby, a child, they constantly. Drawing on something colouring and it's just their way of expressing themselves. And the thing being creative, it's just been. What part of you? Maybe with time that's not being nurtured and nourished because of, I don't know. Judgement don't want to be seen as this or that, or maybe people commented on that and so that part of us then are not thriving. I see the artists family encourage that different perspective view of art, whether that is painting, music and spirit on and encourage that in children. So that is not reduced. So when you talk about. Having creativity, I think this is something that all of us innately have. For example, I want to be creative with my cooking and you just create thing out of scratch. I think that is creativity. If you want to. I don't know plate of food differently. That is a form of creativity. If a child wants to go and bang on the piano and make a tune, that's completely out of tune. They're being creative and having fun with it. 

Mike 

As he's trialling different concepts, different things that are outside of what they know so far. Yeah. OK. So if you, if you go back, really go back, I mean talking to Ancient Greece and you look at Plato, Plato for example, never thought that painters were creative because they don't create, they imitate whatever they see in front of them, for example. OK, so they lacked the definition of creativity. In that form. They were more when it comes to making something that comes to poetry as such, because poetry comes from polyene. I think, as the Greek term, if I remember correctly, for creation and that comes later on into poetry and writing, things usually rhyme. But not not exclusively. So there are different concepts of creativity and different definitions. I quite like the. Definition by Robert Sternberg, who says that it's essentially making something original and worthwhile, so it is. Going outside of the box of the problem that is in front of you or whether you want to entertain yourself with music with a problem to solve potentially at work as well. Two either overcome the issue or create something that would be ohh enjoyable, you know, worthwhile in one sense or the other. 

Yuen 

Yeah, and and I guess you gave me a bit more clarity because when I first. Heard the term or the sentence, or the quote that you've just mentioned my first question. Would be. What is the definition of worthwhile? Because it's different for other people. 

Mike 

And there's the thing. It's very, very individual because this is a very broad subject and putting it into, you know, one sentence is very, very hard, but making something worthwhile means that you invested the time to appreciate that. Or for others to appreciate. 

Yuen 

It. Yeah. And I think hopefully by giving people some perspective of being creative, you have the ability to then reflect on how you are now and go, what do I enjoy being creative in. It doesn't have to be work related. As I said it can be. I don't know. Cooking, decorating, DIY. 

Mike 

That's correct. But then when it comes to like a theology of the word as such, there are people, namely for example, Ignacio Götz, who argued that because we consider creativity as making something. And he argued that creativity is not necessarily. The making of things is just the process or the act of creating without actually deciding on the end product on the. And result or on the end purpose. So it's just the act of getting from point A to B without necessarily achieving anything as such. 

Yuen 

And I'm hoping that creativity is not limited just by those definitions, because I see other people skills. For example, when Bruno Brown looks at her evidence in her research, she can tie lots of seemingly unrelated. Findings into a relatable and digestible content. And so people can then learn from it. I think that's a very creative skill. 

Mike 

That is a very creative skill indeed. 

Yuen 

Yeah, that's that's why. When when you say creating something from nothing, even the ability to take on a material and then adapt it or upgrade it to something that will resonate with more people and meet more people and perhaps help them. I see that as creativity too, even if it's something like trying different teeth or. Ohh, it can be seeped into every parts of your life. It doesn't have to be big and it doesn't have to be in others eyes worthwhile as long as it brings you joy. I think we probably need to learn to embrace our creativity more. More so than what we're doing now. 

Mike 

I completely agree, and I think that understanding that we all can have a slightly different understanding of creativity is very, very important because we all think ohh you paint pictures for example. Therefore you are creative, but they don't take into consideration that they buy. I don't know, let's say, going back to cooking that they create flavour, maybe a new combination, whatever they trialling out, making errors, making mistakes for meat, creativities trying something new. Without the fear of failure, because it opens up to a new possibilities and you have to be able to. If you're thinking outside of the. Box you are bound. To potentially make mistakes, and this is a learning process on how to become more. Creative more aware of those instincts and your emotional intelligence in that respect, what is the link between intelligence and creativity? Is creativity only? I don't know. Assigned together with intelligence. 

