The Myth of UnCreativity

There is a myth about creativity that it is all about genius and talent. Certainly, there is no smoke without fire, and some people do have a particular bent for it, but the reality is that we all have far more capability to be creative than we realize.

When we were children, we were more creative than our parents and teachers could handle. We thus learned not to be creative, and most of our lessons were structured and controlled, and the lessons were so effective for many of us, we were left with the belief that we were never creative and could never be creative.

The patterns of non-creativity often carry on as we grow older and we get stuck in habits and 'I am not creative' goes from being an excuse to a description the mental ruts into which we fall.

Learning to think

Just as we can learn to swim, so also can we learn to think. People such as Edward de Bono have put significant effort into teaching thinking as an acquired skill. Socrates did it many years ago. He would answer a question with another question, forcing his disciples, including Plato and Aristotle, to think for themselves.

A simple way you can do this is to buy puzzle books, especially those that include tricky and lateral thinking games. Crosswords are another mind-bender that can help you climb out of your rut. You can also vary the method – working on jigsaw puzzles, for example, helps your visualization.

Another variant is to sign up for a class where you will have to think outside your normal patterns of thought. If you are a scientist, take an arts class. If you are an artist, study philosophy. You can also do these in your spare time. Books cost pennies and contain gold dust and gems.

Learning by doing

The army uses a term: 'muscle memory'. When you go on a long march, your muscles seem to remember how to march a long way and months later a similar march is nowhere near as hard. The same is true with creativity. Once you have opened the gates and got stuck into some really hard creative work (it is a myth that it is all fun and easy).

Get engaged in any creative activity you can. Offer yourself as an out-of-the-box thinker for other people's brainstorming sessions. Paint, sculpt or take photographs. Climb mountains and shout from the hilltops.

Do things to break your own paradigms. Wear different clothes. Get a different haircut. Enter for creative competitions. Read things you wouldn't normally read. Step outside the box and push the boundaries to expand your comfort zone.

Practice, practice

The secret is to keep on going with as many different things as your brain can take. Go on different holidays. Take up different hobbies. Drive to work by different routes.

Build yourself a regular schedule of practicing creativity. Just like going to the gym, spend quality time in practice. Plan the activities and exercises you will do, as well as the ways you will use it to enhance your life.

Many people have found simple, but valuable ideas that they have turned into profitable businesses. Do you think you could not do that? What is stopping you?

Keep generating ideas. Look around you for problems to solve. There are many opportunities all around you, right now. Look at the issues you and others are facing. Look at the little difficulties, from unscrewing a tight lid in the kitchen to lifting heavy items out of the car.

Practice may not make perfect, but it will make you a whole lot better at creativity.

T

“Inter caecos regnat strabo”
Among blind people the squinting one rules.

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Karley and Jake Owen

Leadership (vs Management) Part 1

Leading and managing are not necessarily synonyms. Some leaders can manage, but the converse is not as common. This is part 1 of a series on leading and managing.
This is a set of competencies identified by Boyatzis (1982). through critical incident research.

Efficiency orientation

Focusing on objectives, tasks and achievements. Setting challenging goals and supporting appropriate planning. Facilitating overcoming of obstacles. Encouraging people to act in this way.

Concern with impact

Demonstrating a significant interest in power and its symbols. Use of power-oriented behavior such as using various methods of influence, seeking positions of power, etc.

Proactivity

Showing a strong belief in individual self-control and self-driven action. Acting without waiting for full agreement or authorization. Taking responsibility for actions. Acting to dissuade defensive and risk-averse behavior. 

Self-confidence

Showing belief in self, values and ideas. Able to talk decisively and take confident and decisive action. Communicating this self-confidence to others and hence instilling confidence in them.

Oral presentation skill

Able to speak well, using effective language, modes of speech and body language. Uses effective symbolism and metaphor in words and actions. Appropriate use of visual aids.

Conceptualization

Uses inductive reasoning to identify patterns and relationships. Able to create models and symbols to communicate these concepts. Uses synthetic and creative thinking to develop further ideas and solutions.

Diagnostic use of concepts

Able to use deductive reasoning to convert models and ideas into specific instances and possibilities. Concepts are turned into practical and useful tools.

Use of socialized power

Developing networks and hierarchies of people and mobilizing them to to achieve specific ends. Acts as a person in the middle to resolve conflicts and bring people together. 

Managing group processes

Building the identity of groups and people in them. Building common goals and objectives. Developing group roles. Creating ways of working together and facilitating teamwork.




Historia est vitae magistra 
History is the tutor of life

T


Boyatzis, R.E. (1982). The Competent Manager, NY: Wiley

Thinking About What Is Not There (Creativity 101)

Think about what you are thinking about, and then think about what you are not thinking about.

When you are looking at something (or otherwise sensing), notice what is not there.

Watch people and notice what they do not do.

Make lists of things to remember that you normally forget.

In other words, deliberately and carefully think about what is not there.

 

An artist draws the spaces between things.

A market manager for a furniture wonders about product areas where customers have made no comment. She watches them using tables and notes that they leave the tables out when not using them. She invents a table that can be easily be folded and stored.

The psychology of thought is such that we are very good at seeing what is there, but not at all good at seeing what is not there. Thinking about what is not there compensates for this by deliberately forcing us to do what we do not naturally do.

 Ab amicis honesta petamus
"One should only ask from a friend what he is capable of." 

*T