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CASE All Districts Online 2023
The Courage to be Creative
The Courage to be Creative
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<b>Welcome to today's session, The Courage</b> <b>to Be Creative presented by Anna Consie</b> <b>We appreciate your engagement</b> <b>throughout the session. Please save your</b> <b>questions for Anna and the Q&A box to the</b> <b>right hand side of your screen. Today's</b> <b>session will be recorded and made</b> <b>available in this platform following the</b> <b>conference. Thank you again for your</b> <b>participation. And now I'm pleased to</b> <b>turn it over to Anna Consie, Senior</b> <b>Director of Creative at Arizona State</b> <b>University. Thank you so much. Good</b> <b>morning, everybody. It's morning where I</b> <b>am. I'm in Tempe, AZ, so</b> <b>morning, afternoon, wherever we are. It's</b> <b>lovely to see you all and thanks so much</b> <b>for coming to my session. So a quick</b> <b>note, there is a virtually</b> <b>interactive component for this session.</b> <b>And so don't give up on me yet,</b> <b>stay with me. But if you have three</b> <b>pieces of paper lying around, grab those</b> <b>pieces of paper. Any size is fine, scrap</b> <b>is cool. Do not overthink this and</b> <b>ideally are writing. Council, if you've</b> <b>had something fun, go with that.</b> <b>Otherwise I'm all in for a pencil.</b> <b>So I just want to start</b> <b>with, frankly, a really ridiculous thing</b> <b>to brag about at a conference. But I'm</b> <b>going to do it anyway, which is that in</b> <b>1998 I was an Odyssey of the</b> <b>Mind state champion. If you don't know</b> <b>what Odyssey of the Mind is, that's also</b> <b>totally normal. It's this really very</b> <b>cool program that is run</b> <b>nationwide. It's K through 12 and</b> <b>students are given these year long</b> <b>challenges to solve a</b> <b>problem and put on about an 8 minute</b> <b>skit. And so when I was in the</b> <b>third grade, our challenge was an</b> <b>animation challenge. We had to create a</b> <b>fully animated story and</b> <b>being you know, peak like 10 and 11 year</b> <b>olds, we went with a bathroom scene. This</b> <b>was like the height of humor for us and</b> <b>the story was one of a toothbrush. His</b> <b>name was Plácido Domingo. If you are an</b> <b>opera fan, you're going to get that joke.</b> <b>If you are not an opera fan like we were</b> <b>not, that's going to go way over your</b> <b>head. But Plácido Domingo goes on a</b> <b>journey to find love across the</b> <b>bathroom and at one point he</b> <b>falls in a toilet. You can see the</b> <b>picture of this toilet. The toilets name</b> <b>was John, which we thought was frankly</b> <b>just an outstanding joke. I still stand</b> <b>by that today and this lovely group of</b> <b>people has gone on to do a lot of really.</b> <b>Amazing careers. So they've gone on to be</b> <b>architects and published authors</b> <b>and researchers at Sandia National Lab.</b> <b>There's an OBGYN, really</b> <b>an amazing group of people, and along</b> <b>with them there's a creative director in</b> <b>the group. And I tell this story not</b> <b>because I want to remember 3rd grade or</b> <b>brag about something kind of ridiculous,</b> <b>but because this is how I know in my</b> <b>life that creativity isn't just for</b> <b>creative. Creativity applies to all</b> <b>fields. Applies to all people. We all</b> <b>have creative minds.</b> <b>So when we talk about creativity, what</b> <b>exactly are we talking about? There's a</b> <b>lot of sense that creativity is a</b> <b>feeling or a moment, but it's actually a</b> <b>field of study. It's studied in</b> <b>neuroscience and psychology, all kinds of</b> <b>different places. And what neuroscience</b> <b>has learned is that creative tasks range</b> <b>from little C creativity to</b> <b>big C creativity. They say that little C</b> <b>creativity are things like making a great</b> <b>birthday present or telling a really</b> <b>funny joke they list. Making a website,</b> <b>which as a person who has made a website,</b> <b>I find to be a bit of a</b> <b>miscategorization. But that's OK, we're</b> <b>going to let them live. And then there's</b> <b>big sea creativity like writing a speech</b> <b>or a, you know, a poem or designing an</b> <b>experiment.</b> <b>Creativity is something that is a very</b> <b>desired quality. So in 2010 IBM did</b> <b>a global study of CEO's and they asked</b> <b>them what are the most important</b> <b>leadership qualities you see in the next</b> <b>five years. They ranked creativity</b> <b>#1. Now we can have</b> <b>some thoughts about these CEOs that they</b> <b>put fairness and humility towards</b> <b>the bottom of the list, which may be</b> <b>telling us something about them. But</b> <b>regardless, in 2010, creativity</b> <b>was a heavily desired leadership quality.</b> <b>This desire for creativity has stayed</b> <b>high. So in 2019,</b> <b>LinkedIn looked at all of the job</b> <b>postings that are on their site and they</b> <b>looked at what are the skills that are</b> <b>the most requested and the number one</b> <b>requested. Soft skill was creativity.</b> <b>This is a skill that companies report</b> <b>needing most. So this is a trend that's</b> <b>holding over 9 years.</b> <b>Creativity is asked from a lot of us.</b> <b>It's a heavily requested skill.</b> <b>But there's a bit of a challenge, which</b> <b>is that 77% of CEOs struggle to</b> <b>find the creativity skills that they're</b> <b>looking for. They're looking for more</b> <b>creativity than they're finding. And very</b> <b>depressingly, 75% of people in</b> <b>Adobe survey said they feel that</b> <b>pressure to be productive rather than</b> <b>creative, but they're expected to think</b> <b>more and more creatively on the job. So</b> <b>this is a heavily requested skill. People</b> <b>really want it, and those who are not in</b> <b>leadership roles are feeling that.