Being Creatively Intelligent

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.

Bertrand Russell

This program of workshops presents a psychology of creativity for the twenty-first century. It is one built on social collaboration and a more fluid, less self-conscious approach emphasising less self-concern and better stress balance. In many ways, it Is not ‘sexy’ or ‘trendy’ but deliberately pragmatic and practical, built on scientific findings, and urging a practice characterised by rigour and discipline. In many ways it is a psychology that sees creativity as ‘normal for our species and is a defining feature of our evolution.

Being Creatively Intelligent is presented as 6 video modules supplemented with a PowerPoint-based workbook. As always, the modules are based on workshops with participant activities.

Module 1, Creativity: The Big Picture -Part 1 begins by placing creative intelligence at the centre of our life, work and relationships. It is central because it is the defining feature of human intelligence and adaptation. This radically social and embedded view of creativity is contrasted with the myth of the solitary, tortured artist in favour of a curious, calm, open person engaged in life fully. The analogy is made with the fecundity of Darwinian adaptation –making and testing endless variants, some of which are successful (the rest being ruthlessly ‘pruned’). This is given a modern expression in terms of the Creative Curve (Gannett) wherein creative success is related to how attuned we are to a particular part of our social ecology: the market for our creativity.

Module 2, Creativity: The Big Picture -Part 2, begins with neuroscientific findings linking the ‘default mode network’ to the experience and practice of creativity, validating the need to allow the mind to do what it does naturally when relaxed. This is then linked to a major theme: unimproving. This is a critical part of minimising self-concern and worry and thereby opening up the mind’s exploratory mechanisms that predict creative insight. We then summarise the psychology of insight including an introduction to a six-factor model of creativity that will be the subject of the remaining four modules on creative process.

Module 3, Creative Process Part 1: Sociality, locates all creativity as a thoroughly socially embedded process. It is based on relentless consumption, imitation, interactions within a creative community and iterations. It is based on an abiding purpose and workable rules of engagement with others. The latter includes skills around creative abrasion, discovery-based learning and the ability to integrate opposed ideas. ‘Luck Surface Area’ (Roberts) is expanded by effectively sharing one’s ideas to a wide audience with an openness and generosity that stands in contrast to an inward, precious creativity. Practical skills in interpersonal dynamics are then practised to assist with these social capabilities.

Module 4, Creative Process Part 2: Creative EQ, begins with the notion of ‘negative capability’: the skilled tolerance for paradox and ambiguity. This stems from the ability to relax and allow the brain to make creative connections when the conscious mind is stumped. This allows for the brain’s default mode network to operate with intuition and as the guide for creative connections and integration. Participants then learn about emotional intelligence (what we pay attention to and how we pay attention) indicating that our experience is largely a part of our ‘mindset’, which can be changed. Practical exercises in developing ‘realistic optimism’ are then undertaken.

Module 5, Creative Process Part 3: Perspiration & Absorption, demystifies creativity by grounding it in continuous, mindfully disciplined work. The comparison with Darwinian adaptation here is direct: the research shows clearly that the more creative people literally produce more creative products, some of which ‘fit’ the creative ecology. This central finding is then lent practical ‘heft’ by introducing Newport’s notion of Deep Work and Covey’s very practical approach to prioritisation. The main emphasis here is setting up habits for work that support creative output. The module then focusses on ‘absorption’ –the non-distracted mindfulness characteristic of the experience of ‘Flow’. This is linked to the neuroscience of staying open and learning from error. The practical application of this is in developing a Growth Mindset (Dweck) and in limiting unhealthy forms of perfectionism (Lombardo) by ‘unimproving’.

Module 6, Creative Process Part 4: Mental Modulations & Cross Training, begins with an understanding of how we modulate consciousness in the service of creative breakthroughs. This is based on a relaxed awareness of contradiction and impasse and skills in loosening thought, rather than tightening, in response. This ability to relax amidst uncertainty is a key creative capability related to the equanimity achieved in mindfulness practices. Accordingly, some exercises in relaxation and mindfulness are undertaken. Creativity is nourished by ‘cross training’ –the simultaneous passion for, and immersion in, other areas of interest. These diverse interests provide alternative frames of reference, analogies, and metaphors that create a multidimensional frame for creative explorations. That frame enables the making of unusual connections so characteristic of creativity. A practical exercise called ‘Foresting’ is introduced to help draw upon this multidimensionality and again reference is made to the utilisation of other people’s minds to increase the dimensionality of your thought.