Practising Integral Creativity
"The notion of randomness is a big part of any kind of lateral/creative thinking.
It's all connected to that idea that you can't really trust your brain,
that any ideas you have on your own may well turn out to be simply bad ideas or ones that aren't at all original.
Just as routine kills creative thought, so too apparently does thought itself.
Our brains are just not wired up to be original on their own."
(Excerpt taken from "PopCo" by Scarlett Thomas, 2004)
The first time I heard Sir Ken Robinson ask the question "Do Schools Kill Creativity" (see video below), I immediately wondered: and if they do, can you give creativity mouth-to-mouth, can you reanimate it? Can we (re-)learn, what was unlearnt because of certain life and work conditions?
Well,...at least we can practice it! A large variety of methods, tools and techniques exists to challenge our brains to experience divergent thinking, or lateral thinking as some call it. Neuroscience has proven already awhile ago that a frequent practice of making puzzles and riddles sharpens our capacity to think out of the box, and even more so that it can contribute to keeping our brains wired healthily.
Unfortunately, a conscious practice of creative thinking has in many organisations and businesses been reduced and restricted to product innovation and marketing. If onyl similar techniques and tools would be applied more often to innovate interpersonal relationships in teams, business models, organisational structures and internal processes, management and leadership styles and practices and so forth...
I started to include tools and methods that trigger creative thinking consciously in my process design and facilitation and organisational design work. Through this practice, an essential discovery has been that working in organisations, supporting a conscious practice of creativity, not only requires attention for 'lateral / divergent thinking'. It'll only make sense, and thus be truly creative, when 'convergent thinking' is equally designed and brought into the process. That's how we create purposefully - creativity for a purpose.
Just like the Art of Saying Yes ought to be balanced by a healthy practice of the Art of Saying No, so does 'divergent thinking' need to be balanced by 'convergent thinking' in order to create. It is when we sit with our colleagues, mates, partners, managers and peers and when we put the different pieces of the puzzle in conversation together that new perspectives, new solutions, new projects, new structures etc. start to emerge, and start to make sense.
An integral practice of creativity is possible, when:
% We are ready and willing to overcome our limiting beliefs and fears, and to postpone our judgements
# We are part of an inspired and purposeful community
& Our brains are sufficiently wired to a balanced practice of Saying Yes and Saying No
@ We make use of relevant tools and methods for creative thinking in a thoroughly designed process with good rhythm
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I would like to thank Sir Ken Robinson for his mastery in asking questions about creativity and for his astonishing and exceptional way of sharing his insights. The two presentations below inspire me until this very day.