</b> <b>They're feeling that. Desire for</b> <b>creativity. But they're not being given</b> <b>the space and time for it. So what</b> <b>exactly is creativity? What is</b> <b>happening in the brain when we talk about</b> <b>creativity? Both of these quotes</b> <b>say roughly the same thing, but I like</b> <b>them because they come from two different</b> <b>neuroscientists. And so the idea is that</b> <b>creativity has to pass two tests, the</b> <b>first of which is that it has to be ideas</b> <b>that are original, unusual, or</b> <b>novel. But they also have. Be appropriate</b> <b>to the context and questions. What this</b> <b>means is that it's great to sit in a room</b> <b>and brainstorm and throw a bunch of ideas</b> <b>out that those ideas don't appropriately</b> <b>solve the problem we're looking to solve.</b> <b>It's not actually an exercise of</b> <b>creativity, it's just a bunch of people</b> <b>in a room having a good time, which is</b> <b>perfectly valid too.</b> <b>There are two modes in our brain.</b> <b>The uncreative Mode and the creative</b> <b>mode. Here's the thing. Creativity is</b> <b>hard work. I don't think that that's</b> <b>often appreciated. It's hard to be</b> <b>creative because it means you have to</b> <b>turn away from this path of least</b> <b>resistance. You have to forge a new path</b> <b>through things that are unknown or</b> <b>unexpected or vague. And when you're in</b> <b>the uncreative mode, you're in a black</b> <b>and white zone. You're moving through</b> <b>things that are obvious or expected. It</b> <b>burns a lot less brain calories. It's a</b> <b>lot easier. Activating creativity</b> <b>takes a lot of work. It's not easy to</b> <b>turn on. So what are we supposed to do</b> <b>about it? How do we turn this creativity</b> <b>on?</b> <b>OK, well this is like such a bummer of a</b> <b>quote in the middle of a presentation,</b> <b>but I like to do it anyway because</b> <b>neuroscience says you cannot prompt</b> <b>creativity. You might be trying to be</b> <b>creative, but that's not the same thing</b> <b>as being creative. And you guys, is</b> <b>there anything more of a bummer than</b> <b>trying to be cool and not actually being</b> <b>cool, or trying to do something fun and</b> <b>it's not actually fun? Neuroscience says</b> <b>that if you're trying to be creative,</b> <b>that's not the same thing as actually</b> <b>being. Creative. Part of</b> <b>the reason for that. And look, I am not a</b> <b>neuroscientist by any stretch of the</b> <b>imagination, but this really</b> <b>cool graph, which I'm going to attempt to</b> <b>explain to you, shows all of the</b> <b>different modes that the brain has to</b> <b>activate when it's in a creative</b> <b>space. So neuroscience</b> <b>argues that people who are creative have</b> <b>a brain that is wired slightly</b> <b>differently. All of these red lines that</b> <b>you see crossing on the screen, that</b> <b>represents all the different areas of the</b> <b>brain that have to cross together to form</b> <b>these creative thoughts. That looks like</b> <b>a lot of work. And so creative people are</b> <b>much more comfortable engaging these</b> <b>systems that don't often work together.</b> <b>They've figured out how to cross these</b> <b>things and make them harmonize. And</b> <b>synchronize and tell each other stories</b> <b>and communicate.</b> <b>The good news is that psychology</b> <b>disagrees with neuroscience, and I love</b> <b>when scientists disagree with each other</b> <b>because it makes a lot of fun for me as a</b> <b>creative person, psychologists</b> <b>say. You can</b> <b>learn to be creative. Everyone has the</b> <b>potential to become more creative.</b> <b>Just because brains, some brains are</b> <b>have an easier time of linking those</b> <b>different zones doesn't mean that we</b> <b>can't train our brains to do that same</b> <b>thing. This quote, by the way,</b> <b>comes from a study.</b> <b>Full disclosure, I opened this study and</b> <b>then I had to immediately close the study</b> <b>because I could not make heads or tails</b> <b>out of it. But you know, Hillary, my good</b> <b>friends Hillary here summarized the study</b> <b>for those of us who are not deep</b> <b>neuroscientists, but they studied twins.</b> <b>In different households to see if</b> <b>creativity activities could prompt</b> <b>more creative thinking. In twins that are</b> <b>separate. Super cool study. I have a lot</b> <b>of questions about it. And thank goodness</b> <b>for Hillary.</b> <b>People feel this desire for more</b> <b>creativity, and 75% of people</b> <b>told Adobe they don't think they're</b> <b>living up to their creative potential.</b> <b>What this tells me, as somebody who loves</b> <b>creativity and who specializes in</b> <b>creativity, is that there's a real</b> <b>desire to be creative. We all</b> <b>can feel this creativity in our brains.</b> <b>We don't always know how to activate it,</b> <b>how to get it out into the world, how to</b> <b>free it and release it.</b> <b>And there's a barrier. And this is not</b> <b>going to be surprising to any of you</b> <b>. 52% of those in the same Adobe survey</b> <b>who said I'm not living up to my</b> <b>potential says lack of time is their</b> <b>biggest barrier. Creativity is</b> <b>hard work. As we've seen, it involves the</b> <b>brain crossing a bunch of different paths</b> <b>that aren't necessarily meant to cross.