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A quick post about creativity

Thursday, 23 March, 2006

(They say the best time to write about something is when you're excited about it and that time is now. I might turn this into something else later, though—maybe even for Issue 10.)

I've been thinking a bit about creativity (not just because of Haoran's post but because of other things too) and the ideal conditions for creativity. I've been slowly working my way through Peter Brain's Going the Distance (which is proving to be quite a useful book, even though I'm not a pastor and I'm not in full-time ministry). In his chapter on stress, he talks about how we go through periods of good stress and bad stress and, after each period, we need a kind of “lull” period (my term, not his) to return us to normal. This helps us to cope because otherwise the stress builds and builds and we find that we're not handling things as well as we should be. He says that we are at our most creative during these lull periods because then we feel secure enough and free enough to experiment and take risks. However, when we are stressed, we are more likely to resort to tried-and-true methods of doing things and we are less likely to take chances in case things go wrong.

This idea is also picked up in this article (link via Dave) which talks about how creativity is a necessary skill in today's professional world and how most work environments are detrimental to creativity:

Consider that for most industries, the U.S. can't hope to be the low-cost producer in a global economy. With innovation now our main competitive strength, creativity is crucial for anyone who wants to move up.

But it's really, really hard, if not impossible, for the human brain to come up with fresh new ideas when its owner is overworked, overtired, and stressed out. And in today's wonderful world of nonstop work, 40% of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weeknights.

The writer of the article advocates having “slacking off” periods where employees can recharge the brain (NB: slacking off does not mean getting lazy at work but giving the brain time and space to think):

What scientists have only recently begun to realize is that people may do their best thinking when they are not concentrating on work at all. If you've ever had a great idea pop into your head while you were washing your car, walking your dog, or even napping, you already know what a team of Dutch psychologists revealed last month in the journal Science: The unconscious mind is a terrific solver of complex problems when the conscious mind is busy elsewhere or, perhaps better yet, not overtaxed at all.

This brings us back to Archimedes, whose “Eureka!” moment in the bath—or, to cite another example, Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity while loafing around under an apple tree—was a classic example of a kind of creativity known as remote association, or associative thinking. As the name implies, it's a knack for seeing connections among things that appear on the surface to be unrelated to each other.

Google's work environment is held up as a potential model for other businesses: Google has lap pools, massage rooms, pool tables and their own hair stylists. And all their staff are on flexitime.

I like how the brain keeps working even when you're not consciously thinking about something. By the same token, now that part of my job involves creativity (writing those abominable CHNs), I'm really doing my employers a disservice by turning up to work so tired and drained and getting so stressed by all the things in life. (Well, I'm doing myself a disservice too but I guess I feel it more when it comes to employed work because I know I am not just being paid to sit around and surf web articles at work. Though I am partly.) And also I miss doing creative things and I wanted to do more of them this year—get back into writing, perhaps finish Bridget, get involved in other exciting projects. But I am too busy and too stressed.

This led me to start thinking about the creative people in our churches. Often these people are involved in doing various ministries because they usually have a number of talents in a number of different areas. So they may be involved in the music team, in teaching Sunday school, in leading Bible study, etc. But I wonder if our churches are just overworking our creative people instead of putting them to good use in coming up with more creative ways to do things or teach things. Are they getting so bogged down in week-to-week ministry that they, like Haoran, have no time to do things which other less creative people could not do? I remember at a music seminar at SMBC Nicky Chiswell once said that if you are the only one can do what you do, you have to go off and do it (or words to that effect; she was talking about song writing and the amount of time she spends doing it rather than doing other stuff). Now I don't want to give way to selfishness but at the same time I know that I can sometimes get so involved in church stuff or work stuff that all the time I have for creating things just gets squeezed out. And that's not necessarily ideal and perhaps that's not necessarily pleasing to God (though at times God will get us to sacrifice our creative talents for the sake of loving and serving other people).

I don't feel like I'm in control my life at all. At one level I know this is true anyway because God is in control of it. At another level I wonder if I am making wise choices in what I am doing and whether I should be changing things in order to make other things a priority.

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