‘Serious creativity’, which means bringing new approaches to solve problems, aims at a larger practical benefit than any artistic or abstract ideal
Jugglers, magicians, acrobats and comic acts…. there’s hardly anyone who isn’t fascinated by it. Creativity is more often associated with music, the visual arts, theatre and dance than with anything else. The novelty, symbolism, and cleverness aspects of such creativity naturally appeal to us. And yet, these days, we speak of creativity in the workplace - the factory floor, the conference room, the office cubicle, the design department, and in our very approach to the work we take up or are assigned.
Sometimes though it seems as if into a sombre world of revenue and responsibility, a word or concept from another, more colourful, world has been imported! To help in getting over the barriers in this improbable sounding process, organisations engage consultants. In a matter of days or within a few weeks, these consultants enable insights, innovation, attitudinal shifts, a stronger team focus and a better coordination. How are they able to do this?
One reason is expertise. Another is breadth of experience. A third is a deliberate cultivation of skill and flair through study and practice. A fourth is a firm hold over a values orientation. It’s not hard to discover more when this framework is once in place.
Expertise usually means a specialised kind of knowledge, and it’ll help to elaborate on what this knowledge could comprise of. There is a type of expert who can advise whether someone’s process is aligned well enough with the objective. They can suggest adjustments that bring about a better alignment. The new alignment will enable either a superior result from the activity or make it an easier or more efficient performance for the doer. Often, it’ll achieve both - as you’d have noticed maestros perform very complex feats in music with great ease while beginners struggle over initial material. There is greater speed, pleasure and fulfillment in doing something where an expert alignment has been achieved between mind and body, user and implement, technique and goal.
This is why there’s much benefit in following the occasional video/podcast/ text interviews given by classical and other proficient musicians and composers - with the right questioner, they share their observations about subtle processes, and how they have picked up nuances from their mentors and predecessors. The attentiveness and dedication of these artistes is a ready inspiration for anyone in any line of work.
Idea Advocacy specialists can bring in learnings from a wide variety of situations, organisational size and cultures, across industry sectors, locations, functions and skill sets. This is what enables any person to take a wider perspective of a role or task, and to be able to redefine it in more current and relevant ways. It isn’t possible to ignore that products, team roles, and customer policies need updates from time to time to retain their appeal, or to establish an edge. The objectivity to make and carry out such decisions is often available from an external expert.
About a century ago, the prevailing impression was that such experts were a type of advanced scholar or a senior academic or a veteran bureaucrat. But books on creativity from prolific writers such as Roger Von Oech and Edward de Bono have brought the importance of flexibility and imagination into focus. Since then, the processes of situation definition, idea generation, and idea evaluation have been discussed in considerable detail over time in many articles and books.
These publications and instructional videos that discuss brainstorming, effective collaborative methods, and planned innovation have helped create a clearer understanding about what Bono terms ‘serious creativity’, namely bringing new approaches to solve problems whether in industry or society. The term also suggests that it is somewhat different from artistic creativity, as it often involves more teamwork, more use of concepts, and because it aims directly at a material gain of some kind. It aims at a larger practical benefit than any artistic or abstract ideal.
In the arts, we often hear about the importance of innate talent and early training. And it is a fact that often, exceptional musicians or dancers or actors have drawn a lot from family traditions and lineage. Even fifty years ago, there were very few academies of drama and film-making skills. Today however, a lot more coaching is available to provide an orientation towards creativity. A given team can indeed be helped to improve the number and quality of solutions it comes up with to solve its design or business problems.
An ordinary individual might not transform into a Jagdish Chandra Bose or a Tesla through a few weekend workshops or a short course. Teams can, however, discover methods and traits that help them generate and evaluate ideas better, and learn to attentively pave the path from an initial proposal to a full implementation.
There’s a whole book on nurturing ideas and harvesting repeatedly from them. It’s by songwriter and advertising entrepreneur Bill Backer, who had produced some hit campaigns for leading beverage brands. Saying that he had found poor parenting when it comes to ideas, he suggested that companies should have small groups of personnel who will ‘adopt and foster’ an idea or two. He called them ‘Idea Families’ - people who would protect and develop an idea so it could grow and make a difference.
The entertainment industry regularly processes a very large volume of fresh proposals - scripts, projects, topics, format adaptations - and usually applies the sole criterion of how large a paying audience can be expected. In businesses, labs, product design, government departments and other professional teams however, more than novelty, it’s the aspects of utility and improved efficiency that are valued more.
A famous artist was once asked how he came up with such striking ideas. He said the secret was to borrow in a way that no one could immediately say where he had got it from. This means that painters get inspired by musical works, not contemporary canvases. Shapes and sounds, structures and survival principles that we observe in Nature are an inexhaustible source of ideas.
Originality and innovation are to be respected for what they indeed are. In several practical situations however, an organisation may only need a suitable adaptation of an idea that is already around us in our environment.
Through sensitisation and training, people can understand and attend to creative processes better. They can develop insights by looking at how orchestras, despite the variety of instruments, produce music rather than cacophony. They can appreciate how heeding a conductor can give everyone their say, and yet keep the brainstorming process moving forward, and towards a successful finale.
In all of this, it isn’t only ideation and flair that matter. There’s little room for passivity and pessimism. It calls for a powerful faith that things can be constantly bettered. That a greater benefit for the many can be pursued and obtained. That more individuals can participate and contribute to bringing about desired change. A strong sense of values does inspire creativity.
Greater success in reaping from ideas comes from a type of expertise. Diversity enables - look widely across industries or domains. It is a learnable activity - mapping an existing scheme of things, identifying possible or necessary points for improvement, and attending to their implementation. Creativity is a force for good.
(The writer is a creative director, advertising faculty, and an amateur epistemologist.The views expressed are personal.)