</b> <b>Getting into that space, turning into the</b> <b>creative mode and away from the</b> <b>uncreative mode. That's not a light</b> <b>switch. You can't just turn it on and</b> <b>turn it off. It takes time to work into</b> <b>that space. So what are we</b> <b>supposed to do about this? You're here at</b> <b>this session because you, like me,</b> <b>care about creativity, or you're curious</b> <b>what it means to free your creativity. So</b> <b>what can we do about this?There are five</b> <b>things. There are five things that we can</b> <b>do to free our creativity.</b> <b>The first, which is a</b> <b>little ironic that I'm saying there's</b> <b>five things you can do. And the first</b> <b>thing is just demonstrate your</b> <b>creativity. But this is true. So there</b> <b>have been studies that have observed</b> <b>children, and when children see someone</b> <b>else being highly creative, they become</b> <b>more creative themselves. When people can</b> <b>observe creativity, they're willing to</b> <b>engage in creativity. Look. Being</b> <b>creative takes vulnerability. It's a</b> <b>little bit scary to put yourself out</b> <b>there in a creative space. It's risky to</b> <b>say I'm going to put this idea out and I</b> <b>think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure.</b> <b>So if you are willing to demonstrate</b> <b>creativity, if you're willing to be brave</b> <b>and take that risk, it gives others</b> <b>permission to take that risk with you.</b> <b>They can join in and demonstrate their</b> <b>creativity too. The second is</b> <b>that you can make it a habit. We</b> <b>learned that the brain has all those</b> <b>different paths that have to cross. You</b> <b>have to get into the creative mode.</b> <b>Nothing makes that easier than</b> <b>practicing. So if you make creativity a</b> <b>habit, it gets easier and easier to enter</b> <b>into that mode and to trigger your</b> <b>creativity. This doesn't have to be</b> <b>dramatic. You don't have to be an artist.</b> <b>You don't have to have an active painting</b> <b>or sculpting or whatever practice. You</b> <b>can do small things each day to engage</b> <b>your creative brain and. Keep it moving,</b> <b>keep it alive.</b> <b>This is one of the biggest keys is</b> <b>you have to make it less serious.</b> <b>Creativity is vulnerable. It's</b> <b>risky, but often it's very, very</b> <b>fun. And so there's an idea here</b> <b>that, you know, creative people sit down</b> <b>and they have this very serious artistic</b> <b>practice. And that's simply not true. If</b> <b>you use imagination or</b> <b>play or getting outside your comfort zone</b> <b>and you make it a little bit of fun, it</b> <b>makes it easier for the creativity. The</b> <b>flow. When you reduce the pressure, you</b> <b>put on creativity. When you make it</b> <b>fun and engaging and a little bit</b> <b>silly, it's easier to activate it.</b> <b>Along that thread, you have to make it</b> <b>weird. Look, I</b> <b>realize this is a bit of an insane thing</b> <b>to say, but when you try to solve the</b> <b>same problems over and over, or a problem</b> <b>that you think has an obvious solution,</b> <b>you're not activating your creative</b> <b>brain, you're staying firmly in the</b> <b>uncreative mode. So if you take on a</b> <b>problem that isn't obvious, like for</b> <b>example. How do you make your dog</b> <b>fly? Or how do you make a rock talk?</b> <b>There's an obvious solution there and so</b> <b>it forces old ideas that you've held to</b> <b>compete. Now when I say in rooms full of</b> <b>people, how do you make your dog fly?</b> <b>Someone inevitably always yells throw</b> <b>your dog. And I really, really hate</b> <b>answer because I love dogs. But if you</b> <b>want to throw into the chat an idea</b> <b>besides throw your dog and how you might</b> <b>make a dog fly, take some time. Throw</b> <b>those ideas out there. Let's see how</b> <b>your brains can merge old ideas together.</b> <b>There's always an interesting way to get</b> <b>a dog. Airborne</b> <b>enlisted.</b> <b>Finally, this is a tiny trick.</b> <b>Tiny trick. If you use the</b> <b>phrase thinking creatively</b> <b>instead of creative thinking instead of</b> <b>being creative, you help</b> <b>people change their</b> <b>perception. So here's the thing. If you</b> <b>ask somebody to be creative,</b> <b>you're asking them to be something.</b> <b>You're asking them to perform. If you ask</b> <b>them to think creatively, you're</b> <b>creating permission for them to</b> <b>operate their brains differently. You're</b> <b>inviting them in. To think</b> <b>creatively, it makes it easier to take a</b> <b>risk. It makes it easier to volunteer a</b> <b>weird idea as opposed to telling somebody</b> <b>be something, just be more creative.</b> <b>That's a really hard thing to hear if</b> <b>you're struggling to activate your</b> <b>creativity.</b> <b>So what does all this mean? What</b> <b>does it mean to be able to be creative?</b> <b>What does it mean when you put these</b> <b>kinds of exercises into practice?</b> <b>So there is this guy, his name is</b> <b>Robert. He went out and he did a study</b> <b>and he worked with city, with city</b> <b>employees from Orange County, California,</b> <b>and he did a bunch of training</b> <b>exercises and they were games. They were</b> <b>not related to their everyday jobs. They</b> <b>were fun, they were different. They were</b> <b>easy. They were a little bit less serious</b> <b>and probably pretty goofy. And after he</b> <b>did six weeks of this training.</b> <b>They put out essentially a new ideas box.