Report R1.9 Can We Plan for Creativity? Seminar Leader: Satish Saberwal, Formerly: Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi saberwal33[at]gmail.com Issues Covered: Reflections on creativity; creativity can be seen to vary in intensity and social scale; What is creativity? Finding novel, non-routine "solutions" to "problems"; two general strategies: Operational (partitioning or segmenting the problem) and Orientational (exploration; free variation; openness towards what is different); on this last count, "openness towards what is different," complex societies and civilizations have varied greatly over time and space; variation with in the long-term historical orientations of pre-modern Europe and India. Creativity involves some kind of problem solving, but it is perhaps not like solving geometry problems. It has to involve an element of novelty--beyond the familiar. The seminar posed the question: Can we plan to be creative? Although, creativity is usually considered an individual attribute, there can be creativity at different levels. We might consider the phenomenon of creativity on two dimensions: Intensity (ranging from zero to infinity) and Social Scale (ranging from individual to civilization/culture). In management, we typically train manager for medium intensity creativity at the individual, organizational, or community levels--thus operating with medium levels along the two dimensions. Two general kinds of strategies of promoting creativity were discussed: Operational and Orientational. Operational Strategy: Creative outcomes can be attempted by partitioning or segmenting the problematic task. Example: Writing (one can start with a broad outline and then fill out the details). At larger social scales, such partitioning is achieved through skill-based or institutional differentiation. Orientational Strategy: Another way of promoting creativity is at the orientation level, which would involve going beyond the familiar aspects and trying to generate new ideas. The orientation involves judgement about when to stay with the familiar and when to shoot off in a different direction. At the heart of being creative is the idea of going off the beaten track, e.g., an American college drop-out deciding to set up a software company (Bill Gates, 20th century), an Italian explorer deciding to go to China to understand Chinese society (Marco Polo, 13th century). Societies differ with respect to the level of openness they promote among their members. A great variety can be noticed in this kind of openness across time and space. The institution of the church in ancient and pre-modern Europe showed a great degree of openness to learning (especially Islamic learning, Greek learning). By the 13th century, Europe had developed a variety of autonomous institutions (free from king and Pope)--the most prominent among them was the university (University of Paris, around 1225 AD). This kind of social openness produced a resilient culture that was assimilating new elements, ethnic groups, etc., while expanding the range of its influence--something that can be termed as "expansive resilience." On the other hand in India, the institution of caste order resulted in a different kind of resilience through ideas/values, social networks, etc., that can be termed as "defensive resilience." The seminar triggered a lot of interaction on questions such as the role of technology (e.g., Internet) and individual-level choices and initiatives in increasing the possibility of creative outcomes. The message for a researcher seems to be the following: thrive on thinking the impossible, learn to exercise judgement, and learn to revise you ideas/actions. Reported by Srikant Panigrahy, with inputs from D. P. Dash. Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home |
