Creative Disobedience: How, When and Why to Break the Rules (from BIL 2014)

transcript

Andrea Kuszewski

@AndreaKuszewski

Creative DisobedienceHow, When, and Why to Break the Rules

BIL: March 1st, 2014

Creative Disobedience

Right?Wrong?

Good vs Evil

Right vs Wrong

Good vs Evil

Right vs Wrong

Legal vs Illegal

What is Creativity?

• ThinkingwithyourENTIREbrain!R+L

• Switchingbackandforthbetweenconventionalandunconventional

• Makingremoteassociations

• ‘Zoominginandzoomingout’,fromconvergenttodivergent

• Constantlyeditingforusefulness

Creative Cognition is:

Creativity is:

“an original, novel solution that is both useful and appropriate given the context, environment, and

the task at hand.”

By definition, creativity involves breaking rules.

“Creativity: An Asset or a Burden in the Classroom?” Westby & Dawson (1995)

• Asked teachers to identify personality characteristics associated with cre-ativity

• Highcreativity:determined, independent, individualistic

• Lowcreativity:responsible, sincere, reliable, dependable, clear-thinking, tol-erant, understanding, peaceable, good-natured, steady, practical, and logical

Leastfavorite=Mostcreative

Even when people say they want creativity,

oftentheyrejectitinpractice.

“The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas” Meuller, et al (2011)

• There is a bias against creativity, fueled by uncertainty

• “...effective creative problem solving includes both generating many novel options and subsequently reducing

uncertainty by identifying the single best option from the set.” (Cropley, 2006)

• Identifying the optimal solution may prime an uncertainty reduction motive or intolerance for uncertainty, and thereby evoke the creativity bias

• Peopleseektoavoidanddiminishuncertainty:Kill the creative idea

• By requiring gate-keepers to identify the single “best” and most “accurate” idea, you are promoting that uncer-tainty, thereby creating an unacknowledged aversion to creativity.

Thereisalwaysmorethanonegoodsolutiontoaproblem,but the value varies depending on context

The8TypesofCreativeContributions

Robert Sternberg, “Handbook of Creativity”, 1999

The8TypesofCreativeContributions1. Replication

2. Redefinition

3. Forwardincrementation

2. Redefinition

4. Advancedforwardincrementation

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

6. Reconstruction/redirection

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

7. Reinitiation

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

7. Reinitiation

8. Integration

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

7. Reinitiation

8. Integration

Acceptcurrentparadigmsandattempttoextendthem

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

7. Reinitiation

8. Integration

Rejectcurrentparadigmsandattempttoreplacethem

2. Redefinition

5. Redirection

7. Reinitiation

8. Integration

Mergesdisparatecurrentparadigms Rejectcurrentparadigmsandattempttoreplacethem

HowtoTeachandEncourageCreativity(and when not to)

TEACHINgCREATIvITy:THEEARLyyEARS

Psychology researcher Allison Gopnik: Creative behavior in young children

• Whenchildrenweregivenaproblemandtoldtofigureouthowsomethingworks,theywereabletogeneratethemostintelligentsolutionsthroughexperimentation.

• Whentheywereshownaworkingsequence(oneofmany),theyimitatedthatsolution,andthenstoppedlookingforamoreintelligentsolution.

Take-homepoints?

Encouraging critical thinking and finding more than one correct solution to a given problem helps to develop creativity

Take-homepoints?

Encouraging critical thinking and finding more than one correct solution to a given problem helps to develop creativity

Encouraging one to ‘follow the outline’ prevents deep understanding of the problem, and decreases ability to creativly problem-solve

Trainingpeopletoaskquestionsandthinkaboutproblemsbefore they receive a solution encourages and teaches creative

thinking,toproducebetterinnovators,problemsolvers,&problemfinders.

In the workplace:

Does this method make progress toward the overall

About the same

More progress

Good idea to do it.

Less progress

Can this method scale up?

Will others be required to learn this?

Don’t do this.

Does this method maintain the integrity of the funda-

mental pillars of the project?

Does this method make the current step

more efficient?ahow-toguidetoCreative Disobedience

HoWToENCouRAgEACREATIvEWoRkENvIRoNMENT

HoWToENCouRAgEACREATIvEWoRkENvIRoNMENT givethemsomespaceDeadlinesareimportant,buthourlycheck-upsarenot.Creativityinvolveslinkingconcepts,whichmeansholdingseveralthingsinyourworkingmemory--abalancethatcanbedisruptedeasily,soabuffer against distractions are essential.

Don’tmicromanageAllowfreetimeforemployeestoworkonanythingtheywant;intrinsicmotivation(workingonsome-thingjustbecauseit’sinteresting)leadstocreativity.

openyourmindgettingstuckinahyper-focused,linearthinkingpatterncanstallfindingacreativesolution.Takebreakswhenworking,justtothinkaboutnothing.

ToleratecreativityReward creative thinking, not with financial incentives, which, alone, have been shown to decrease creativity,butbypromotingtheconditionsthatpermitit.Toleratetheoccasionalfailureandallowrules to be broken when there is a social benefit.

In this age of innovation, even more important than being an effective problem solver, is being a problem finder. It’s one thing to look at a prob-

lem and be able to generate a solution; it is another thing to be able to look at an ambiguous situation, and decide if there is a problem that

needs to be solved.

That’s a skill that isn’t really targeted by traditional teaching methods, and in fact, it is often discouraged. In order to teach problem finding, more cre-ative methods must be utilized. Rule-breaking , to an extent, should be tol-

erated and encouraged, and yes—even taught.

“ Andrea Kuszewski, “The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience”, Scientific American, 2011

Thankyou!

Andrea Kuszewski@AndreaKuszewski

Creative Disobedience: How, When and Why to Break the Rules (from BIL 2014)

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