Yuen 

No. So. And creativity is linked with psychological safety. Me and it's exactly what you've said about not being afraid to make mistake, because if you're in a workplace and you feel safe, you're able to come up with creative ideas and say, why don't we try doing this? How about if we try doing that, that doesn't work? Let's try another different way. And so the psychological safety needs to come from that. So just to give a brief definition, we talked about in our previous episode, this is when you feel that you are safe to voice your own opinion without a culture of blame and judgement. And the whole of you, the whole authentic self is being accepted in the group. So you have a sense of belonging. And you feel psychologically safe and in a thriving environment. As such, people then feel empowered to take ownership. Of what's happening, it doesn't have to wait for a problem to happen. It can be. What system do we have now and what can we tweak to make it better? And all of these requires creativity, because any place that you work in, not one. It's the same regardless of where you are, and so you have to go into each individual space, gather intelligence, speak to people, understand the culture before you can come up with ideas that works for everyone. Or maybe you need even more engagement. In order for the idea to be implemented to see. Whether it is working? 

Mike 

OK, so now can you be creative without being original? In my opinion, by all means. I mean, it can go hand in hand when you create some sort of innovation of 1, sort of another, but I don't think necessarily that if you're for example reproducing somebody's picture or if you're working on the idea. Solution of the problem that may not necessarily be Ultra original, but when you implemented. In a positive manner and in a manner that solves the problem, but that doesn't necessarily prove that you have to be original. But you still can be creative. 

Yuen 

Yes. And when you implement an idea, I think as most things, especially in healthcare, I would say most things the devil’s in the detail. So how you implement it and the people that you have and how you have to adapt it to or communicate it to motivate the people who will be driving the change with. To you, that is not going to be a one size fit all because everyone will have different groups of people. Everyone will have different relationships at work. Everyone will have different. Cultures at work. And so, yes, maybe the brief vision or idea might be similar. However, how you implement it and how you engage and how you go all that didn't really land very well. What other ways can I do it? Those are encountering a problem. And looking at it from a creative perspective and. In order for you to be creative, you also need to work in collaboration. And when you work in collaboration, whether it's on a smaller scale or a larger scale, whether you are speaking with different stakeholders, those requires collaboration and for collaboration to work, it requires creativity. 

Mike 

So collective creativity adds on to the possible number of the solutions. 

Yuen 

Yes, definitely, because if you, let's say from a from a small team perspective, if a team of 10 feels safe. Everyone will come up with ideas. And they will discuss it and maybe improve it within themselves, but then everyone will come back and say, right? What works well? What doesn't work well and what can be better? So yes, when you have that environment, you will have that creativity and collaboration across whether it's a small. Group of people or whether it's a larger scale of system partnership.  

Mike 

Absolutely. And for those who want to find out a bit more about creativity, I would urge you to look closer into Torrance’s tests of creative thinking, which is a test of creativity or problem solving skills. And based on four different. Sales later, it was a bit updated, but the four scales are fluency, so the number of meaningful solutions then there is flexibility on the number of different categories of solution to the problem. Then there is originality, so potentially rarity of the solutions as such and then there is elaboration. So so going into details, I mean later on it was a bit updated. I think it got rid of the flexibility and included resistance to premature closure, so to make sure that we are persistent in finding the solution. So that was a big piece of research that Ellis Torrance have put into their creativity as a model as such. But now. For me, out of all this, you know, deliberate. Can on how we approach the problems and how we go about them, even in a collective, it's all about trying essentially about dropping those ideas, being in a safe space where we can feel included in adding ideas. That could solve the problem that is ahead of us and also on the individual level. That includes being individually created. If in terms of, for example, picking up a pencil and drawing, making those mistakes, I mean I am the last person on the planet that should pick up the pen to try to draw anything. I am struggling to draw a straight line with the ruler, but I would still have a go if I need to, I mean. Our little girls. To encourage or to expect sometimes us to do some things with them, and that allows me to, despite you know, being fully aware that I'm probably never going to draw anything pretty, but I still do try and do create something on my own terms. How creative are you? What do you do for creation? 