</b> <b>So they put a new ideas box out and they</b> <b>said to folks. Add your new</b> <b>ideas. There was a 55%</b> <b>increase in new idea generation after</b> <b>six weeks of doing fun, creative,</b> <b>inspired games. These ideas, by the</b> <b>way, led to, you know</b> <b>, $600,000 in new revenue and a savings</b> <b>of $3.5 million. Before I</b> <b>worked for Arizona State University, I</b> <b>worked for a group called Downtown</b> <b>Phoenix, Inc. It's a it's city</b> <b>adjacent. Let's say it's a city adjacent</b> <b>kind of business. Our entire operating</b> <b>budget for a year was three and a half</b> <b>million dollars. So the idea that these</b> <b>city employees thought of ideas to save</b> <b>that much money is significant in that</b> <b>space. And what it tells me is that</b> <b>having fun with creativity really</b> <b>works. And so out</b> <b>of all of this research, out of</b> <b>everything that I learned and understood,</b> <b>I invented something called</b> <b>Creative Fridays. And I want to show you</b> <b>a little bit of what Creative Fridays</b> <b>look like.</b> <b>What's up?</b> <b>Sorry, I'm like a little laggy. My</b> <b>internet's really bad today. Are you</b> <b>ready for this?Are we ready for this? I</b> <b>think we're ready for this.</b> <b>Reach out my hand.</b> <b>Go, go, go, go, go,</b> <b>go. Go. Go, go, go, go, go, go go go.</b> <b>Well, pick me up.</b> <b>Tell you.</b> <b>Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.</b> <b>Well.</b> <b>It's OK, so my team is amazing. So my</b> <b>team made that challenge in</b> <b>one day. They actually did it in</b> <b>about 5 1/2 hours and theycame to</b> <b>work that morning for Creative Fridays.</b> <b>And the challenge was to create a Rube</b> <b>Goldberg device that connected over Zoom.</b> <b>This was in October of</b> <b>2020. I don't know if you remember</b> <b>October of 2020 well, but toilet paper</b> <b>was still a bit of an issue. Like, it was</b> <b>around, but there wasn't tons of it. And</b> <b>I just so delight in how ridiculous</b> <b>they are that they decided to flaunt how</b> <b>much toilet paper they had in their</b> <b>houses. One person had a whole stack that</b> <b>was like a little, you know, we were</b> <b>like, oh man, if we're desperate, we know</b> <b>where to go. So here's the thing. This</b> <b>challenge has nothing to do with their</b> <b>jobs. And they had to spend the day</b> <b>problem solving. How are we going to make</b> <b>this video happen? How are we going to</b> <b>figure out how to do this? And so they</b> <b>went through a lot of different ideas.</b> <b>This is a slide from their actual</b> <b>brainstorming deck and they had two</b> <b>plans. The first plan was</b> <b>record your video on your phone and send</b> <b>it to Joel, who volunteered to edit the</b> <b>video. The second plan was we're going to</b> <b>do it live, which was really risky.</b> <b>And you can see that they started mapping</b> <b>out, OK, how does the toilet paper have</b> <b>to flow across these screens if we do it</b> <b>live before they realized that</b> <b>everyone's zoom screen shows the squares</b> <b>in different configurations. And so they</b> <b>knew that it wouldn't work. And so then</b> <b>they had this idea. OK, we're all going</b> <b>to gather together. We're going to hold</b> <b>each other accountable and submit these</b> <b>videos to Joel. And poor Joel gets these</b> <b>videos at like 2:00 PM and he has that</b> <b>whole thing edited together by 4, which</b> <b>is really impressive and honestly,</b> <b>the lightful. So what is this</b> <b>Creative Friday thing? What am I talking</b> <b>about when I talk about Creative Fridays?</b> <b>So I hold Creative Fridays every other</b> <b>month. I invite the entire team. It's</b> <b>not mandatory. If you have too much work</b> <b>going on that day, no problem. But in an</b> <b>ideal world, I love when everyone shows</b> <b>up and the whole Friday is blocked only</b> <b>to do creative exercises. So this is the</b> <b>meeting invitation. This is the literal</b> <b>text that goes out to the group.</b> <b>And it says it blocks. We're going to</b> <b>have fun, we're going to exercise our</b> <b>creative freedom, and everyone is going</b> <b>to take the day to work together and</b> <b>independently on a solution to a likely</b> <b>ridiculous challenge. This wording is</b> <b>important because I'm priming them that</b> <b>we're going to have fun together. This is</b> <b>going to be silly, and it's going to be</b> <b>fun. The</b> <b>biggest trick if you want to lead your</b> <b>team or if you yourself want to increase</b> <b>your creativity, is very</b> <b>simple. The trick is to think gardening,</b> <b>not architecture. I love this quote. This</b> <b>quote comes from Brian Eno. Did you know</b> <b>he was the creator of that Windows 95?</b> <b>Sound that like that pops on. He made</b> <b>that. He gets paid royalties for that.</b> <b>But he also produced a bunch of amazing</b> <b>records for bands like You 2 and David</b> <b>Bowie. The reason this idea is really</b> <b>important is that.</b> <b>Gardening is a little bit of chaos.</b> <b>I love to garden. I even garden in the</b> <b>Summer of Phoenix, which might be a</b> <b>version of insanity. But what have you.</b> <b>And the idea of gardening is that you're</b> <b>building this container, You're preparing</b> <b>the soil, you're caring for that. You're</b> <b>planting some seeds. You're hoping it</b> <b>takes off. And if it takes off and it</b> <b>struggles, you nurture it. You you deal</b> <b>with the bugs, you increase the watering.</b> <b>Here we add some shade. You tend, and you</b> <b>care for that. Garden. But you accept</b> <b>that you're not really in control of a</b> <b>garden, basically, ever.