Hi, everyone, Katherine here with Darryl and
we're going to be talking about structure and creativity.
Two topics that sometimes might not seem to go together.
Darryl, you've told me a great story about children and structure.
Something to do with a fence, I think?
>> Yeah, that's right.
There was a small study done and they had a class of
students that they took to two different playgrounds at two different times.
>> Okay.
>> The one playground had a fence and the other playground did not.
So they took the students to a playground without a fence and
they observed how much of the territory did they, did they use.
Where did they go and so on and they kept track of
it and they found that they used a certain amount of territory.
When they took them to the other playground with the fence.
You might have expected that it would confine the students.
>> Right.
>> But just the opposite happened.
The students who were on the playground with
the fence used the entire area within the fence.
The students on the playground without the fence stayed a little closer together.
It was almost as if they were fearful of the boundaries.
>> Interesting.
Hm, mm.
>> And it was, it was almost a type of paradox of structure.
>> Hm, mm.
>> That they, they would be keeping them in.
>> There is a concept that we call
the paradox of structure, Michael Curtin is the
one who introduced it, and it says that
any structure is both enabling, in other words helpful.
>> Right.
>> And limiting at the same time and it
applies to any kind of structure at all, so
the fence was a physical structure, but I could
have a social structure like my family or a team.
I could have a, a mental structure, an idea, a plan, can you think [CROSSTALK].
>> Even a budget or a schedule or
any of these things, or structures of various sorts.
>> And systems and governments and languages.
>> Yes, yes.
>> They're all different structures.
And so, the idea is that when you have
a structure and you're problem solving, you're trying to
figure out what's just the right amount of structure
that will be useful without limiting you too much?
>> Right.
>> And what's interesting is that if you
remember our creative diversity model, people see structure differently.
>> Yes.
>> Right, so you have people who prefer more
of it and people who prefer less of it.
>> That's right.
>> So, if you think of one of those examples of a structure like
a team or like the rules in an organization how you're suppose to behave.
>> Right.
People who are more structured thinkers will make use of that structure.
>> Yes.
>> They find it enabling, they see it as more helpful than the
people who are the less structured, who will tend to try to shed it.
So you get two people with different creative styles, looking
at the same structure and seeing it very, very differently.
>> Yeah, and one way to navigate that
difference is, if you, you could have the structure.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Have your fence but, gates in it.
>> Yes.
>> Have a way to go to the next level in a safe way, so that you could return back.
>> And when you build those fences
it's as if you're giving yourself some flexibility.
So the structure doesn't become too rigid and yet at the same time,
you have that, you have that safety so you know where you can go.
I think one great exercise for all of us and for the students here would
be to pick a structure, it could be a social structure like your family or your
team that you work with or it could be the rules or the regulations in
your city or your organization and it might be fun to do this with a partner.
Look at that structure and think about all the things
that are enabling about it, all the things that are helpful.
>> And all the things that are limiting.
>> All the things that are limiting and compare your views.
>> Yes, yes.
>> And by doing that you're going to get
a sense of how you think differently about structures.
And that will help you in
your collaboration with that person to understand
a little bit more how do they use structure differently than I do.