The Creativity of Our Business

1 December 2005

by Graeme Watson

Organisation

In the summer of 1797 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was in poor health and had retired to a remote house on the Devonshire moors, when one afternoon he awoke with a full and vivid recollection of a poem he had written in a dream, he quickly wrote down the lines that flowed from him,

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.”

The epic poem of Kubla Khan tumbled into existence, until a visitor on business from nearby Porlock interrupted him for nearly an hour. When he returned to his ink and paper the magic was gone and the poem remains an unfinished piece of prose alternately titled ‘A Fragment of a Vision in a Dream’.

In the profession of training we are charged with developing and accessing people’s skills. This is of course simple if you’re teaching someone how to change a tire or cut a melon correctly, but what about industries like ours where creativity is central to the quality of people’s work. We can teach people to write, but can we teach them to write a great novel? We teach someone how to use a camera but can we teach them to make a great film? How do we ensure that creativity is included?

In a new publication “The Creative Habit’, New York based choreographer Twyla Tharp studies the process of creativity, arguing that creativity does not occur when an Apollo like god reaches down from the heavens and touches the gifted creator on the brow, but is rather a structured and disciplined process. Creativity born out of certain set conditions and rituals. If we follow Twyla Tharp’s thinking Coleridge’s creativity came from a mix of his well practiced skills – using a pen, knowing words and how to write and his rituals and location – having a nap, being in a peaceful and secluded environment.

When Layout Artist, Cortney Armitage from PIXAR Animation visited Perth recently she was asked if she had decorated her office? PIXAR is well known for allowing staff to creatively redecorate their offices, Armitage admitted to an extravagant chandelier, but pointed out that the animators had a tee-pee bar in their office.

At FTI we spend lots of time in our training processes ensuring that team work, brainstorming, collaboration and creative routines and referencing other works are incorporated into our methodology. It isn’t always the easiest way to construct a course but it is the more effective. If you wander through the building you’re likely to see animators playing Pictionary, Writers organizing ‘best cap gun death’ competitions and Video Productions students re-editing each others short documentaries into promotional trailers.

The Creative chaos is alive and well but do we give it us much value as technical skills and business know how?

This article by Professional Development and Training Manager, Graeme Watson, originally appeared in FTI NEWS in December 2005. The views published in FTI NEWS do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Institute Management or Board.