(Mis) Understanding Creativity

Creativity, a topic that closer to many leaders’ hearts is equally enigmatic to a few leaders. Here are common misconceptions and the truth behind them. Please see my earlier post in case you are wondering what the original question was. I had posted these ten statements asking everyone to comment on whether they are true or false. Here are the answers

1.Right half of the brain (Right hemisphere) is responsible for creativity: This is very old school assumption that is not true. Modern research that traces brain activity during a creative process shows that various parts of brain from both hemispheres are actively engaged in the creative process. “Right hemisphere” theory is relatively simplistic and outdated theory. From the English literature perspective, we still refer to many people as “Right brain person” but that’s more of a linguistic usage than a truth!

2. Creative thinking is the same as critical thinking: Absolutely not! The origin of the word “critic” is Greek ‘Kritikos’ which means ‘to make judgments / to decide / to discriminate (in the form of a judgment). Therefore, critical thinking is more about decision making process that selects the best choice. Critical thinking comes quite later when you are implementing creative ideas or deciding which one to go forward with. Critical thinking and Creative thinking are two separate animals.

3. Creativity is mainly about brain storming and generating ideas: False again! Creativity is much bigger than brain storming and generating ideas. (Which may be the first step in many cases). It involves many other aspects about studying and having certain exposure to the subject, facts collection, synthesizing different ideas, creating options, building cluster of ideas, etc. Idea generation is a very important and critical first step. And that’s it.

4. Mind should be completely stress free for creativity to blossom: This is simply not practical and not true! No mind may be completely stress free (Unless you have achieved Nirvana….I have not). The idea that you will be creative when everything is fine and you are sitting in isolated scenic place with birds chirping and butterflies all around you is too romantic and only good for films. Creativity can blossom even under stress. (Like everything else, when there is excess of anything, normal rules don’t apply. Excessive stress is harmful, not just for creativity but even otherwise)

5. Creativity is not a skill (Skill: Something that can be learned, taught, practised and perfected): False! It is a skill that can be taught, practised and over time perfected. Carpentry is a skill. It can be taught, practised and one can become better at it over time. That does not mean everyone will be equally great carpenter. But just because everybody cannot be a great carpenter does not take away the fact that “carpentry is a skill”. Exactly same principles apply to creativity. It is a skill that can be taught, practised and you can become better at it over time. (Just like carpentry, that does not mean, everyone will be equally great creative person)

6. One is likely to be creative when the stakes are high: Another hugely common misunderstanding. Threatening someone with dire consequences or promising huge incentives does not necessarily make the team more creative. The outcome is unpredictable in terms of creativity. Many managers put excessive unreasonable constraints on the team and with thunderous laughter announce, “You need to be creative to come with the solution”. This is not the best approach to encourage creativity. Don’t tell your team members that they will be fired if they don’t have a solution with a hope that they would be creative. (They may hit LinkedIn hoping to find a job) I would recommend reading “The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home” by Dan Ariely to see that high stakes don’t always work. There are many TED Talks pointing to the same conclusion.

7. Creativity is a process of a conscious mind. Subconscious mind has no role to play in it.: Far from the truth! More and more experts have shown evidences that after you have worked on an opportunity or a problem to find a creative solution, you need to engage yourself in some other activity and let your subconscious mind work on it. Neurons in your brain make amazing connections to seemingly unrelated matters and subjects. During team building and creativity workshops, I strongly recommend working on some other topics and then returning to the original one. The results are always encouraging!

8. There is a strong correlation (positive or negative) between intelligence and creativity: False!!! For those, who are not too familiar with statistics, a positive correlation would have meant the higher is intelligence the higher is creativity. Not true! Negative correlation would have meant lower intelligence yields higher creativity. Not true either! Most experts agree that a minimum threshold intelligence is required to be creative. (Most say the threshold to be around IQ of 90 which means at least two thirds of the population can be creative. However, if you find any scholarly articles that provide any further guidance about the threshold IQ level, do share with me. It is a topic close to my heart)

9. Solving puzzles (the ones that you find in newspapers, magazines, and social media) improves creativity): No sir (or madam)! Not really!!! These puzzles may make your brain sharper, or you look smarter. These puzzles assume certain paradigms and many of them appear in front of us in slightly varied form. There are some experts that suggest that type and variety of the puzzles may help boost creativity than complexity of puzzles. The research work done by David Perkins and Robert Weisberg does suggest that the puzzles may boost creativity or at least will help to understand creativity. However, the puzzles in newspapers, magazines, and social media promote certain stereotyped thinking which may not necessarily make you more creative. Many of these puzzles promote verbal reasoning and logical reasoning to come up with an answer. There is a little creativity involved. 

On a separate note, puzzles will keep your mind sharp and to that extend will benefit any mental activity.

10. There are no tests to measure creativity: Not true, either! There are many tests that measure creativity. This is not to say that those tests do not have their own limitations. Many personality tests have huge limitations (some tests are popular amongst HR folks but practically useless…and that’s the politest way to put it. But more about that in a separate article.) Similarly, creativity tests also have their own limitations and pitfalls. But to say that tests do not exist, would be incorrect. For those of you that are interested in Psychology can read up on “Guilford’s model of Intelligence” and “Torrance Test of Creative Thinking”

There we are! All ten statement were FALSE.

Do let me know your thoughts. And if you liked the article do share with your friends.

(Sunil Bhave is a certified executive coach and certified transformational leadership coach with specialization on creativity, innovation and design thinking. He regularly conducts workshops and speaks at many forums.)