Box of delight

The concept of teaching creativity has been around for quite some time.

Academics such as E. Paul Torrance, dedicated an entire lifetime to the advancement of creativity in education. Torrance faced much opposition in his day about the nature of creativity. Creativity was considered to be an immeasurable, natural ability. Torrance called for explicit teaching of creativity. He advocated that it was skill-specific, requiring intentional instruction. His life’s work ultimately led to the development of the Torrance tests and gifted programs throughout the world.

In recent times, there has been a shift towards the increased acceptance of valuing creativity for all learners. A 2003 TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson discussing this subject reached over 5 million viewers. It discusses how our current school systems suppress creativity. He proposes that our current model leaves little room for divergent thinking.

Over the past few years we’ve written a lot about creativity and how to spark divergent thinking, from physical activities like taking a walk or doodling to using technology more effectively. But the idea that creativity is something we can actually learn and develop is a still relatively new one.

Creativity is often defined as the ability to come up with new and useful ideas. Like intelligence, it can be considered a trait that everyone—not just creative “geniuses” like Picasso and Steve Jobs—possesses in some capacity.

It’s not just your ability to draw a picture or design a product. We all need to think creatively in our daily lives, whether it’s figuring out how to make dinner using leftovers or fashioning a Halloween costume out of clothes in your closet. Creative tasks range from what researchers call “little-c” creativity – making a website, crafting a birthday present or coming up with a funny joke—to “Big-C” creativity: writing a speech, composing a poem or designing a scientific experiment.

In the last decennia, the process of change has been speeding up exponentially. And still, as an organisation, you want to be a step ahead of both market and competition. Sure, creative thinking will help you to move forward, to improve and innovate and to reshape challenges into solutions.

Image via Diego Sevilla Ruiz
A certain Zen proverb goes something like this: 'A five year old can understand it, but an 80 year old cannot do it.' The subject of this riddle-like saying has been described as 'mindfulness'---or being absorbed in the moment, free from routine mental habits.

Creativity cannot flourish if we keep seeing only the things we expect to see. If we want to be creative, we must keep ourselves surprised; we must embrace uncertainty and actively look for the unexpected. But how we can achieve that? Isn’t that an inherent contradiction: how can we expect the unexpected?

Often times there will be a word that gets lodged in my mind and makes its unwarranted existence felt at the least opportune moments. I have learnt to embrace it and like a sip of good whisky, I roll it around on my tongue and in my head, and indulge all my senses. The word, off late, is Italian – “Connessione”.

It’s tempting to check your email right when you get into the office, but it can mess with your work flow and eat into your creative time. Here’s what we mean.