Creativity’s not a department.

The biggest mistake we make when it comes to creative thinking.

I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about this one for some time now. We make a strange mistake when we talk about creativity. We equate it to everything from job titles to hobbies. “She’s really creative, she’s an artist”. It’s certainly neat and tidy but in my opinion, completely wrong. Creativity isn’t a label, it’s a way of thinking. It doesn't give a shit about your job title, discipline, age or chosen medium.

Answering “what is creativity” is hard.  

I bet it was up there as one of the harder words to define in the English language, a bit like trying to define the word “game” or “art”… Nevertheless, it has been defined, and The Oxford Dictionary definition goes like this:

“the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.”

What strikes me about this, and what is, in my opinion, so often overlooked when people discuss creativity, is the concepts of originality, inventiveness and ideas. And it’s worth noting that the definition doesn’t specify any kind of creative medium whatsoever. Words like draw, design, paint, sculpt or craft don’t appear. Nor does it say all originality starts from scratch. 

Sometimes the creative part is finding a new way to do the same thing. To find a more elegant solution. To travel to the same destination by a different road.

Which culminates in a slightly uncomfortable conclusion: creativity isn’t a skill tied to a toolset. It’s not something that belongs to designers, writers, or artists by default.

It exists in thought and is revealed through behaviours.

This is where behavioural science makes things even more awkward for those equating creativity with craft.

It’s something Rory Sutherland has talked about extensively and an idea I’ve attempted to contemplate in respect to modern marketing: the tension between “exploit” and “explore.” Most organisations prioritise performance, exploiting what already works through iterative optimisation. It’s measurable, justifiable, and ultimately safe. But marketing, for example, when empowered to explore new ideas, new meanings, and new ways to shift behaviour, is marketing at its creative best. 

Applying imaginative thinking to new problems in uncertain situations.

The Covid-19 pandemic created the perfect space for brands, celebrities and businesses to truly innovate. From Joe Wicks and his pivot to online exercise classes, to Andrew Cotter’s hilarious play-by-play commentary of Olive and Mabel (his two labradors) in the absence of actual sporting events. From gin companies switching to distilling hand sanitiser, to ZOE revolutionising health data tracking in the UK with the rapid launch of the ZOE COVID Study App.

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Finding different answers to old problems, by changing the anchor or perspective.

It’s the launch of what3words to improve on where postcodes fell short or the arrival of AirBnb in a tourism market already crowded with hotels. On a personal level it’s repurposing barbecue tongs as a “kitchen grabber” tool because I’m only five foot tall.

Overcoming constraints through innovation and problem-solving to achieve success. 

Agree with the ethics or not, Ladbrokes and their marketing agency McCann Leeds circumventing the advertising restrictions surrounding gambling to still deliver compelling social media campaigns by “becoming the fan” is a great example of creativity through constraint.

None of those examples relied on artistic talent. Instead, they looked at a problem and imagined a different solution.

Creativity isn’t the medium. It’s the idea. 

This is where I think it all goes slightly off track. We tend to associate creativity with output. A beautiful design. A well-shot photograph. A perfectly written line. Something tangible you can point at and say “that’s creative.” But I’d argue that’s only half the story. Because if there’s nothing imaginative in the thinking behind that output, then what exactly is the creative part? That’s not to diminish craft.

I love drawing, I indulge in photography (not that I’m any good), I'm making things all the time, I enjoy sewing and dressmaking – all kinds of things people usually tell me are creative. But here’s the rub; if I am not thinking originally when I’m using those mediums, if I am not interpreting, synthesizing or problem-solving, then am I creating, or simply producing? The creative part belongs to the idea. 

That distinction matters more than we give it credit for.

And so, onto the hill I’m (currently) choosing to die on. Why do we still treat creativity like a job title? 

Here’s where my issue really lies. In the digital marketing industry, there is a quiet assumption that all designers are creative, and everyone else isn't so much. It’s something that belongs to certain departments and teams. Designers are creative. Marketers are “strategic.” Developers are “technical.” Project managers are “organised.”

It’s neat. It’s tidy. And it’s wrong.

The labels don’t hold, yet we still (annoyingly) default to it. 

And while some people certainly can appreciate the nuance, agency after agency I’ve encountered groups, dare I say even stereotypes their team this way. Industry awards all too often champion visuals, aesthetics, execution and performance, but rarely ideas, reinvention or original thinking.

But perhaps the bizarrest manifestation of this mindset, is who organisations invite to problem-solving conversations. The meetings that all too often only senior stakeholders are asked to attend. As though creativity only arrives with seniority or specific job titles. Two things in my experience that often promise far more than they ever deliver.

Good ideas don’t respect hierarchies. 

And all of this doesn’t stop in my industry. This isn’t a marketing problem (for once). As a society we so often assume things like surgeons are methodical, engineers are practical, mathematicians are logical. I don’t doubt the truth in some of that. But the surgeon who pioneers ground-breaking surgery, the mathematicians helping unravel the universe and the engineers who build new solutions to global scale problems are some of the best creative thinkers in the world.

The real misunderstanding about creativity 

We’ve quietly built a hierarchy where creativity is judged by output type rather than the thinking process. It’s become tied to disciplines and job titles. 

Design feels creative because you can see the output. It’s visual.

Marketing (and maths, science, engineering, healthcare, teaching and all the other supposedly non-creative spaces) often don’t get the same credit because the output is less aesthetic and more behavioural.

But if creativity is defined as “creating something new,” then marketing as just one example is constantly operating in that space. Frankly because it has to.

So in reality, I think the truth about creativity is much closer to this: it’s a way of being.

So, the hill I’m still standing on: creativity isn’t a department. 

It isn’t a job title. And it definitely isn’t reserved for people who can draw well. If creativity is the use of imagination and inventive thinking, then it belongs wherever people are solving problems, exploring possibilities and finding new ways forward. The medium matters less than the thinking behind it. Thinking is where creativity exists. 

Creativity isn’t a department.