Thinking and doing the same things faster and better is not enough; we need creativity. Fortunately, creativity is a skill you can learn. This course will examine when, why, and how we can be creative. It examines the cues that trigger us to consider being creative. It provides a road map of the creative process – the process of changing our perspectives – and the kinds of outcomes that result from creativity. It examines how we can go through the creative process more efficiently and more effectively by examining what is changing about our thinking and how we can make those changes. The end result is more flexible thinking that can be used to recognize and develop new opportunities.
The Dissatisfaction Cue
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Del curso dictado por University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Creativity Toolkit I: Changing Perspectives
99 calificaciones
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
99 calificaciones
Curso 3 de 7 en SpecializationInnovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship
De la lección
Module 1: Being Creative
In this module you will learn why creativity matters, what creativity is, and how to get started being creative.
Conoce a los instructores
Jeffrey LoewensteinAssociate Professor of Organizational Behavior
Department of Business Administration
Jack GoncaloProfessor
Department of Business Administration
One reason we stop advancing our stories and consider changing our perspectives,
or building new perspectives,
is that we're dissatisfied with where stories are headed.
The usual way of doing things is for some reason just not good enough.
Things are working, but it feels mediocre,
it's suboptimal, it's meaningless.
There's got to be something better out there.
You're looking at me. Dissatisfaction.
That's right.
I can make you part creative. Excellent.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a position
where our existing perspectives are getting us through the day,
and we can see the road ahead,
but it doesn't have any meaning.
We have this sense that the solutions we're pursuing,
or the way we're doing things, maybe okay,
but there might be something much more meaningful,
much better out there,
and that what we have isn't good enough.
And this kind of dissatisfaction can also be a cue to pursue creative thinking.
So, there is a really great story that illustrates this.
There were two friends, Adam Balam and John Wright,
and a third friend that joined them later Richard Reid,
who appeared to have been pretty well set after leaving Cambridge University.
The two of them became management consultants,
one moved into advertising.
They all made really good money.
They lived perfectly comfortable lives in London,
but the three of them had this shared nagging feeling that there
was just something more to life than what they were experiencing.
And one time they were out on a snowboarding vacation, back in 1998,
and the three did little else except throw around ideas for a new business,
because they were hoping to reach out and do
something different with their lives and maybe something a little more reasonable.
And through the course of these conversations,
they realized there was a gap in the market for a new type of smoothie product.
One based on natural ingredients and overtly ethical values.
After spending six months blending different combinations of fruit at home,
the trio set up a stall at a music festival to actually test out the concept.
And they did a really interesting thing.
They actually left the decision of whether or not to abandon their comfortable lives,
or pursue this sort of risky smoothy venture,
they left that decision entirely in the hands of consumers in a really clever way.
And what they did was, they put up a sign above the stall that read,
"Should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies?"
And one garbage bin read "Yes," and the other one said "No."
And customers would make their judgment by throwing their empty bottles into either bin.
And it turned out that at the end of the day, the "Yes" won.
And so, the three of them went on to write and rewrite their business plan 11
times before being turned down by
a succession of potential investors and banks for funding.
But, eventually they did succeed,
and now Innocent Drinks made its first million in turnover in its second year,
and now sells around two million smoothies a week
commanding a 75 percent market share in the UK.
And so, what this shows is that,
a sense of meaninglessness,
a sense of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs can motivate you
to give up your current path and pursue a more creative line of thinking.
So, sometimes we can find ourselves in a position where things are good enough,
but there is a sense that it's just not meaning much.
Things could be better, things aren't really very good.
So that, I think begs a number of question.
One is, why does dissatisfaction happen initially in the first place?
Yeah. I think it's because as we form habits and we have done things like this before.
Not only do we have a perspective on how the story is going to start,
but we have a pretty good idea of where the story is going to end.
Right.
So, that leads us to anticipate that ending and go,
"That's not really where we want to be."
