Can creativity be learned?

What methods or techniques do you use to stimulate creativity (your own and that of your team)? Are there any specific activities or exercises you use to foster creative thinking? Are there tools or technologies that support creativity in the process of developing marketing campaigns? Agata Rychlik, Creative Director at SEC Newgate CEE, answered these questions along with 9 other experts for New Marketing portal.

Do you think creativity is a skill that can be developed, or rather a trait that one is born with?

Creativity is not a specific skill, but rather a way of being in the world, just like optimism and pessimism. It is the way we perceive the world and approach different topics. I believe that we are inherently creative, as children we are curious and unaware of limitations. From this curiosity and ignorance, children create surprising stories and games.

Unfortunately, we often lose this ability when we have to conform to certain rules at school and the belief that there is only one correct way to solve a task. In school, what is often scored is whether we did the task according to the teacher’s expectations or according to the answer key in the textbook. And only some people come out of the education system with knowledge, but without losing their creativity. This is sad.

Are there any specific activities or exercises you use to develop creative thinking? Do you have any way to break the creative impasse?

To avoid creative impasse, I don’t work in isolation. Sharing ideas and taking other people’s perspectives helps create new, non-obvious paths worth exploring. I don’t wall myself off from the world – I listen, observe, inspiration often comes quite unexpectedly, so I stay alert. Often, too, it is enough to relax and take care of something else, and, above all, to remain optimistic. It is this that allows you not to doubt that a creative solution, although not yet visible, is sure to appear.