Yuen 

I am now able to say because I was one of those that goes ohh. I'm not. I'm not creative and now looking back. I am. I've always been. I just wasn't embracing that part of myself, so I restarted sketching and painting again during COVID. And restarted playing the piano again during those time and when I was retracing my steps into why? Why I stopped. One of the reasons for stopping any artistic endeavours was because of the culture of. Arts, where I was growing up. You have to draw what you've been told to, and it has to be done according to what's been said. 

Mike 

So there's the imitation we were talking about, right? 

Yuen 

Yeah. And and I didn't like it. I I wanted to do my own thing. And so because it wasn't up to standard, it wasn't encouraged or it was judged poorly to the point instead of just poorly on my skill. You're not a good listener. You're not a good student. And and, you know, judging my character. Directly and so I just stopped. But when I started doing. It just for the sake of doing it. And like you said, worthwhile for me. I found that it is an endeavour that allows me to just be I don't have to live up to certain standards, not even my own. And when I'm trying to work on not being a perfectionist, I will force myself to. To do. One stroke for the whole picture, you know, sometimes when I want things to be right, I tend to erase it and repeat it again and erase and repeat it again. And one stroke for the whole picture forces me to accept whatever that is being put on the paper and accepting. The imperfection, and I think when I started embracing the creative part of myself I then started to realise I was able to look at problems and try to see them from a different perspective and I was able to come up with more creative solutions or even creative pilots where things are not being done ever before and I thought why don't I try this. And I discussed with people and we try and. It worked, sometimes it doesn't. But then it's, you know, it's still worth a try, so. I think it's specially in the world where most things are glamorised is that a word? 

Mike 

Now it is. 

Yuen 

When everything is being put on to be, you know, so beautiful or. You know and. It's a completed piece of work learning to accept that, ohh, not very happy with that, but. That allowed me to switch my brain off for 20 minutes an hour, and I'm grateful for that. And so when I always come back to it, it then brings me more joy. And now I see it as one of my toolkit for me to relax. 

Mike 

OK, few things what I've noticed. For what you were saying, so you mentioned that the culture you grew up with essentially promoted copying of the right either behaviours solutions to the problems drawing things perfectly playing music recording. Yeah. What the teacher says. OK, so now the creative solution to satisfying your own personal needs would have come out of certain level of rebellion. So this was the standing in opposition. 

Yuen 

According to what the teacher said. 

Mike 

To what you realise as a norm, so now can we say that being creative is being against? 

Yuen 

Maybe because what is the norm anyway? 

Mike 

That's the thing the the definition is very, very individual. 

Yuen 

And if you look at replicating that environment in a workplace where you say to somebody, no, you have to do exactly what I told you to you are removing and disempowering people. Because they'll go. Oh, what's the point of me having my own opinion? You're not gonna listen anyway. And so people lose interest. People lose motivation. And the creativity essentially, the leader is stepping it out and removing it essentially even though it's such. A great asset to the team, but this might come from the need for control, the need to be right. 

Mike 

They need to be liked, they need to be conforming to, I don't know, organisations or to the patterns of thinking that are preferred rather than encourage those thinking outside of the box. 

Yuen 

And the need for eager. 

Mike 

Yeah, and the need for personal gratification of feeding your personal ego as such. So now, is it hard to be creative? Does it have to be hard to be creative? 

Yuen 

I don't think so. It can be as simple as looking at the clouds and think ohh what shape do I see and you will see a different shape than anybody else. Looking at the leaves and saying is that a sheep? 

Mike 

Yeah, but there is a difference between seeing things in a slightly different way and expressing it. For example, in a team, when it's hitting, there is a problem, OK? 

Yuen 

Yes, but you don't have to start big. Start by baby steps, not asking you to run a marathon straight away. 

Mike 

No, I agree. 

Yuen 

Starts where, where you go actually, which part of my day am I being creative and calling it being creative because we are all creative creatures and which parts of it do I enjoy? And I think when you do that, it becomes a nourishing activity. And when you do. More of nourishing activities. You realise different parts of you start to bloom and you, you might make one link from cooking to another. Who knows? This is a great opportunity for people to reflect. Both personally and at work. Whether you are a manager or a leader or not start from work and go: How do I feel? Are my thoughts opinions being listened to? Am I a creative problem solver or am I creative at work? 

