Play Dialogue

“What does the future of creativity look like?” “How do we foster creativity in our children?” “What will come of the creative class?” This is the conversational output of the Play team answering those and other creativity questions… Feel free to join the discussion.

HD:
Fostering creativity in children:

-It’s not about “coloring outside of the lines”… no, no, no. Too trite!
-Give kids tasks that force imagination. Not “Susie, here’s a piece of paper and draw whatever you like,” but instead, “Susie, here’s a piece of paper and draw me a picture of a jungle tea party.”
-Give kids tasks that are open-ended: not “give me three answers to this,” but “give me at least 3 answers to this…”
-Teach co-creation to your children. Work with siblings, work with mom on one half of a project, dad on the other half of the project, diversify your play dates!
-Set aside a few minutes each week to actually do “creativity exploration” with your child. This could look different each time. Maybe you take your child do an art gallery, maybe you teach them how to say a phrase in 3 different languages, maybe you go to a park and write down all of the strangest things you saw, heard, touched, etc. If these and other practices become the norm at an early age, the rise of the creative class is going to squash whatever creative force exists today.

The future of creativity will flourish once we recognize the difference between Big C creativity versus little c creativity. (Big C creativity: grand ideas that change the world, versus little c creativity: the everyday problem-solving we do). People tend to think that creativity only comes in large packages (overemphasize Big C output), when really it’s about small, habitual changes. Stop with all of the buzz words, get over the notion of creativity being innate, and realize that creativity isn’t out of reach. It’s simply giving yourself the freedom to think and think big. Creativity is freedom personified. Employees need to harness that freedom-to-imagine in order for real, life-impacting, life-giving solutions to emerge. The future of creativity is boundless when you see it through the lens of freedom.
Some thought-starters.

RT:
Next Creative Class:
I agree it is about grooming children to be better creative thinkers, and setting expectations early that creativity is an intellectual discipline, not an artistic endeavor.
It might look like a cross between the Jaycees and summer camp (not business, entrepreneur school and not fun and games…but borrowing from both to create a generation that
knows how to collaborate
is not dependent on technology alone (which skews the skills needed to create into an isolationism, or at best, virtual collective that doesn’t rely on the subtleties of live collaboration dynamics).
The next creative class understands that creativity is not a position, but a discipline that is expected of everyone, and a capability that can be improved in everyone (anti-agency model)
The next creative class understands the difference between ego and humility, so that there is meritocracy of ideas, not a hierarchy of titles…that ideas belong to a process and a collective most always, not to an individual who makes a lot of money because of “his” idea

BS:
Regarding kids, the lead point is that they are naturally creative, and our current educational system teaches them how not be. Human thought (and learning) by nature resides in a range of organic, layered, curious, exploratory mindsets. Education focused primarily on processing and regurgitating information, rather than thinking and creating, systematically programs the natural creative inclinations out of children.

DW:
Hooking on to Robert (easy to do because he’s so angular) -

When my friends and I learned how to sail at age 9, our instructor put us all in our own boats on Long Island Sound on the first day and said “go.” The first hour was full of chaos but by the end of the day, we all managed to come up with discoveries and creative ways to negotiate the wind, tides and all these new fangled ropes, pulleys and levers. And in the process, we developed our own individual techniques and style without sacrificing doing things the “right way.”

What if every new sport, game, story, lesson started with a Suzuki Method-type approach? Instead of focusing on the correct answers and processes when teaching something new – let kids’ natural level of confusion tolerance and interests guide their actions.

For example…

…Coaching baseball for a bunch of 5 year olds? Let them loose on the field for a week to create their own games and explore their skillset. Follow up the next week with the REAL rules and use examples of things kids did well to illustrate the “how.”

…Teaching the story of the Pilgrims? Start with make-believe scenarios taken out of context that build empathy and illustrate the behaviors associated with exploring, community building, bartering and celebration. Spend two or three days just focusing on the scenarios before introducing the Pilgrim story. Ask the kids what they have done differently to build a new life in a new world?

CM:
And to add to that, children today are completely overscheduled. They go from school to soccer to lessons to dinner to whatever. They don’t have time to think for themselves, they just need to be excellent at execution.

Letting kids be bored, finding something to do on their own… using their imaginations. Less toys. Less video games… I feel all of this contributes to their creativity. Just like adults… kids today don’t have time to observe and make connections, which lead to moments of inspiration and creativity.

You know I do this weird thing with Owen every night and for some reason he loves it. I ask him questions like “Would you rather have three triangles and a piece of thread or two boxes and stick. He usually comes up with a pretty good reason for his decision… something like… “because if I had three triangles I could tie them all together with the thread and make a musical instrument.” I know… I am a nerd.

But I guess my point is helping children learn to make sense out of ambiguity, and letting them naturally discover by consistently putting them in environments that force them to be imaginative is a great way to encourage their creativity.

BA:
You are training a young MacGyver.

RT:
Oooo…this should be the blog thread…but to hook on Christian’s email, the next creative class understands that there is no RIGHT answer to remember (the Piaget study we cite often), and understand they need to CREATE the answers.

