Serious Creativity will seem a contradiction
in terms for many people. Everyone knows that creativity
has to be fun, lively, and crazy - so how can we have serious
creativity?
It is precisely this misconception about creativity that
has done so much damage and has held back the development
of creativity for at least two decades. There are far too
many practitioners out there who believe that creativity
is just brainstorming and being free to suggest crazy ideas.
I intend to show that this is inadequate.
Brainstorming was originated by Alex Osborne. It was designed
for use in the advertising industry, which is a key point.
In the advertising world, novelty, as such, can be a value.
Suppose there were a discussion of ways of getting people
to by more wool. Someone suggests that sheep ought to be
purple because purple is an expensive color and that would
give a prestige value to wool. You could indeed run an advertisement
showing purple sheep. Such an advertisement would attract
attention and might sell more wool. Novelty and gimmicky
does attract attention and does have and advertising value.
But in almost every other field, novelty by itself is insufficient:
the creative idea must make sense and must work.
In my courses, I find that people who have a brainstorming
background tend to perform rather poorly. This is because
they are always looking for the way out, exotic idea and
often miss the simple, practical idea which is at hand.
It is as if during a brainstorming session each participant
is trying to make the other participant laugh at the craziness
of an idea. I would also like to point out that creativity
does not have to be a group activity. Creative techniques
can be used in a powerful way by individuals working entirely
on their own.
Continued...
