Creativity

1. Creativity Professor Adrian Furnham University College London

2. Creativity… Some Big Questions Can you teach it? Can you reliably measure it? Do you really want creative types in organisations? Do managers have to create special environments to ensure creativity? Is organizational heterogenity better than homogeneity in ensuring creativity?

3. A definition (with some more qualifications!!) • Novel (original, surprising…) • Truly new? – Newton “if I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants” • Art v Science • Useful (adaptive, appropriate…) • Says who? – You? Me? Society?

4. Conceptualisations of creativity: Person, Process and Situation • Why structure understanding in this way? 1. Person = who is creative? 2. Process = how does creativity unfold? - individuals and teams 3. Situation = where does creativity occur? – individuals, team environment and organisational culture 4. Product = what counts as creative?

5. The Creative Person: Intelligence • Genetic Studies of Genius • Followed the “Termites” for over 50 years • Achieved nothing of serious note! • Terman concluded that above a certain level of intelligence: • “adult success is largely determined by such factors as social adjustment, emotional stability, and drive to accomplish”

6. The Creative Person: Intelligence • Introduction of the Threshold Theory • Below IQ 120 creativity and IQ vary together: low IQ usually means low creativity. • Above IQ 120 creativity and IQ independent: high IQ does NOT mean high creativity • Conclusion • creativity and intelligence are related • IQ is necessary but not sufficient for creativity • So…

7. The Creative Person: Personality • Metanalysis of 83 separate experiments of the creative personality • Used “Big 5” model for reference • Scientists v “Normals” • Creative Scientists v “Average Scientists” • Artists v “Normals”

8. The Creative Person: Personality • Scientists v “Normals” • Scientists were: • More Conscientious; hard-working, cautious, careful • Better at controlling impulses; self-controlled, fastidious • Slightly more Extraverted; active, confident

9. The Creative Person: Personality • Creative scientists v “Average Scientists” • Creative scientists were: • More Extraverted; confident, dominant, ambitious, self-accepting • More Open to new Experiences; curious, flexible, imaginative • Less Conscientious; more selfish, more interested in own needs

10. The Creative Person: Personality • Artists v “Normals” • Artists were: • Less Conscientious; less cautious, less orderly, less reliable • More Open to new Experiences; curious, open-minded, aesthetically-oriented and … • less rigid, less conventional, less concerned with social convention

11. The Creative Person: Motivation • Intrinsic Motivation • The motivation to do something for its own sake, • because the work itself is interesting, enjoyable, • satisfying, or positively challenging. • THINK – Internalised motivators

12. The Creative Person: Motivation • Extrinsic Motivation • The motivation to do something for some external goal apart from the work itself • e.g. for financial or psychological reward, because the work has been commissioned, etc., • THINK – External motivators

13. The Creative Person: Motivation • New research has suggested that creative endeavour can be enhanced by reward • Rationale: ONLY reward highly creative work. Reward should not be offered for average performance • Nobel Prizes, Pulitzers, etc., • Individual v team reward

14. The Creative Person: Motivation • Edison – new patent application every 2 weeks • Bach – 20 pages of finished music per day • Picasso – produced 20,000 works • Nobel prize winners produce approximately twice as much as control group of American Men of Science • But…

15. The Creative Person: Motivation • Our research… • Undergraduates “everyday” creativity • Written a short story • Drawn a cartoon • Formed a sculpture with any suitable materials • Invented a game or other form of entertainment • Choreographed a dance • Mentored/coached someone to improve their performance • Motivation – 12% • Confidence – 6% • Thinking style – 5%

16. The Creative Person: Thinking Style • 2 mechanisms – Overinclusion and Latent Inhibition • Overinclusion – Process where individual considers ideas to be relevant, that “normal” person would not include • Latent inhibition – ability to “filter out” irrelevant stimuli (sounds, images and ideas) • Overinclusion + Latent inhibition = flexible, slightly chaotic thinking style • But… Thinking can be too disordered or emotional problems may arise

17. The Creative Person: Thinking Style • Convergent and Divergent thinking: A role for both • Convergent Thinking • The thinking that results in ONE, correct answer or approach • Converging toward 1 answer/idea/perspective • Usually tested using IQ-type questions • e.g. “complete the sequence 1,3,5,7,11,?,?”

18. The Creative Person: Thinking Style • Convergent and Divergent thinking: A role for both • Divergent Thinking • The thinking that results in the production of MANY answers or approaches • Diverging from an idea/perspective • Usually tested with Divergent Production questions • e.g. “What would be the consequences if everybody were blind?” • e.g. “How many uses can you think of for a brick/tyre/etc?” • Fluency, Flexibility, Elaboration and Originality

19. The Creative Person: Thinking Style • Tolerance/Intolerance of Ambiguity • Hypothetical construct following normal distribution • Tolerant of Ambiguity • Flexible approach, shades of grey, comfortable with contradictory evidence • Intolerant of Ambiguity • Rigid approach to thinking, black & white, uncomfortable with contradictions • Sample questions • “There really is no such thing as a problem that can’t be solved” • “What we are used to is always preferable to the unfamiliar”

20. The Creative Person: Thinking Style • Conclusions • Common thinking styles of creative people • Possessed by all • To greater or lesser extent • By no means the whole story • Depends on stage of creative process • Early generative  • Late evaluation 

21. The Creative Process: Individuals • The stages of creative problem-solving • Identifying a problem • Preparing for problem solving • Incubating • Illumination • The “aha!” moment • Evaluation

22. The Creative Process: Group • Creativity in teams and organisations • Poorly understood • Individual perspective first! • Groupthink • Brainstorming • Communication, communication, communication…

23. The Creative Situation: Environment • Individual responsibility for the creative team environment • What you say and how you say it affects others • You can affect the thinking style and pattern of others

24. The Creative Situation: Environment • What is the ideal environment for creativity? • Bad moods and disgruntled employees can be creative - Need support, believe they can change things • Time to allow the creative process to unfold • Conducive to open and sustained communication – promote the fluency of ideas • Mixture of experience, ages and gender • Mixture of thinking styles • Changing team roles – leader, devil’s advocate, etc., • Adequate resources – financial, psychological • Changing environment (taking advantage of serendipity)

25. The Creative Situation: Environment • The role of Personality and Thinking Styles in Team creativity • No single style or approach produces best output • Creativity relies upon blue-sky dreamers and hard-headed sceptics • Creativity relies upon open-ended divergent thinking and digital convergent thinking • Therefore  Best creative teams consist of individuals who might not be called “creative”

26. The Creative Situation: Reward • How to reward the creative individual • Reward only high quality performance • Match rewards to individual • Financial, time, social recognition, training • If creativity is produced by a team; • offer team-based rewards • If creativity results from individual; • offer individual rewards

27. So...to be controversial • Creative people are difficult to manage • Creativity can’t easily be taught • Can you afford to employ them • You need innovators not creatives on organisations • Innovation is harder than creativity • The question is what to innovate