The Power of Being Silly.
How rediscovering creativity can change the way we think and work.
Jason O'Gorman | 14/10/2025
When I was a kid - I drew all sorts of nonsensical monsters, aliens and totally made-up creatures with names and personalities as weird as my own imagination. My imagination was a playground and I loved being in it. It was a safe place to explore bizarre stuff without having to lift a finger or utter a word. It was complete freedom. No rules. Nothing had to make sense.
One time - I drew King Kong on top of Shandon (our beloved local Cork landmark for those of you who aren’t in the loop) and I proudly stuck it to my bedroom wall.
Then something strange happened. Some friends called over from my class. Cool friends. I panicked - tore the drawing from the wall and hid it in a drawer. I was worried they might think I was weird.
That was the first time I remember feeling like creativity was something to be embarrassed about. I had linked being creative with being silly - something that needed to be outgrown. I believe that’s one of the saddest things about growing up and becoming an adult - losing that fearless sense of curiosity you had as a child.
As children, we are applauded by the adults for using our brains differently. Calling animals funny names, building pretend worlds, and making up funny languages. There is no right and no wrong - it’s all sooo cute. But as we mature, the rules shift. We are told to stop being silly, to get serious and be practical. It’s time to grow up and join the adults. Creativity gets put to bed, and bit by bit - the space for nonsense disappears.
As we grow up, we learn the grown-up rules: Don’t put that in your mouth, get down off that wall and please stop being silly. Our lives get filled up with purpose, tasks, and lists. We fill every blank moment with noise: Netflix, news, notifications. We trade imagination for productivity, leaving no room for boredom, daydreams, or giant gorillas climbing local landmarks.
Sometimes, you’ll get these quiet moments - those precious blank spaces where new ideas are trying to speak to you… but any bit of downtime and most people (by default) seek out distractions - leaving no room to just sit with their thoughts, follow them and see where they go. We end up believing “we’re not creative.” But we’re wrong. We all are creative - we just need to make space for it.
The challenge is that when we grow up - particularly when we start running businesses - there’s a tendency to stop giving creativity the space it needs. It gets squeezed out by deadlines, deliverables, meetings and exhausting slide decks. Whether it’s a design studio like Humanosity (where we pray for creativity) or a global organisation (where they preach it), the truth is the same: creativity only survives when you make space and practice it. Because if every moment is filled with doing, there isn’t much left for imagining.
So, what exactly is creativity and how do we let it back in the room?
I think creativity is a way of approaching something differently, or doing something in a manner that nobody else has considered. It is seeing what everyone else has seen - but thinking what no one else has thought.
Creativity has nothing whatsoever to do with your IQ or job title. It’s not some divine spark only artists, musicians and writers get handed at birth. It’s a way of thinking, connecting ideas, asking questions and seeing things differently. It is not the art, the music, or the poem - it’s the thinking that led to all those things.
Most creative concepts may seem silly at first, but you need to be brave enough to explore them - because the best ideas take curiosity, courage, persistence and time. Time to question assumptions, connect dots and be willing to fail, as failure is also an integral part of the creative process. Every discarded sketch, every failed prototype, every bad idea is feedback. Artists, musicians, writers all know this. Businesses often forget it. Failure is not something final - it’s extremely useful data.
Creativity shows up every day but we sometimes fail to recognise it. It’s there when we need to look in the fridge to whip up a tasty meal, stack the dishwasher, send a sarcastic reply to a text message, or simply find a shorter way to get to work. It’s all creativity.
If creativity is so natural, why does it feel so elusive as an adult?
Our brains are constantly juggling dozens of tasks. Having a new idea in is like opening your 53rd browser tab. Crash. And because our brains are overloaded - we take mental shortcuts and tend to snuff out any spark of an idea as being something stupid. That’s been done. That won’t work. The idea never gets a chance.
My childhood drawing of King Kong on Shandon? That fear of looking silly - never leaves us. As adults, we’d rather blend in than risk looking odd. But odd is where the good stuff is.
How do we allow creativity back in the room?
If you’ve misplaced your creative spark somewhere between childhood and adulthood - here’s how to lure it out of hiding. I’ve made up my own system called CCC. Capture, Connect, Curate.
1.Capture
Just like a box of Lego - our brains are full of potential creativity, they’re pretty much idea factories - but absolutely terrible storage tools. Research says we have more than 6,000 thoughts per day. Each one is like a little spark: some fade, some flare, and a few have the potential to ignite something huge.
