David Kelley on Creative Confidence



Is creativity a gift or a skill? Are we born creative (or not), or is creativity a muscle that can be exercised and developed?

David Kelley, founder of IDEO, which has developed things like the first computer mouse, believes that we’re all creative, but that often our creativity gets stifled along the way. He has dedicated his life to unlocking creativity in people and teaching design thinking. In the talk above he talks about unleashing ideas in other people.

I work in the “Creative” Department of our company, so the encouragement (and challenge) to tackle problems from a fresh angle is built into my job title. The only danger with calling one department “Creative” is that everyone else might mistakenly assume that they’re not.

Along with Kelley, I believe in the democratization of creativity. If you excuse yourself with, “I’m just not creative”, we miss out on your fresh ideas and insights.

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “Iʼd like my crayons back, please.”
– Hugh MacLeod “How To Be Creative”


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.