How the world of work is changing

Think creativity is only for artists or designers? Think again.

It’s a skill we can use to get things done, solve problems and to stand out. Creativity is the use of imagination, generating new ideas, solving problems and building the confidence to improve these ideas.

Being creative is valuable across all industries and jobs, from healthcare roles such as nursing and retail to engineering, farming and finance, because every role needs people who can think differently.

It can be used in a huge range of situations, and with AI tools becoming part of everyday life, these can help boost your creativity - helping you take your ideas further while still relying on your own thinking to make them truly work.

What is it?

Creative thinking is about:

• Looking at things in new ways
• Coming up with fresh ideas
• Turning those ideas into something real

It also means knowing how to use AI to help you explore and improve ideas, without losing your own originality and ideas and you’ll need to apply human judgement to decide what works best.

Why is it important?

Creativity helps you:

• Solve problems in smarter ways
• Make your work more interesting
• Work better with others
• Stand out to employers

AI can help you generate ideas quickly too, but it’s your judgement, personality and imagination that turn ideas into something great.

Here’s an example: 

It’s your responsibility to present a monthly report which no one really pays attention to.  So, you switch things up:

• One month, you turn it into a quiz
• Another, you use short animations to tell the story

You used AI to generate new ideas to help with the quiz and story and then checked and improved upon what it provided you.  Soon, your team starts noticing the report, getting involved and remembering the key points.

How to build your creativity

Coming up with ideas isn’t magic, it’s something you can practise, try these six tips to develop the skill:

1. Know your goal

While you try to come up with ideas it's important that you keep your goal in mind. What are you trying to fix or improve? Keep it clear.

2. Get inspired

Look for good examples that have achieved a similar goal. These can come from anywhere – at school, at work through your colleagues or social media, these could help spark your own creative thinking. 

3. Generate loads of ideas

Try different creative methods (brainstorming, mind maps, group ideas)

• Quickfire ideas (1 minute -no overthinking)
• Think like someone else (e.g. a famous person or leader)
• Work with others and build on someone else’s idea together
• Choose the strongest idea and refine it

Don’t judge ideas yet - just get them flowing.

4.     Use AI to go further

• AI can help you take ideas to the next level and expand your thinking, but use your judgement to understand if the suggestions make good sense and how they may need to be adapted. 

Try prompts like:

• “Give me 3 more creative ideas for this”
• “Make this idea more realistic”
• “Make this lower cost”

The key is experimenting with how you ask (your prompts).

5. Choose your best idea

Now use your human judgement to review:

• Which idea is most interesting?
• Which could actually work?
• Which would make the biggest difference?

If you’ve used AI to help, consider what AI did well, what did it miss, when was human creativity better?

6.     Develop your thinking

Take the idea you’ve selected and develop an approach that will help you make it happen. Once you’ve done this you can really go for it and turn your thinking into action. 

Now have a go and pick something you want to improve or change using the tips to help.   Remember that AI can Help to boost your creativity, but it’s your ideas, judgement and imagination that bring them to life – some great results can happen when you use both together.