Creativity is not just artistic talent

A few nights ago I watched Life at 9 on ABC – the episode was about creativity.

DO1303H002S00_460What was most interesting was seeing how 9 year olds think creatively versus how adults think creatively. They were given a number of tasks that required problem-solving, and how the children and adults went about the tasks was amazing – along with how they perceive creativity.

What was most interesting about the tasks was that the children got straight into working it out – trying things, breaking things, trying things again – and not giving up. They were into experimenting and figuring out what works, but not being scared of what could potentially be a mistake.

The adults however, all talked in a group about how to solve the problem, and then began working…and then often found that their idea didn’t work in practice. There was too much planning and not enough experimenting. And creativity is all about experimenting – not being scared of trying something different, or trying something new. The children didn’t have fear of failure – just a will to make it work – and it was a beautiful thing to watch.

The other part of the documentary that was interesting, was the notion that both the adults and children had about what creativity is. Neither group really thought of creativity covering thinking and problem solving – they just assumed that creativity is only artistic talent. Creativity definitely isn’t only artistic talent, there is so much more. Creative thinking is really most of the process of every project!