I just came back from a thought-provoking creativity conference. In attendance were hundreds of people, many of whom have been creativity practitioners for dozens of years. It was interesting to see how many of them are still using the same creativity techniques today as they did in their early days. During a lively group discussion, we discussed this phenomenon – what was referred to as the “calcification of frameworks.”
My response to the group was:
“If expertise is the enemy of creativity*, then a creativity expert can not be an expert in creativity.”
Think about it.
* If you are an expert in a particular area, you will find solutions quickly – and stop looking for new ideas. Unfortunately these solutions are often not new, not creative, and not valuable.