Recognizing the
creativity in each of us Excerpts from a speech by Eli Amdur to the First Annual SGA Summit at
Fairleigh Dickinson University, November 28, 2007
Albert Einstein taught us that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Indeed.
How many of you here consider yourselves really creative? Really, really,
really creative? I mean, wildly and uninhibitedly creative? Why didn’t more of
you raise your hands?
Each and every one of you has done t least two things in your life that were
truly creative – wildly and uninhibitedly creative.
The first happened when you were somewhere between 10 and 14 months old, when,
one day, you got up and you walked.
Think about how creative that was. Think about all the calculations you performed
regarding gravity, inertia, momentum, locomotion, acceleration, depth
perception, your neuro-skeletal-muscular coordination, and so on.
You did that all by yourself. No one told you to do it, no one told you when to
do it, and no one told you how or why to do it.
You just decided to do it – and because this was your idea, you saw it through.
You figured it out and you did it.
The second event was even more creative and more impressive. A couple of months
later, you talked. You figured out the language thing --- all by yourself.
Surely from the day of your birth you were hearing spoken language (actually,
you were probably hearing it while you were still intrauterine). Nonetheless,
from that point until the day you spoke your first word, you were figuring it
out, processing it, and deciding what to do with it. And when you were ready to
make your first declaration to the world, you did.
Not only did you attach the sound of a word to a tangible object like pen,
floor, daddy, milk, toy, and so on. You were able to connect a word with an
intangible concept or idea like time, God, fear, happiness, anger, and so on.
And many of you even did that in more than one language at one time!
Humans don’t get more creative than that.
So why didn’t you raise your hands when I asked who is wildly and uninhibitedly
creative? The reason is --- because one day --- when you were three or four or
five years old --- you went to school.
No kidding.
You went to a place that told you where to sit, when to do what you were
expected to do, what was approved and disapproved, and so on. Abraham Maslow
recognized this. So did Albert Einstein.
In fact, Einstein, who saw this early in his own schooling, said later in his
life, "It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction
have not completely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry."
"Modern?" He said this over 80 years ago!
It seems very little has changed.
Year after year in school made you more obedient and less impulsive (creativity
has its impulsiveness, among other characteristics and stages), more
predictable and less spontaneous, more complacent and less curious, more
routine and less…well, you get it, don’t you? Schools, you see, are almost
always designed to foster the success of the teacher, not the student. What do
you think standardized tests and “no child left behind” are all about?
If ever there was an educator who "got it" it was Sister Maria
Motessori. She was unique, bold, and creative. Were there more like her, much
more would have changed.
But that's the subject of another conversation.
“What if?”
Einstein was skeptical of received wisdom; he rebelled against it, actually. He
also kept asking himself the greatest and most stimulating question that
exists, the only question you ever need to ask: “What if?”
It was Einstein who asked, “What would it be like to ride on a beam of
light?" And on the first wave of a beam of light?
“If I rode on a beam of light,” he pondered, “especially on the first wave of a
beam of light, and I looked into a mirror, would I be invisible?” The answer
is, of course, “yes.” And this kind of thinking led to his legendary thought
experiments which led to Einstein being Einstein.
Wildly and uninhibitedly Einstein. Creatively Einstein.
But he was ridiculed often for asking these naïve questions, for having “the
mind of a child.”
With it all, it was Einstein who figured out little things
like…..oh…..relativity, quantum physics, and so on. And it was Einstein who
confirmed the value of having “the mind of a child.”
Curiosity is the key.
But it was also Einstein who said, when asked why he figured out so many things
that others didn’t, “I’m not any smarter than these others [Ed. Note: yeah
right]; I’m infinitely more curious. When others look for a needle in a
haystack and find it, they stop looking. I look for more needles.”
And a latter day application of this conviction was Akio Morita, none other
than the founder of Sony, who said, “Curiosity is the key to creativity.”
Always be curious. In fact, more important than thinking you have the answers,
is knowing you have the questions.
The great conclusion at which we can inductively arrive is that creativity –
and truly creative leadership – is the only sustainable advantage which any
individual, organization, executive, or nation will ever again have. The only
change that will not take place is the increasing need for creativity,
discovery, and innovation.
But the question that most often arises is, “What is creativity, how do you
identify it, and how do you tap into it and foster it?” This is rapidly
becoming the focal question as organizations fight to excel in this
ultra-competitive world.
The only sustainable advantage
Yes...creativity is the only sustainable advantage they will ever again have.
That's why I work closely with clients on developing creative thinking skills,
on leading creativity, and on leading creatively. That's why creativity is a
cornerstone of my "Executive Communication and Leadership" course.
That’s why I conceived and developed a course called “Creativity, Change, and
the 21st Century Leader.”
And that's why, when I am challenged by the question, "Can you really
teach creativity?" I answer, "Yes, if you do it creatively."
Here’s great news.
You are all potentially creative…..wildly, and uninhibitedly CREATIVE!!!
Now…how many of you think you’re creative?
That’s a lot more hands in the air than a few minutes ago.
