Creativity As Deviation From Planning
This post deals with the observation about what creativity consists of. Whenever we start a new venture, a new task, or just start to do something, we generally follow a systematic path which consists of identification of the start, the goal and the intermediate steps to be followed. Many a time, for normal daily tasks, this path has been fixed or the identification of it is so simple that we perform it subconsciously. Here is an example to clarify the concept.
Eg:-To take a bath.
Start state->No Bath.
Goal State-> Bathe.
Intermediate steps->
- 1> Get in the bathroom with the towel.
- 2> Grab Soap. Wash body.
- 3> Dry Body. Get out and put clothes.
The example is at a higher level of abstraction and so omits the smaller steps. So, how would a creative person go about it ? After identifying the above steps, he/she would make changes to them by adding, modifying or simply ignoring some of the intermediatry steps. In almost all cases, the start and the end state remain the same even after path deviation. 
There is another interesting result from this observation.
The concept of “Just do it“.
This may be the tag line of “Nike” and the motto of “Richard Branson”, but there is a significance attached to it with regards to creativity.
“Just Do It” implies ignoring the steps all together and just doing it !
While this might not relate to the example above, an artists activity poses as a suitable illustration. Artists have to be creative in their works.
Before beginning their work, say a painting, they do not think about the intermediate steps. They ‘just Do It’. The end result is what we call creativity.
Thus, Creativity, at its basic level consists of identification of this path and deviating from it. Deviation in the sense of doing that thing differently.
If it’s so straightforward as ‘doing things differently’ why write about it ? I personally think that being aware of what consists creativity helps in implementing it in situations where creativity is not implicit to the task.
This includes mundane daily tasks, or other routine tasks. In the end, being aware helps improve creativity. period.
