Creativity is a decision.

Last night I attended a lecture at Texas A&M by Robert J. Sternberg, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University. Here is his message:

Creativity must produce a novel or useful idea. It is a decision. People can be born creative but you can also learn to be creative. Like anything else, you have to practice creativity – and be allowed to practice it – to perfect it.

13 things you must do before you can be creative:

1. Redefine the problem. Incubate the idea.(Creativity does not take place at warp speed.) Talk to others about your ideas.(He gave the example of a guy who was unhappy with his boss. Instead of complaining and trying to get his boss fired, he hired a headhunter to find his boss another job, and then when his boss took that job, he got his boss’s job. He redefined the problem instead of beating his head against the wall.)

2. Analyze creative solutions to problems.

3. Sell those solutions.(You can have a great creative idea but if you can’t sell it to others it’s not going to fly.)

4. Intelligence and knowledge can help and hurt. (Message being that you don’t have to be “intelligent” to be creative.) The cost of “expertise” is entrenchment. He says he’d rather work with graduate students on his projects because he’s the expert and can become entrenched in a certain way of thinking, but they automatically see problems differently and find creative solutions. Together they are creative. If he works alone he can’t always see the creative solution. If they work alone their creativity is often impractical for the real world.

5. Take sensible risks. (Being creative always requires a risk. At some point, someone will laugh at you. He gave examples of several classic novels that were criticized shortly after their publication but are now known as great works: Atlas Shrugged and Ann Frank’s Diary, etc.)

6. Overcome obstacles.

7. Find out what you love and do it. (But it’s not always easy to find it.)

8. Continue to learn and grow throughout your life. Creativity is not limited to young people. You can keep learning it your entire life.

9. Believe in yourself.

10. Tolerate ambiguity and don’t give up.

11. Take yourself lightly and have a sense of humor. Creative people usually are not curmudgeons.

12. Seek an environment that encourages and supports creativity.

13. Make creativity a way of life.

He suggested reading The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov and gave it as an example of creative science fiction.