Skip to main content

Teaching creativity

Does creativity need to be taught?
And if so, what are we teaching?
How does one teach creativity?

My own belief is that creativity does not need to be taught. Neither can it be taught. Because it is not like physics or music that it can be taught in the manner of a process.

But creativity is all about opening minds - and if that is the definition, one can take people/students through the process of openings one minds so that one is more open to ideas, receptive and so on.

The second part is that creativity is often an attitude. A person who is creative is just as creative in life as well. Creativity requires one to be open minded, open to new learnings, experiences and therefore, it is but natural that it will flow into ones lives as well. (Note: Logical, but does not always work - so that is a caveat.)

So, what can we teach? We can teach people possibility. We can teach people to observe. We can teach people to pause. We can teach people to question. We can teach people to unlearn. We can teach people to experiment. We can teach people to play. But they know all that already - so the teaching process can gently take them in that direction and then let them figure out the rest...

But the best thing we could do perhaps is to allow people to be aware of each of those above processes...etc. etc. etc.

How can one do it? So if it were a workshop, it would have to include a bunch of things (yes, thats in my head for now). That enable people to explore all of the above. But that alone won't be enough.

It is important after that for us to be able to give them something to take back that they can continue to work it after the 'event' is over.

Evolving thoughts!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...