How Are We Creative? The Realm of Neuroscience
I attempt to stay firmly and proudly in the practitioner camp in terms of my perspective and professional life. Research is a tremendous gift to humankind in our search for truth, particularly in this age of so-called ‘fake news’. Could I say anything less, given I’ve spent most of my life studying in and working for universities? But for the realm in which I operate in terms of my clients, that of the business world, the most important question to answer is, ‘What do I do with this insight? How does this move me or my organization forward?’ So how might we apply some of the insights I learned from the realm of neuroscience?
We know that we have to build in time for the brain to focus on the new and unexpected, proactively seeking surprise, reflection and experimentation. The best advice an executive coach ever gave me was to block out time, at least three hours but ideally a day, in my diary every week that was just for me. This time was sacrosanct; no one could get a meeting or call with me during that window unless the topic was specifically a creative or adaptive challenge. And this coach was adamant that I should not use the time to catch up with work. It was not ‘free’ time but had its own purpose, which was most certainly not to fulfil the day to day but to engage my creative muscles.
I found that Friday afternoons worked best for a couple of reasons. First, as the work week was nearing its close, colleagues and clients slowed their pace a little, and some escaped early for the weekend, so it was easier to keep that time blocked out. Second, since changing my environment would also stimulate different neurons in my brain, Friday afternoons were also easier to spend outside my or my clients’ offices. Surely maximizing my creative opportunities would not be best served sitting at my desk at work, staring at my trusty laptop, waiting for inspiration to pounce, jaguar-like, onto my unsuspecting scalp. So even if I did book a creative meeting with a colleague, I would usually insist that we hold it elsewhere: a park, museum, gallery, funky café, you get the idea. This tip reminds me of a similar piece of advice given to me by one my mentors many years ago: ‘Pick different routes to work.’ In other words, don’t get stuck in routine and allow yourself to be surprised by different sights, paths, parks, trains, bus routes, stores, blocks and people.
The funny thing is that, when I did have a meeting outside the office in an untraditional space, inevitably my colleagues would comment how refreshing and stimulating it was to meet in a new environment, yet when the next meeting request came along, they usually suggested meeting at our desks or in a bland conference room again! It just goes to show how pernicious and deep our habits are, how dominant and comforting it is to dwell in Beta state – where our brain wave frequency is stuck in ‘gentle awareness’ mode. It would be comforting to assume we could disrupt our environments and routines as little as possible and somehow transform into creative geniuses through willpower alone. As Hemingway mused in The Sun Also Rises, ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?’ But our own brains’ habits oppose that ambition until we train them to be receptive.