Right.
Yeah. And so that in turn can lead us to go,
"Why even go down that path?
Why even tell that story?"
Because it's going to be an effort.
Telling the story is effort, it's work.
And that's interesting that again we get this perspective
that creativity can originate in something that isn't necessarily positive,
with an impasse, or a sense of meaninglessness.
I can see the road ahead and I don't like where I'm going.
That leads us to creativity that's actually,
it's an interesting point of view.
Yeah.
So then, we're in this position of trying
to re-evaluate what we're doing and potentially changing course.
Why does dissatisfaction prompt change?
As opposed to just,
I just keep moving forward,
and miserable, and cynical.
Or giving it up.
As some of us do.
Or giving up.
I think those are the two things.
It's meaningless, but it gets my paycheck, whatever.
So we rationalize the meaninglessness because
we find some other reason to do it that's good enough to keep going.
Right.
So, I think there are lots of reasons why we don't take this cue.
So, what? It gets us on the other track.
So, yeah.
Like how I made something out of this.
And I think there are two main reasons.
So, one is values. I care about this.
This matters to me, it's important.
I don't want to just do something good enough.
Yeah.
Because that violates some sense of who I think I am,
or what I think matters in the world. I think that's part of it.
Yeah.
I think the other though is an element of achievement,
which is, "Well, everyone else is doing that.
So, what's the point of doing that too?"
If I go in that other direction,
if I find something,
no one else will find it.
So, there's an element of.
So again, I think what's interesting too,
is that this points to a fork in the road.
Some people will respond,
so we're continuing with their perspective and
other people will be inspired to change it.
And so, it's interesting to think about why people choose one path or the other.
Yeah. Well, and I think so that indicates that we
have a choice at how do we deal with the dissatisfaction.
We can be alienated from what we're doing and get through it,
or we can actually dive in and engage with it more deeply.
Yeah, so how can we use dissatisfaction then to prompt creativity?
Yeah. Well, so one is,
you've got to care about what you're doing.
So that's one avenue, and the other is,
even if I don't care about this particular thing,
I might hold some broader values;
truth, beauty, justice, aesthetics.
Right.
This really matters. This is another human being and their life.
And so, I want this to really be as good as I can possibly make it,
not just good enough.
And that push, because of some greater value, deeper need,
either because of the task or because of the other person,
or because of something about myself,
I don't want to just go along and do good enough.
I want to be great.
I want where I'm spending my days on to be meaningful.
And so part of it could be personal ambition.
That I want to be the best.
Yes. That's right.
At something, but you're also pointed to a really different motive too,
which is, I want to do the best for other people.
And those are very distinct motives.
It's interesting to think about those two things as cues to creativity.
Right. I care about the work,
I care about my sense of achievement,
I care about other people.
All of those could be reasons for dissatisfaction.
And the key is,
if you take those seriously,
it's going to force you to think,
how can I do better?
What else could I possibly do to make this story have a better ending?
So, wherever the source of the meaning is that drives you,
I think that's what we need here with dissatisfaction.
And what was interesting is,
when we interviewed creators about what promoted creativity for them, we were floored.
Dissatisfaction was the cue that seemed to pop up with the most,
from the most eminent creators we interviewed.
Right.
So I don't know if that's accidental.
We haven't done the full research study on that, but I don't know.
Maybe there's something about having a pretty high bar for yourself,
that pushes you and drives you to keep looking for another way.
And I think with impasses too,
there's also a bit of optimism mixed in there.
Yeah.
Not only are things not good enough,
but I can make them better,
and I think maybe those are the two things that go together.
That fuse, dissatisfaction and impasse. I think you're right.
So, look, one way we can cultivate
a little bit more creativity and think about
changing our perspectives and building new ones,
is to cultivate a little bit of dissatisfaction.
Having high standards and having values and meaning,
those can be good things that push us to
consider our assumptions and maybe change our perspectives.
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