</b> <b>Architecture, on the other hand, is</b> <b>highly controlled. You have to account</b> <b>for the weight of the people in the</b> <b>building and all of the angles and where</b> <b>the air vents go. And I don't even know</b> <b>what, because I'm not in the</b> <b>architecture space. But you have to plan</b> <b>for everything, and you have to control</b> <b>for everything before the build even</b> <b>starts. If you're trying to control and</b> <b>manage creativity in that way, you're</b> <b>going to turn off. That creative brain,</b> <b>because you're not giving it room to be</b> <b>less serious and to play and to have fun.</b> <b>So what you want to cultivate in your</b> <b>creativity, practice for yourself and</b> <b>others, is a sense of gardening. Even</b> <b>better if you decide to go for what I</b> <b>call chaos gardening, where you throw</b> <b>seeds out and you're beautifully</b> <b>surprised by what generates.</b> <b>So with that, I want to invite you all</b> <b>to exercise some</b> <b>creative thinking with me this morning.</b> <b>This is where the three sheets of paper</b> <b>come in. So if you're ready, give</b> <b>yourself like a moment of like, yes, I'm</b> <b>going to do this and it's going to be</b> <b>fine. And so grab that sheet of</b> <b>paper, grab a pen, and I'm going to give</b> <b>you the first prompt. And I'm going to do</b> <b>it with you, by the way.</b> <b>So here's the thing, hands are really</b> <b>hard to draw, so I'd like you to use your</b> <b>non dominant hand and I want</b> <b>you to draw your other</b> <b>hand. In as much</b> <b>detail as you can muster, and I'm going</b> <b>to give you 30 seconds and that 30</b> <b>seconds starts. Yeah.</b> <b>If you are rushing along in your hands,</b> <b>don't forget to maybe add in some</b> <b>knuckles. Or maybe you happen to have</b> <b>very hairy hands and you can add in some</b> <b>hair. OK. And</b> <b>that's time.</b> <b>Now I'd like to tell you all that I</b> <b>I went to art school for five years. I'm</b> <b>technically what you call a classically</b> <b>trained artist and that's the best that I</b> <b>can do with my non dominant hand.</b> <b>So if.</b> <b>Take pride in whatever you've created</b> <b>with your beautiful drawings there.</b> <b>OK, it's time for a fresh sheet of</b> <b>paper. Now for this one, I want to invite</b> <b>you all to share what you create in the</b> <b>chat. If it's easier for you to type,</b> <b>feel free to type. I'd like you</b> <b>to write a six word story.</b> <b>Only 6 words, and it has to be a story,</b> <b>it's not an introduction. It's not</b> <b>a beginning of a sentence. It's a six</b> <b>word story. And extra bonus points,</b> <b>make it not sad and</b> <b>not sad story. And once your story is</b> <b>complete, add it in the chat. I'm going</b> <b>to give you all a minute and I'm going to</b> <b>do this too.</b> <b>OK. That's your</b> <b>minute. I'm going to wait for a few</b> <b>to come in because there's some really</b> <b>great ones in this chat. We rode the</b> <b>train to NYC. That's a lovely</b> <b>story. That's a beautiful story. I love</b> <b>that story. My story,</b> <b>for what it's worth, is a glorious day to</b> <b>get lost.</b> <b>See if there's any else that come</b> <b>through. Look, 6</b> <b>words. A lot of words. My</b> <b>cat rules my little family. OK, that is a</b> <b>perfectly complete picture of a</b> <b>story. We know what's happening in that</b> <b>person's life. They have the little</b> <b>family. They have the feisty cat. What a</b> <b>fantastic six word story.</b> <b>Ohh, Mr. Blue Sky is shining today,</b> <b>guys. These are beautiful and way to make</b> <b>them not sad. I love it. Beautiful</b> <b>execution of storytelling. Thank you all</b> <b>for joining me. We have one more</b> <b>activity now. Full disclosure,</b> <b>we're going to see how this goes. So</b> <b>there's a really cool website called</b> <b>Proto Bot and I am going to click on</b> <b>this link and Proto Bot is going to</b> <b>automatically generate a prompt.</b> <b>I do not know what this prompt is going</b> <b>to be, and like 95% ofthe</b> <b>time Proto bot is appropriate and five to</b> <b>the time it says really weird things. So</b> <b>that says a really weird thing. I'm just</b> <b>going to refresh it quickly and we're</b> <b>going to work it through. So here we go.</b> <b>I'm going to pull up this prompt and</b> <b>we're all going to draw it together.</b> <b>OK, this is fantastic. So your prompt</b> <b>is design A teapot that is</b> <b>much more complicated than it has to be,</b> <b>and for this I'm going to give you 2</b> <b>minutes. Good</b> <b>luck.</b> <b>OK, that's time.</b> <b>I really wish that I could see all of</b> <b>your teapots. I'll hold up mine for you</b> <b>again. Five years of art school, clearly.</b> <b>Excellent drawing. I've got a</b> <b>tiny mouse who has to turn</b> <b>a crank shaft to keep the water boiling</b> <b>in his teapot house. Much more</b> <b>complicated than it has to be. If you all</b> <b>want to describe in the chat for a second</b> <b>any of your teapot innovations, please</b> <b>feel free to do so. And</b> <b>thank you for going along this</b> <b>creative journey with me.</b> <b>You've survived the creativity exercises.</b> <b>Now if you're feeling it and you're in a</b> <b>creative space, I fully suggest that you</b> <b>try doodling other things a great way</b> <b>while you listen to me. Wrap up this</b> <b>session, pick an object in front of you,</b> <b>put your pen on the paper, and draw</b> <b>that object in a continuous line without</b> <b>actually looking at your paper. And don't</b> <b>forget the details. The details are</b> <b>really what make it.</b> <b>So here's the thing. In 6</b> <b>minutes. Less than that, actually, we</b> <b>created a little magic together. Some of</b> <b>you might still be having those magic</b> <b>moments. You drew the hardest</b> <b>thing to draw, which is hands.