How kindness impacts the outcome of creativity
Have you ever heard someone say, “She is the kindest person I have ever met”? and it’s not just one or two people saying it. Everybody’s saying it!
Kindness is a character strength and not everyone is naturally good at it.
Despite this really kind and somewhat kind people can still work together to solve problems in extraordinary ways.
What is kindness?
So we have the same understanding, kindness is how we treat people, doing favours and good deeds for others. Yes, it’s also kindness to self, but generally when we see somebody being kind, it’s how they are treating other people.
We love having our children being told that they are kind, but kindness is actually a character strength. When we hear people say, “she is kind” and everybody is saying it, chances are kindness is one of her top character strengths.
That doesn’t mean that people who don’t have it in their top five or even their top 10, aren’t kind.
Everybody has a component of kindness, just for some, it comes more naturally.
What is creativity?
I like the late Sir Ken Robinson’s definition:
“Creativity as the process of original ideas that have value.”
There are three important components to this definition.
Creativity 1. has value 2. is original and 3. is a process.
It has value
To ‘have value’, we mean it ‘solves problems.’
It is original
Original means the idea hasn’t been done before. It doesn’t necessarily mean a whole rework of an idea, but could simply be a tweak of a pre-existing one put together in a new and novel way.
It is a process
Finally creativity is a process, not an outcome.When we think of creativity, we often think of a piece of art, a song, a dance. These are all beautiful examples of the outcome of creativity.
A piece of art is a piece of art, not creativity.
Creativity is the process that created the piece of art.
Because creativity is a process, anyone can get good at it. It’s a skill that can be learned. We get better at the process through practice. The better we are at the process, the happier we are with the outcome.
This is the creative process we share with educators, parents and tweens/teens:
- Saturate, 2. Percolate, 3. Create, 4. Celebrate, 5. Rejuvenate
Like anything we get good at, it takes practice. So thinking of creativity as a habit — something we do every time we have a problem to solve in a new way — we will get better and better at it over time.
Where does kindness fit into the creative process?
It permeates all stages, but kindness as a strength strongly informs what we ultimately create, so it fits well within the second stage which is Percolate.
The Percolate stage is combining the new and existing pieces of information gathered in the first stage (Saturate) together in a way that has not been done before with the goal of solving the problem. But solving it in a way that sits comfortably with us.
I think we have all been on a team where the course of action decided upon has made us feel a little uneasy. If they just spent more time in this percolate stage, implementation (create stage) would have been easier because everyone would have felt happier about it.
Understanding and adhering to our strengths impacts what we ultimately create. They inform us that our original idea is something to be proud of. When it comes to putting it into action we will willingly see it through.
If kindness is our strength but we don’t experience kindness throughout the process, then the creative experience jars with us.
In addition when kindness is our strength, we need to see it in the outcome as well. If our original idea doesn’t create kindness toward others, or to the environment, or animals, or friends or family, then we won’t sit comfortably with what we’ve created. We won’t feel that we have solved the problem in a way that adds value.
It’s important to tap into those natural character strengths when we are being creative. That’s why we spend time with tweens, getting them to understand what their character strengths are. This way they start to understand what they create in the world is a truer representation of themselves.
Kindness isn’t a natural strength for everyone
Kindness may not actually be a top character strength of someone that you work with.
Instead honesty might be a higher strength. This means that they are naturally more honest, so they might express themselves exactly how they feel and less filtered. To be on the receiving end of this may feel less kind. What really is happening is they are tapping into one of their natural character strengths — being completely honest — regardless of how it feels.
In Summary
Kindness Impacts How We Experience Creativity And What We Create
- Kindness fits into the Percolate stage of the creative process and will shape what you Create;
- Kindness is not everybody’s character strength. So how they want to experience creativity and what they create will be different to yours if kindness is your strength.
Being aware of the above makes the creative experience so much more powerful and rewarding. It provides insight into how kindness impacts how we actually go out into the world and what we ultimately create.
We have created a quiz for educators to determine which stage in the creative process they are getting stuck and a tip on what to focus on. Great insight when you have to create a lesson out of nothing.
If you are a teacher here is the link.
Here is to your #creativity.
