Serious Creativity
…Children are very creative. Innocence can be creative. Ignorance can be creative. If you do not know the usual approach to a problem, you can more easily come up with a fresh approach…
Misconceptions about the innate nature of creativity that have done so much damage and have held back the development of creativity for at least two decades. There are far too many practitioners out there who believe that creativity is just brainstorming and being free to suggest crazy ideas. I intend to show that this is inadequate. I would also like to point out that creativity does not have to be a group activity. Creative techniques can be used in a powerful way by individuals working entirely on their own.
Judgement, Patterns and Creativity
Everyone knows that instant judgement is the enemy of creativity. That is certainly true because judgement will force us back to our present position. The brain is not designed to think but to set up routine patterns of perception and behaviour and to make sure we do not deviate from these. Judgement is the powerful tool we have for keeping on these routine tracks. So if judgement prevents creativity then all we have to do is suspend judgement, defer judgement or delay judgement in order to be creative. So we believe it is sufficient to be crazy and free and non-judgemental. Surely we will then be more creative? It is not as simple as that.
Children are often creative. Innocence can be creative. Ignorance can be creative. If you do not know the usual approach to a problem, you can more easily come up with a fresh approach. There is a story of a group of women being shown around a wartime factory. Someone mentioned that there was a problem in the sharpening of the carbon rods that were used in searchlights. In her innocence, one woman suggested the use of a pencil sharpener – it worked. If we think like children, if we take off our ties, sit on the floor, and play some fun games, will we not approach that childhood state of innocence in which everything is possible?
So, if we suspend judgement and feel innocent and childlike, should we not then be creative? We will certainly be more creative than before, but not very much more. We will be able to use our natural creativity. Unfortunately, natural creativity is not very powerful. As I shall demonstrate, creativity is an unnatural process.
The Logic of Creativity
There are two broad types of information systems: the passive system and the active system. Almost all our usual systems (including computers) are of the passive type. Information is recorded on a surface and lies there passively until it is used by some brain or central processor. The surface and the information or data are entirely passive. In the active system, on the other hand, the information and the surface are both active. All information changes the surface, which then receives future information differently. This process eventually gives rise to self-organising systems. Rain falling onto a landscape is a very simple example of such a system. The rain eventually gets organised into streams and rivers.
Self-organising systems set up patterns. Such patterns are usually asymmetric. This means that we normally go along the main track without even noticing the sidetrack. But, if – somehow – we get across to the sidetrack, the route becomes obvious in hindsight. This is the basis of both humour and creativity. The asymmetry and hindsight gives rise to a very serious problem: every valuable creative idea will always be logical in hindsight. If an idea were not logical in hindsight, then we would never be able to appreciate the value of the idea. So we are only able to appreciate those creative ideas that are logical in hindsight. Then we go onto to say – as we have been doing for 2,400 years – that if an idea is logical in hindsight, the better logic should have found it in the first place. So we try to teach more logic instead of taking creativity seriously. It is quite true that in a passive information system, an idea that is logical in hindsight is also accessible to logic in foresight. But this is totally untrue in an active, self-organising system.
That is why an understanding of the basic behaviour of patterning systems is necessary in order to understand serious creativity. Cutting across patterns is what I have called lateral thinking. In any patterning system there is an absolute and logical need for something like lateral thinking in order to cut across patterns. But cutting across patterns is not natural behaviour for the brain. The purpose of the brain is to establish and use routine patterns. That is why creativity is not a natural process in the brain. In fact, it goes against the natural process of following patters.
Practical Lateral Thinking Techniques
The first difficulty is to get time and space for creative thinking. There are those who believe that creativity is not for them but for artists, designers and inventors. This is a dangerous and limited attitude. Just as the ability to use reverse gear should be part of every driver’s driving ability, the ability to use creative thinking should be part of every thinker’s thinking skill. Creative thinking is definitely not limited to special people or special occasions. The logic of perception demands the ability to think creatively so anyone who has to do any thinking must develop this ability.
In order to make creative thinking part of ordinary thinking, I developed the Six Thinking Hats system.
If you would like to know more about how these tools and techniques can help you, your family or organisation
Taken from The Journal for Quality and Participation, Vol. 11-3.
© The Association for Quality and Participation.
Edward De Bono’s Message
Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.
More de Bono quotes