</b> <b>Hands are incredibly difficult to</b> <b>draw. Many artists, in fact, avoid</b> <b>hands altogether. It's very common to see</b> <b>cartoonists with people with their hands</b> <b>in their pockets, which I just mind and</b> <b>you can't see because hands are that hard</b> <b>to draw. Why are hands so hard to draw?</b> <b>Well, they're very technical. There's a</b> <b>lot of shapes happening with hands.</b> <b>They're complex, they're shadow, and</b> <b>there's line. They're very, very</b> <b>intricate. But more than that,</b> <b>you see. Hands. Every day you have hands.</b> <b>You instantly know what a hand should</b> <b>look like without ever drawing it, which</b> <b>makes it very hard to draw, which is the</b> <b>whole point of using your non dominant</b> <b>hand. You've freed yourself from the</b> <b>seriousness of drawing a very hard to</b> <b>draw hand and instead you just let it</b> <b>fly out of you. And how awesome is that?</b> <b>You all drew a hand today and that's</b> <b>really incredible. You wrote a killer</b> <b>story. What an amazing thing to do,</b> <b>a six word story. There are beautiful</b> <b>stories. I love seeing them. You design</b> <b>something that has never been designed</b> <b>before. There is no teapot house with the</b> <b>mouse. Churning things out there,</b> <b>probably for good reason, might sound</b> <b>like an animal rights violation, but</b> <b>that's okay. You design something brand</b> <b>new and I hope, I hope</b> <b>that you might have laughed during the</b> <b>middle of a work day. Maybe really</b> <b>hard. At ASU we are all about</b> <b>innovation, if you might know this.</b> <b>If you're in the Phoenix area, there's #1</b> <b>innovation posters everywhere. And so to</b> <b>me, true innovation is taking a moment to</b> <b>recharge your creativity and laughing</b> <b>very hard in the middle of a work day.</b> <b>If you're curious, hey, what are some</b> <b>exercises that I can do to keep my</b> <b>creative brain alive and keep it moving?</b> <b>I have eight of them right off the bat.</b> <b>The first is that you can color a</b> <b>coloring book page in the mirror. This</b> <b>is way harder than it sounds. I</b> <b>do not know why it is so hard, but if</b> <b>you're experiencing writers block, or if</b> <b>you really need to like free up some</b> <b>thinking, I firmly recommend coloring</b> <b>in the mirror. Exceptionally difficult,</b> <b>Great at dissolving writers block. You</b> <b>can draw a horse. Horses are</b> <b>stupid hard to draw. No one is</b> <b>going to drawing horses unless they</b> <b>really practice drawing a horse. So</b> <b>draw a horse. You can design</b> <b>the chair of your dreams, and you can</b> <b>build it out of tinfoil if you have some</b> <b>tinfoil lying around at home. It's great</b> <b>to practice constructing things and</b> <b>sculpting things out of a really</b> <b>challenging medium. How good can any of</b> <b>us really be at sculpting and tinfoil? So</b> <b>it frees you instead to enjoy the</b> <b>activity of sculpting and get less hung</b> <b>up around. How do you sculpt the chair?</b> <b>You just do it's tinfoil. Even better if</b> <b>you have other materials lying around.</b> <b>Sculpt that same chair. More materials</b> <b>Sculpture out of pipe cleaners sculpted</b> <b>out of Plato. Anything you have that can</b> <b>be a modeling material. Give it a try.</b> <b>I invite you to try this today. If you're</b> <b>in the office, create a secret handshake</b> <b>with a colleague with at least four</b> <b>moves. This is an excellent, excellent</b> <b>way to freeze some creativity, because</b> <b>you have to collaborate with somebody and</b> <b>you have to find an appropriate response.</b> <b>Handshakes have sets of rules that we all</b> <b>know, and a secret one is even better.</b> <b>And like, who doesn't want an inside joke?</b> <b>This is a great opportunity too. You can</b> <b>use the letters of the alphabet to make</b> <b>stick people. So use the letters of your</b> <b>name, for example, and see how many stick</b> <b>people you can make using letters for a</b> <b>purpose they're not intended for. Mix up,</b> <b>uppercase, lowercase. It's a great time.</b> <b>If it's beautiful where you are in the</b> <b>country today, go on a color walk.</b> <b>Photograph everything you see that's</b> <b>yellow or red or anything. This</b> <b>fundamentally changes the way that you</b> <b>interact with and see your space around</b> <b>you. When you're looking for something</b> <b>specific, you see things that you may not</b> <b>have seen before. This starts to fire up</b> <b>that creative mode. This is one of my</b> <b>favorites. Draw a friend. Or if you</b> <b>want to live dangerously, draw a stranger</b> <b>in a continuous line without looking at</b> <b>your paper. Faces, horses, and</b> <b>hands are those three hardest things to</b> <b>draw. In my estimation, faces are</b> <b>similar. We all inherently know what a</b> <b>face should look like, so freeing</b> <b>yourself from what you think that should</b> <b>be and drawing it blind is a fantastic</b> <b>way to challenge old ideas.</b> <b>Finally, big fan of this,</b> <b>I'm sure baskin-robbins is not creates</b> <b>31 upsetting ice cream flavors.