Creativity is not a luxury in today’s rapid evolving world — it is essential to survive the working landscape. The ability to have a skillset that allows you to be able to pivot and be agile will be paramount, but how is that linked to creativity?

Creativity is a mindset, those that think like this are defined as lateral thinkers. You can learn this through entrepreneurship activities and processes, creatives and business owners process information in this way.

Lateral thinking—a term first coined by Edward de Bono in 1967—refers to a person’s capacity to address problems by imagining solutions that cannot be arrived at via deductive or logical means.

The ability to develop original answers to difficult questions. This is the essence of creativity, and all organizations benefit from it at times of change—when, by definition, traditional solutions are unlikely to get the desired result. Phil Lewis: Former Editor at Forbes.

Whether you’re launching a business, designing a new course, or reimagining how students engage with learning, creativity fuels innovation and opens doors for people from every background and discipline.

Creative minds tend to be energetic (but focused, playful (but disciplined), and realistic (but imaginative). Such traits seem like contradictions, but according to psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi it’s this exact contrast that helps inspire the most creative of minds.

Why Creative Paradoxes Matter: A Short Explanation of Csikszentmihalyi’s Theory

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, one of the most influential psychologists of the last century, argued that highly creative people don’t fit neatly into personality categories. Instead, they embody dynamic contradictions—pairs of traits that seem opposite but work together to fuel original thinking.

Csikszentmihalyi observed that creative individuals often display dualities such as:

energetic and focused. Playful and disciplined. Imaginative and realistic. Independent and collaborative. These aren’t inconsistencies—they’re flexible cognitive strategies.

Creative people shift between modes depending on what the work demands.

At the intersection of entrepreneurship and higher education lies a powerful opportunity: to cultivate environments where curiosity thrives, ideas collide, and students feel empowered to participate fully, regardless of their subject area or starting point or background.

By introducing creativity as a learnable process rather than a talent, this could help students across all subjects feel included and capable. By showing examples of analytical, visual, collaborative, and experimental thinking to validate different ways of approaching problems.

Present, authentic challenges that invite multiple solutions, encouraging students to draw from their unique backgrounds and skillsets. Encourage iteration over perfection, so they feel safe to experiment. Reflect on their thought processes, helping them to recognise their creative strengths and growth areas.

These insights have implications: Curriculum design can encourage both experimentation and rigour. Interdisciplinary learning naturally cultivates paradoxical thinking. Innovation ecosystems (labs, incubators, maker spaces) thrive when students can transition between divergent and convergent thinking.

Assessment models that reward curiosity, iteration, and reflection help students develop these dual capacities. Therefore, we can intentionally create environments where these paradoxes aren’t just accepted—they’re leveraged.

Creative paradoxes help people enter flow because they balance: keeping the mind engaged without tipping into boredom or anxiety. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, speaks about this particularly within his theory of flow.

By embracing creativity as a shared practice rather than a niche skill, it transforms who feels welcome to participate and makes it more inclusive for all to explore, collaborate and generate new ideas. Building a sense of belonging that has no parameters, but that encourages inclusive student participation and engagement.

Conclusion: Creativity as a Shared Space for Everyone

In a world defined by rapid change, creativity is no longer a specialist skill — it is a universal capacity that helps people adapt, innovate, and thrive.

What makes this mindset so powerful is that it is learnable. When we understand creativity not as a rare talent but as a flexible way of thinking, we begin to see ourselves as capable contributors, regardless of our background or subject area.

Education has an opportunity to nurture this mindset. By presenting authentic challenges, encouraging experimentation, and validating diverse cognitive styles — analytical, visual, collaborative, or exploratory — educators can help students recognise their own creative strengths.

Environments that balance freedom with structure, challenge with skill, and novelty with clarity mirror the very paradoxes that fuel creative flow.

These conditions make learning more inclusive, giving everyone permission to explore, iterate, and imagine new solutions.

Cultivating communities where creativity becomes a shared practice rather than an exclusive domain.

Csikszentmihalyi’s work reminds us that nurturing creativity means nurturing complexity.

References

The Use of Lateral Thinking (1967) Edward de Bono, London: Jonathan Cape.

Phil Lewis: Former Editor at Forbes – Published Mar 20, 2020

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996)

Written by Jennie Baptiste; Industry & Engagement Manager at University of Westminster

Jennie has some of her creative photography work currently on show at The V&A East Museum inaugural exhibition The Museum is Black: A British Story. Opens 18^th April- 3^rd January 2026.