Structure, creativity, and retention…related?

February 24, 2010

I read some of the traits (or eccentricities) of the highly creative, as identified by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in the post Tortoise-brain vs hare-brain: creativity at work. It was one of those head nodding reads. I have a propensity toward creative work. At least I think I do. I say that after repurposing content for most of the day and wishing I was doing anything but that. However, the work must get done. Every day isn’t about rainbows and unicorns.

At first I thought there was a correlation between that propensity toward creative work and my desire to change my work frequently. After reading the post though, perhaps my need for change comes from my dislike of too much structure. There’s a quote from Peter Cook in the post about that…”too much creativity without structure and nothing ever gets finished.” So, yes there must be SOME structure.

I know how hard it can be to manage the highly creative. They can be a real pain in the ass. But you need them because creativity is an essential component of success. Organizations that are highly structured probably won’t/don’t retain the highly creative. Who do you work with that has some of these characteristics of the highly creative? Is this you?

  • Fond of asking dumb questions, despite their intelligence
  • Arrogant when they know they know something, humble when they know they don’t
  • Highly self-critical
  • Often markedly introverted, but sometimes quite the opposite
  • Very honest about their own shortcomings or knowledge/skills gaps
  • Tend to see situations and issues in more complex terms than their colleagues.

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  • chrisvanwingerden

    “Every day isn’t about rainbows and unicorns.”

    How true!

    Some days are about raging battle between “a possibly evil unicorn, and what can only be described as a renegade dolphine bounty hunter with a spinning kmart sale light bolted to it’s head” (the original blogger’s own words) with a rainbow in the background! http://bit.ly/dm1RYf

  • http://janetclarey.com/ jclarey

    Awesome. And thanks for that. Now, saying rainbows and unicorns isn't weird at all. ; )

    The K-Mart light is priceless. Remember those?

  • http://twitter.com/mrch0mp3rs Aaron Silvers

    Have you been spying on me at work?

  • http://janetclarey.com/ jclarey

    The more I share with you, the more I think we are apples on the same tree. Or unicorns on the same rainbow.

  • tomhaskins

    Somewhere over the rainbow, there are so many ways to be creative that every day can be a day of to be appreciated by available unicorns! It's rare a day can be brainstormy and amazingly new. But any day can be pause for reflection where we get to create what the day meant, taught us and showed us to see in a new way. Many days involve relationships where we create impacts on others' lives and the dimensions of the relationship like trust, closeness, commonality, etc. And there are days for creating simple things with a nice touch in the food prep, housekeeping and fashionista departments.

  • yin

    hah! is this topic familiar or what? it's a myth that creativity scholars have written about, that creativity can only occur when one is unfettered, deviant or mentally unstable. creativity like any type of learning, occurs as a result of a delicate balance in the complex ecologies of life.

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