Can creativity be learned?
創意可以學習？
分享者/蔡雨庭
原文網址：http://meetschmitt.typepad.com/schmittblog/2007/08/can-creativity-.html#comments
每當我在跑公司的工作坊或是研討會時，常常會因為公司缺乏創意或創意的職員而感到驚訝。但另一方面，在大部分管理相關文刊上的論點是：所有人都可以很有創意，創意是可以被學習的。
當然，創意是可以被學習的，但是非常困難。這絕對不是在會議室中欣賞鋼琴家演奏、播放俗氣的曲調、或是練習臉部素描，就可以在一夕之間就學會的。我曾在很多場合上看到這樣的創意模擬行動，但都沒有用。
之所以沒有用是，創意像是某種語言。創意某種程度來說是與生俱來的，根據一位創意與大腦專家Dr. Kenneth Heilman所說，創意需要在大腦永久記憶區儲存大量專業知識，而且我們必須要能夠用額葉冥想發散式思考，並有特別能力去調整額葉的系統，這有可能減低去甲腎上腺素的量，並且創意還需要適當的環境去刺激神經發展，和組織內部系統架構結合了工作與娛樂。所以國外的一日工作坊並無法真的學會創意，創意學習還需要組織內部的態度、思考模式、組織結構與運作程序上調整配合。
事實上，我們還是有很有創意的時候，就是當我們被准許像孩子般玩樂時、當我們用壓扁的可樂罐當足球玩時、當我們在沙灘上堆沙堡時。但很快的，當我們受到社會化，就根除了我們從玩樂中帶來的創意。然而有些人可能未受到太多社會化過程，就能保有赤子之心。至於剩下的人，在進入公司以後才學習該怎麼有創意，就像學習第二外語一樣，你當然會學會，但你永遠會帶有口音。
When I run corporate workshops and seminars, I am often struck by the lack of creativity and creative individuals in companies. And that at a time when every company wants innovative, disruptive, bold ideas. On the other hand, the argument in most of the management literature is that everybody can be creative: creativity can be learned. (I realize part of the argument is driven by the desire to sell books to creativity-deprived managers, but let’s take the argument for what it is.)
Yes, creativity can be learned – but it is hard. It certainly does not happen over night, by jumping on trampolines, listening to an inspirational pianist in the middle of a conference room playing tacky tunes, or drawing a face, one stroke at a time, as part of team work. I have seen such creativity-stimulating tools in action, and they don’t work.
They don’t work because creativity is sort of like language. In part it may be inborn: creativity requires “storing extensive specialized knowledge in the temporoparietal cortex,” and we must be “capable of frontal mediated divergent thinking, and have a special ability to modulate the frontal lobe-locus coeruleus (norepinephrine) system, such that during creative innovation cerebral levels of norepinephrine diminish,” says Dr. Kenneth Heilman, an expert on creativity and the brain. And it requires the right environment to stimulate neural development – such as a stimulating environment and organizational infrastructure that combine work with play. So, an off-shore one-day workshop will not do. Organizational change (in attitude, thinking style, structures and processes) is needed.
In fact, at one point in our lives, we were all creative: when we were allowed to play as children, when we were using smashed cola cans to play soccer, when we were building sand castles on the beach. Soon after, we are subjected to the process of socialization which eradicates most of the playfulness required for creativity. Yet some of us (perhaps the “undersocialized”) remain excited like children. For the rest, learning to be creative as an adult, while working in a corporate environment, is like second-language acquisition. You can do it, but you will always have an accent.
