Creativity Myths
By Kal Bishop
Sustained myths about Creativity and Innovation lead
to confusion, bad practice and bad decision making. Some of them include:
1. Creativity requires Creative Types
While some theorists assert that there are creativity
traits such as tolerance for ambiguity and intolerance to conformity,
these assertions are countered by the fact that traits are hard to
identify and are not stable nor transferable across situations.
Further, motivation is a critical factor. Additionally,
creativity is a cognitive process and thus measurements like “she
looks creative” are poor benchmarks.
All the research shows that everyone can produce novel,
useful, varied, diverse ideas and looking for certain types to come
up with them reduces total valuable output.
2. Money is the best Motivator
Material reward is a synergistic extrinsic motivator.
That means that it is a factor that enhances intrinsic motivation
but may not in itself cause maximum creative effort and output – there
are at least six other motivators that are as valuable.
Additionally, the exact level of material reward very
positively correlates to that received by peer groups.
3. Time Pressure drives Creativity
Yes and no. There are at least three conflicting forces:
a) Time pressure increases creative output.
By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental
deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a “do your
best” approach is taken. This action benefits from the positives of
prolific production and other processes.
b) Time pressure may be a non-synergistic
extrinsic motivator. It reduces the level of engagement in
the endeavour and inhibits intrinsic motivation.
c) Short-term time pressure does not allow
the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It
does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation.
4. Competition outperforms Collaboration
Competition causes many people to shut down and introduces
many negatives such as core and peripheral groups, politicking and
restriction of information.
Collaboration, on the other hand, allows the intellectual
cross pollination that is the raw material for good idea generation.
5. Creativity and Innovation can be used interchangeably
The terms Creativity and Innovation are often used
interchangeably but they are, in fact, separate and distinct.
Creation can be described as problem identification
and idea generation whilst innovation is idea selection, development
and commercialisation. The distinctions alone lead to numerous conclusions.
Among them is the fact that:
a) Creativity and Innovation leaders require at least
six different competencies (including one holistic) to even begin
Managing Creativity and Innovation (actually, many more are needed).
b) Both Creativity and Innovation require different
structures, processes and skill sets.
c) Workshop facilitators should split sessions into
distinct parts and formulate frameworks and processes to maximise
output at each level.
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These and other topics are covered in depth in the
MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be
purchased at http://www.managing-creativity.com
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You are free to reproduce this article as long
as the author's name, web address and link to MBA dissertation is
retained.
Kal Bishop MBA
Kal is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted
in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as
Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led improv, creativity and
innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles
and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate
traveller.
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