Creativity: Openness & Experiencing
The much sought after increase of creativity at work may or may not be reduced to the punch line above. Similar to the quest for happiness, creativity is hardly anything you can buy at an art supply store or for an executive fee alone from consultants.
Both happiness and creativity are complex topics that manifest in very real experiences though. Happiness is so poignantly described in the below comic as an “inside job”. It is an experience of feeling at ease and positive as a result of a mystical personal pursuit of meaningful activities, if you ask me.
Creativity, however, requires more than an “inside job”. Especially with regards to creativity at work, by definition, external and social work factors play a role. Creativity at work is thus an inside and outside job.
In my quest to design for more creativity at work in companies in Amsterdam, I allowed myself to request help from experts.
The Gerrit Rietveld Academy (GRA) is one leading liberal arts education body that also defines through doing what “Dutch creativity” is. I am currently a participant of their orientation course, an 8-month weekend class for potential applicants to explore the idea of arts education. The 8 months are offered in four modules.
I reached out to Boris Kollar, the design module instructor, to tap his brain. He refers humbly to himself as a “tailor” or “designer of clothes” yet if you look at his co-creative practice of making slow fashion together with the future model, you soon realize how much more it is. It is contextual, it is sensitive to capitalist practices, and it is a very creative proposition and experience.
When asked, Boris defined creativity in a nutshell: “It is simple. It is about staying open and experiencing a lot.” This credo explains why some first applicants may be rejected from the GRA committee simply because they have experienced less than other applicants, not because their work is worse. In my chat with Boris, I now make an extra effort to be open to his line of thinking and I lean into the interview experience.
I add to my lofty question for him that I also would like to pinpoint the Rietveld approach on creativity better — so if I walk away after 8 months from the course, I want to feel confident in communicating their approach — a confidence I dont quite feel yet in writing this.
I am relieved to hear that the Rietveld puts less emphasis on the product, yet more so on the process. “Actually, until graduation, it is not so much about the product. You don’t have to finish — until then”, Boris shared with me. For instance, when he co-tailors a coat with a client, the final coat is often not as it had been imagined — and then every following coat is slightly better. So there is an element of surprise and iteration — better or rather different bit by bit.
Looking at the big picture, Boris describes systemic forces such as what the Dutch government invests in. Also crafts or fine arts have become a worthy trend, since they bring growth and profit in a sector. This ultimately benefits the creative industry, the creative practice, and the creative crafting processes such as paper making and ceramics.
As an instructor of the design orientation course himself, Boris sought to get more comfortable in leading groups and staying in charge. “You have to quickly react to the students”, he shared. Yet when I then asked about his sense for distinct “creative behavior” or “the most creative student”, he pushed back. “Some people are very closed, so you need to knock, knock, knock more. In the end, they turn out just as successful.” In other words: creativity does not correlate with extrovert or introvert behavior — something to keep in mind when gravitate to obvious “creative” at work — assume just the same if not better skills from the more quiet characters.
For the goal of teaching design to nearly 100 orientation course students in the course of 8 months, I wondered just what directives the Rietveld gave to the instructors. Yet I was disappointed again, or rather surprised: the Rietveld is very open, process- and experience-focused. There is no strict syllabus. The unwritten rules for creativity are “Make students more open, more expressive and connect them with their hands until they don’t think about their hands anymore.”
I can attest to this from my own experience. Every Saturday since last year September, I ask myself rhetorically before the start of class at noon again “Are you up for this?” before I head into 5 hours of weirdo exploration. See in these photos for yourself.
Despite the Rietveld’s warm embrace of openness and experiencing, there is of course a notion of Fine Arts in its more original sense. Some students grasp the importance of the product or object less than others. Some students are less aware of art practices, such as staging a homework. Boris pulled this insight out for me, yet he made clear how students with less awareness of Fine Arts rituals, may just use their creativity later in the field more. For instance, a high school graduate might use the experience from the Rietveld in her desired career of working in a field hospital. I quickly noted for myself that there are environments (outside jobs) that allow for more creative behavior — the traditional hospital vs. a field hospital. The field version is less of a “total institution” hence less stifling rules.
To my frustration, Boris escaped my attempt to quantify creative behavior in any way. “I cannot related numbers to creative practice”, he told me. I had been so optimistic since reading “How to measure anything” (and still am), yet for this tailor, this was no point of consideration. On the other hand, creativity can be evident in ritualistic daily behavior such as a morning ritual. For instance, brewing coffee in an attentive way, where change evolves very slowly, yet over time, shows characteristics of creativity.
Now that my coworker and workplace anthropologist joined the conversation with Boris, the conversation began to focus more on the role of rituals and tradition in culture. Both Bas and Boris agreed that some people use rituals to join a culture — where a ritual is based on a set of values and making an example of it. Rituals can evolve and change, while traditions celebrate rather the same, the old, the — well — tradition. I’ve visited the Amish people in Western Ohio, in the United States. I could follow their idea. I realised how my purchase of an iPad with a digital pen was a setup for a digital creative ritual.
It surprised us three how a certain hype for change and progress seems to permeate the discourse. Things at work and in our culture in general have to be innovative, creative, cutting edge. Where do rituals and traditions fall in that? As a team member of Team Skylon, we have been asked increase creativity, not tradition, at work. Yet, with Boris’ framework in mind, perhaps creativity can use rituals — bit-sized, slow behavior to expresses shared values around creativity? Maybe such rituals can lead to opening up and wholesome experiences? I bet that no team wants to be forced to open up and forced to experience. Instead, a small nudge, an invite, a budding dialog or article like this may just be the best beginning to make space for creativity at work.
