The Scientific Truth Behind Creativity… and what you suspected all along
The extent of research in this field is quite remarkable — and highlights the importance of creativity in all walks of life.
But to call all ‘creativity’ one unified thing is something of a misnomer.
That’s because creativity cannot really be quantified in scientific terms. We like to think it can, but it can’t. Not really. As myriad Cognitive Neuro-scientists, psychoanalysts, psychologists and researchers have pointed out, despite extensive analysis of the brain, no specific creativity centre has been discovered.
That said, there are certain patterns of behaviour and practices you can do to improve you and your team’s idea generation.
You have to work hard to become more creative
Daniel Kahneman states that intelligence is not only an ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory, and deploy attention when needed. And if creativity is associative memory that works exceptionally well (Sarnoff Mednick), it stands to reason that the more you fill your memory banks, the more material you will have to develop those truly unifying and breakthrough ideas.
Gary Klein, author of Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights (and revered Research Psychologist) writes at length of the flash of illumination. And that insight does not come from preparation (in contradiction to pioneer Graham Wallas’ theory of the stages of creativity.)
However, having an insight is one thing, it’s quite another to put it into practice. That is all about preparation & training & expertise. Without those ingredients, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to convert the insight or flash of illumination into a new product or revolutionary service.
Klein writes that insights feel certain — like closure — and while they do feel like something tangible has been ‘achieved’, they are often just the start of the creative process, or rather, a stop along the way.
CULTURE CREATION
The type of culture you have will determine how creative your team is.
R. Keith Sawyer notes that in some quarters the Japanese economic slump of the 90s is put down to a conformist mentality which stymied innovation and led to a loss of market share.
How many times have you read that innovation and adaptability are the keys to future (and sustained) success?
Or that increasing experiences, widening interests, meeting different people expands the material you have to draw on, and will lead to better ideas? (We’ve said it a fair bit.)
There is no panacea or magic wand. You have to keep working, keep building on your insights, and keep being generous to each other in a group setting. Be greater than the sum of your parts.
While it would be unwise to suggest that creativity research shows us nothing, it would be fair to say nobody truly knows where it comes from.
But take this as a positive. All roads lead to — ANYONE CAN BE CREATIVE. Just do it. Get on with it. Try stuff out. That’s what all the great creatives in history did.
You cannot recreate an Einstein, a da Vinci, a Newton et al. And I would suggest that in a lot of cases the premise (as put forward by many writers) that they used this or that technique is slightly disingenuous. I would posit these CREATIVE GREATS were no more conscious of these techniques than you or I were before we read about them. They just got in with it. They had natural interests fuelled by natural aptitude.
What’s great is that we can now analyse this body of fine creative work and DRAW OUT the techniques and patterns — and that is what has been consistent and consistently useful in our own research and work.
Ultimately, you have to find out what works for you. No amount of theory can replicate time spent on the idea generation front lines and the creativity coalface. But with the myriad exercises and games we’ve put together, we’re sure you will find the combo that works for you.
The other thing about the likes of Einstein, da Vinci and Newton? They worked bloody hard. You just gotta keep chipping away…
CHIPPING AWAY WITH IDEAFLIP
At Ideaflip we set out to democratise the workplace.
As we’ve said, great insight can come from anywhere — or anyone, and our platform is designed to harness all your team’s ideas.
Give yourself the best chance for game-changing insight by trying out for yourself.
Ideaflip is an ingenious tool for the remote-working era, providing the perfect, online space for all your team to connect, interact and create — wherever in the world they are.
The Ideaflip Brainstorm PROCESS is also perfect for at-work collaboration. It democratises the workplace, creating a platform for everyone to have their ideas heard — inspiring PEOPLE to participate through PLAY — and helps discover and harness everyone’s latent creativity.
