Have you read Making is Connecting by David Gauntlett? It’s a great book about creative collaboration and how this enhances creativity, creates a sense of community and improves individual happiness. If you are interested in creativity, collaboration and change I’d recommend you read it.
In one part of the book Gauntlett challenges current perceptions of creativity. He says,
- we often think of creativity as an activity that delivers a ‘product’ or ‘outcome’
- we evaluate how creative the ‘product’ is
- and we use this as a measure of whether the activity was ‘successful’ or not
His challenge is that the value of creativity doesn’t just lie in the products that are created. Creativity is a process and the value we get from creativity also comes from the process of creating something. He says that creativity is a feeling.
Creativity is something that you feel
Creativity gives you the internal sense:
- that you’re going somewhere
- that you’re doing something you’re not done before
- a positive perception of yourself
And, when you are being creative in a group, creativity gives you a powerful sense of connectedness to like-minded people. It works in the real world or in the virtual world of Web 2.0.
Creativity gives us a sense of wellbeing, connectedness to others and is one of the central aspects of being human, says Gauntlett.
I can buy into that, can you?
More information about Making is Connecting.
Image courtesy of charliecurve. Used under a Creative Commons License.
(Note: I have no commercial or financial interests in the Making is Connecting book. I just think it’s a great book).
Action for Innovation 