Today
I’m going to discuss creativity. This
subject is very near and dear to me given my pre-business school background –
film school for undergrad and four years of work in the entertainment
industry. Both of these periods of my
life frequently required me to be creative on command. While some might think that having a “creative”
major or career means life is all fun and games, I have found that generating
unique solutions and ideas on demand is a difficult process.
During
my undergrad education, I experienced periods of extreme creativity and also
some droughts. Some days the ideas would
be flowing so quickly that I was almost manic, frantically trying to capture
them all on paper so I could use them later.
These periods usually featured music or exercise to help inspire
me. I found instrumental music or music
that told stories (e.g. concept albums) to be the more effective for my
individual creativity.
Sometimes,
however, I would enter what I often thought of as a creative drought. I might argue that it corresponded with
looming deadlines, but given the sheer number of qualitative assignments
requiring that part of my brain, I would argue that the droughts tended to be
more random. Sometimes it felt like I
was trying to jam pieces of completely different puzzles together – I had
pieces of ideas but nothing fit into a whole.
Other times, anything I could think of seemed trite and
already-done-to-death. To be able to
function in my chosen major and career, I had to find ways to jump start my
brain during these uncreative periods so I could get back to work. My classes taught me some helpful techniques
such as free-writing, using photos or collages as a starting point, or drawing
on your own past to get creative juices flowing in a drought. I also discovered things that worked for me
such as the aforementioned music and exercise (sometimes standing on my head
helped too, oddly enough). We were
encouraged to seek inspiration from the world around us, not just films and
television programs, as this would help us develop our unique creative voice
rather than lead to us creating derivative works over and over.
During my
undergrad, group creative work was common, especially as I progressed in my
education. Team brainstorming sessions
would often lead to all of us feeling connected and fired up about our current
film project. Group sessions tended to
be more consistent, as I get inspired by other people generating ideas, so that
was one way to help pull me out of my funk.
As I moved into
the entertainment industry as an audio professional, I began working for
organizations that provided creative services.
This was sometimes challenging because we were within a large
corporation, and getting a large organization to be creative can be difficult
especially when it has not been built that way from the beginning. So from one standpoint, we were part of a
business organization, yet we had to think creatively on a daily basis to
provide our client with elements for their entertainment products.
My department in
particular was good about finding ways to foster creativity. We could bring it items from home or around
other parts of the office to create sounds we needed. Our team was encouraged to see what others in
our industry had done, and even take inspiration from music or other
media. If I got stuck on a creative
element, I could go to my coworkers and they would help brainstorm solutions
with me – always a helpful process. As
contractors, we occasionally had days without client work where we would
generate content we thought might be helpful in the future. We
were also encouraged to submit ideas for how the department or our processes
could work better, and these were often used to improve how we did things. While this maybe was not organizational
creativity in the Google sense, it was still creativity flourishing within a
large organization.
This summer,
between my first and second years of business school, I had the opportunity to
work for a large management consulting firm.
While one might think this a vast departure from my previous work,
having a creative background was a great asset.
Through my schooling and past experience, I have honed my creative
problem-solving skills in a way that others may have not. Management consulting is all about
problem-solving and advocacy, both of which require creativity in order to
succeed and not stagnate. Each client is
unique and so out-of-the-box ideas can help lead to the ultimate solution we
recommend. After having discounted my
background during my first months of business school, I came to realize that my
abilities to attack problems from a different angle led to creative ideas that
may not have developed if I hadn’t been part of the team. This summer, I found swimming laps each
morning helped me solve some business problems I had been wrestling with the
night before, and I also found working collaboratively with my teammates a
great jump-starter for ideas.
As an
individual, I think I can be creative by myself, and so can many other
people. The challenge comes from the
widespread concept that creativity is an innate talent rather than a skill (as discussed
in Jonah Lehrer’s work among others). If
someone believes creativity is innate and that it is not something they
possess, then they will have trouble being creative alone without the
assistance of others to help get the idea generation started. From my experience, it seems those who think
they are not creative do better in a group than alone since it is safer to
generate ideas with others.
Groups can be a
great way to come up with creative ideas.
I think that a group within an organization is capable of being
creative, so long as they have freedom to do so from their organization. They also need to be careful to avoid groupthink. It can be easy for a group generating ideas
to end up just validating each other to the point where a half-baked idea gets
farther than it should before being scrutinized further. But with these factors kept in mind, a group
can use the talents and experience of each individual within the group to come
up with ideas that no member could have generated individually.
I found Jonah
Lehrer’s Wall Street Journal article, “How to Be Creative,” very helpful. It put into words many elements of creativity
that I have found from my own personal experiences but was never really able to
put into words. Different types of
problems definitely merit different approaches to creative idea
generation. I attack a challenging logic
puzzle differently than I would brainstorm ideas for a short film. I think with some practice, most people
instinctively know what they need to spark creativity. I can feel whether I needed a solitary walk
outside or a visit to my coworker’s office to get to the next level with a
project. I think the key here is being
in tune with yourself and what you want.
If you are exhausted, do something relaxing because pushing your brain
will just make things more difficult. If
you are feeling social or in need of energy, talk things over with a coworker
or friend and the session will hopefully generate excitement and a positive
boost. A little training or guidance
could help those who have trouble being introspective and instead focus on external
stimuli. It’s a bit like learning how to
drive a stick shift – it’s about how each need feels, and once you know, it is
crystal clear which you need at each time.
Sometimes the same project needs a little of each. With some practice, you’ll know which you
need at each key point.
