Childlike Creativity
At Idea Sandbox we talk a lot about being childlike and using your imagination... how solving problems is about creativity and how creativity is driven by your ability to imagine new ideas...
I found this interesting bit about being more like a child in Rob Eastaway's book, "Out of the Box: 101 Ideas for Thinking Creatively"
Adults are often overly concerned about thinking and saying what they're expected to think rather than what they really think. Young children have a refreshing honesty about them, and divert their energy to new things that excite them.He continues to say that there are three stages of life:
From 0 to 4 years old is the "Why not?" stage.
From 5 to 11 years old is the "Why?" stage.
From 12 onward is the "Because" stage.
This because stage is where we start to conform to adulthood and lose the "curiosity and wonder about the world that leads us to ask those crucial questions, "Why?" and "Why Not?"
To be more creative, you need to recapture some of the behavior of your childhood.
Reactions
Very interesting idea: My favorite example of thinking like a child to observe the world around you differently is the example of the mother who took her child to the Ballet for the first time. The dancers were dancing up on their toes and spinning around. The little girl leaned over to her mom and said, "Mom, why don't they just get taller people." I love this example. It really challenges you to think differently about how your view things, whatever they may be. The workplace is flooded by the notion that we do things because thats just how we do them. Rather than why can't we do them this way or that way. The movers and shakers of the world are hit with constant resistance but yet they are able to think creativitly about their next attempt to make the world different. Thinking different can lead to postive change. Living different makes the world a better place.
Great BLOG!
Posted by: Ryan Coleman | January 7, 2008 4:13 PM
