How Creative Are You?
Dr Phil Samuel in an article on the onesixsigma website in 2007 posed the following riddle:
What human trait is genetically determined
Is readily apparent in young children
Can be reliably measured in teenagers
And does not change with age or experience?
His answer is the style in which we solve problems, an attribute which is closely related to our creativity.
I recently took part in a course, one part of which was focussed on creativity and it started me thinking about the skills and gifts we have been given as individuals. Do we actively use all that is inside us, in order to be creative?
As we look around the world, so much of what we see, especially on the news, tends to show us people bent on destruction rather than creation. In some cases people are trying to ruin other humans, for a range of reasons ranging from pure greed and avarice to hatred and racism. In other stories we hear of people destroying possessions or ravaging items of natural beauty. Some of the reasons are heart-breakingly empty of real meaning; people are envious and want to taint others’ good fortune, or they are bored with nothing to do or simply attack something ‘because it is there’. How can we reverse this trend and join a rebellious army of creative people determined to build things up and change the world?
We need to recognise the creative spark within us, harness it and use it to best advantage and then pass on the flame of creativity to others.
Recognise Your Creativity
“But I am not a creative person”, I hear you cry, in the style of someone who has been told this by others all their life. I would argue however, that everyone has an ability to be creative. The areas where we differ may be down to magnitude but may more obviously lie in our style – how we tackle problem solving, how our creative abilities work as we tackle something set before us.
Dr Michael Kirton, a noted expert in occupational research, has discovered that we all have a preference for the way in which we solve problems and are creative. This preference can be measured and plotted along a scale ranging from the adaptive at one end to the innovative at the other. More adaptive people prefer to solve problems using more structure and like to gain consensus for their ideas from others. The more innovative prefer less structure and are less concerned about consensus. Those with a preference for being more adaptive will focus more on taking an existing idea and changing it, doing things better, whereas the more innovative prefer to come up with completely new ideas and do things differently.
Both ends of the spectrum represent forms of creativity, neither is better or worse than the other, simply different. What is being measured here is our creative style. not our level of creativity. It is not so much a question of ‘How creative am I?’, but rather ‘How am I creative?’
Anyone can operate anywhere along the scale but the further away from our preference we have to operate, the harder it will be. The difficulty will be magnified if we have to operate away from our preference consistently for a long period of time and this can sometimes be the cause of stress.
People are distributed normally along the spectrum; most of us fall in the central portion where we are neither extremely innovative nor extremely adaptive. What really matters though, is not so much where we lie on the scale but where we lie relative to another person or member of our team. For example if I placed myself by the:), I would find it more difficult to work with a group of people who were predominantly adaptive. This then becomes a factor in working in a team of people with differing styles – how does my style compare to someone else that I must work with, Because we will tend to want to solve problems in our own way i.e. in line with our preference, there is potential for conflict to occur when we work with others who have a different preference.
So the first thing we learn is that we are all creative but in different ways. How would you describe yourself in terms of the ideas you generate – are they more towards the adaptive or the innovative side of the scale? When you sit down to tackle something, do you immediately see ways of improving what exists or do you have several off-the-wall ideas?
Harness Your Creativity
The next question would be, how do you now unleash that potential to become more creative in everyday life. Practice. Looking purely at creativity in ideas generation, put yourself in situations where people need your thoughts on a subject. It might be that you look to generate ideas for your own benefit, or that your work team needs solutions to a problem. Ina brainstorming fashion, keep coming out with as many things as you can think of. Don’t hold back, don’t feel constrained by the opinion of others, and don’t let anyone question your ideas until you have voiced them all. Then go through all the things you have already said and if you are adaptive, how could each one be bettered. If you are more innovative, what is missing that fills a gap in the existing list. What has not been said because someone else thinks it can’t be done. Sherlock Holmes used to consider the impossible, even if it was only to eliminate it from his investigations. Do we consider all the options, even to the point of examining the impossible. When you think that sending an instant written message with pictures included, to someone at the far end of Baker Street, would have been impossible to the great thinker, so as time goes on, technology knocks down other obstacles. But how often do we go back to revisit what once was ‘impossible’. Exercise your brain in the areas that you feel gifted, but try new things too, to help you discover other hidden talents. This all helps to expand your comfort zone as well as your brain power.
Recently I have tried a spot of improvisation which has certainly helped me think in crazy new ways. If I am asked a question, instead of thinking carefully about the answer, I say the first thing that comes to mind and then pursue the conversation from there – warning; this may land you in a certain amount of trouble if you are ill-advised as to where you practice it. Another option is to follow the lead of Julia Cameron who advocates writing Morning Pages – three A4 sheets filled with your thoughts in the morning. This is not for any future consumption, simply to allow you to express yourself. I found that as the days went by the thoughts flowed more creatively from the prosaic starts that I had previously made.
Note that we haven’t really touched on artistic ability at all, which is often how people think of creativity being demonstrated. Granted skills in the arts can demonstrate a creative ability but there are also lots of paintings or dances that show little creative flair and can appear merely drab and uninspiring. If you can unleash your creative ideas first and then harness it to what other talents you have, the artistry will flow more easily.
Pass It On
Finally, pass the creative flame onwards. Inspire other people around you to unleash the creative giant within them. As they start to see the things that you are starting to produce, in whatever realm that may be, they realise that there is also the opportunity for them to be creative too. Then as they become more creative, it provides further inspiration for you. Spiral.
rebellious fashion
