Building a Virtuous Cycle Through Creativity in English
“Today, you are going to make a bicycle.”
This was the only direction the 53 students received on their tropical island out in the Indian Ocean.
I like kicking off classes with a challenge. Infact, starting with a problem has become a thing in Creativity Through English, a leadership course that teaches English alongside problem solving.
To be clear, the students were not tasked with making a bike as we know it. Instead, students go out into their school courtyard and have to figure out how they could collaborate to make a bike in human form.
Tableaux vivants, living pictures, are silent and motionless groups of people arranged to represent a scene or an incident. They were popular in the 1800’s and are often a component of improv classes today. The making of human scenes that replicate famous paintings, movie scenes or events freeze a physical depiction of a moment in time.
Throw creative license into a creativity class and this group of students decided their living picture should move. Makes sense. After all, one of main features of a bicycle is that it moves. Open the video link to see it.
So, what might be all the ways to make a bicycle in human form? That is what the students had to figure out. The purpose of the question is to develop problem solving and leadership skills.
First, making a human bike is a very ambiguous challenge. Tolerance for ambiguity is key in becoming a creative thinker. There are two kinds of problems, linear and open-ended. Certainly there are many sequential processes in life and in work. In developing leadership skills, processes for resolving challenges that are both unclear and have many possible solutions is a key 21st century skill.
Here’s the creativity ground rules for generating lots of possibilities when problem solving.
First, defer judgment. The task could be crazy, unclear and questionable. Unless it’s two plus two and clearly sequential, a lot of life both professionally and personally is ambiguous. Deferring judgment enables a growth mindset and an openness to what might be. Make decisions only well after a lot of options have been uncovered.
Second, strive for quantity. In quantity, there is quality. Coming up with great ideas is formulaic and called the rule of thirds. The first third ideas are obvious. The second third are a bit of a stretch, but still pretty familiar. It is in the last third that something novel emerges. In quantity there is quality. Lots of trial and error happened to get that human bike into a living picture.
Third, seek wild and unusual ideas. The task may be crazy; the solution may be unclear. For creative thinking to work its magic, it's important to go for it when brainstorming or ideating. Osborn, who coined the term Brainstorming, said it’s easier to tame a wild idea than to invigorate a weak one. Stretch thinking for wild ideas when looking for something new. The answer is likely in that last third.
Fourth and last, build on others’ ideas. It is in combining, improving and building up possible options that a rich pool of thoughts become a critical resource from which crafting the end goal becomes easier.
And they did it! The students completed the task with not only one, but five versions of a human bike. A virtuous cycle for good is happening in real time at Wings of Change.
A+ students for tolerating ambiguity, for going for it, and for completing the task with novel solutions that add value to your ability in becoming leaders through Creative Problem Solving.
Wings of Change is a social enterprise with a virtuous vision to impact impoverished communities through education and empowerment with employment opportunities in responsible tourism that align with all 17 of the UN Sustainability Goals. Nosy Be, the Wings of Change flagship property, is a vocational hospitality school and boutique hotel. www.wingsofchange.co
Tanya Knudsen is a Creativity Consultant and PhD Student for Creative Leadership. She teaches problem solving at Wings of Change and the International Friends School in Bellevue, WA.
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