“We’ve always done it this way.”
The utterance of this sentence makes my skin prickle. It tells me everything I need to know about the person who says it and the people who nod in agreement. An adherence to this mindset demonstrates an utter lack of creativity and vision. To me, this phrase perpetuates complacency, risk aversion, and lack of aspiration. It’s boring and points to a beige, uninspired outlook.
People who say “We’ve always done it this way” shudder to hear the words, “Let’s try this…” There is an understandable discomfort in embracing creativity. That’s because we’ve defined creativity all wrong. It’s about problem solving, viewing issues and opportunities from a fresh perspective, turning your world view upside down. Creativity is not just about singing and painting and writing and dancing.
“Creativity isn’t only about mastery; it is, at its root, a joyful willingness to engage with the world.” -Peter Himmelman, Forbes It is this unwillingness to engage with the world that astounds me. There is a certain arrogance in not engaging with the world, and this arrogance breeds complacency. Nothing improves and evolves when people don’t value creativity. We all see this daily at work, in school, and even in our own ways we handle challenges.
If we don’t encourage creativity, we stifle imagination and curiosity. What a stew of beige the world would be if we squashed creativity! There have been many studies about the benefits of creativity so I don’t need to rehash that. We know this instinctively because we were all children once, and they are the very embodiment of creativity. Employers and executives continue to cite creativity as a vital attribute in employees, yet paradoxically, the workplace discourages creativity.
“Follow the flow,” they say. “Why can’t you just play by the rules?” “We know this way works.” See where I’m going here?
We focus so much on balance and view creative thinkers as renegades. Sometimes you need to tilt from your place of comfort to see where the ripples lead.