Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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August 1, 2006

We’re All Creative 1: The Bunnies Prove It

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:05 am

I Drive Myself Crazy Crazier

Creativity at Work

Yesterdays post on 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy — The 10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity got quite a response, particularly on a couple of forums. The most interesting part was that in the comments about the post it seemed that

  1. the folks commenting didn’t seem to have read the entire post, only the list.
  2. they also didn’t know this blog or they would understand that I count myself among the people who drive people crazy.
  3. they didn’t catch my personal belief that everyone is creative.

The fact is I drive myself crazy crazier the more I think. The other fact is business schools need creative thinkers more than ever. The whole world does if we want to get anything to change around here.

With those thoughts in mind, I dug out a piece that explains my thoughts on creativity. I’m posting it because the bunnies prove that we’re all creative types.

We’re All Creative and the Bunnies Prove It

We were sitting on an airplane on the way to a meeting. Two editors, Beth and Chris, were by the window. I was leaning across the aisle in a discussion with them. The conversation was about Kindergarten Mathematics. Kindergarten is particularly tricky business because the kids can’t read.

“So, 3 bunnies plus 2 bunnies equals 5 bunnies,” Beth said. She and Chris were new. They were working and learning together. This was their first encounter with this golden oldie of a Kindergarten issue. How would they solve it once they knew about it?

“That won’t work.” I explained. “You see, it ends up with 10 bunnies on the page, which is pedagogically misleading for the kids. The numbers say 3+2=5, but the picture says 3 bunnies plus 2 bunnies make 5 more bunnies. We have to find a way to communicate 3 bunnies joining 2 bunnies by only showing 5 bunnies. Set the page aside. Approach the problem from a new direction.”

Beth and Chris looked at me. They had thought they had already found the answer. Welcome to publishing where the truth changes regularly. They went back to work.

I’d fixed this problem for what felt like thousands of pages before. I wanted to give them space to find their own solution. So, I turned my attention to the guy in the suit who’d been totally taken by our conversation—he couldn’t see the page we were discussing.

I smiled and said, “Isn’t it amazing how some grown-ups make a living?” He blushed at being caught eavesdropping. I smiled and shrugged saying, “No worries. We get this reaction wherever we go.” Then I read a unit of fourth-grade history.

In a while the two editors had found their way to a solution. It involved 3 bunnies playing and 2 bunnies walking up to join them. Basically they were rewriting pictures. Now the page worked mathematically, pedagogically, and visually. Beth and Chris had solved the problem creatively. Creativity was the only available tool.

Legend says that creativity comes only from “creative types,” that a second group doesn’t have the “stuff” to keep up creatively. Rumor has it that rooms are littered with towels that these poor noncreatives have thrown in because they’ve given up trying. I say that’s Balderdash, hokum, and piffle. Don’t believe it.

Beth and Chris aren’t the stereotypical “types” that hear the word creative whispered as some geniuses do when they walk into a room. They don’t smoke cigars or wear outlandish clothes. They have no visible tics or strange compulsions surrounding hygiene. Neither leads a bohemian lifestyle, trains turtles, or romances with exotic old men who speak Esperanto. Yet they can be creative just as you and I can.

OR do you think that you’re not creative? Say it enough, and you might convince me. It’s a sure thing that you’ll convince yourself, but why would you want to? Unless you’re worried about driving folks crazy. . . .but then, that would mean becoming a hermit too.

It’s all in how you define creativity and where you choose to put the limits on your thinking. Isn’t it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy


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17 Comments to “We’re All Creative 1: The Bunnies Prove It”

  1. August 1st, 2006 at 1:42 pm
    JohnB said

    As a [wink] [wink] aside:

    I’ve had bunnies as pets. Believe me: 3 bunnies plus 2 bunnies does not equal 5 bunnies!

    Or, as a zoo keeper once told me: the reason all zoos have lions is simple — lions breed like rabbits.

  2. August 1st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks for a laugh, John.
    I’m still smiling as I type this. Bunnies are very creative, aren’t they?

  3. August 1st, 2006 at 2:48 pm
    Rick said

    I kind of like the idea of training turtles. Then I could keep up.

    It amazes me that we as a society have let ourselves be convinced that if we aren’t an artist or performer of some sort, we aren’t creative. Our creativity is often misplaced, sometimes destructive, but always there. Just the act of turning yourself from a teen into a briefcase-totin’, suit-wearin’ MBA is immensely creative. Stultifying, but creative.

    I think the thought that they are creative scares some people, as if it denies their ‘normalcy’ in some way, or means more will be expected of them.

