1. What are your personal experiences with individual
creativity? Have you had times when you felt especially creative or, even,
especially uncreative?
I have always viewed myself as a
creative person. I have a natural talent
(and appreciation) for art and, although I no longer paint or draw regularly, my
creative ‘talent’ is an integral part of how I view myself. Oftentimes, this simple belief in my ability
gives me the confidence to creatively solve problems that have nothing to do
with art. For example, I fancy myself a
kind of ‘Household MacGyver.’ When it
comes to creatively fixing a broken desk chair, shower head, toaster, etc. with
only the tools available in the ‘junk drawer’ in the kitchen, I’m an expert. Moreover, I love the challenge. My use for duct tape, paperclips, and rubber
bands knows no end.
I can also feel especially creative
in the strategic thinking I use to complete my school work. For example: I relish the moments when, after struggling
for hours to decide on a midterm paper topic, I finally glimpse a potential
idea and, in that moment, a million connections are made at once and the topic floods
out in every direction. Unfortunately,
it doesn’t always happen that way and I’m forced to slog through ten pages one
brutal paragraph at a time.
2. What are your personal experiences with organizational
creativity? Have you worked at companies that felt or behaved in ways that made
them more creative or, even, especially uncreative?
Last
summer during my summer internship at TXU Energy my job was to develop a
strategy for the eventual adoption of electric vehicles. I was initially given a prompt around state
and local government cooperation, but was giving the chance to completely
change course and pursue a creative approach to a retail-based strategy. TXU simply wanted someone thinking about the
issue full time, and a cheap way to do that was through their internship
program.
3. Do you think you, as an individual, are even capable of
being creative by yourself? And, better yet, do you think a group within an
organization is capable of being creative?
I have no doubts about my creative
ability…in fact, it’s most certainly an inflated self-image, but one that has served
me well over the years. I’m pretty good
about tempering my own creative flow, but groups are generally less capable of
staying in the sweat spot when it comes to creative brainstorming. The recipes for failure in group setting are
numerous: individuals may be inhibited
from sharing their insights if they aren’t comfortable with their team members;
one ‘bad apple’ in the group can constantly shoot down ideas; some groups are
too comfortable and ideas can stray far from the stated goal. On the other hand, one creative idea can
certainly be magnified in a group setting as other team members build on and
add their own insights to a particular problem.
In these cases, with an effective group, creativity can be magnified
tenfold. In short, there is a continuum for
effective group creativity where either end of the spectrum is a pitfall...if
you are lucky, you fall somewhere in the middle.
4. What do you think about this article and the way this
author describes different creative types of problems and, thus, different
creative processes? Should we trust ourselves just to know or sense when we
need one type of approach versus another?
I disagree with Lehrer’s position
that “there is no such thing as a ‘creative type’”. Like all aptitudes, I believe some people are
born with a natural talent for creativity, just as others are born artists,
musicians, mathematicians, linguists, etc.
I was born an artist but not a musician…it’s a fact…there is no way
around it. As a child, without any
training at all, I was able to accurately depict what I saw or imagined on
paper. By contrast, my best friend’s
attempts could only be described as comical.
On the other hand, he could hear and replicate a tune on a piano in an
instant while I would need a full day of practice to replicate the feat. Creativity is the same.
Some people (and I include myself
in this group) have a talent (or disability, depending how you look at it) for
making connections where others do not.
Lehrer gets at this point by emphasizing the importance of “cross-pollination”
and the importance of relaxation and inattention and daydreaming. He pretty much describes someone with ADD. I agree these characteristics are essential
to insight, however; some people are naturally gifted at adapting an idea or
experience from one application to another.
Others, like me, are so naturally relaxed and inattentive that the lack
of focus can bear fruit in the form of creativity. This ability is a real advantage when you need
to think outside the box, however; it can just as easily lead you astray when
your brain skips over an obvious solution.
People who have this talent/disability often hear things like “Oh, I
never thought of it that way” or “I guess
you could do it that way…” and especially “You’re overthinking this”.
This is not to say that these
techniques cannot be learned, they simply come easier to some and less easy to
others. I find most of my creativity is
born from “moments of insight” because I don’t have the patience and focus
needed for “nose-to-the-grindstone” type problems
