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by Sue Shellenbarger ................................................................................................... |
Many researchers have made the case in recent years that being a parent makes you a better manager. But does it make you more creative?
Now, one author, consultant and artist is asserting that doing creative play with your kids—spending floor time cooking up projects with pipe cleaners, paste and Play-Doh—makes you more creative at work. Author Alex Hiam says helping with kids’ art projects can stimulate your creativity, too, helping you frame problems differently and express your ideas more freely.
To aid creativity in both you and your children, Mr. Hiam advises dreaming up open-ended challenges. Gather random small objects and see what you can make out of them; for example, a soda bottle, Popsicle sticks and bottle tops might become a spaceship. Or make a home movie about new ideas or attempts at creativity you notice in your community, commenting on a neighbor’s solar panels or a dance teacher showing students a newly choreographed dance, for example. Or challenge your children to portray your house in several different ways–as a drawing, a sculpture, a computer-drawn floorplan or a dot on a map; then put up an art show of the various portrayals.
There is no proof this approach will turn you into a font of creativity at work, of course, and many work settings these days offer little opportunity for generating fresh ideas. Nevertheless, Mr. Hiam has worked as a consultant to big companies on helping employees improve creativity at work, and he is also an artist and father of five.
I have always been a fan of using skills and perspectives gained in family life to solve problems at work. When I took a three-day break last year to prepare for a family reunion, my kids and I used Tempera paint and photos to create posters about each of the 50 family members who were attending; the results were colorful and wild. I wasn’t looking for any impact at work, but I noticed the following Monday that I was more relaxed, and generating ideas seemed easy.
Readers, do you notice any impact at work after you have done creative projects with your children? For those without kids, how do you express creativity outside of work? Do you think these activities benefit you at the office? Or are these arguments just wishful thinking?