Popular believe has it that creativity is reserved to the so-called “Creative Elites”, located at the top of the white-collar chain in so-called “Creative Industries”, e.g. arts, advertising, design, motion picture, engineering, R&D, and so on.
This conviction is probably the most undesirable of all collateral damages caused by industrial-revolution education, and nothing could be less true.
Human beings are born creative, human evolution is the result of that creativity and people apply it in every aspect of their everyday lives.
People consciously or unconsciously use creativity to solve every day problems, but probably the most obvious example of human creativity is lying: the ability to present others with more or less elaborate constructs of alternative truths.
Unlike the many creative skills extinguished by industrial-revolution schooling, lying is the one universal creative social skill that upbringing and education are apparently incapable of eradicating, even though it is most likely the first “do-not-rule” parents and educators bring to bear on a young child: “Thou shalt not lie”.
The richness of the concept and its deep embedding in universal culture is best illustrated through language.
An article on Wikipedia identifies no less than 21 different types of lies, while cognitive science has busied itself with the phenomenon ever since Augustine of Hippo’s “Taxonomy of Lies” (± AD 395).
Thus, where creativity assessment is useful to determine the kinds and levels of creative ability an individual possesses or preserves, the question “Am I creative?” may be answered rhetorically: “How well do you lie?”.
Since children start to lie convincingly at a very early age (four and a half years) – a milestone commonly known as Machiavellian Intelligence – there is still hope for the survival of creativity in our children, society and organizations.
Big Ideas vs. Small
Along with the misconception of the creative elites, the industrial revolution left behind another immovable concept in today’s business practice: the “Big Idea”.
As a result, “Small Ideas” from non-members of an organization’s established creative elite – secretaries, janitors, drivers, etc. – are often discarded, ignored or ridiculed, instead of fostered and “grown”.
Small ideas are frequently the result of the close observation of habitual business practice, combined with an intimate knowledge of an organization, while commonly hidden or self-censored for fear of rejection.
The lack of attention for small ideas contradicts one of the fundamental concepts and objectives of General System Theory (von Bertalanffy [1967]) called “Leverage”.
Leverage, in the Archimedean sense of the word, means exercising a small force to generate a big effect.
Thus, leaders looking for innovative change and a “Big Future” better start paying attention to small ideas and take heed of Man of the Millennium Leonardo da Vinci who is attributed this quote: “Observation is the most important skill of an artist”.
Contrary to the habitual practice in “non-creative” environments, observed applied creativity practice in advertising and other creative industries does not discard any idea – small or big – until careful further examination.
Big ideas can often be grown, or built from, one or more recombined small ideas, while small ideas are also often “Big” enough to solve the pesky little problems that lie at the root of serious, big problems.
One of the first steps any manager can take to stimulate an organization’s creative adoption process is to start listening for small ideas, eliminate the most common barriers for “ideation”, encourage innovative thinking through incentives and publicly recognize and protect valuable ideas and their creators.
This conviction is probably the most undesirable of all collateral damages caused by industrial-revolution education, and nothing could be less true.
Human beings are born creative, human evolution is the result of that creativity and people apply it in every aspect of their everyday lives.
People consciously or unconsciously use creativity to solve every day problems, but probably the most obvious example of human creativity is lying: the ability to present others with more or less elaborate constructs of alternative truths.
Unlike the many creative skills extinguished by industrial-revolution schooling, lying is the one universal creative social skill that upbringing and education are apparently incapable of eradicating, even though it is most likely the first “do-not-rule” parents and educators bring to bear on a young child: “Thou shalt not lie”.
The richness of the concept and its deep embedding in universal culture is best illustrated through language.
An article on Wikipedia identifies no less than 21 different types of lies, while cognitive science has busied itself with the phenomenon ever since Augustine of Hippo’s “Taxonomy of Lies” (± AD 395).
Thus, where creativity assessment is useful to determine the kinds and levels of creative ability an individual possesses or preserves, the question “Am I creative?” may be answered rhetorically: “How well do you lie?”.
Since children start to lie convincingly at a very early age (four and a half years) – a milestone commonly known as Machiavellian Intelligence – there is still hope for the survival of creativity in our children, society and organizations.
Big Ideas vs. Small
Along with the misconception of the creative elites, the industrial revolution left behind another immovable concept in today’s business practice: the “Big Idea”.
As a result, “Small Ideas” from non-members of an organization’s established creative elite – secretaries, janitors, drivers, etc. – are often discarded, ignored or ridiculed, instead of fostered and “grown”.
Small ideas are frequently the result of the close observation of habitual business practice, combined with an intimate knowledge of an organization, while commonly hidden or self-censored for fear of rejection.
The lack of attention for small ideas contradicts one of the fundamental concepts and objectives of General System Theory (von Bertalanffy [1967]) called “Leverage”.
Leverage, in the Archimedean sense of the word, means exercising a small force to generate a big effect.
Thus, leaders looking for innovative change and a “Big Future” better start paying attention to small ideas and take heed of Man of the Millennium Leonardo da Vinci who is attributed this quote: “Observation is the most important skill of an artist”.
Contrary to the habitual practice in “non-creative” environments, observed applied creativity practice in advertising and other creative industries does not discard any idea – small or big – until careful further examination.
Big ideas can often be grown, or built from, one or more recombined small ideas, while small ideas are also often “Big” enough to solve the pesky little problems that lie at the root of serious, big problems.
One of the first steps any manager can take to stimulate an organization’s creative adoption process is to start listening for small ideas, eliminate the most common barriers for “ideation”, encourage innovative thinking through incentives and publicly recognize and protect valuable ideas and their creators.
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