Humans are born to be creative. The human history shows the ability of humans to innovate to survive. We create tools and technologies to make life easier for us or to improve our existence. However, creativity does not come to us without certain parameters. We cannot be creative by command. To be creative, we need to be at a certain psychological state of mind. We must feel motivated to create. To understand how we can be motivated to create, we must investigate some of the need theories of motivation.
While the details of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs have been proven invalid a long time ago, there are certain aspects of his theory that are accurate. His model has become the foundation of many other need theories of motivation and has a lot of heuristic value. Maslow recognized that we generally have lower level and higher level needs. For the most part, we must satisfy the lower level needs to have higher level needs. This is not always true as there are exceptions but for the sake of this discussion, we will assume so. The lower level needs include needs such as safety, and physiological needs. The higher level needs include needs such as belonginess and esteem needs. As far as creativity goes, it is difficult for us to feel motivated to create when we have needs for food, drink, and shelter. We tend to focus on satisfying those needs before we can engage in creative thinking.
Herzberg took Maslow’s model one step further. He theorized that our needs are divided into two categories, like Maslow’s higher and lower level needs. He identified two different dimensions: hygiene and motivation. Therefore, his theory is known as the two-factor theory or the motivator-hygiene theory. Pay, benefits, security, and status are considered hygiene factors. Meaningful and challenging work along with recognition and accomplishments are considered motivator factors. When we feel a sense of accomplishment and have increased levels of responsibility, we feel motivated. When we have opportunities for growth, we feel motivated to thrive. This, in turn, gives us the ability to be creative.
Creativity is a state of mind. It is a state of motivation and desire to innovate. For us to feel it, we need to experience job satisfaction. When we do not feel satisfied, we do not feel motivated and cannot be creative. Pressure cooker work environments characterized by micromanagement and hostility do not facilitate innovation. They only promote a need to survive. While we often think about a starving artist creating art while struggling to survive, this stereotype is generally not true. Even the starving artists are not literally starving. They tend to live a simple and minimalistic lifestyle that may be conducive to creativity. Detachment from distractions such as unnecessary materialistic needs can give a person an ability to focus better on their creative endeavors. However, the basic survival needs must be satisfied before one can reach a creative peak.
Another interesting thing about creativity is that for someone to be creative, they must possess the mental framework for it. That is, they must have the technical skills needed for it. One cannot create pieces of art without having the art skills to create art. Painter cannot paint without painting skills. A composer cannot create music without knowing the notes. Writers must have adequate language and writing skills to create literature. We cannot create in a vacuum without any preliminary skills. Creativity must be nurtured, and skills must be practiced from early age or honed through education. Innovation requires a foundation to flourish.
There are many practical ways to improve one’s creativity once the required motivational needs are met. One of these ways is dream incubation. Our brains work harder when we are sleeping than when we are awake. While we sleep, our brains can solve problems for us. To promote this, one can work on a creative problem before going to sleep and then keep thinking about it while in the bed trying to sleep. This dream incubation can help us to dream about the problems we were thinking about so that we can solve them creatively in our dreams.
To summarize, creativity is required for innovation. We are not able to create when we are not motivated to do so. For us to be motivated, we need job satisfaction and for our lower level needs to be met. Constant daily struggle and stress make creativity almost impossible but unfortunately that is a common state for many people these days. We are so distracted by out daily demands that we simply do not have the time to create.
