Creativity: Is There Room for Any More Advice?

Can anybody say something useful about creativity? It might be easier to give advice on how not to kill creativity in teams than to give advice on how to be creative.

The operating space is so enormously vast, from art to science, from technology to business, that it is manifestly impossible to produce an algorithm, or a point-by-point roadmap, for how to improve creativity. Similarly, there are no standard formulas for innovation and leadership, though it is important to note that creativity, innovation, and leadership are connected in subtle ways. Innovation needs creativity, and fostering innovation benefits from creative leadership.

Advice, however, abounds. Who comments on creativity? In a rough sense, it correlates with popular perceptions. Some fields are considered creative: arts, writing, painting. Science, engineering, mathematics—less so. Not surprisingly, this creativity perception correlates with who talks about creativity. One can find writers, musicians, architects, and filmmakers talking eloquently about creativity. Painters and sculptors seem less likely to comment, and scientists, technologists/inventors even less so. And even though, at the very top levels, mathematics is one of the most creative intellectual activities, it is rare to find mathematicians discussing this topic.

There are, however, plenty of business books—thousands—dispensing advice, stories, and case studies on creativity, reinvention, innovation, creative mindsets, and strategic creativity.

Can creativity in writing have something to say about creativity in business? In general, there is not significant crossover between the above-named sectors. That’s because creativity may travel well or horribly. Creativity in one area may not translate to others. A few people cross domains, but let us be clear: many creative people are not nice people in dispensing advice outside their lanes. Synergies are less than what is possible.

There is, however, value in seeing creativity as a whole, rather than broken in sub-parts.

In general, creativity is at the heart of activities where learning and doing happen concurrently. One learns to paint by painting, and one learns to write by writing. In science, things happen more sequentially: one first absorbs knowledge, and the deployment of the knowledge comes second. In design thinking, creativity is built into its fabric: doing to think rather than thinking to do. Iterations are good, failing is part of the deal. These are essential components if one aspires to be creative.

The way that the domains grow gives a sense of what’s regarded as creative in the fields of art, technology, and science. Science’s edifice is built, layer by layer, on the foundation of previous science. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” is built into its fabric. In technology, however, the only reason to stand on the shoulder of giants is to crush the elder giants. A new technology appears before the older one has run its course. And in art, over the last century or so, it has been a bad idea to stand next to anybody. Derivative is not bad in technology; adaptations and remixes are good. But in art, derivative has a negative connotation. Today, artists need a “logo,” a personal DNA that they can own. In this sense, art is a good mirror for the chaotic world of many aspects of business today.

Within these realms, advice is possible. For example, there are many adjectives that go with creative personalities: imagination, curiosity, resiliency, adaptability, fearlessness, confidence, ingenuity, persistence. This list applies to everything: art, technology, science, and business.

Of these traits, curiosity is a must have. Nothing follows without it. But everything dies without a second must have component: persistence. Curiosity and persistence are the essential traits of creative minds.

But it is hard to be prescriptive, as nearly all advice should contain a dreaded “Yes, but…” Battling preconceptions is part of the education in creativity. Inspiration and creation, often linked in the popular imagination, are rarely concurrent. One can go through many iterations in writing or composing until perfection or something nearly perfect emerges. There could be many sketches or studies leading to what may be regarded as the final oil painting, but even there one can revise. In various types of etchings, one goes forward irreversibly but one can get results (proofs) along the way. Not such a chance in sculpting; all the “thinking in clay” has to go before the carving. I am in awe of marble sculpting. This is a case of going all in.

Most other activities allow some level of fine tuning. Adjustment can be made to a building or a business plan. Business is an area where one can make small bets, very much as in a design process.

In my decades of work across domains spanning science, engineering, art, writing, consulting, and academic administration, I have attempted to create lists of advice on creativity and leadership.

In my experience, these general guiding points can provide some clarity. See how many check marks you can put next to the points in each list.

General advice. Applies to individuals and members of a team:

