HR and the Mechanics of Real Creativity

Creativity Worth Working: A Series on the Real Drivers of Innovation

When people talk about creativity, they think of artists, performers, or storytellers. But some of the most powerful creative work happens in Human Resources.

Human Resources professionals (organisational design) don’t just manage systems.

They design lives. There is creativity in HR.

You literally hold the future of a human in your hands by shaping the system they work and live in. The policies you write, the structure you design, the culture you support — it doesn’t stop at the office door. It ripples into family life. Into health. Into hope. You are not building spreadsheets. You are building how people live.

And that should scare you.

Because people are not puzzle pieces to press into moulds. They are different in essence — each one. To design for them requires empathy, courage, and creativity. You need to see what doesn’t yet exist. You need to imagine better ways to live and work. And you need to carry the weight of that creativity with seriousness and care.

If you don’t recognise that — you don’t belong in the profession.

This article is the first in a series exploring the real elements of creativity — not the kind that entertains, but the kind that performs. The kind that works. And we begin with a trait often misunderstood: impulsivity.

Impulsivity is usually trained out of us. But when channelled well, it becomes one of creativity’s sharpest tools. It moves before fear. It sees what planning hasn’t caught yet.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink shows how quick pattern recognition — “thin slicing” — can lead to better decisions than long deliberation. Impulsivity, used well, is clarity in motion.

Studies in the Journal of Creative Behavior show that spontaneous, low-inhibition thinkers often generate more creative solutions — especially in environments that allow it.

Think of a rugby player playing within the game plan. And then — he sees a gap. He breaks the plan, follows instinct, and scores. The brilliance wasn’t in the structure. It was in the deviation.

We’ve disciplined this instinct out of our kids. We medicate it out of them. But creativity needs it.

Because what you’re building isn’t just a structure. It’s someone’s life.