Creativity & Innovation Linked
16 06 2007We have been watching a DVD on the life of Leonardo da Vinci which featured animations of some of the machines that he designed about 500 years ago. A remarkable life for a remarkable man – full of amazing insights.
My 5 yr old daughter recognised some of the machines because we have seen working models at the museum a while back. We have a deal in our house, that; when we get videos out she is allowed 1 kids DVD and 1 documentary so we can both enjoy learning about new topics. BTW – this works well – and she is now an expert on a number of topics and regales the family with fascinating facts at dinner.
(I have a Peter Drucker biography that noted his parents had some great dinner party salons at which the young (5) Peter was exposed to some of the brilliant leaders of the day at a very early age. See The World According to Peter Drucker by Jack Beatty and I’d say that worked out quite well.)
One of the stunning facts about Leonardo was that he found out what he was good at (art) early on and got an apprenticeship with Verrocchio which was about as formal as his education got. The rest as they say – is history. We also found out that some of the anatomical discoveries could have advanced science by decades, if not centuries according to one medical commentator.
So how was one person able to be so brilliant at so many different disciplines in just one lifetime?
The answer is we don’t really know but some more modern thinkers are beginning to suggest that nurturing our innate creativity and improving the educational focus on creativity might be a step in the right direction. Consider this story as told by Sir Ken Robinson.
“I heard this wonderful story of a 6-year-old girl. A teacher was doing a drawing lesson with a group of 6 yr olds. And there was a girl at the back of the class who rarely participated, was not very enthusiastic about school. But while she was in this drawing lesson she was completely absorbed with what she was doing.
The teacher went up to her and asked what are you drawing and the girl said I’m drawing a picture of God. And the teacher said but ‘nobody knows what God looks like.’
And the girl said: they will in a minute.
Isn’t that great? Of course what happens is that by the time they get to be 25 she’s lost all confidence in her conception of what God might look like because she will have had 20 years of people telling her that’s wrong or that’s not the right answer.
So here’s my point really. We are born with immense creative capacities. We systematically root them out of ourselves in the process of educating people and now business and national systems are desperate to re-in store creativity in all of our people.
The point is children are born with immense creative capacities, but they lose them by the time they are educated.”
The quote comes from Sir Ken Robinson who was speaking at a Principal Voices event held in Bejing in 2005 discussing the future of innovation and education and the role of creativity in that process. He continues…
“So innovation internally is absolutely vital. But at a national and global level it’s absolutely essential if we are to keep pace with the growth in jobs, if we are to keep pace with the cultural challenges that are being presented by these processes of innovation.
“Well one of the major ways that people think they can do this is through education and they are right, education is the biggest investment we can make in our own future. The problem as I see it as I go around is that most countries are making a mistake. The mistake is that they tend to believe that we can face the future simply by doing better what we did in the past, we just have to do more of it.
“Do you know in the next 30 years more people will pass through formal education worldwide than since the beginning of history. If you add them all up until now there will be more of them in the next 30 years. One spectacular consequence already is a tumbling decline in the value of qualifications.
In short – we have educating our children for an industrial model world that is disappearing fast. My first year at university was 1977, when I studied Vietnamese Politics (very current at the time) and eventually law, arts and business – however computer technology changed my life in early ’80′s and that was something I could not have studied even if I had wanted to. Fortunately – being a creative generalist by inclination I was able to leverage a very wide range of experiences into a new emerging sector.
To quote Sir Ken again… (list of other recent articles by Sir Ken Robinson are here)
On the whole we are educating people as if we are still facing the industrial revolution – which by the way required a largely manual work force and a minority of people doing intellectual work which is why we had the system structured the way it was
Back in April, I wrote about TED and mentioned the Robinson video on “Do schools kill creativity?” – Unknown to me, Sir Ken had been keynote speaker at 8th World Convention of the International Confederation of Principals conference held in Auckland, earlier that month in front of 1200 school principals and educators from around the world.