1. Cultivate Patience. Create waiting spaces. Do not rush to eliminate what may look like imperfectly shaped ideas. Resist the temptation to do early filtering. Give ideas the time they need—it may take years.
2. Start with a Solid Grounding and Equate Creation with Hard Work. Creativity requires effort. Quality is essential to lasting fame, but production and prestige are undoubtedly correlated.
3. Learn From the Way Others Think. Thinking spaces expand when we learn how others think.
4. Tolerate Tension. Tension is healthy. Embrace the beauty and excitement of ideas that oppose each other. Do not take sides.
5. Learn How to Adapt and to Thrive With Constraints. Orson Welles said it best: The absence of constraints is the enemy of art.
6. Accept Imperfection. An imperfectly shaped idea, when tested and evolved in the course of work, may go further than a clear simple one.
7. Do Not Converge Too Quickly—Step Back and Look at the Entire Picture. Force yourself to look at the problem from afar—everything can be improved by removing unnecessary details. It is possible to solve a problem correctly but end up solving the wrong problem. Do not converge too quickly.
8. Embrace Opposites. Complementarity is the ability to reconcile two perfectly acceptable but ultimately contradictory views of one thing. Complementarity is an augmentation of our thinking. Develop the habit of seeing the other side. Creativity emerges from conflict of ideas.
9. Contemplate Holistically. Aim to be global and plural rather than linear and sequential. Find pleasure in contemplating an array of ideas and possibilities rather than discarding things in a sequential mode.
10. Begin Now. Magical moments of epiphany rarely exist. The idea that completes a puzzle is just a final piece, no more special than the other essential pieces that came earlier in the process. Value the frequent, incremental insights.
11. Take Time to Reflect, but Do Not Wait for Divine Inspiration “La inspiración existe, pero tiene que encontrarte trabajando” (Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working), said Pablo Picasso. John Cage, one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, has even stronger advice: “it does not matter where you start as long as you start.”

 Leading teams. Advice to those who lead teams. Applies to teams in technology, science, and business spaces.

 Design Nexus Teams. Combine specialists with key Nexus connectors: people who can bridge areas. Look at a problem through the lens of multiple disciplines.

1. Embrace Fog. Important in guiding teams. Do not seek instant clarity of matching questions with specific answers. It is rare to have all the information we need.
2. Operate with Broadness. Not everybody on the team must be broad-minded, but the team needs to be. Define the problem as an ecosystem, not an object.
3. Break Assumptions. Truly new ideas break assumptions. Breakthroughs expand domains. Breakwiths create entirely new domains.
4. Educate! Be relentless. Make it a priority for yourself, your team, and others. Foster a culture of emergence.

Getting started and growing. Personal advice. Applies to you as an individual in technology, science, and business spaces. Advice about getting started and avoiding the trap of success.

1. Be Ready to Prepare the Ground. Every innovator is a self-promoter. Having an idea accepted by a field depends on how the new idea connects with the canonical knowledge of the times. Be prepared to prepare the ground. Self-promotion has mattered since the beginning of time.
2. Be Conscious of the Judgment of the Times (and Possible Revisions). Especially if you are successful, reputations do not last forever; obsessing about reputation can be paralyzing.
3. Learn to See Simplicity in Complexity and Complexity in Simplicity. Develop the ability to see the patterns and implications of simple pictures and the simplicity hidden in complex ones.
4. Always Be on Guard for Unexpected Connections. Think in context: recognize the possibility of hidden connections and being unsurprised by seemingly unexpected linkages.
5. Learn From the Complexity Surrounding You. Ideas are everywhere.

  LEADERSHIP. Advice to those that lead. Applies to your ideas and your team.

1. Develop Maps, but Use the Compass as Your Guide. Managers use maps; leaders develop compasses. What functions as the foundation? The direction is given by our aspirations, its view of the future, and new ventures being explored. But while moving into the future, we need to look right and left, balancing the external environment and the various ever-changing constituencies, partners, and shareholders. This applies to you as an individual as well. Where are your ideas grounded, what is the direction of growth, and what provides balance to the growth?
2. Constantly Evaluate the Balance Between Core and Periphery. Another way to visualize the content of the compass is by arranging the components to see the balance between core and periphery. The core is the base of the compass, the existing strengths, the sources of current value, and the areas at which the organization excels. Peripheral strengths are investments, educated bets, today’s unique opportunities that could become future areas of strength. To constantly evolve, we must monitor the interaction between core and peripheral areas; the core areas of today must be balanced with investments in peripheral areas that represent the future. If all we have is periphery, we lose the center. On the flip side, having all center and no periphery is a sure sign of fragility and problems lurking in the future. All of these can be translated to you as an individual as well.
3. To Understand the World, Learn the Basics of Complexity. We live in a complex world. Complex systems are nonlinear and have tipping points and multiple hidden positive and negative feedback loops. Complexity science prepares us to live in a nonlinear world where surprises abound. It is important to have a framework to guide our thinking is a rapidly changing and seemingly unpredictable world.
4. Master the Ability to Synthesize Opposing Viewpoints. This is crucial and that is why makes a second appearance on the lists. Few issues are black or white.
5. Learn Emergence. Emergence is what happens when elements—“agents” in the terminology of complex systems theory—interact with each other to produce outcomes that could not have been predicted by examining the agents in isolation. No amount of knowledge about a neuron can explain consciousness. Something seemingly magical happens when many elements interact together. Make emergence work for you. The function of the leader is to create conditions for successful emergence.

How many check marks did you have? As I wrote earlier, nearly all advice should contain a dreaded “Yes, but…” It is of course possible to be creative without following any of these tenets.

Truly the most important checkmark you need to have is a constant willingness to learn — curiosity — and a constant persistence that lasts throughout an idea, a project, and a lifetime.