The Lattice of Creativity: Your Creative Journey Defined.
The industry discussion about “Big C(reativity)” and “small c(reativity)” sounds good in a Board Room, or an interview, or perhaps a book. But for those actually climbing around in creativity, those two corporate terms leave an undefined and large vacancy where the middle, messy, working, dreaming area for creativity actually exists.
Not to mention - "Big C" and "small c" settle in a binary that's good for quick executive vocabulary, but really, really bad for business. One defines a game changer at a global level (Big C), or a micro-influencer in a handful of localized moments (small c). And if one patiently hopes to hear of any other possibilities, you might be waiting in that Board Room a very, very, very, very, very, long, long, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz . . . tombstone. Well, you get the picture.
So let's lattice-up that space.
The Lattice of Creativity.
Although "C's" of individual creativity are vast and plentiful, they fall into 4 general categories. On the Lattice they move right, left, up, down as they explore various possibilities.
DAYDREAM: There’s the c(reativity) that sprouts first as a DAYDREAM. First-stage creativity. Low and slow on the lattice. Naturally and easily without weight or fuss or focus. Sometimes these sprouting thoughts are even lingering just below the surface - just beyond our consciousness until they eventually appear. (Don't dig for these . . . I promise they will grow on their own!) They are patiently and persistently and quietly expanding their root system. [If you prefer to visualize writing, imagine this as a napkin-worthy "barely legible doodle c".]
IMAGINATION: Next, the small shoot of daydream suddenly sprouts into IMAGINATION. It has grabbed your attention! You focus on the idea by first challenging it with "why?" or "what": “What if I empower this daydream? What would result? What would it look like? What could it achieve?” This idea is given forward motion. [This is notebook-worthy "pen-drawn, scripted c".]
(C)REATIVITY: Focused imagination will eventually emerge as CREATIVITY. This C(reativity) pushes thought into action: imagination that has been empowered into the activity of “doing”, “trying”, “iterating”, and “making”. Even if it is just with cardboard and tape. (OnCloud shoes started as an ordinary tennis shoe with cut bits of garden hose attached horizontally to the soles to provide extra cushion due to a back injury. No Board Room needed.). Or writing a bad first draft. Or sketching out a possible App interface. This active C(reativity) expands, requiring a lot of space to capture various ideas. [These are strongly written, "Capital C" sketches that get their own complete pages.]
INNOVATION: Every now and then, the journey through Daydream and Imagination and Creativity slingshots into true INNOVATION. This is the C(reativity) that, given enough time and healthy conditions, climbs the creative lattice into global influence. Think steam power, Hamilton, and the iPod. [Hello BOLD-TYPE CAPS-LOCK BRAND-FONT "C".]
The Creative Downfall
The creative downfall? Trying to Daydream directly into "BOLD-TYPE CAPS-LOCK BRAND-FONT C" INNOVATION. We hope to skip those hard, lonely, first ugly sketches. Or the dozens (or more) of iterations. In short, we want to skip The Messy Middle. Why? Because businesses, executives, colleagues, families, and friends are sometimes small-minded people who discount the daydreams that are in the space below small "c" creativity. And it's no fun being discounted in the workplace, creative space, or personal space doing this early vulnerable work. If they only understood it's the early daydreams that are the first possible enablers of innovation.
So for the "no you can't daydream in our workplace" or "we can't give you time for creativity here" person, hear me - creativity is defined by the journey that starts with the daydream, climbs THROUGH the Messy Middle, and eventually emerges as Creativity or Innovation. The best creatives in the world know this. So join the best.
The Creative Climb: Don’t skip it! Just work earlier in the messy middle!
It’s fact: Those who start working earlier in the messy middle begin to find their solutions faster. Those with early, messy prototypes learn their mistakes earlier; those who learn the messy-middle mistakes earlier correct earlier; those who correct earlier in the messy middle get to their second attempt sooner. . . . and third . . . .and fourth . . . and start their climb OUT of the messy middle to . . . . creativity and innovation.
There are hundreds of pages of data that show those who try and avoid early pitfalls are usually beaten to creative solutions by individuals who just start failing into their prototyping first. Those who get into the messy middle first get to a creative solution faster than those who insist on over-researching and over-discussing and over-scheduling-way-too-many-meetings-to-talk-about-what-might-be-done. (zzzzz . . . .zzzz . . . tombstone.)
Marshmallow, risk it and meet Spaghetti.
Have you seen the hilarious marshmallow and spaghetti challenge video? Kindergarteners regularly beat out graduate-level MBA teams and came only second to teams of working adult engineers on how to build the highest possible spaghetti-marshmallow tower. How? Why? The kids started building right away. If they broke some spaghetti, or if their sculpture started to tip over, they simply added something to stand it up properly. The MBA students: started usually by drawing a list of who was going to lead the “project”. But in this and many cases: work first to fail first = succeed first.
[TEDtalk here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M&t=182s about the research results of "spaghetti/marshmallow". The video is also geared towards the idea of working in teams, with the commentary on creativity throughout.]
I certainly understand that as an adult, it could be hard to take seriously a challenge to build a spaghetti-marshmallow sculpture. But the takeaways are disconcerting. The MBA students did what most business adults have been taught - to avoid risk, and to not play around when you are a highly-educated individual being asked to succeed at a task at hand. But if business groups do exactly what they are being taught to do, and are failing compared to children in a creative, problem-solving task, why should we rely on businesses to understand creative journeys?
If we want to have creative workplaces and workspaces (personal or professional), we need to at least start changing the language. Creativity is not binary or even tertiary. It is ever-present and multi-dimensional. But we have to reclaim the words, the willingness, and the ability to both risk AND play across the Lattice of Creativity.
Stop Waiting.
The days are over of waiting for the breakthrough. You must make the breakthrough. So start climbing the Lattice of Creativity. Up, down, sideways, downways, upways, and back down again if needed. But start where you should: with "pencil-sketch-c creativity"! Don’t be scared that the start might be slow, or feel empty, or vacant. Risk. Play. Start sketching the list, the ideas, the impossible solutions, the challenges.
Remember: perfect doesn’t exist. Risk. Play. Be messy. Climb the Lattice.
@Alexandra Guelff Photography
The Creativity Conversation - whether a business, a team, an entrepreneur, a student, an artist, or a person on fire to develop or understand their creative impulse - these ideas are for you.
For Karin’s professional conducting page: KarinHendrickson.com. For the full creativity experience: CreativityConversation.com.