Creativity - Are We Losing Our Ability For Original Thinking?

In an ever increasing knowledge based society we need more than ever to embrace creativity and original thinking to innovate if we are to stay competitive and yet there are alarming signals everywhere that we have lost our natural born ability to be truly creative individuals. Every where you look you can see the reality of conformity, the imitation copy products, the standard uniform look and people everywhere accepting the Status Quo of their environments and settling for less in their lives because they feel powerless to change them. Play is a significant factor in creativity and innovation yet our societies permanent preoccupation with 'busyness' and information overload prevents this. That is why you will see the more enlightened brands out there trying to kick-start creativity in the workplace by designing colourful well lit offices, play labs and collaborative spaces to generate ideas and explore new ways of thinking and working.

All successful entrepreneurs appreciate the critical importance of creativity and innovation in designing a unique product or service. They are generally individuals who will think differently from the norm and they are not frightened to follow their instincts. They will question, challenge and seek knowledge to find new solutions and ways of thinking to old problems.Often their ideas are way ahead of their time but they will not be phased by this because they have an over-riding willingness to take risks and to try new things even if they do occasionally fail. All great entrepreneurs are visionaries and dreamers who have the imagination and the desire to change the world.

Creativity

Scientists are only just beginning to truly understand the complexities of the human brain and how it really works. Research in the 1970s by Sperry and Ornstein discovered that each side of the brain appears to have primary responsibility for certain thought processes. They discovered that in the majority of cases the left side of the brain is primarily responsible for logical thinking such as sequence, analysis, proof reading documents and list forming whereas the right side of the brain is primarily responsible for more intuitive thinking such as imagination and daydreaming and feeling a rhythm or recognising colour and shapes.

Creativity - Are We Losing Our Ability For Original Thinking?

We stereotype like crazy based on this with women constantly referred to as more 'touchy feely' (and nine times out of 10 they are) but unable to read maps and work technical gadgets properly and men who are bored to tears with their wife or girlfriends conversations even though they switch off and never really listen in the first place (in my experience!)

According to John Gray in 'Men are from Mars Women are from Venus' a mans' sense of self is defined through his ability to achieve results (left brain) whereas a womens' sense of self is defined through her feelings and the quality of her relationships (right brain). Of course this is a sweeping generalisation and there are exceptions to the rule.

In a very small proportion of people it is difficult to find any dominant side when completing different types of thinking/activities with actual brain activity appearing much more random. It was always assumed that creative thinkers were predominantly right-brain thinkers but actually it has been discovered that they are actually 'whole-brain' thinkers. An obvious example of a creative thinker would be;

Einstein-A scientist, an activity more usually associated with the left side of the brain but Einstein was actually nearly thrown out of school for daydreaming. His theory of relativity was born out of a daydreaming moment about riding sunbeams through space.

Research has shown the effects of growing up on creativity. In one study the ability to generate 'original' responses to questions was measured by comparing these to standard answers. Here were the results;

Age 5 and less than 90% originality

Age 7 and over 20% originality

Adults 2% originality

Play is an essential component to brain development and in turn human development and survival. It is a significant factor in creativity and problem solving as well as social and communication skills. All too often in schools and work these days there is no room for play and far too much emphasis on a left-brain way of thinking. From an early age we begin to conform to normal standards of behaviour and to approach tasks in a way we consider normal and which follows the rules. To become more creative we have to learn to use our whole brain and the full range of emotional and logical intelligences at our disposal and that means that occasionally its good to daydream and a playful fun and stimulating work environment will generate great ideas.

The following story highlights the point.

The Little Boy

Once a little boy went to school. One morning when the little boy had been in school a while the teacher said; 'Today we are going to make a picture' 'Good!' Thought the little boy. He liked to make pictures and he could make pictures of all kinds, lions and tigers, chickens and cows, trains and boats. He took out his box of crayons and began to draw. But the teacher said, 'Wait' 'It's not time to begin!' And she waited until everyone looked ready.

