Creativity seems like a mystical force. Where do these ideas come from? How do creatives do the things they do? However, creativity is not only needed in the arts, but it is also highly valued in other areas such as problem-solving, marketing, and overall survival in life.
As businesses grow, one of the most important assets should be creativity. To put it simply, it’s the weirdest things that help out the most. Take for example emailing a dog to contact a client or making the absolute best puns to advertise something taboo. Whether you’re a creative or an HR person of a web development agency, thinking out-of-the-box should as well be a life force.
Get ready for rejection for thinking out of the box
When one presents something new, something out of the norm, and something that doesn’t make sense, rejection is almost always a certainty. Paola Antonelli beautifully articulates this in her talk, Rejection Is a Sign You’re Onto Something New: “Before one makes the canon, one has to break a few eggs and make a few people mad.”
The rejection of innovation is a far too common story. One reason it happens is when it doesn’t feel relevant to other people. This is why new introducing new technology in the workplace takes some time because while the management thinks it’s the best course of action, employees will need time to adjust.
Another reason is the ambiguity. People are designed to prefer stability and certainty, and innovative solutions usually require a lot of risks. Besides, innovation won’t be an innovation if they don’t shake up the norm. When this happens, people tend to look at the short-term risks instead of the long term benefits.
There are so many stories about this, but it’s about how people deal with it. Some say it leads you to another path, but what happens if you continue persevering with the idea?
The Emerging of Trends
A Mr. Porter article describes the evolution of a trend in the eyes of the people who create and cause them to continue:
- The Innovators: Those who take risks and pay the price of the creative process but continue to push through.
- The Early Adopters: Without people to be on the receiving end of the innovation, a new thing does not become a trend. They comprise 13.5% of the population, but they are the most important part of the makings of a trend.
- The Early Majority: When something finally starts to settle in, The Early Majority is the ones who propagate the news–and then comes the word: “mainstream”
- The Late Majority: While conservative of participating in the new norm, the late majority is still a key audience to continue a trend.
- The Laggards: This 16% of the population is what we talk about when we talk about rejection, as they love to stick to tradition and don’t subscribe to change.
It’s important to know these people and understand the nature of rejection in order to think of the best course of action. Many would say creativity is forever welcome, but sometimes, the lack of it is not as much of a problem as the resistance of it. Even then, out-of-the-box thinkers and doers should keep pushing past the norm and make the world a more interesting place.