  4. August 1st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Wow! That last sentence is really powerful. I had never really thought of it that way, but it makes total sense to hear you say it. That’s a completely new dimension of group think I had never considered.

    I’ll be thinking about that all day.

  5. August 1st, 2006 at 2:53 pm
    ann michael said

    Liz - for YEARS I thought I wasn’t creative at all. Something snapped (in a publishing job - go figure - medical, though not educational) and I realized that I was in fact creative. That being a problem solver meant being creative. I still don’t think I could draw - but then again how will I know if I never try. To realize your own creativity you must first give yourself the permission to be creative!!!

    Great post, girlfriend!

  6. August 1st, 2006 at 3:01 pm
    Christine Kane said

    I like what Rick wrote. “Creative” is a highly-charged word for lots of people. I was just having lunch with a group of people from a dance company yesterday and we talked about how some of the best dancers in the world aren’t even remotely creative! (You had to be there. It was funny.) Creative is really a way of being. Not a way of looking or acting. I’ve met some wildly creative corporate types…

  7. August 1st, 2006 at 3:46 pm
    Mark McGuinness said

    Having spent a lot of time around ‘creative types’, I can only spot 3 differences between them and ‘non-creative types’:

    1. They think of themselves as ‘creative’. Or rather, they assume that it’s normal for them to be creative - and don’t smother it by saying ‘I’m not creative’.

    2. They are more interested in doing creative stuff than people who label themselves as non-creative. (For ‘more interested’ in many cases, read ‘obsessed by’.) And the more interested/obsessed they are, the harder they work at creativity - and the better they get.

    3. They gravitate to environments where their creativity is accepted and encouraged - even expected - so that there are no external obstacles to their creative expression.

    And that’s about it, I think. No deep-rooted genetic or personality differences from the rest of us - they just like doing creative stuff and avoid internal and external obstacles to their creativity.

  8. August 1st, 2006 at 4:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks Ann,
    Being a problem solver is the tops at being creative. How much more flexible can your thinking get than finding new ways to do things when stuff is going wrong?

  9. August 1st, 2006 at 4:27 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Christine,
    I like that “a way of being.” It’s a way of being that’s becoming necessary to success. It’s the basis of innovation and new ideas. It’s what make for simplicity that has elegance. I bet most of the folks you gel with are wildly creative.

  10. August 1st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Mark.
    You should write a blog post about that. That’s more brand new thinking I’ve never heard about people talking “creative.” Still it rings totally true for me too. Creative people are creative because they think they are and like to think and do creative things.

    Wish I would have said that. Maybe I will someday soon. :)

  11. August 1st, 2006 at 4:41 pm
    Mark McGuinness said

    Liz,

    Thanks, I’ll write the post when I get a minute and let you know when it’s done. I’ve got a couple of previous posts about Csikszentmihalyi’s creative flow and how coaching creates creative flow that may be of interest - including that Noel Coward quote you liked.

  12. August 1st, 2006 at 4:43 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks, Mark,
    This is really turning into quite a series on creativity. Thanks too for leaving the links so that folks can read more about Mihaly’s creative flow work. I’ll be over to read them. :)

  13. August 1st, 2006 at 11:41 pm
    Greg Kiernan said

    I think i am just going to stay away from the creative people and their rabbits. Safest thing for all concerned really!

  14. August 2nd, 2006 at 10:15 am
    ME Strauss said

    Greg,
    You just might have the best idea there.

  15. August 2nd, 2006 at 12:23 pm
    Shadows Edge said

    Liz,

    I read your blog everyday, but this week has been even more exciting for me than usual. Since my blog is about creativity, I’ve been paying very close attention to what you’ve written. Some of it, I wish I’d been able to put into words myself, but you can be sure you’ll be see more incoming links and trackbacks from YourCre8tivity

    Thanks!

  16. August 2nd, 2006 at 1:08 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi there Shadows Edge!
    Thanks for saying hello! I’m glad you’re finding these posts exciting. We all need to get a shot in the arm now and then. I needed one too. That’s why I’m writing them. :)

  17. August 14th, 2006 at 4:51 am
    Wishful Thinking » Blog Archive » What Makes a Creative Person? said

    [...] Liz Strauss sparked a heated debate recently with her post 10 Reasons Creative Folks Drive Us Crazy, with some people (mistakenly) interpreting her as meaning that “creative folks” are somehow different in kind to the rest of us. I made a half-baked comment on one of her follow-ups, and she suggested I turn it into a blog post - so this is my attempt at the slightly-more-baked version, with thanks to Liz for the prompt. [...]

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