'Now' said the teacher 'We are going to make flowers' 'Good' thought the little boy. He liked to make flowers and began to make beautiful ones with his pink and orange and blue crayons. But the teacher said 'wait!' 'I will show you how'. And it was red with a green stem. 'There' said the teacher, 'now you may begin'. The little boy looked at the teacher's. Then he looked at his own flower. He liked his own flower better than the teacher's but he did not say this. He just turned his paper over and made a flower like the teacher's. It was red with a green stem. On another day, when the little boy had opened the door from the outside all by himself.

The teacher said 'Today we are going to make something with clay'. 'Good!' thought the little boy. He liked to make snakes and snowmen, elephants and mice, cars and trucks and he began to pull and pinch his ball of clay. But the teacher said, 'Wait! It is not time to begin!' and she waited until everyone looked ready. 'Now' said the teacher 'we are going to make a dish'. The little boy liked to make dishes. He began to make some that were all shapes and sizes. But the teacher said,' Wait!' 'I will show you how' and she showed everyone how to make one deep dish. 'There' said the teacher 'now you may begin'. The little boy looked at the teacher's dish and then he looked at his own. He liked his dishes better than the teacher's but he did not say this. He just rolled his clay into a big ball again and made a dish just like the teacher's. It was a deep dish and pretty soon the little boy learned to wait and to watch and to make things just like the teacher and pretty soon he didn't make things of his own any more.

Then it happened, that the little boy and his family moved to another house in another city and the little boy had to go to another school and the very first day he was there the teacher said, 'Today we are going to make a picture' 'Good!' thought the little boy and he waited for the teacher to tell him what to do but the teacher didn't say anything she just walked around the room. When she came to the little boy she said, 'Don't you want to make a picture?' 'Yes' said the little boy. 'What are you going to make? 'Said the teacher. 'I don't know until you make it' said the little boy. 'Why, any way you like' said the teacher. 'Any colour?' asked the boy. Any colour, said the teacher. 'If everyone makes the same picture and used the same colours how would I know who made what and which was which?' 'I don't know' said the little boy and he began to make a red flower with a green stem.

Creativity - Are We Losing Our Ability For Original Thinking?

Kath Roberts would describe herself as a 'talenteur' because her business is about attracting like minded souls who want to create a life of more passion and purpose and to utilise their talents to help themselves and others and who choose to define success in their own terms. She coaches others who have decided to follow her lead and set-up their own home business selling personal transformational development tools.Her business is dedicated to showing others how you truly can be successful from home and have a life too.For more information please visit her website at http://www.alchemy4thesoul.com.

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Creativity Theory

Elements of Creativity Theory include:

What are the definitions of and differences between creativity and innovation? There is much confusion, for instance, Franklin (2003) writes that "innovation is anything that somebody thinks is a great idea." At a minimum, creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Innovation often means that outside decision makers have to get involved, as complete development and commercialisation commonly requires the competencies and knowledge of a team. Different competencies, structures, processes, resources and time-scales are required.

Creativity

Common characteristics of creative people. Do creative people have common characteristics that we can identify, so that we can hire the right people? Some firms do not engage in creative activities because of a belief that "special" people are needed. Many theorists and practitioners think that there are common characteristics, such as tolerance to ambiguity and risk taking. However, many others argue that there are none ("For sixteen years I have been trying to find some common denominator which seems to apply to all creative people. There aren't any. If I could find five or six characteristics I might be more successful at hiring them. I could make a list of curiosity, vocabulary, good visual imagery etc and then I could interview hundreds of people and hire the best. But I don't know of any common characteristic. We've got fifty copywriters and I suppose the good ones are judged at the end of the year, when we compare how many successful campaigns they have created").

Creativity Theory

Learning versus talent. Can creativity be learned and developed or is it a talent / special gift? Why is it that some people just are more creative? Nature nurture arguments are notoriously inconclusive and trait theories assume stability across situations and time. The best way to answer this question is to investigate whether creativity improves with practice. The experience curve, automisation, learning theories and the experiences of practitioners suggest that it does improve but there are caveats.

