Rain water falling on a road may collect in puddles (if the road is not perfectly asphalted). The puddles always form in the same place. Self-organising systems tend to reach local equilibrium states. These are sometimes called basins of attraction. It is very difficult to get out of such basins because you keep getting sucked back into them.
Stereotypes and prejudices are only extreme examples of such 'stable' perceptual states. You look for stereotypes. You recognise the stereotypes. You force perceptions into the stereotypes. Creativity is a vague enough subject. Yet we know that somehow it may be important. So we are very ready to accept certain stereotyped views about creativity.
The simplest stereotype is that only certain people are creative. So creativity is a special talent or gift which some people have and others do not. This is a matter of general experience. There are some people who are always coming up with ideas. There are some people who are always trying to do things differently. Their colleagues note that such people are 'creative'.
So if this stereotype is a common and widespread experience, how can it be wrong? Not everyone is an artist. Only a few people are artists, and only some of these are good artists. So clearly there is a sort of 'talent' for creativity. This leads straight into the second stereotype - or misconception. This is that creativity is all about art and artistic expression.
Art is 'creative' in the sense that something new and of value has been 'created'. There are two aspects of creativity here. The first is the production or creation of something that was not there before. The second aspect is that there is something 'new', since art is very rarely a direct copy of what was there before. There may even be two further aspects of creativity. The first is the sheer skill of producing, of drawing, or of putting paint on canvas. The second is the aesthetic ability to make judgments as to what 'works' and what does not.
Without in any way wishing to diminish the importance of artistic creativity, it is fair to point out that this is not the same as generating new ideas, new ways of doing things, new products, new services, new organisational concepts, etc., etc. It is interesting to note that many people in the world of art have shown great interest in using the processes of lateral thinking. This applies in particular to architects and musicians. Because artistic talent is seen to be a gift, it is natural to assume the same for the whole of creativity.
That is a very fixed idea. So why are some people more creative than others? Some people are curious and have the urge to change things and to try things out. This is more a matter of motivation than of any inborn talent. If one person spends five hours a week thinking of new ideas and another person spends only five minutes, the first is more likely to produce creative results. Where does such motivation come from? It may come from upbringing and parental (or teacher) encouragement. It may come from a creative environment or peer group. It may be a matter of personality.
Motivation also comes from confidence. If you are confident that you can be creative, you will try more often to be creative, and you will more often be successful. Exhortation is not much use in developing confidence. The best way to develop confidence is to provide specific creative tools. When people use these specific tools and generate ideas as a result, then their confidence grows and they want to do more. This is the most important aspect of confidence. Another aspect is to make 'creativity' an expected part of everyone's job.
If creativity is treated as something rare and very special, then many people will come to feel it is not for them. If 'creative thinking' is expected behaviour, employees will try to be creative more often. Showing videos and films that extol creativity may increase motivation for a short while. But when people find that they are not as successful creatively as the individuals in the film, they stop trying.
So some people are creative because they are motivated to be creative and so make more creative effort. Others may be creative because they have developed some creative habits and through repetition find that the 'habits' do work. The formal tools of creativity can provide these habits and methods for everyone. If creativity is not a special talent, but a way of thinking that can be learned, practised and used, then what is this way of thinking? Here we come to another fixed idea which is very hard indeed to budge.
A person tied up with a rope cannot play the violin. But cutting the rope does not make that person a violinist. In the same way, inhibition and caution make creativity very difficult. But freeing people from such inhibitions does not make them creative. Because 'brainstorming' was the first creative method, there is a fixed idea that deliberate creativity is brainstorming. This method is of value, but it is very weak.
There is a big difference between 'what is' and 'what can be'. It is common experience that some people can be creative - this is 'what is'. If the formal techniques of creativity are well taught, then everyone can be creative - this is 'what can be'. So far we have seen the dangerous effect of three fixed ideas:
1. That creativity is a special talent which is possessed only by a few special people.
2. That creativity is the same as art.
3. That creativity is a natural talent, and that being liberated will allow that talent to operate.
The purpose of the brain is specifically to be non-creative. The purpose of the brain is to make fixed patterns to deal with a stable universe. Life would be far too slow if the brain had creatively to design new patterns to deal with the same situation over and again. The self-organising nature of the brain allows incoming information to form itself into routine patterns. That is why we can get on with life. Creativity accepts the very high value of these fixed patterns and then seeks to change them. This is now a deliberate process. So we can both enjoy the fixed patterns and also benefit from changing them.
The techniques of lateral thinking are based directly on the way the brain works as a self-organising information system. Such systems make asymmetric patterns. Techniques such as provocation, random entry, concept extraction, challenge, etc. make it easier to escape from the standard pattern to access other potential patterns. This creative way of thinking can be formally trained and formally used. There are now 952 trainers certifed to teach such methods. Not everyone who learns the techniques will be equally creative. But with mathematics we expect everyone to have a 'reasonable' skill. We can have the same expectations for creativity.
Another fixed idea is that only certain people need to be creative. Such people may include the designers of new products or the strategic thinkers. Everyone else should just get on with the established routines. Yet creativity comes into all activities: cost-cutting, simplifying procedures, inter-personal relationships, analysis, problem-solving, etc. Since there is always a comsiderable perceptual element in all thinking, so there is a need for creativity.
The paradox is that we make such a fuss about creativity that we are very reluctant to do anything about it. We feel that if creativity is so wonderful and so magical, there is nothing we can do to make it happen. That is the ultimate dangerous fixed idea.
[For information about formal training, fax (UK) 44 207 602 1779]
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