true creativity, crazitivity, value, difference, provocation, brainstorming, lateral thinking, movement

This is a brand new word that I invented to sound like both 'crazy' and 'creativity'.

At conferences on creativity the organisers often feel compelled to be 'creative' about the agenda or events leaflet. After all, if this is a conference on creativity, then surely the organisers should be creative? The result is usually a leaflet that is different, unusual and bizarre.

Many people equate creativity with being 'different'. Since creative ideas and expressions are indeed different, then it should follow that being different means being creative. Since wine contains alcohol, then surely anything that contains alcohol is wine (even if it is really floor polish)?

Far too many people are caught up in the idea that being different is being creative. The result is a very shallow sort of creativity where the only value is that something is different and maybe eye-catching.

It is not really very difficult to be different. If oranges are orange, then surely pink oranges will be creative. If tables have four legs, then surely a table with five legs will be creative. If the title of a book comes at the beginning of a book, then surely it will be creative to have the title halfway through the book. The question then has to be asked: these things are indeed different, but what is the value? Difference by itself is only a value to the designer, not to anyone using the design.

Being crazy and 'off the wall' might indicate someone who does not want to stick to conventional approaches. But beyond that implicit statement there is nothing else. Indeed, there is almost a negative message: this person really wants to be creative, but only knows how to be different.

So mistaken is this view that people who value crazitivity tend to look down on creative ideas that are new, simple and effective. There is a sort of escalating cult of bizarreness. The more bizarre, the better. Unfortunately there are enough people sharing this belief to give support to this mistaken cult.

If 'being different' is indeed a type of creativity, then we need to distinguish it from other sorts of creativity that do deliver more value than mere difference. That is why it was necessary to invent the term 'crazitivity'.

ATTENTION
Getting attention and being noticed is important in some areas. In advertising the initial ability to catch attention may be the first step in selling the product. On a social level, attracting attention may be a key ambition. If people notice you, then they have to take you into account.

There is also another aspect. If you want people to notice how creative you are, then you have to catch their attention. Being different is the way to do this. Being different is also rather easier than being really creative.

When people are shown something bizarre, but can find no real value in the object, then it is polite to say that the object is 'really creative'. There does not seem to be anything else that can be said. Creativity becomes a complete end in itself - instead of being a better way to deliver an agreed value. A broom with green tassles on it does not sweep any better. There is no real creativity involved. If the broom was always getting lost, then the tassles might provide a value. The fact that the broom looks unusual may increase sales, but it still does not sweep any better.

PROVOCATION
In a brainstorming session held by an advertising agency which has won the account to increase sales of wool, there is a suggestion that sheep be dyed purple. This is an 'eye-catching' visual effect and might get used.

In brainstorming any idea is permitted. The result is that many of the ideas produced are distinctly bizarre. Some of them may be usable in the case of advertising, because 'bizarre' is eye-catching.

The provocation process of lateral thinking may seem superficially similar, but is actually totally different. 'Po cars should have square wheels' is a provocation. But there is no intention at all of using this idea. The operation of 'movement' is used on this provocation. From this movement may come the idea of intelligent suspension in which the suspension acts to compensate for the roughness of the ground.

Provocation is only the first step in the process, not the final idea.

There are formal methods of setting up provocations (escape, reversal, etc.) and there are formal and systematic ways of getting movement (moment-to-moment, focus-on-the-difference, etc.). This is another key difference from brainstorming. Instead of just messing around and hoping that ideas will emerge, there are formal methods of movement which can be developed and practised as a skill.

UNUSUAL
Imagine a matchstick with a head at both ends. This is certainly unusual. But is it creative? In order to ascertain this, we would need to look around for value.

If the matches were of such poor quality that a match-head did not always light, then having the second head would be a back-up value.

If the match is going to be used for a very short time, then each of the heads might be used. Could this be the case with lighting a cigarette or the gas stove? If the match is going to burn for any length of time, then clearly one of the heads is going to be wasted. The purchaser will be paying for unused match heads.

So the value of this unusual idea might be marginal. If, however, we were to treat the two-headed match as a provocation, then we might move forward in different ways.

The two heads might suggest back-up and this, in turn, might suggest separate match-heads and sticks. The two could be placed together as required. There might even be the idea of a match with one head and two bodies. This would suggest holding a matchstick against the one that is being struck, so providing more burning material. This could be done, anyway, without any special design change.

CHALLENGE
In the challenge process there are three steps:

1. Decide the focus and challenge.
2. Effect a change or alternative.
3. Examine the change for value.

Here the change is not really a provocation. The change is just an arbitrary change. This gets close to crazitivity. The difference is that the change is not an end in itself. It is legitimate to make a change and then to seek value. If that value can be found, then the change is creative. New value is the basis of creativity. There may be many roads to such new value.

SATISFACTION
When are we satisfied with our thinking? When are we satisfied with our creative thinking? That may be the key point. Those who believe that creativity is merely a matter of being different will be easily satisfied that something different and bizarre is creative. The difference is seen as sufficient value in itself. Those who are not satisfied, until some new real value has been achieved by the creative effort, will not be satisfied with mere difference as a value.

It is not suggested that those who are easily satisfied with crazitivity are incapable of providing real creativity. They may be capable, but they do not make the effort, because they are so easily satisfied. Just being different is easy to achieve. As a result, many people who might otherwise have been creative are, in a sense, blocked by crazitivity.

PUT OFF
Those who practise crazitivity deny themselves the chance to be truly creative. Those who equate crazitivity with creativity may be put off creativity because they come to see it as something peripheral and of no real value. Show-off creativity is often of the crazitivity type because this is easy and may make an impact. At the same time crazitivity is easily seen as being a matter of 'showing off'.

Quiet and low key creativity may be so logical and effective (in hindsight) that it does not seem to be creativity at all. Such creativity therefore seems of less value in advertising creative talent. A single good photographic image may be very powerful, but a collage of mixed images may seem more creative. We are duped into believing that creativity has to shout at us: 'this is creative'.

Is there room for fun and exuberant creativity that is just an expression of energy with no further value? The answer must surely be 'yes'. In its place this can be worthwhile. The danger lies in believing that being different is all there is to creativity.

The simple solution which I have suggested here is to invent the term 'crazitivity'. In this way we can look at that kind of creativity in its own right, without having to compare it with other sorts of creativity. Where we want and value crazitivity we can have it.

The fundamental point is that just being different is not being creative.