What is creativity? A creative individual, a creative business or industry? What about a sudden “spark” or a bit of “nonsense”? Creativity is a broad concept – the word is used in many ways and with many different meanings.
Creativity is not a simple thing, and it means different things to different people – often depending on the industry or context.
Nando Malmelin (LinkedIn) and Petro Poutanen (LinkedIn) have written a book titled Luovuuden idea – Luovuus työelämässä, yhteisöissä ja organisaatioissa, which also inspired some Unigrafia employees to reflect on how creativity manifests in their own daily lives and work.
Collective Creativity
Collaboration and bouncing ideas around – this is familiar to most of us. Open interaction and exchanging thoughts with others often fuels your own work. Even the author of this article admits to leaning on others for inspiration – whether it’s a colleague, a friend or an idea borrowed from social media.
“Especially in working life, creativity is rarely sudden or individual. It doesn’t happen in one specific moment, but is more often the result of a chain of various initiatives, actions and events. The development of creative products and services requires long-term effort and diverse collaboration. New and useful solutions rarely emerge from the mind of a single creative person – and even more rarely are they realised by one person alone.”
(Malmelin & Poutanen 2017, p. 50)“Solving many of today’s most pressing and central challenges requires increasing creativity, adaptability and interdisciplinary interaction.”
(Malmelin & Poutanen 2017, p. 9)
Question: What Does Creativity Mean to Me in Work and Everyday Life?
We asked what creativity means to different people. Responses included things like problem solving, “bursts” of ideas, and even “babbling nonsense”.
Hanna – Graphic Designer
“Creativity, for me, is about problem-solving in layout and design work. I try to break away from fixed patterns of thinking and find fresh, innovative ways to communicate the client’s message. Creativity is often limited by things like budget or available material. It’s particularly rewarding when you manage to shape the client’s message into something visually engaging and easy to understand – even when starting from modest resources.”
Hannes – AV Specialist
“In my work, creativity means making the clients’ needs and our production resources meet in the best possible way.”
Heikki – Video Specialist
“For me, creativity is about discovering new perspectives on familiar things. I approach this through playfulness in the office, breaking cultural codes, and just letting thoughts flow freely – without worrying what others think at that moment. I also find that doing things without overthinking – like listening to music while working – helps break boundaries and find the right mindset at the start of a project. In everyday life, creativity often feels easier, as there are fewer built-in rules stuck in your head. I expose myself to small changes, like using my left hand at work or changing my commute route.”
Ilkka – AV Specialist
“For me, creativity is about seeing, feeling, experiencing – even smelling. In daily life, it can appear as a sudden urge to dive into music or to load the dishwasher in a new way. At work, creativity comes as a continuous stream of questioning and exploring. I draw a lot of inspiration from my teammates – I try to absorb as much as I can from them and apply it to my own work.”
Risto – Web Designer
“To me, creativity is about problem-solving – whether it’s coding a website or playing roleplaying or board games. In both cases, I favour co-creation.”
Where Do We Need Creativity?
Almost all work involves problem-solving – and thus requires creativity. At Unigrafia, every task and workday challenges us to think creatively.
Someone once said that all the ideas have already been invented. That’s often how mood boards, idea maps and design plans begin – by collecting and combining ideas from others. But what emerges through the creative process is something entirely new.
“Creativity, in practice, is about refining ideas and implementing them in new ways – leading to outcomes that are fresh and previously unseen.”
(Malmelin & Poutanen 2017, p. 131)
Malmelin and Poutanen also note that in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report (2016), it was predicted that as a result of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, by 2020 the three most important skills in working life would be: solving complex problems, critical thinking and creativity.
What do you think about that?