The Ourhouse Weblog: Social creativity
At the risk of being too incestuous (because I keep blogging him), John has a great posting about originality:
There was a good discussion about "orginality". The deeper meaning of originality is "from the origin" - in other words, something from within oneself; this is not about coming up with something deliberately different; instead it's about coming up with something true. Thus the person in a meeting who speaks against the consensus, voicing a deeply felt objection is being original - but a lot of creativity training would say they are just saying no.
I love the idea of promoting this kind of orignality, very different from a frantic search for what may often be only passing novelty. It ties back to my own excitement in promoting authenticity in work.
Absolutely agree. Creativity isn't simply about seeing things in new ways, its also about realism and understanding what will and won't work. There can be a danger that this will bring out the negative and a blocking attitude, however thats why a good facilitator or manager or more importantly leader will ensure an atmosphere of trust. The context then changes from one of blocking to one of putting across one's opinion in a community where that opinion is trusted.
Of course its also worth pointing out that in that type of context you are more likely to speak your mind and be authentic and i guess less likely to be negative anyway, because you will (if you are a negative person) get pulled along with the enthusiasm.
Its amazing how powerful belief is, when directed in the appropriate way - passion is the key
Posted by Paul Goodison at November 10, 2003 05:31 PM | TrackBack