Creativity fosters well-being, connection, belonging, and meaningful relationships — all the outcomes of digital thriving.
- Creativity in digital thriving is finding a new way that matters (to at least one person).
- All creative works require creative solutions, from innovative products to breakthrough works of art.
- Creativity promotes positive feelings and thrives on collaboration.
- To encourage creativity, digital spaces should encourage problem-solving as well as art, self-expression, and collaboration.
What is creativity?
Creative thinking is a hallmark of human experience, crucial to surviving and thriving. Creativity has enabled society to overcome countless challenges, uncover long-hidden secrets of the universe, and develop incredible technologies, as well as produce amazing works of art and personal expression. Through imagination creativity can help us find hope in an uncertain world, transform lives, and make a game really fun!
We’ve established that creativity is important, but what exactly is it?
Finding a “new” definition for creativity
Many existing definitions of creativity betray a bias — that it must prove useful in some way to someone else in order to be valuable. We believe, at least for the purposes of digital thriving, that this view is unfortunate and self-defeating.
Creativity always involves a newness of some kind, such as:
- A new use.
- A new combination.
- A new form.
- A new expression.
- A new spin.
- A new approach.
- A new strategy.
- And so on.
These are all new ways.
In order for a new way to happen, someone must seek and find it. To them it must matter. If the timing is favorable, perhaps their new way will matter to others.
With this in mind, we propose the following definition:
Creativity is finding a new way that matters (to at least one person).
The role of creativity in digital thriving
When you find a new way (at least a way new to you), you feel a sense of accomplishment and well-being. These are both outcomes of digital thriving.
When you create a new way for others to connect, or you connect with a new way that someone else creates, you gain a sense of belonging and a path to meaningful relationships. These are also outcomes of digital thriving.
Creativity plays an important role because it is both a sign of digital thriving and a way of achieving it. Because of this important role, the Playbook considers creativity to be a productive behavior.
What’s the difference between imagination, creativity, innovation, and invention?
Imagination, creativity, invention, and innovation are interrelated concepts, so distinguishing them is a bit tricky. The following definitions are an attempt to show the distinctions as they relate to digital thriving:
- Imagination — Ability to conceive of new ways
- Creativity — Ability to turn new ways into new realities
- Invention — Creating ways that are truly new
- Innovation — Creating new ways that are commercially valuable
For simplicity, the Playbook will generally say “creativity.”
What does creativity mean to developers?
Digital spaces don’t have to be about creativity to foster creativity. To help think beyond any preconceived notions, consider the following:
- Compelling challenges — Provide obvious problems without obvious solutions, which invites creativity. Challenge players to use what’s at their disposal. Shine a light on problems that the community can solve.
- Creative qualities — Exploration, experimentation, fairness, equity, and a mix of both divergent and convergent thinking — these should all be encouraged. Celebrate and commemorate creativity and the resilience it took.
- Rich raw material — Give people something to work with, but keep it interesting and constrained. From chat emoji to game characters, create potential building blocks for players.
- Sense of accomplishment — Show players how they’re making progress and getting good at something.
- Platforms of expression — Seek to give players novel ways to express themselves. Make sharing convenient and easy.
- Connection without a core — Strive for a decentralized environment with small groups, authentic encounters, and effective networks of healthy sharing and exchanging.
What does good look like?
In order to gauge success, consider the following success and warning signs of creativity:
| Success signs | Warning signs | |
| Individual | Optimism Encouraging others Completing creative projects Original works Imaginative play Confidence | Pessimism Demotivating others Abandoning creative projects Blindly copying Rote play Insecurity |
| Group | Resolving problems together Interdependence Team-generated works Values diverse perspectives Autonomy All voices have value | In-fighting Reluctance to cooperate Pursues early closure Group-think Heteronomy Values leader more than members |
| Community | Decentralized Productive Loosely controlled Win-win transactions Level playing field Mixing of diverse groups | Highly centralized Stagnant or strangled progress Strictly controlled Win-lose transactions Rigged systems Forcing sameness |
Now what?
Read more about other behaviors that are important to digital thriving in Introduction to Productive Behaviors.
References
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
- Darras, B. (2018). Creativity and Creative Communities.
- Haslam, S. et al. (2014, July). Creative communities are key to innovation. Scientific American.
- Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity.
- Puccio, G. (2017). From the Dawn of Humanity to the 21st Century: Creativity as an Enduring Survival.
- Richtel, M. (2022). Inspired: Understanding Creativity: A Journey through Art, Science, and the Soul.
- Schubert, E. (2021). Creativity Is Optimal Novelty and Maximal Positive Affect: A New Definition Based on the Spreading Activation Model.
- Tvede, L. (2016). The Creative Society: How the Future Can Be Won.
- Wall, T. et al. (2019). Creative Writing for Health and Well-being.