BA:
Ten Quick and Dirty (not XXX) Ways to be Creative:

1) Worst Idea. It removes risk aversion because you aren’t going for success. Then find the hidden nuggets of truth.
2) Loyal Opposition. The person who tells it to you straight and provides you with a different perspective. Leaders often surround themselves with people who think like them because they seem smart. You have to seek out someone who will always push back.
3) One Word. For yourself and for others, you can use One Word to identify passion. Then put that passion to action.
4) Volume/Time. When generating ideas, go for quantity like 100 ideas, not one solution. Or set aside 30 minutes and just crank until the time is up.
5) One Degree/One Step Further. Risk doesn’t have to be something earth-shattering, it can just be pushing yourself just outside of your comfort zone. What’s that one phone call you are afraid to make?
6) Personal Board of Directors. Who can you look to multiple and diverse viewpoints for personal and professional growth.
7) Pure and Literal Change Perspective. Take a different route to work. Eat lunch in the break room on a different floor.
8) Bookshelf. Read more than business books and magazines.
9) Think Cards. Inspiration is a discipline. You need to capture insights and ideas as they come. Or you will lose them. Could also be a journal.
10) Storytelling. Collect and tell stories to inspire others. Make business connections. Give applications. Show them how you think. They will inspire you right back and give you new perspectives.

BS:
For the academics at 1801, a significant body of research is building that shows a correlation between …
1. a childhood lacking unprogrammed time and boredom, and
2. an inability as a young professional to create or self-regulate.

BA:
That is the best back-door insult to everyone here under 30. Nice.

SG:
I do that too except the questions are more like “Hank would you like to have a dad who does heroin now and then, or no dad at all?” He totally gets the equal signs.

I was just sitting here wondering to myself, where is the standardized testing, the SAT, the GRE, the GMAT, the..whatever….that isn’t 100% based on “right and wrong” answers? To Barry’s earlier point, maybe if we put just a shred of value on creativity in formal education, it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable at age 18.

LB:
Echoing Barry’s point, children innately learn using different modalities and are then forced to conform to only “testable” information. Beyond the traditionally understood visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles, researchers like Howard Gardner have worked, and continue to explore, other types of learners (what Gardner deems as multiple intelligences). Musical, naturalist, logical-mathematical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic and linguistic intelligences are displayed by children but not celebrated by schools or the SATs for that matter. People thought of as “creatives” succeed because they think unconventionally and play to their learning strengths, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. Andy, you mentioned your girls are puzzle whizzes. That may indicate they have an aptitude toward spatial information processing or bodily-kinesthetic learning. So some day reviewing multiplication tables with them, it may help to bounce a ball or paint the numbers on a canvas to help them understand the information in a physical way. Parents who support different ways of processing information have children who connect with information more easily and in diverse ways. All that can lead to continued creative thought. Also makes me think— how do we engage our clients in physical/spatial ways (paint by number is great, LAMS walking is too) when creating ideas?

TL:
With Barry on this one. The conversation begins with a reevaluation of the educational system. SOLs, testing, solution vs. possibility mindset are clearly part of the discussion. This might be an opportunity to reference some of our extended friends and family who spend a lot of time in this space: Sir Ken Robinson, Dan Pink, Nils and daughter from Prophet, etc. A perfect place to shine a light on KaosPilots as a case study on progressive approaches to education.

Regarding “Creative Class”, (assuming they mean in “class” in the Richard Florida sense), this notion seems somewhat inconsistent with the Play POV on the topic of creativity. There is the subtle insinuation that we must develop the next generation of the creative elite. That on some level, there exists the “chosen few”, reinforcing the sins of the agency model of creatives vs. suits. The Play approach emphasizes creativity as a discipline to be practiced/enjoyed by all, regardless of function

Future of Creativity (sounds like the next CNBC special)…

Very exciting when one considers the rippling effects of the democratization of technology. As the tools to create become more affordable and more widely distributed, the potential for diverse creative output increases dramatically. We’re already seeing this in music (ProTools), film (Final Cut), and of course, porn (or so I heard from Armbruster). Looking ahead, initiatives such as One Laptop Per Child and the like are planting the seeds to potential solutions for across a variety of issues: energy, cancer, hunger, sustainable design, etc. Better tools in more peoples’ hands is a wonderful thing. The question is whether or not we are also taking into account the mindset necessary for getting the most out of the technological advances.

DW:
Counterpoint to Tim. Because.

Future of creativity is less exciting because the democratization of technology provides answers/information/inspiration too easily without requiring human effort. Pro Tools, Final Cut, PPT, InDesign also provide embedded templates, loops, samples, avatars that make it easy to not to have to think creatively. Likewise, the internet provides everyone the same access to the same information presented in the same way. People are less inclined to find inspiration for new ideas away from their desks because they can get answers or safe solutions through “democratized” tools like Google.

TL:
The Future of David Warren is less exciting. Democratize this.

CM:
Future of creativity… tapping into technology usefully, responsibly (non-template) to improve collaborative creative thinking… making creativity a communal experience versus a personal one. Nothing new.

But we have a massive generation coming into business that knows how to collaborate. Counterpoint to my earlier argument… they are feeding each other with diverse thoughts and insights by the nature of their social lives via mash up conversations, cultures and technologies. Is the question… how to talk “creativity and inspiration” in the language that the Web 2.0 generation is now speaking?

BA:
In the future there will be so much inspiration and information at our finger tips that a curator -- that word again -- will be essential to succesful professionals.