IT TOOK longer than it should have to write this article. I wanted to be especially creative, and having just read that the average adult comes up with three to six alternatives for any given situation, while the average child thinks of 60, I waited for my son to return from school to get some help in that regard.
The depressing theory — that we are naturally creative when we are born but, as we grow up, we learn to be uncreative — is supported by research conducted in the US by scientist and author, George Land, among 1600 five-year-olds.
Beginning in 1968, Land tested the children using a creativity test used by Nasa to select innovative engineers and scientists. He re-tested the same children when they were 10 and again when they were 15 .
The five-year-olds scored 98%. When they reached 10 , they managed 30% and, as 15-year-olds, they scored just 12%. The same test was given to 280000 adults who achieved a miserable 2%.
“What we have concluded,” wrote Land in his final report on the study, “is that noncreative behaviour is learned”.
Creativity is considered a core competency for leaders and managers. Generating innovative solutions for problems and the capacity to create new products, systems or services are among the sorts of intellectual capital that set companies apart from their competition.
Albert Einstein, with whom (I never hesitate to point out) I share a birthday, believed that the will to learn and creative thought are lost through strict rote learning. He also said , “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” But, given that five-year-olds, as creative as they are, are not equipped in other ways to run organisations, we have a problem. So, what is to be done to counter dwindling creativity in adulthood?
The good news is that it is widely accepted that creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed.
According to Linda Naiman, who is the founder of training and coaching consultancy, Creativity At Work, learning to be creative is similar to learning a sport.
“It requires practice to develop the right muscles, and a supportive environment in which to flourish,” she says. “Business leaders are increasingly adopting the principles and practices of art and design to help build creative muscle in their organisations.”
Naiman provides her clients with workshops, coaching programmes and corporate retreats designed around building creativity.
Others, however, are turning to mentors to help get their fountains of ingenuity flowing freely once more.
Third-year Bachelor of Business Science student at the University of Cape Town and fellow of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation’s Fellowship Programme, Thembeka Stemela recently became aware that, while she plans to major in economics and follow a career in commerce, creativity is a precious commodity in any business and one worth nurturing as soon as possible into one’s career.
“If there is one lesson that the foundation has taught me it is that creativity comes in many forms and can be used widely and effectively in business,” says the 21-year-old, who recently completed a traineeship with Transnet as part of her learnership.
“This year, I am particularly keen to explore my creative side. Being in commerce sometimes seems to hinder the artist in you. My goal for 2010 is to try to merge the factual, numerical and artistic aspects of my personality and life, and find out how to make them work well together to build my career.”
The undergraduate category of Allan Gray’s fellowship programme provides an external mentorship module whereby third- and fourth-year undergraduate fellows have the opportunity to select a mentor they believe will add to their entrepreneurial learning.
“Mentors are invited to the programme from all walks of life,” says head of the Allan Gray fellowship programme, Agnes Sibanda. “They are then interviewed to ensure compatibility to the programme. All our mentors are themselves achievers, and are selected for their incredible life experiences, which enrich the learning of our fellows. As the programme has grown (it is in its fifth year), the majority of our new mentors are increasingly referred to us by those already in the pool.”
Having identified her short- term goal as wanting to develop more creativity this year, Stemela studied the pool of available external mentors closely and recognised good potential to boost her ingenuity when she came across the credentials of Tanya Surtees.
Theatre maker, director, choreographer, educator and company director of Cape Town-based (and winner of two categories in this year’s Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards) theatre company From The Hip: Khulumakahle , Surtees is without a doubt a dynamo when it comes to creativity.
Not only has she produced award-winning visual theatre and successfully managed a theatre and education company since 2003, she is also pioneering theatre for deaf performers in SA.
But, as confident as Surtees justifiably is about her creative and entrepreneurial skills, she was not convinced at first that she was mentor material.
“I was concerned that, as an arts manager, I might not have the kinds of skills needed to mentor a young person who is ultimately going into a more science-based career path,” she says.
Surtees however, was soon assured that the mentoring process required by the fellowship programme has less to do with passing on specific career-related skills and more to do with guiding and assisting mentees to achieve the goals they have set for themselves throughout the year, be they academic, personal or professional.
Encouraged to examine what she might have to offer as a mentor, Surtees evaluated the many skills she has developed through her experiences in performing art and as an entrepreneur. The study provided consequential insight.
“I realised that while being an entrepreneur is hard, being an entrepreneur in the arts is very hard,” she says.
“More than any other industry, the arts has arguably the most resilient, economical, creative, and open-minded individuals who consistently produce magic against all odds.
“We, more than any other industry, know that to be successful you have to have your fingers in several pies concurrently, hone a variety of skills at once and keep a number of balls in the air simultaneously.
“Quite simply, once you have worked successfully as an entrepreneur in the arts, you can master any field.”
Coincidentally, Surtees herself is a fellow of the John F Kennedy Centre of the Performing Arts in Washington.
“I realised too, that I know, first hand, the kind of impact a successful mentoring process can have on your life and on your business,” she says.
“And I also acknowledged that there are few things more fulfilling than being a part of someone’s personal growth, development and ultimate success.”
So the stage was set for Surtees to assume the role of mentor to Stemela.
While mentor and mentee have a set of specific goals they aim to achieve during the year, Surtees says that, over and above those objectives, she would like to add to help Stemela build creativity by “igniting a passion in her to find the ‘play’ in everything she undertakes — because I believe that if there isn’t any enjoyment in what you are doing, you are doing the wrong thing”.
Art processes, says Naiman, help people develop fresh thinking through aesthetic ways of knowing, imagination, intuition, re-framing and exploring different perspectives.
They also help people learn to be comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity and paradox. This provides a good foundation for creativity.
But Surtees hopes to expose her mentee to more than just the arts and the ways of an entrepreneur.
“I also hope to pass on anything that will enable Thembeka to avoid making mistakes where avoidable, learn from mistakes where possible and laugh at herself where appropriate,” she says.
“In addition, I hope to do some learning of my own. An important part of our everyday learning, whether centred around creativity or not, comes from the interactions we have with people, and as such, I believe I have as much to learn from Thembeka as she has to learn from me.”
Now that’s creative thinking. And, encouragingly, it does not come from a five-year-old.
pmhaw@mweb.co.za