Creative Genius Reborn
by Vince Poscente
Author of The Ant and the Elephant, Invinceable Principles and The Age of Speed
Check out Picasso's quote behind my son's band. "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." The bigger, more personal issue is how we help creativity flourish in our adult years?
Max and his buddies performed at a Bone Marrow Donor Drive at Dallas' Children's Medical Center. Doctors and medical staff stopped and smiled when they reminisced to Led Zeppelin. They toe tapped for originals Max wrote. Listened in on acoustic sets that echoed down the hallways. The reaction was consistent. Everyone seemed to enjoy the creative talent of twelve-year-old boys.
Yet, did the boys show natural creative ability that surpassed these adults?
I'm cowriting a book called Zag. Coauthor Tim Sutton found some interesting research:
George Land gave a creativity test to 1,600 5-year-olds in 1968. At the time, NASA used this same test for selecting innovative scientists and engineers. 98% of these kids tested at genius level creativity. Tracking the kids at five-year increments, the genius level creativity went down to 30% at age 10 and 12% at 15. When the same test was given to 280,000 adults, genius level creativity measured at a mere 2% of the survey. Land concluded, "non-creative behavior is learned."
How then can us 98% help those 2% genius-level-creative-bran-eaters feel less lonely?
We must unlearn what we have allowed our brains to be programmed to think.
For starters, over time, we learned three things: follow directions, be a worker and punishment follows mistakes.
So let's zag when all this zigging has become our nature.
- Understand the directions then follow the joy. Think about your drive home. Instead of taking the fastest route, do you choose a more scenic route? The directions might be efficient but do you enjoy it. Find the joy. Follow that. It works with everything you do.
- Be a Smart Worker, not just a worker. Question why you do what you do. Why do you open emails first thing in the morning? Why do you eat at the same place for lunch? Why do you skip the business section of the newspaper? Habit is the enemy of creativity my friend. Change anything that smacks of a familiar routine. Every time you do, you'll get smarter and smarterer.
- Reward mistakes. Colleague, Jeffery Gitomer, has a few dozen staff. When employees make a mistake he rewards them $100. Reward yourself when you make a mistake. Eat ice cream, rent a movie, call Gitomer to send you $100.
Tim and I did a nationwide survey on innovation a few weeks back. We found some interesting insights on our instinctive nature related to innovation.
If you will help us with your own contribution, here's the link.
If you'd like to look at some result highlights, here is the link.
If you're too busy to do either, maybe you ought to do a little more zagging starting now.
There's a creative genius inside you
itching to come out and play!
Until next week, it's full speed ahead,
Vince Poscente
New York Times Bestselling Author
Speaker Hall of Fame and Olympian
March 24, 2010
Vol.3.127
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