Mike 

But is being creative finding the solution that's going to fix it, or finding a number of solutions that might be tested? 

Yuen 

The latter. 

Mike 

Well, I think it can be both. 

Yuen 

It can be both. But when you do more of the second one, you will get to the first one anyway. 

Mike 

Well, that is very true, but they both can be done in a creative manner. 

Yuen 

But I but I chose yes, but I chose the second one because the second one encourages trying, not encouraging purely results. And so when you encourage people to try and to voice opinion and to support them with that, you will get to point #1. 

Mike 

Realising it, that says the difference from it. 

Yuen 

Because I feel point number one is more of a short term goal point #2 it's. A long term goal. 

Mike 

So in that respect, if you are saying about yourself that I'm not creative it may equal that I'm not willing to try. To fail. 

Yuen 

Or I am scared too, yes. 

Mike 

Ohh I'm scared to fail. Yeah, whatever. The the feelings about it is. 

Yuen 

Or maybe they don't see that as being creative. I've I've spoken to some of the students previously and they go after a brief conversation, they go, actually, if that's the case, I will see myself as a creative. Look, because I've never seen it that way. I've always seen it as the more like we said, artist, creating a musical piece, but never from a context of any place that we are working in, regardless of your profession, regardless of your job title, regardless of what you do. 

Mike 

You do. So how do you become creative in organisations that are quite structured and operate within quite tight restrictions? For example, I mean, how creative can you be when you are a clinician and you have got all the guidelines on the planet to follow or the pathway, so everything else, whereas the creativity there. 

Yuen 

So, clinicians are not we are all leaders, whether that comes with the title of a manager or even other titles, you will always be involved in system working. That might mean speaking to reception, speaking to the patient, dealing with Bloods dealing with results, there is always a system wherever you are working. Yes, it might be clinically, it's relatively straightforward. But how can you improve the system that you are based in? Whether that's in community, whether that's in the practise, whether that's in the hospital or whether that's in the prison, whether that's in the industry? Any of these, or even wider than that, it requires you to look at what systems are in place and what you can do to improve it, and a lot of the time people are part of the system and in order to deal with people, you have to be creative. You have to be engaging. And you have to work. Better to make things better. 

Mike 

So essentially when you make more systemic changes, you make things that are worthwhile. Our clinical work towards you know, meeting patients expectations, you make it more worthwhile to make it either more efficient or you make more systemic changes or you make more difference for a greater amount of people. Or you're delivering it in the I don't know safer. Environment for example. 

Yuen 

And it doesn't have to be a big. 

Mike 

Ohh, agree couldbe anything like, you know, making notes and patient records in a certain way that is more readable, understandable and more universal. 

Yuen 

Yeah. And you are working a lot of times not in isolation. You're working with the team, whether it's a team of 3/5/20. You will need creativity for teamwork. You will need collaboration for teamwork and this is where it comes in. 

Mike 

In right. So well, this is our take on creativity. I'm sure there is a lot more to talk about. So if you feel like you would like to share your ways of being creative. And what is maybe stopping you from thinking that you are creative? Cause we all believe that we all are and we all have to be and to some extent we have no choice but to be creative in our lives. We hope that you have a little think and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you very much. Bye bye. 

Yuen 

It's about time for Yuen Reads.  

Simon Sinek's first book, start with why I think he burst into the ether with his inspirational talks and ideas about start with ‘why?’. He argues that the most successful leaders and organisations are the one who can articulate their ‘why’, and by doing so, able to inspire others. It really helped me in my reflection throughout my journey, both as a person, as a mother and as a leader on the ‘why’, and the purpose of my life. And sometimes when that gets quite murky because something else takes priority, or maybe the external validation gets too loud, I go back to this book to help me gain more clarity. 

Mike 

Thank you for listening to The Imperfect Clinician podcast. 

Yuen 

Grow and learn with us using our experience and flaws, just like we'd learn every day about ourselves. The best way to support us. Is to hit. That follow or subscribe button. Thanks for your participation in our socials. We take to heart the ratings, reviews and comments. 

Mike 

The best way we can repay you is by making this podcast. And by reaching and inspiring more people like you, like us, until next time.