Creativity in motion – cognitive methods to increase one’s creativity #2

Dear reader, in the previous essay, I assumed that you would like to hear more about: How can I become more creative and how can I enable others to become more creative? Still valid? Then let us investigate a different direction.

Motivation – Become confident in what you do

Motivation, motif, will, or volition is the mental fuel that drives us. It is the “Why” behind every action. To arrive where I intend to go with these lines, I will skip the “What creates the why?” – so no Libido, no Freud, no self-actualization, no Maslow – and go straight to the “Where does the why come from?”. For simplification purposes, there are two sources from where motivation can originate: inside and outside ourselves – in other words: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

For the more interested among you, these are the four major theories that explain the relation of creativity and motivation on which this essay is based:

1. Self-efficacy – Bandura, 1982 (you may have heard of his previous Bobo doll study)
2. the Cognitive Evaluation Theory – Deci & Ryan, 1985
3. the Two-tier model – Runco & Chand, 1995
4. Flow – Csikszentmihalyi, 1997 (to be pronounced “Chicks and me high”, really)

Extrinsic motivation – little creativity here

Money is the most well-known and commonly used extrinsic motivator in the work context. We wish to obtain or to maximize it. We also strive to minimize the absence of it. Regarding money and other desirable incentives, the rules on how to obtain those are quite clear: study well and work hard. Play by these rules and desirable things or events will come your way, go astray and you will struggle (that can and should be debated, but for the sake of argument, let’s agree to not disagree).

Creativity is hard and strains our cognitive resources. Acting creatively can also yield dubious results. So why would we go for a never-seen-before, potentially impractical solution when there are well-established alternatives that almost guarantee success? Humans are, as are most creatures, economic beings and, thus, avoid strains and doubt whenever possible. Instead, we prefer solutions with an optimal effort-success-ratio and a reasonable level of certainty. That is basically the essence of dozens of experiments conducted by Deci & Ryan (1985 to 2004), Finke (1988 to 1992), Moreau & Dahl (2005 to 2009), and Ward (1989 to 2008).

Intrinsic motivation – Why go the extra mile?

… because we are intrinsically motivated. In such cases, the willingness to engage in an activity is perceived to come from within ourselves. We perceive intrinsic motivation in the forms of pride, the need for autonomy, or sheer fun. Pride can be fostered by verbal rewards and recognition. Our need for autonomy can be satisfied if we gain the feeling of being the originator of our actions and that we have freedom of choice.

Freedom of choice and playing by the rules seem to contradict, right? Indeed, extrinsic incentives can inhibit intrinsic motivation, sometimes severely. For instance, Deci, Koestner & Ryan (2001) found that performance-contingent incentives – the better I perform, the bigger the reward – have a significantly negative effect on intrinsic motivation with an effect size of d = -.88* (that’s a huge effect!). That can also be true for verbal rewards. Verbal rewards foster our pride and usually affect intrinsic motivation positively, but as soon as verbal rewards appear to have a controlling nature, the fostering effects not only vanish, they tend to become diminishing instead.

Flow – maximum intrinsic motivation

One could argue that the experience of flow is the state of maximized intrinsic motivation. People can reach the flow state when the following conditions are met:

1. Well-defined and proximate goals
2. Immediate and affirming feedback
3. Balance between challenge and skill
4. Constant awareness of actions and events
5. Non-consciousness of distractions, oneself, and time
6. No anxiety of failure
7. Autotelism – a task has no specific purpose, is an end in itself, and is “just fun”

There are, of course, several issues with creativity and flow (in the same order as above):

1. Most creative tasks are ill-defined, and the goals are distant, sometimes decades into the future.
2. Creativity yields novel, sometimes disruptive results. Affirming feedback given by other people, at first, is often rare. But every task also has an inherent feedback system, e. g. tennis: ball is in, good solution; ball is out, bad solution. Sometimes, such inherent feedback systems are well-hidden.
3. Most creative tasks are not only ill-defined, they are also very hard and require expert knowledge.
4. That is not really an issue, is it?
5. That’s more of an issue… try not to think about polar bears… As soon as you try not to be conscious about something, you already failed… there’s not much you can do about #5 non-consciousness because it is not a pre-condition but a by-product of flow… what you can do is to control the situation in which you engage a task and to deprive yourself of distractions.
6. That can be achieved through confidence, competence and the impossibility of negative consequences, easy right?
7. That is Greek and translates to self and result… this is where the magic happens

Self-efficacy – Where the magic happens

We experience a positive emotional state in such activities in which we feel confident and effective. Effective means that we can influence the situation according to our liking. That is why gambling makes your heartbeat go through the roof. If you win, you obviously gained control over something uncontrollable, right?

To have an effect on something, we must act. We must then be attentive towards responses and results. Given those responses and results affirm our action, we gain confidence. Because of that confidence, we are likely to engage in that activity again and again. Little by little, we do not only gain confidence, but also competence and, ultimately, joy.

The learnings – where psychological findings sound like calendar mottos

• First, you must act.
• Then, you must act again.
• Don’t give up easily.
• Obtain affirming feedback by being mindful of the task environment.
• Don’t take criticism the hard way, focus on the constructive side of it instead.
• Become competent in your field and strive for knowledge.
• Be aware of the goal and structure the task at hand, no matter the complexity.
• Don’t let others take control over your actions.
• Be the originator of your choices.

The last bit is somewhat of a conundrum for enablers, e. g. CEOs. As soon as you try to control those that ought to be creative, e. g. through bonuses, you impede their intrinsic motivation… makes you think of Schrödinger’s cat, doesn’t it?... Schrödinger’s creativity – the act of observation or outside control can be harmful in itself… luckily, in contrast to the cat, a creator will eventually come out of the box and present her or his results. All you need is patience.