The Groove Issue 82 - 3 ways to Increase Your Openness In Creativity
THREE WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR OPENNESS IN CREATIVITY
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Rutgers Business School, invited by a group of undergrads and their professor, Mukesh Patel, who teaches an elective called “Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship”. They wanted to know more about my book and about my outlook on creative thinking.
The students were so smart and engaging and asked the most amazing questions, to the extent that the class went over the allotted time and I couldn’t answer all of them. As I was about to leave, one young woman asked me if my saying “creativity flourishes if you remain open to different experiences and points of view” had something to do with taking drugs like psilocybin or magic mushrooms.
I was stunned with this question, not because I’m morally opposed or shocked about those drugs but because I could not see how the words “open to experiences” could have been taken to such a different realm than the one I intended. (For the record, I don’t do mushrooms or psychedelics and I don’t judge those who do them either.)
What Openness in The Context of Creativity Really Means
Being open to experiences has been categorized by researchers as a personality trait that is always present in people who are truly creative.
It is your constant drive toward exploration, your thirst for knowledge, the curious part of you that keeps asking questions. Seeking variety and being accepting of diversity are also a part of it.
While I agree that being open is a prerequisite to being creative, I don’t necessarily think that it is a personality trait that you either have or have not, as much as it is a habit that you nurture from within.
Here are three ways to cultivate your openness regardless of your profession:
Think Like a Generalist (Or Be One)
Buckminster Fuller in his studio.
Buckminster Fuller was a generalist whose ideas came from many different disciplines that intermingled freely in his mind and in his work.
He exemplified the idea of being open in the context of creativity. He was an architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, philosopher, critic, and futurist. He was, among many other things, responsible for refining and popularizing the design of the geodesic dome, which has applications ranging from auditoriums to storage facilities.
But his experiments and writings extend to areas as diverse as sustainability (before that was a thing), transportation and communications.
In 1927, Fuller resolved to think independently with a commitment to "the search for the principles governing the universe and help advance the evolution of humanity in accordance with them... finding ways of doing more with less to the end that all people everywhere can have more and more.”
With such an ambitious premise, nothing was off limits to him.
This desire for knowledge and information can do wonders for the cultivation of openness.
Education Doesn’t Matter But Motivation Does
Buckminster Fuller with a model of the biosphere for the Canadia.
I’ve heard people say they can’t be creative because they don’t have the right education, the right degree or the right school. But don’t use this as an excuse because research demonstrates that education has little to do with openness of experience.
Fuller was expelled from Harvard twice and never graduated college. Yet, he spent his life stretching his curiosity and openness to realms as far apart as geometry and philosophy because he was fully receptive to the experience of learning and experimenting with different concepts.
After all, he had a goal that motivated him: “the search for the principles governing the universe…” He then wrote that "by Universe I mean: the aggregate of all humanity's consciously apprehended and communicated experiences".
In fact, what determines that hunger for exploration is your own desire to attain goals, learn new things and understand facts from different points of view.
And that all has to come from you, because no amount of external rewards will get you there.
The key to motivation is to enjoy what you do. Even when there are plateaus and when there’s some drudgery or boring tasks in between. That drive has to come from within - and accepting the good, bad and ugly that the process may entail.
See Change as an Opportunity to Evolve
Fuller during the last years of his life.
Without creativity, there’s no progress. As a society we would have accepted the status quo and been content with hunting and gathering. But change is inevitable and happens whether you like it or not. If you resist change, you remain closed to the opportunity to evolve.
Fuller had a very distinct perspective about this. He said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
He knew that change was a natural part of life, but he was questioning things that didn’t work anymore. To do that, you need to be ready to embrace shifts and transitions, no matter how uncomfortable they may be.
Being open is being willing to direct your attention to a variety of points of view and thoughts, to allow your imagination to think outlandish ideas without stopping them on their tracks, to seek the thrill of new experiences, to be tolerant of diversity and to see changing circumstances with curiosity and excitement.
I don’t think you can ever go wrong if you adopt a stance of openness, and the best part is that no drugs are needed to get there.
Here are my book bites as I gave them to Next Big idea Club.
I mentioned last week that my book was nominated for this incredible platform, which is the most important nonfiction book club in the United States. To me, that is already a win!
If you have enjoyed The Groove you will really love my book, and if you have already finished reading it, please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon even if you didn’t buy the book there.
This is truly important for authors as reviews on Amazon are read by professors, libraries, and other readers, and definitely help with discoverability.
Thank you so much!