Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, 2nd edition, Chichester, West Sussex: Capstone, 2011.
Before you get all exited and think this book will give you a series of activities you can do to become more creative — it will not.
Ken Robinson is an educationalist whose primary thesis in Out of Our Minds is that education kills creativity, and the education system must be re-envisioned so students may engage in learning which supports and develops their creativity rather than stifling it. This is the titular ‘learning to be creative’.
Robinson offers a critique of modern education, primary through tertiary, as emerging from post-Cartesian and industrial worldviews. The result is education as factory production line, and a division and elevation of ‘real’ academic disciplines — mathematics and science — from and over AcademyLITE — arts and the humanities. (Maintaining the division between rationality and emotion) Robinson calls for an education of feelings, too, to facilitate creativity.
Robinson differentiates imagination, creativity, and innovation. Imagination is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for creativity. ‘Creativity involves putting your imagination to work. In a sense, creativity is applied imagination’ (p.142). Innovation in turn is applied creativity.
‘Creativity involves putting your imagination to work. In a sense, creativity is applied imagination.’
He also distinguishes between general and personal creativity. General creativity is original thinking, thinking in new ways about conventional ways of thinking. Personal creativity is each individual’s ‘unique talents and passions, and our own personal creative potential’ (pp. 162-163). One’s creativity is likely to be limited by a medium for which one has no passion.
Take heart. He does present an overview of the creative process, which interweaves generative and evaluative processes. The generative process involves generating new ideas ‘in dialogue’ with ‘the media in which they are being formed’ (p. 153). The evaluative process involves making judgments about the creative work which has emerged. It is important not to smother the generative process with the evaluative process.
In a chapter pertinent to all workplaces, ‘Being a Creative Leader’ summarises Robinson’s nine principles to develop a culture of creativity:
Principle 1. Everyone has creative potential
Principle 2. Innovation is the child of imagination
Principle 3. We can all learn to be more creative
Principle 4. Creativity thrives on diversity
Principle 5. Creativity loves collaboration
Principle 6. Creativity takes time
Principle 7. Creative cultures are supple
Principle 8. Creative cultures are inquiring
Principle 9. Creative cultures need creative spaces
Please note, there is a third edition of this book, Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative, 2017.
To visit Ken Robinson's website, follow this link.