CREATIVITY IN AN AGE OF CHAOS

Creativity has often been associated with chaos and disruption. In this respect, Schumpeter's economics of creative destruction comes to mind. His insights have influenced much of the work on innovation theory for economists.

But we can go back in history to find creativity as a disruptive force. In the philosophy of Plato, we are against the dangers to stability of the state, or republic, in the creative work of the poet.

http://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/platos-warning-beware-of-poets/

Plato, of course, always requires careful treatment. He intends us to work out for ourselves the ideas he is interested in.

The American creativity scholar Stein (1974) traced the origins of the adjective 'Creative' in a different way. The creative artist, he suggests attempts to imitate the features of the natural world as they were created by the first creator. We might choose to see in this an echo of Plato, again, with his idea of human perception being a poor distorted reflection of reality.

https://www.elsevier.com/books/stimulating-creativity/stein/978-0-12-664201-8

I want to explore the inter-relationships between creativity, innovation, and change, with particular emphasis on contemporary events in business and society.

In part, my presentation draws on studies by myself and colleagues over nearly forty years at The Manchester Business School, (now renamed The University of Manchester Alliance Business School.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Manchester_Business_School

Over that period, research into the nature of creativity has flourished with journals and international networks bringing together scholars and professionals. Yet many unresolved issues remain, which I consider as challenges, or dilemmas to be addressed.

One widely accepted view today comes from Teresa Amabile, one of the giants of the field, and is found in the title of her book, Creativity in Context.

http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-97996-000

Creativity reveals itself when considered in its social context. Amabile's 'Creativity in context' is good 'lens'. It encourages us to look for the uniqueness of each example of creativity as well as seeking its connectedness with other examples.

Rickards rules for understanding creativity

In an hour of gentle grilling recently in Buffalo, New York,

http://tudorrickards.co.uk/

by Professor Gerard Puccio about my views on creativity, I suspect I had not got further than a modification of Warren Buffett's famous laws of finance:

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0210/rules-that-warren-buffett-lives-by.aspx

Rickards Rule no 1: There are many ways of understanding creativity

Rickards Rule no 2: never forget Rule no 1.

The age of chaos

The contemporary era has its own particular brand of chaos. If we are to make some temporary sense of it, we need to be constantly reviewing and revising our understanding.

The information, though still partial and filtered, (as Plato taught us) is more widely available than ever before. Our individual challenge is to make sense of the 'maps' we come across, and from them create our own interpretations.

The workshops at Manchester Business School were designed to provide opportunities for such 'Learning through doing' using contemporary cases. Over the years, I have found this a skill which can be developed with practice. I believe creativity will become recognized as core to effectiveness in an age of chaos.