There are no silly questions or ideas. Most of the time, the idea or question may sound silly if we do not know what it is about. Yes, sometimes the question or idea can be silly, but if we do not ask or explore silly ideas then how will we know that it was not an absurd idea that could turn into a success. Albert Einstein once said, “If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”. By saying that it is a dumb idea or question, we are entering judgment into the room and limiting creativity, imagination, and innovation opportunities.
All children have creative thinking, which they show from a young age when they let their imagination run wild without inhibition, rules, or judgment. They are full of curiosity and wonder, they question everything, embrace uncertainty and want to understand it all. However, as adults we grow more jaded, question less, and accept more. Even when we wonder about what is accepted as “right” or “wrong”. Most of the time we do not question anything and accept what is as it is because we want to fit in.
Michigan State University research linking childhood participation in arts and crafts and the increase in innovation, patents, and the odds of starting a business as an adult. “The most impactful finding was the importance of sustained participation in those activities,” says Rex LaMore, director of Michigan State’s Center for Community and Economic Development. “If you started as a young child and continued in your adult years, you’re more likely to be an inventor as measured by the number of patents generated, businesses formed, or articles published.” Such activity fosters out-of-the-box thinking, the researchers say. In fact, the group reported using artistic skills—such as analogies, playing, intuition, and imagination—to solve complex problems.
As a child, when we have new car or a robotic toy, we would tear them apart to see what was inside, and how it was built. This curiosity helps us to look at thing from a different angle to see how we can change, improve, and re-purpose.
We need to help children stay observed and more engaged with the environment that they are in, focus their attention on trying to look at simple items from different perspective and to use their wild imagination to see the potential in the world around us. Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Study the Art of Science, study the Science of Art. Develop your senses, especially learn how to see, realize that everything connects to everything else”.
The following excerpt from a Newsweek article entitled “The Creative Crises” explains what happens in the brain during creative thinking:
To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result). When you try to solve a problem, you begin by concentrating on obvious facts and familiar solutions, to see if the answer lies there. This is a mostly left-brain stage of attack. If the answer doesn’t come, the right and left hemispheres of the brain activate together. Neural networks on the right-side scan remote memories that could be vaguely relevant. A wide range of distant information that is normally tuned out becomes available to the left hemisphere, which searches for unseen patterns, alternative meanings, and high-level abstractions. Having glimpsed such a connection, the left brain must quickly lock in on it before it escapes. The attention system must radically reverse gears, going from defocused attention to extremely focused attention. In a flash, the brain pulls together these disparate shreds of thought and binds them into a new single idea that enters consciousness. This is the “aha!” moment of insight, often followed by a spark of pleasure as the brain recognizes the novelty of what it’s come up with. Now the brain must evaluate the idea it just generated. Is it worth pursuing? Creativity requires constant shifting, blender pulses of both divergent thinking and convergent thinking, to combine new information with old and forgotten ideas. Highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate.
So, it’s clear that keeping our imagination sharp would be a highly useful tool in creative thinking and problem solving. Unfortunately, we lose some of our playful curiosity and creative imagination as we mature. So, why does our natural creativity wane? There are a few possible explanations;
Rowan Gibson writes in his book The 4 lenses of innovation that “somewhere between ages 6 and 12 something changes. We learn at school that there’s right way and a wrong way of doing things. We learn to put limits on our imaginations, and not to ask “dumb” questions. We learn to memorize facts, figures, and formulas and to use books or the internet to find all existing answers, because that is the way to get higher grades. We learn, in other words, that creativity is silly and naïve, and that it is not valued or wanted from anymore. So, we gradually leave it behind us. It becomes nothing more than a cute and even embarrassing characteristic of our early childhood that we have now grown out of. And we start taking on a more rational, structured and non creative mindset to prepare ourselves for adulthood”.
Dr. Carlson says simple lack of practice is one reason. As we are forced to turn our attention to logic, reason, and facts in school, we spend more of our time and brainpower in reality—and less in creative imagination. Since creativity inherently requires a willingness to possibly be wrong, we begin to avoid it. For many of us, we become so good at avoiding it that we convince ourselves that we’re not creative.
Other reasons are the fear of being wrong, fear of failing, and the fear of disappointment. Children do not have those fears, they embrace uncertainties and try again. When they learn how to ride a bike, they do not fear falling down or failing, they fall and get up and try again. As grownups, we are scared of failing. I never knew how to ride a bike when I was a child, I learned it when I was 30 years old and I was terrified from the idea of falling. It took a long time from me to convince myself that it is ok to fall down in order to try to ride a bike. Children do not go through these phases, they are limitless.
Pablo Picasso said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” So creativity is not anything magical, we all are gifted with creativity, however sometime we allow it to die instead of flourish. There are many methods to increase our creativity, so do not be scared to practice, taking an idea – even a completely harebrained one – and turning it into a reality, the more developed our skills will be in creativity, the better we will be in problem solving. Next time you’re facing a challenge or an issue that you need to solve, let go of some of your self-control, and bring your child-like imagination. Remember how you made your children to pretend a spoon is a car, so they will eat their food or cardboard boxes are castles, and do not be afraid to be silly, let being judgmental towards you or others disappear, analyze the issue, the problem you are facing from different angles, use your imagination (have childlike imagination) and look at your problem again, and you’ll find more creative possibilities.
In other words, keep the child inside you alive, and do not be scared to let your imagination go wild.
References:
- http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/a-young-picasso-or-beethoven-could-be-the-next-edison/, A YOUNG PICASSO OR BEETHOVEN COULD BE THE NEXT EDISON, Published Oct 23, 2013
- http://www.newsweek.com/creativity-crisis-74665, THE CREATIVITY CRISIS, BY PO BRONSON AND ASHLEY MERRYMAN ON 7/10/10 AT 4:00 AM
- ROWAN GIBSON, THE 4 LENSES OF INNOVATION (WILEY, 2015), 66.