Creativity competes with productivity for attention. All the time.
Productivity is easy to measure against a predefined set of KPIs. Number of parcels dispatched. Number of sales calls taken. Amount of cost savings achieved. Gross margin per employee.
Creativity on the other hand is hard to quantify. You can’t measure the number of ideas generated during the day.
Productivity requires you take a systematic approach. To follow a process and keep practicing till you master it.
Creativity on the other demands freedom to experiment and try new things without a clock of deadline ticking all the time. It requires the ability to see things differently.
There is no question about the value that creative people bring to the table. But in the world obsessed with the effective and efficient use of time, when every app is asking you to fill up your calendar with activities to track and measure progress, sometimes the concept of ‘chasing an idea’ just gets lost.