Preparing to be Creative in the NHS: Making it Personal

There is currently a clarion call for the NHS to be more creative and innovative, as it moves into an increasingly quality focused agenda. But exactly how easy is it to do this when the NHS performance regime for the last 10 years has been more about delivering centrally driven, specific and detailed targets for improvement, such as reduction of waiting times, than promoting a culture that speaks of experimentation and possibilities rather than certainties. Can a workforce that may not have been all that prepared for creativity, be creative? And what does being prepared for creativity look like? This paper explores, briefly, the relationship the NHS has with creativity and the new agendas that are creating more fertile ground but then, drawing on practices and information from leading innovators and researchers in the business sector, it looks at the conditions the NHS might need to create in order foster creativity in its workforce. More specifically it looks at the role that a more personal approach to creativity might play in cultivating a workforce that is more comfortable entering into creative thinking and behaviour.