(See also a post by Brian Sweeney over at NZ Edge TED Conference: Edge Experience)
Testimonial from ICP: “Thank you very much for your Keynote address at the ICP Convention 2007 in Auckland New Zealand. We were indeed privileged to have the opportunity to listen to speakers of such calibre as yourself, to be inspired and to learn from a presentation filled with wisdom, presented with humour and passion.
We have had many favourable comments from delegates who were inspired by your words. We know that your presence added so much to the success of the convention. ” (9 mb Audio of presentation Out of Our Minds here 77mins -will play in the browser)
Hopefully, this is a positive sign of change towards a more exciting and creative education.
Last word goes to a local renaissance man, Paul Reynolds in a piece where he scratches his head as he ponders the “Blueprint – Growing Auckland’s creative industries“.
Paul’s comments are very worth while reading and thinking about. See McGOVERN ONLINE: Blueprint – Growing Auckland’s Creative Sector for more.
Buried away in there is a comment that every industry needs to be creative to move forward and I would agree but that seems to have been missed by the official document.
Sir Ken RobinsonPopular Posts:
- The 10,000 hours rule
- What Is CRM Used For?
- NZ Ted Fellow 2009
- Wordcamp Australia
- Choosing a Great WordPress Theme
Ahhh Jason – you’re playing right into my wife’s hands. A foundation pupil of the Wellington Rudolf Steiner School and now a Steiner teacher herself – this is exactly where the Steiner/Waldorf philosophy kicks in. It recognises that creativity is the one developmental aspect that starts out high but is “unlearnt”. The answer? Concentrate on the holistic creative aspects of a childs being while they are still young. Find methods through creativity to teach them the things that are usually learnt through rote (reading, maths etc) and broaden their horizons by teaching them about different cultures, countries, ways of thinking and living.
Teach their heads. hearts and hands in unity
Interesting post. I had a conversation last night with a group of dads discussing schools, education and hiring people. We came to the following conclusions: people are the most important part of a business; qualifications are great but ability to get along with people and communicate well are just as important; fitting into the culture of a business is key; university is not for everyone and education as we see it now is just a filtering process.
My personal view is that we are missing some of that blue sky thinking in many of our schools that you write about. It’s all about ticking boxes and being prescriptive about what people learn. It’s heartening to see new schools opening up outside the current system focusing on a more whole systems approach.
Maybe our universal approach to schooling is outdated and a one size fits all structure needs to change. More choice and more variety may be the answer.
Any thoughts?
Thanks Raf & Ben, Seems like its time for education to change and you are right that employers have a huge influence in how this should be done.
Creativity is increasingly important as we look for more ways to add value to what we do.
Hi Jason,
I’m a huge fan of Sir Ken’s ideas. I’m 2/3 through his book Out Of Our Minds, which you should seek out. It expands on the TED 2006 talk, where he also used the little girl story, and highlights how our education system is broken. We need to do things dramatically differently for the 21st century Information age – his argument is the structures of the education system across most of the world are still based on an approach developed for the 19th century industrial age.
I found your post because I’m watching for creativity references. I’m in the process of writing a book with two friends on capturing creativity, and helping organisations make the creative process part of what they do every day, rather than something that happens as an occasional one off event at a brainstorming session with flip charts. I’m going to have to find that Da Vinci programme too.
By the way, I’ve indoctrinated my kids from an early age like you have. They’re 12 and 14 now, and going to museums and galleries is something they enjoy doing by choice.
By the way, I’m looking to give my blog a facelift – I like your theme. Who designed it? Is it available anywhere?
Thanks David – great to hear from you.
The linked Ken Robinson audio file is also called “Out of our Minds” since the book was 2001? and ther Principals conference was 2 months ago I’m guessing it might be an updated version. See the audio link above.
BTW – The theme is Freshy – http://www.jide.fr/english/downloads/template-freshy-wordpress/ I think it is quite widely used but easy to modify so most people do.