|
10/01 Creativity
Comment
Identifying Potential
Creativity
by Edgar N. Jaynes, Jr., Ph.D.
Director, Global Competitive Intelligence
Banner Pharmacaps Inc.
I firmly believe that every single human being holds the potential
to be creative. At a previous employer, I was part of a committee
that studied creativity within the framework of the company and
its mission. Our chartering authority believed in the 80/20 rule,
and expected that only 20%
of our population was creative. I never accepted that premise. Our
definition of creativity turned out to be highly situational and
elusive. We did, however, come up with some ideas about
stimulating creativity that were institutionalized with measurable
results.
My personal experience with creativity is that it assaults one at
inopportune times, often not on subjects related to the immediate
need (see Creativity Comment
04/01). I have
had many good ideas that I later saw commercialized by someone
else, so under the definition that a creative idea is one that
someone will pay to obtain, I can be said to be creative. A short
fantasy story entitled “Mute, Inglorious Tam” (Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, Best
Science Fiction Stories of the Year 1974,
Lester del Rey, ed., E.P. Dutton, 1975) explores the
thought that having an idea is only the first step, and that many,
many people have been "creative" in a vacuum that led
nowhere. The actualization of the idea with subsequent recognition
of it (sometimes years to centuries later) completes the
creativity cycle. Recall poor Semmelweiss, who knew that he had
the right idea about what later turned out to be pathogenic
bacteria. No one at the time was interested, and the deaths of
women in childbirth continued. Look at the movies that have become
cult classics, but were panned roundly by critics of the day.
Recall that Mozart was a musical revolutionary in his lifetime,
but is considered to be an old fogy by most of today's youth.
Defining creativity as having an outcome that is somehow
measurable (more than just recalling the events of a dream, for
instance) shortens any debate. Some people can be creative on a
regular basis, while others seem to have been creative only once,
by this definition. All people are creative, and creativity can be
amplified. There is a limit, however, that is best illustrated by
comic-strip writers, several of whom have reached the limit of
their particular vision and retired or gone on sabbatical. Some
people become more creative as they age (as Einstein), or less
creative (Hemingway). The age is probably not the factor of most
importance, but it tracks the development of a thought process
that results in creativity. Once a person has developed a process,
are they trapped within it? Leonardo da Vinci did not seem to be
limited in any such way, but many others apparently are. For the
few truly driven by creativity, even rejection of their work will
not stop its continuance.
To stimulate continued creativity, satisfaction to the individual
must result from the development of the formed ideas. Action must
proceed from thought. Resources and support must be available for
most people to actualize their full creative potential. The more
our living conditions improve worldwide, with attendant resources
and the lack of distractions such as starvation, the stronger the
wave of creativity that will result. The outcome is bound to be
fascinating.
|