</b> <b>Ice cream should be delicious, but what</b> <b>if you make it upsetting? What if you</b> <b>make it deeply offensive? What if you</b> <b>create mulch ice cream that's</b> <b>terrible, but again, forcing old</b> <b>ideas to collide to create something new</b> <b>and unique?If you're</b> <b>wondering. Hey, how do these</b> <b>Creative Fridays actually work? How do</b> <b>they actually perform? What does it mean</b> <b>when you do creativity exercises at</b> <b>scale? Yes, they do work. I</b> <b>know in my team that when we have</b> <b>creative thinking exercises the next</b> <b>week, they complete their tasks</b> <b>faster with more joy and we actually get</b> <b>more done. We've recharged the creative</b> <b>thinking superpowers in their brain and</b> <b>given them permission to think</b> <b>differently. This carries over into the</b> <b>next week and into the next month. The</b> <b>other thing is. These are quotes. So John</b> <b>is somebody who is on my team after a</b> <b>creative Friday, John said. I spent the</b> <b>last three hours working at the fullest</b> <b>capacity of my brain. This is exactly</b> <b>what I'm going for. I have somebody who</b> <b>is utilizing all of their creative</b> <b>potential, working really hard, but</b> <b>operating and turning on that creative</b> <b>brain. I had an Anna</b> <b>who's a designer on my team. She had to</b> <b>examine her own perfectionism to get the</b> <b>work done, and she's proud of what she</b> <b>made. This is a really great project.</b> <b>They had to make parody music videos</b> <b>on topics that I gave them, and hers</b> <b>happened to be Parmesan cheese. She</b> <b>had to let go of perfect and force those</b> <b>old ideas to compete. She had to try</b> <b>something really weird, and she ended up</b> <b>really proud of what she did by letting</b> <b>go and letting the creativity. Happen.</b> <b>Finally, Jesse is a project manager</b> <b>and about two months ago we</b> <b>had an urgent project come through with</b> <b>the kind of project that normally would</b> <b>take us a week to do. We really had a</b> <b>day. We got it at 9:00 AM. We had to turn</b> <b>it at 5:00 PM. The team</b> <b>is so well trained into quick problem</b> <b>solving, into being creative, into being</b> <b>collaborative. Because of that training,</b> <b>we turned the project an hour early, we</b> <b>got it done quicker, and it's because</b> <b>I've trained and coached them into how</b> <b>those things creatively, how to</b> <b>collaborate, how to trust each other and</b> <b>how to have fun. So these are great</b> <b>reasons to bring a creative Friday</b> <b>practice or something similar into your</b> <b>workplace. I always get a</b> <b>question when I talk about Creative</b> <b>Fridays of how did you convince your</b> <b>leadership to do this?Here's the</b> <b>thing. I did the research, which I've now</b> <b>shared all of the research with you all.</b> <b>So you now have the exact research that I</b> <b>have. And I just went ahead and did it.</b> <b>I did the research. I said I'm going to</b> <b>give this a try and I'm going to see what</b> <b>happens. And I asked for forgiveness</b> <b>later. It's been going now.</b> <b>For four years. I have</b> <b>people from all across the company ask,</b> <b>hey, can I join a creative Fridays? I</b> <b>want to be part of it. It's worth</b> <b>starting this practice and setting your</b> <b>and your teams and your colleagues</b> <b>creativity free. We know it's a needed</b> <b>skill set. So with that, I'm happy to</b> <b>take any questions while I</b> <b>answer questions. I'm going to leave</b> <b>these activities on the screen in case</b> <b>you want to screenshot them or start</b> <b>doing some of them or anything, but I'm</b> <b>happy to take an answer questions with</b> <b>our remaining 5 minutes.</b> <b>Thank you so much, Anna. There's all a</b> <b>lot of good ice cream flavors or bad ice</b> <b>cream flavors going on in the chat right</b> <b>now. We do have a lot of questions that</b> <b>have been coming through the the first</b> <b>set has had 18 up votes is what</b> <b>sort of things could be done daily to</b> <b>stimulate the creative brain. Yeah,</b> <b>so these activities here are a great way</b> <b>to stimulate your creative brain. It's</b> <b>all about the habit of it as opposed to</b> <b>it being something big. So my suggestion</b> <b>is to pick something to you that feels</b> <b>repeatable. So for example, it may not</b> <b>be feasible for you to color something in</b> <b>the mirror every single day, but it might</b> <b>be feasible for you to doodle at your</b> <b>desk. It might be feasible for you to</b> <b>write a six word story. Pick something</b> <b>that feels like you can repeat it often</b> <b>and easily, and go for that. The</b> <b>idea with.</b> <b>Creating a routine to stimulate your</b> <b>brain is giving yourself permission to</b> <b>have that routine. So find something that</b> <b>feels easy and do that. I consider, by</b> <b>the way, gardening as an act of</b> <b>creativity. You don't. It doesn't have to</b> <b>be rigid. It doesn't have to be artistic.</b> <b>It doesn't have to have a deep, rich</b> <b>practice. It can be something to you that</b> <b>forces you to have old ideas compete.</b> <b>Alright, the next question, where do you</b> <b>think the presence of</b> <b>AI fits into this creative sphere?</b> <b>Ohh man. I had a feeling that this</b> <b>question was going to come. I have big</b> <b>feelings about AI. I think that AI is a</b> <b>really powerful tool and I also think</b> <b>that it's something that can limit</b> <b>creativity because everything is at your</b> <b>fingertips in a way that doesn't force</b> <b>you to have old ideas compete. So</b> <b>on my team we've been talking a lot about</b> <b>what does it mean to use AI? What does it</b> <b>mean to use that?Faith. Not from an</b> <b>ethical concern, although of course we</b> <b>have those conversations too, but more</b> <b>from a creative concern. How do we</b> <b>preserve expertise? How do we preserve</b> <b>the time spent thinking to generate novel</b> <b>and unusual and new ideas? When you can</b> <b>type a prompt into a chat bot and have it</b> <b>feed exactly to you back what you wanted</b> <b>it to do, you're not forcing that habit</b> <b>in your brain to develop. Now some folks</b> <b>feel amazing prompts into.