Has it ever crossed your mind to rethink creativity as a skill, not a talent?

We encourage you to train it! It turns out that if you are open to experience, it is highly possible to do just that. It`s what Scott Barry Kaufman found out in his research “Positive Psychology and Creativity”: “The number one personality predictor that I’ve found in my research over and over again that predicts personally-fulfilling creativity, as well as lifelong creativity, is openness to experience. That means being open to being vulnerable, being open to potential suffering, being open to taking risks, taking chances, to being intellectually curious, and being open to beauty. All of these things have been found to correlate and to form this idea of openness to experience in relation to creativity.”. This is an extract from the transcript of Work and Life radio program hosted by Stew Friedman and powered by Wharton, which we highly recommend you read entirely.

At UMT Software, we strive to nurture creativity by looking for people with a creative mindset, mixing the backgrounds in our team, leaving place for failure, scheduling the creative time, and always questioning different perspectives. Why are we doing this? Because software is a creative industry, an industry of the mind, therefore “creativity has become the most important economic force” as Richard Florida would say in “The Rise of the Creative Class”.

There are many ways in which you can train your creativity, and that is precisely what we have done at the #cuppainting workshop. Under Valentina Lazar` guidance, we experienced the creation of something else besides IT solutions, in a relaxed framework (beautiful natural spring light, chillout music, candles, lavender perfume, great vibes). Here are some tips to boost your creativity.

At the end of the session we concluded that writing code and painting are not such diametral opposite activities as one may assume, but actually, have a lot in common:

• Conception & Initiation – you get familiar with the tools you have at hand
• Definition & Planning – you are wondering about your design, which are your capabilities and what risks you could encounter
• Launch & Execution – you are putting yourself at work, all your attention is there, there is nothing else around you
• Performance & Control – having the finished product you can now balance the outcomes vs. your plans regarding the quality, efforts and performance
• Project Closure – the coffee tastes totally different when you have it in your own, unique cup

BUGs: there is no such thing in art, you cannot possibly get things wrong, each piece is unique.

Get to know the expression of all of us here.

Did you experience the freedom of training your creativity in your working place? Share your thoughts with us!

Copyright: Mihaela Mihai, Cornelia Mahulea, Mihaela Pop