Motivation. Motivation is arguably more important than nature / nurture or traits. Someone with natural ability or placed in the right environment may not take advantage of it unless motivated. There is intrinsic motivation, synergistic and non-synergistic extrinsic motivation. How can it be induced and measured? There are many elements: material reward, progress to the ideal self, self-determination, self-evaluation, feedback, enjoyment, competency expansion, recognition and feasibility.

Blocks to creativity and organisational culture. What are the blocks to creativity and how can they be overcome? We can all be more creative, so what is stopping us? There are many blocks such as evaluation apprehension (in its many forms) and lack of adequate finance and resources. Separating creative from critical thinking, incremental productivity, tools that draw out tacit knowledge and using frameworks to trigger flow are some of the effective unblocking techniques. What is psychological safety and freedom? What properties of an organisational culture cultivate productivity?

Organisational structure. What properties of an organisational structure most foster creativity? There are many reasons why an entity has a particular organisational structure: history, logistics, market segmentation, product line, strategy and so forth. It is often unreasonable to ask a firm to change its organisational structure, so how do we get around this problem?

Group structure What is the most effective team structure? Many people who are acknowledged to have made great contributions to society have worked alone, but it is very easy for individuals to go "off track" and feedback is required to some degree, as well as other things. It is also very difficult to separate the idea from its influences. Many others work in pairs or small teams, as this reduces the negative effects of large groups. Successful firms generally start off as very small, creative enterprises. Many people think that brainstorming in large groups enhances creativity, but large groups bring with them politics, status differentials, group think, dilution of ideas and conformity among other things.

The role of knowledge. What type and level of knowledge helps creativity most? Can someone with limited knowledge of a field make a significant contribution to it? Does excess knowledge cause blinkered vision? Intellectual cross-pollination fosters creativity, but how do we overcome competency traps and other negatives? How do we frame-break, reduce path dependency and collaborate effectively?

Radical versus incremental creativity. Radical / transformational / disruptive creativity is very much glamorised. But is this what is required most often? Is it wiser to target radical or incremental ideas? Is radical really radical or the result of incremental improvement? How is radical defined? If we want a radical idea as opposed to an incremental change, what are the implications? Incremental and radical creativity require vastly different structures, processes, skills and resources.

Structure & goals. Many creative people object to structure and goals - they argue they interfere with thought processes and originality; there is a very fine line between structure and conformity. Does structure help trigger a flow of good ideas? Do structure and goals help set the boundaries of a problem and produce more output that when an individual is simply allowed to "do their best?" Do structure and goals help us achieve the objective more rapidly? How many people have a half finished novel or screenplay in their office?

Process. Many people question the concept that creativity can be a process. Ask many practitioners what process they engage in and they may well deny there is one. But if you examine the activities of many creative people, common patterns of behaviour emerge. This common process makes insight / eureka / the aha! experience more likely. The process includes identifying and intensely investigating the problem, forcing production of ideas using creative versus critical thinking and other techniques; seeking stimuli and allowing the unconscious mind to take over by engaging in rest and unrelated activities.

Valuation. How do we value an idea, so as to decide how to invest resources? Even a painter who creates for pure pleasure has to decide which one of his ideas is best; there is always a value system and (some argue) always some sort of promotional instinct. There are decisions as to whether you are looking for applied creativity and who the consumer is; how do they benefit? There is no sure fire way to evaluate perfectly because there is no sure fire route to commercial success. But we can benchmark against those types of ideas that have succeeded in the past; firms must make a decision as to their strategic, competence and technical fit; there are comparisons against rivals and practical impediments; how do we make the go or kill decision and what are the trade-offs? A quantitative tool for measuring the value of ideas has been developed.

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Creativity Theory

The MBA research project and other creativity and innovation tools can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/.

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Kal Bishop, MBA

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/.

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