Creativity and the art of Goodmaking
I have wanted to write something on creativity for a few weeks now. Ironically I have struggled to find the right words, the right sentiment — my inner critic demands perfection — and therefore I can’t finish something that I feel is lacking. But you know what? Creativity isn’t perfect dang it! Creativity is messy, fluid, fragile, emotional and sometimes illogical.
The reason I’ve wanted to write about this is that I believe creativity is one of the ESSENTIAL ingredients to achieving truly transformative social and environmental change. Therefore, we Goodmakers MUST endeavour to be creative. Just as I believe we are all designed to make good, I also believe we are innately creative - we need to know it, claim it, practice it and be it.
What is creativity?…The manifestation of our imagination
Creativity can be (though this is not an exhaustive list) new, original, imaginative, innovative, inspiring and can evoke an emotional response. When we encounter sterile, unimaginative, dull, tired and at worst destructive ideas and projects it is likely they lack creativity.
Creativity is not just limited to having good ideas, good ideas alone will not change the world, there is so much more to it. The very word creative demands action: create, make and do! The ‘manifestation of imagination’, if you like.
The imagination plays a big role in creativity. Seeing a preferred future in our mind’s eye helps to outline a vision for what is needed, what can be different or what can be done about an issue.
We need new, imaginative, creative solutions for new issues and age-old persistent problems.
Many of the root causes of some of the most stubborn challenges facing us are systemic. They are part of ingrained, broken or corrupt systems, such as racism, capitalism and patriarchy. Goodmakers throughout time have created strategies to address these systems and designed solutions to alleviate their negative impacts. Some work, some don’t, and some become outdated and demand new approaches.
It’s not that these ideas were wrong or even lacked creativity, but the ugly hairy nature of these problems means they are what’s known as wicked problems.
Horst Rittel first coined the term Wicked problems in 1967. In summary a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fixed, where there is no single solution to the problem; and “wicked” denotes resistance to resolution, rather than evil. How we approach a wicked* problem requires a sophisticated approach but again creativity is essential to this approach.
Creativity of Protest
Creative ideas inspire others to get on board with them, they capture people’s imaginations, they foster an energy that will be needed to implement, and they will encourage an enthusiasm for persevering when implementation gets hard.
The suffragette movement is a great example of this. Women began the movement with an imagined alternative future where women had the vote and were treated as equals to men. Creative writers and speakers shaped and proliferated these ideas. Artists and illustrators created cartoons and images to support the campaign. Photographers documented the cause. The protests and direct actions required creativity (several examples of applying ideas from other campaigns in a new context) — defacing coins, creating a visual brand identity (the famous white, green and purple) and one action that I recently loved reading in an article about the creativity of protest was the human letter:
“In February 1909 a post office regulation was introduced enabling ‘human letters’ to be sent by an express messenger. This inspired a new form of protest…They ‘posted’ Miss Solomon and Miss McLellan to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. The letter, which cost 3d, was refused and returned to the WSPU’s offices.”
Creativity should flow from the beginning to the end of the Goodmaking process and therefore I also believe creativity and collaboration go hand in hand. Creativity comes in the thinking and the doing but we don’t have to think we need to do it all alone. Let’s harness everyone’s creative power and make good happen.