The mistake most of us make is trying to store those sparks in memory. Our brains aren’t designed to retain them all. Instead: Capture them! Write them down. All of them. Even the silly ones. (Especially the silly ones) Don’t judge anything, capture everything.
I’ve often felt my own head is full of fragments of ideas, a bit like a river, with bits of twigs and leaves floating along its surface. Those bits come along randomly and if they’re not “captured” - they can pile up and dam the river, blocking the flow. By writing those “bits” down, no matter how nonsensical - you take them out of the river, allowing the current to continue flowing. That flow is where the next idea comes from. Plus when you see things written out you can identity patterns and connect ideas more easily.
Capture
Just like a box of Lego - our brains are full of potential creativity, they’re pretty much idea factories - but absolutely terrible storage tools. Research says we have more than 6,000 thoughts per day. Each one is like a little spark: some fade, some flare, and a few have the potential to ignite something huge.
The mistake most of us make is trying to store those sparks in memory. Our brains aren’t designed to retain them all. Instead: Capture them! Write them down. All of them. Even the silly ones. (Especially the silly ones) Don’t judge anything, capture everything.
I’ve often felt my own head is full of fragments of ideas, a bit like a river, with bits of twigs and leaves floating along its surface. Those bits come along randomly and if they’re not “captured” - they can pile up and dam the river, blocking the flow. By writing those “bits” down, no matter how nonsensical - you take them out of the river, allowing the current to continue flowing. That flow is where the next idea comes from. Plus when you see things written out you can identity patterns and connect ideas more easily.
Connect
Later, go back and dive into what you’ve captured. Most of it will be rubbish - flotsam and jetsam - but sometimes one of those odd scraps might click with another half baked thought. Creativity is all about collision. The more you can smash different things against one another - the more chance to find something interesting to work with.
For connections to occur - it’s essential to make space. Intentionally create boredom. Make space for your mind to wander. Creativity never shouts at you, it whispers and if you’re not listening then you won’t hear it. I think of creativity like a radio station. It’s broadcasting constantly - but you’ll never hear it unless you switch it on and tune in.
Your imagination is like a stage, where ideas arrive to perform. They are often wearing silly costumes, and usually look weird - but that’s exactly why they’re valuable. So allow them in. Entertain them! Be playful, curious and have fun with ideas and don’t try judge them as they come - just let them happen and embrace them all. I’ve found that humour loosens the grip of perfectionism and frees up your imagination, so give those silly ideas time to perform to see if there’s potential. You can evaluate them in the next step.
Curate
Start by sifting through what you’ve captured. Highlight what still feels alive. Some ideas might spark something when you reread them. Look for patterns. Which ideas cluster? Which ones clash in interesting ways? Which ones keep showing up in disguise?
Curation is where common sense and logic re-enter the room. It’s where you move from the playground to the editing suite. So you need to put on your logical thinking hat, and evaluate what’s actually valuable, what has real potential, and what belongs in the nonsense bin.
To keep it practical, use three categories:
Ripe: strong, clear, actionable ideas - ready to pick and use
Seeds: interesting but undercooked - park them to incubate
Compost: not for now - but may feed future ideas
The trick is to keep things moving between those three piles. Today’s compost can become tomorrow’s seed, and before you know it - something’s ripe again.
What I’ve learned about Creativity
Creativity rarely arrives in a single “Eureka!” lightning bolt. It comes from small, deliberate habits repeated often. The trick is to show up, to make time, make space, and let curiosity do its work. Capture your sparks, connect them with curiosity, and curate with patience. Creativity is all about exploring the silliness and asking “What if?” (Well, maybe not if you’re the chief safety officer at Boeing.)
Looking back now - that drawing of King Kong wasn’t silly at all. It was unique. It was me being creative. Being curious. Being brave and trying something different. It took me 40 years to realise this before I sat down one day, and drew King Kong on Shandon once again. I posted it online. And you know what? Nobody called it silly. People loved it.
That’s when I realised: weird isn’t weird. It’s creative. It’s brave. It’s human.
Creativity is not talent - it’s a mindset and it’s everyone’s. It belongs in boardrooms, classrooms, hospitals and kitchens. It’s a tool for better conversations, clearer decisions, and solving real problems.
->Want to spark creativity in your team? Let’s talk.