I had a great conversation today, with William Harvey, who’s working on his EdD. He wanted to know if I thought it was really possible to ‘teach’ someone to be creative. Here’s how our discussion went: Although I call the coaching approach that I use ‘teaching’ creativity, I really believe that as human beings we’re all innately creative. Every single one of us. We’re born that way. Unfortunately, though, from a young age, our divergent thinking ability is discouraged through a variety of experiences: we’re chastised for coloring outside the lines, if we ask too many questions, or have answers that aren’t ‘the one right one’. However – and luckily – because creativity is an innate part of being human, it doesn’t disappear – just gets suppressed. Once we give people strategies to practice divergent thinking on a regular basis we are able to ‘teach’ them to rediscover the creativity that is already inside!
