Creativity: Have We Lost It?
Outlandish ideas almost always provoke instant rejection. It is as predictable as the sunset.
But what would happen if they were not dismissed out of hand? What if the gut response was “yes” instead of “no,” and everyone considered the possibilities?
That is Sidney Shore's vision of how to evoke the creative impulse—suspending judgement long enough to spark the urge for discovery that is at the heart of creativity. Inventor. Physicist. Consultant. Educator. In his own life and work, Sid Shore acts on a belief in exploring beyond the obvious and encouraging others to do the same.
A respected consultant with an impressive list of clients in the corporate sector, Shore specializes in a uniquely creative approach to management training, product design and development, and marketing. “In basic terms, I help people understand how good they are, how creative they can be,” he says. “We are all born creative; we become negative only because, as children, we are taught the almighty importance of the word ‘no' by everyone around us.”
Even among those who should be able to claim creativity as professional capital, there is work to be done. Inventive people intent on reviving their own quiescent creativity—often lost to the demands of business and the marketplace—attend the intensive workshops Shore conducts for engineers, architects, and other building industry professionals.
What many come to realize is that creativity is more than the ability to come up with a clever design solution or a smart idea about financing a building project. They learn to see creativity as a formative ability with real impact on productivity and results.
Shore's manner of “extracting creative behavior” from his audience, whether in a workshop or a board room, is to realign their thinking fast. He lays down a group of basic principles he insists must replace all other rules of the game. These principles embody the notion that no idea or comment is wrong and that anything worth thinking is worth saying out loud. So far, so familiar. But as Shore puts those principles to the test, he creates an environment where outlandish ideas do get a hearing and participants find themselves in the eye of a creative storm.
“When people say ‘no' to an idea, they often do so by saying ‘let me play the Devil's Advocate,' a term coined back in the 16th century for someone whose job it was to dig up negative information on candidates for sainthood,” Shore explains. “I developed the idea of being an ‘Angel's Advocate' to describe the intentional process of looking for what's good about an idea—even if it's a stretch!”
Among several exercises Shore employs to help people see how truly innovative ideas emerge, this one can strain every creative muscle in the body. “I ask people to listen to someone else's off-base idea and come up with three or four reasons why it's a good idea—creative at all costs!” he says. Only after playing the "Angel's Advocate" can they shift gears and list the negatives.
Shore reasons it is easier for someone to hear and accept legitimate criticism if there's been some attempt to find value in their original idea. More than psychology, he suggests, thinking expansively about an unlikely idea can spark creativity on both sides. “When we help someone else think creatively, we also help ourselves move in new directions. Many great inventions come from so-called 'bad' ideas.”
The privilege of watching creative professionals and members of corporate think tanks take those bad ideas seriously has helped Shore refine his outlook on the source of creativity. He notes, “Curiosity is one of the keys to creative behavior—the ability to wonder how, what, if, and why some crazy idea might just work.
“Curiosity and the desire for discovery are exactly what converts wild ideas into new inventions or good solutions,” he says. “And frequently it takes going off the deep end, even if just to look at things like you never have before.” Shore has many examples of creativity consultations with large and small companies where he led sessions that challenged every assumption in the book. Profitable and powerful concepts often emerged. But the lesson in thinking creatively is intended and often does reach far beyond the next bright idea. As he contends, his workshops are meant to “educate” for the long term not train for the moment.
Shore himself never stops practicing what he calls “creativity fitness.” Even people well-disciplined to let their creativity soar should spend time every day wondering, he says, stepping outside their routine to exercise the mind on things both improbable and mundane. “An architect might gaze at a wall for 15 or 20 minutes, wondering what other things it could be made of,” explains Shore by way of example. “After coming up with a list of, say, 50 different things, something in that list is bound to make them say, ‘Wait a minute, that's interesting!' It's how we take ourselves by surprise.”
Have architects, engineers and others in the construction industry lost the ability to be creative? It may be hard to see creativity as a conscious and necessary tool where the work is fast-paced and there is little time to “waste” letting ideas flow too freely. Sid Shore's experience proves otherwise. Creative thinking and action have a legitimate place in a world of contracts and cost controls. His interactive, confidence-building workshops on creativity and invention are among the most popular professional development courses offered annually by the Department of Engineering Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Department of Engineering Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison can bring customized creativity workshops to you and your colleagues—on-site or online. Visit our Web site for more information or call 800-462-0876 and ask for Don Schramm.
Written by Mary Maher
This article is based upon work supported by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Engineering Professional Development. It is for general information and distribution. It is not intended to provide specific solutions or advice for specific circumstances, which should be sought from appropriate professionals.