At the end of the day, the ability to broaden attention and the ability to narrow attention are both key contributors to creativity. A recent neuroscience study led by Roger Beaty (and which I was a collaborator on) suggests that creative people have greater connections between two areas of the brain that are typically at odds: the brain network of regions associated with focus and attentional control, and the brain network of regions associated with imagination and spontaneity. Indeed, the entire creative process—not just the moments of deep insight— involves states of euphoria and inspiration as well as states of calm, rational focus. Creative people aren’t characterized by any one of these states alone; they are characterized by their adaptability and their ability to mix seemingly incompatible states of being depending on the task, whether it’s open attention with a focused drive, mindfulness with daydreaming, intuition with rationality, intense rebelliousness with respect for tradition, etc. In other words, creative people have messy minds.
via hbr.org
I'm touching the live wire of copyright infringement sharing this much of a very good article. It's very good for all the usual reasons: well-written, well-organized, supported with data and links to data, and it's logical. I like that. The author respects the topic and the audience.
But what I LIKED about it was it triggered motivational intensity, that's the word, to share it and to share some quick off-the-bald-head threads of connections* about creativity, messiness and employee engagement.
I read how companies are seeking more creativity, that creativity is the key to innovation and the challenge is how to corral creativity in an organized, linear, project-management friendly timeline. Cause without creativity brands and companies get stale, their customers and employees leave them behind and they become like Microsoft, too big to fail and too weak to offer anything of real value. ( Ba-Boom! I"m here all week.)
Yes, William, therein lies the rub. Creativity is messy. It's not linear, it's not turn-on, turn-off. Creativity is a source of and the result of constant friction between the brain network of regions associated with focus and attentional control, and the brain network of regions associated with imagination and spontaneity. It's the old left-brain, right-brain conundrum, deja vu all over again. Right? Right.
However, the pressures on business units, managers, employees doesn't allow for imagination and spontaneity. Mmm. Maybe that's why we're seeing a rise in cases of depression, mental illness, depression, bi-polar schizophrenia. Both sides of the brain are not being allowed to breathe, to act ... to engage.
There's no sign that this is going to change. Our educational systems are ratcheting down the development of creative, synthetic thinking in favor core competencies. What's more core than the able to communicate, collaborate, create? And any spontaneous, imaginative behavior is too often met with not smiles of tolerance for the excesses of youth but with detention or worse.
But back to work. If you're going to engage, you need to expect these conversations and interactions to sometimes be messy. First, there's a latent demand for that part of the brain, the one associated with imagination and spontaneity, to come out and play. Second, we've lost our skills - empathy, patience, tolerance ( not buzzwords) for different opinions. Third, well, our organizations are designed around such rigid hierarchies that any imagination and spontaneity is going to … mmmm be considered disruptive, distracting. Threatening.
Patience and empathy and the willingness to allow for mistakes and learn from them.
It'll be messy. It'll be creative. It'll be engaging.
Kinda like this post, I hope.
*That's like a thin intellectual comb-over but with new, conceptual, threads. K? Writing blog posts is kinda like that, I add some new thread of understanding, weave it in amongst those I've added earlier and presto I have a whole new understanding. That's called learning. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.
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