Writing As The Key To Competence – Part I: Creativity

Learning how to write well is the single most powerful mechanism for developing crucial interpersonal and cognitive skills that are fundamental to thriving in this new world.  Unfortunately, most people have never been taught how to write and they don’t understand why it’s important to learn.

But here’s a little secret…the “how” and the “why” of writing could change your future forever.

In this article, I will explain how writing develops creativity – one of the top skills needed for the 4IR.

What The Hell Is Creativity Anyway?

Let’s begin by coming to terms with what creativity actually is. Most people would say it’s the ability to come up with novel solutions or ideas. But what is the thinking process behind coming up with these in the first place? This is where we can break creativity down into two components:  divergence and convergence. These two distinctive thinking processes come together to generate new ideas or solutions.

So, what’s the different between the two? Divergent thinking is when you freely and rapidly generate lots of new ideas – often referred to as Blue Sky thinking. At this stage you aren’t concerned about feasibility – only possibility. This gives you the freedom to come up with many different approaches off the top of your head without being bogged down by constraints.

But once all these ideas are on the table, you need to have a way of sorting through them. This requires a set of criteria that will filter out the good ones from the bad ones. And the problem you are trying to solve will dictate which ideas are viable options and which are not. This process of discernment is called convergent thinking.

When both these approaches are applied, you get novel solutions.

If you only applied the first process, you’d have lots of ideas, but no way of getting to the ones that will actually work. And, if all you see are limitations, this will stop you from generating those disruptive ideas that are the mark of real progress. In other words, the one type of thinker has their head stuck in the clouds, while the other needs to have their feet firmly planted on earth. This creates the balance you need for truly creative outcomes.

What’s interesting is that most people tend to be one kind of thinker or the other – either divergent or convergent. This doesn’t mean they can’t think in the other way – just that it’s more work to do so. Which is exactly why it’s important to select a balanced creative team when working on a problem.

The convergent thinkers need the divergent ones to come with up with game-changing ideas, while the divergent thinkers need the convergent ones to implement parameters, thereby filtering out the bad ideas to identify the good ones.

So, how does writing help with developing this understanding of creativity?

First off, writing is a vast landscape of possibilities – there is creative writing which includes poetry, short stories, novels, and more; academic writing which includes research papers, white papers, theses, and more; and corporate writing which includes reports, proposals, presentations, and more.

This means that you have an endless range of options for engaging in, and improving, your writing. You just need to decide what’s the easiest way in, given your nature and situation.

In any case, whatever kind of writing you choose, it will become clear that it is a crucial mechanism for unlocking creativity. This is because writing helps to develop both divergent and convergent thinking. Here are examples of how this works:

1. It Enhances Reflection & Evaluation: When you write stuff down, you have to think about which words you want to use and how you want to express your ideas. This forces you to reflect on the idea and its articulation. Writing is a way of getting distance from your thoughts by seeing it on the page. This means it’s much easier to evaluate the idea and assess if it’s worthwhile.
2. It Helps You Generate Ideas: The moment we make ideas concrete by putting them on the page, we activate our thinking as we start to see how one idea connects to others, which creates a flow that leads to even more ideas.
3. It Improves Depth of Thought: When you start articulating your ideas on paper, it becomes easier to see where something doesn’t make sense and why one thought doesn’t connect to another. This stimulates you to think more deeply about what you want to say and how to communicate it in a way that makes sense.
4. It Enables Personal Development: When you write about your life, emotions, and experiences, you get enough distance to gain insights into who you are and what you want. You can more easily identify where you go wrong, and why, because you come to know yourself better. This means you can come up with new solutions to creating a better life. As an example, Jordan Peterson offers a Self-Authoring Programme to help people shape the lives they want through writing.
5. It Helps You Develop Creative Flair: If you practise writing stories, poetry, and fiction, you develop the ability to write beautifully and meaningfully, which can be a therapeutic form of artistic expression. The more you engage in creative writing, the better you’ll become at presenting work in a way that is compelling to an audience, thereby improving your pitches and presentations.

That First Intimidating Step Towards Being A Writer

Writing has a powerful rippling effect. The starting point is dropping that first stone into the pond that is your life. And here’s a crucial piece of wisdom for you…The only way you become better at writing is to…wait for it…WRITE! So, your starting point can be whatever you want it to be. What’s important is that it’s something you can keep up from day to day to get the momentum you need to improve.

Here are a few suggestions for how you can get going if you’ve never really made much of an effort to write:

• Get a journal and write an entry every day, even if it’s a short one.
• If you have a specific hobby or interest, start writing a blog where you work on an entry a week.
• Use writing as a therapeutic tool by expressing your emotions and experiences through poetry or short stories.
• Write social media posts where, for example, you share your work experiences on LinkedIn and aim to add value to the broader community.

And remember, it’s not about being a great writer – at the beginning, it’s just about creating the habit of writing consistently. Trust me, the more you do it, the easier it will be and the better you’ll become.

As I write more articles in this series, I will take you through different strategies for improving your writing. But right now, it’s more important that you just put the effort into writing as often as possible and in a way that you find sustainable. In upcoming articles, I will also show you how writing develops other soft skills that are crucial to your ability to survive in the 4IR.

So, what are you waiting for? Start writing!