</b> <b>ChatGPT or other spaces. I'm not</b> <b>discounting that, but I would encourage</b> <b>you to think of it as a tool, not an</b> <b>exercise with an outcome or not something</b> <b>that is creative in and of itself. You</b> <b>still have to bring the creative thinking</b> <b>to the table.</b> <b>Right. Next question. I think we have</b> <b>time for about two more. How do you</b> <b>balance the need to be productive like</b> <b>pumping out lots of design jobs quickly</b> <b>with the need to be creative?</b> <b>Oh man, I love this question. So we we</b> <b>battled this all the time and my team, we</b> <b>do about 2500 projects a year. This is</b> <b>designers, writers, video. We're a team of</b> <b>11. That's a pretty huge productivity</b> <b>load and one of the things that we talk</b> <b>about is balance. Sometimes good enough</b> <b>is good enough and sometimes you have to</b> <b>bring creative thinking to the table. So</b> <b>the rule that I use is that if something</b> <b>is a problem we haven't solved before,</b> <b>spend the time to invest the creativity.</b> <b>Spend the time to get creative. If this</b> <b>is a problem that we solve continuously,</b> <b>that's a great one to put into what I</b> <b>call the production space. I come out of</b> <b>the journalism background. Turn and burn</b> <b>that one. Let it go. But spend the time</b> <b>where something is new or it requires</b> <b>unique problem solving. But your creative</b> <b>brain can't solve every problem all</b> <b>day, every day without getting completely</b> <b>exhausted. So it's about picking and</b> <b>choosing where the creative energy is</b> <b>best spent.</b> <b>And our final question, how do you bring</b> <b>creative thinking into an our already</b> <b>established process or project?Oh</b> <b>yeah. So that's one of my favorite things</b> <b>to do. So one of the things that we do</b> <b>in to establish projects or establish</b> <b>processes, if we have the space to do so,</b> <b>sometimes they'll turn and burn, like I</b> <b>said. But when you have time, what I love</b> <b>to do is what's called an expert</b> <b>consultation meeting. So I bring the</b> <b>folks in the room who have expertise in</b> <b>the space that I may not but that the</b> <b>team may not. And what I do most often</b> <b>is, I pose an unsolvable question.</b> <b>So if we're trying to figure out how to</b> <b>create. Something it hasn't been created</b> <b>before. I don't tell them that. That</b> <b>shuts down creative thought. Instead,</b> <b>what I like to say is OK, what does</b> <b>it mean to make somebody read this and</b> <b>feel excited, or enthusiastic or</b> <b>inspired or I dig really deep into my</b> <b>emotional vocabulary. When you ask</b> <b>somebody to generate a solution towards a</b> <b>feeling, it forces old ideas to</b> <b>collide and helps to create novel</b> <b>responses. That usually gets us much</b> <b>farther along the road to a creative</b> <b>solution. Than putting the problem</b> <b>directly in front of my team. I always</b> <b>start with solving for emotions before</b> <b>solving for logistics, and I bake in time</b> <b>to do that with the experts at the table</b> <b>before we finalize the marketing plan</b> <b>or the fundraising plan or whatever.</b> <b>All right. Well, that gets us to our</b> <b>time. But thank you so much, Anna, for</b> <b>joining us during our expertise and</b> <b>allowing us to be creative on a diffuse</b> <b>day. For those of you who are</b> <b>online, we are going to take a 15 minute</b> <b>break until we get into the next round of</b> <b>elective sessions at the top of the hour.</b> <b>Thank you so much. Thank you.</b>
Video Summary
In the video, Anna Consie presents a session called "The Courage to Be Creative". She begins by thanking the audience for their participation and introduces herself as the Senior Director of Creative at Arizona State University. She emphasizes that creativity is not limited to a specific field but applies to all people. She explains that creativity is a field of study and is studied in neuroscience and psychology.<br /><br />Anna Consie discusses the different levels of creativity, from small "C" creativity like making a great birthday present to big "C" creativity like writing a speech or designing an experiment. She mentions that creativity is a highly desired leadership quality and that companies often struggle to find employees with strong creativity skills.<br /><br />She then shares various research findings, including a study that showed a 55% increase in new idea generation after engaging in creative exercises. She also provides tips on how to free one's creativity, such as demonstrating creativity, making creativity a habit, and reducing the seriousness around creativity.<br /><br />Anna Consie concludes the session by sharing her own practice called "Creative Fridays" where her team engages in creative exercises every other month. She suggests various activities for stimulating creativity, such as coloring in the mirror, drawing a horse, and designing the chair of your dreams. She encourages the audience to make creativity a habit and find ways to balance productivity with creative thinking.<br /><br />Overall, Anna Consie emphasizes the importance of creativity in various aspects of life and provides practical tips and activities to stimulate and express one's creativity.
Asset Caption
CASE Career Level: 2
CASE Competency: Strategic Thinking
Keywords
video
Anna Consie
The Courage to Be Creative
creativity
neuroscience
psychology
leadership quality
new idea generation
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