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I talked with Tuomas Auvinen, Dean of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University in Finland and co-founder of the university’s Centre for Radical Creativity.
The “radical” comes from the Latin radix, meaning root. For Tuomas, radical creativity isn’t about small improvements. It’s about going to the root of a problem and questioning the assumptions we’ve stopped noticing.
He starts from a simple idea: everyone is creative. Not just artists or designers. We make creative decisions every day just to get through ordinary life. The real question is whether our workplaces let that creativity out.
One metaphor has stayed with me since: the creative sandbox. Leaders set clear boundaries, and inside them people get real freedom. If someone isn’t used to autonomy, you start with a small sandbox and let it grow as they get comfortable.
We also talked about “holding leadership,” and the courage it takes for a leader to say, “I don’t know, let’s figure it out together.” Tuomas thinks that’s one of the hardest and most important shifts leaders face right now.
And for anyone who’s ever been asked to prove that creativity pays off, Aalto’s Creative Leap research found that companies with both creative people and a creative culture were very likely to outperform their competitors financially.
Aalto also runs a free online course, Diving into Radical Creativity. I’ve signed up myself, and I’d love for you to join me.
If any of this resonates, I’d love for you to watch or listen to the full conversation, and read the write-up on the blog.
Till the next time ✨
All my best,
Egle
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