Our Creative Approach
When old ways don’t work or change is thrust upon us, we often need new ideas and solutions and we need to know how something new can work. In these situations, problem solving isn’t enough. We need a creative approach because we need to create something new – something that hasn’t existed before. We need a way to think and move forward that opens our hearts and minds to creating a new life and work.
This creative approach draws from nature’s way of creating. Nature’s creative process is an adaptation to the ever changing natural world. The scientific method also draws from nature’s way of creating, though often scientific discoveries are labeled “accidents” rather than viewed as part of the creative process..
Change is constant but we don’t notice it until our lives and work are disrupted. Our first response often is to protect the status quo rather than to embrace change. Noticing this common practice, WRI president and founder Day Piercy designed the creative approach and its creating method and tools to help people make the shift to resourceful, creative thinking and action, and to make change easier and more effective. The question that guides Piercy’s creative approach is “how do I/we live creative potential now? Her approach builds on strengths, combines analytic and creative thinking and engages the creative process – nature’s way of creating something new.
Problem solving works well when solutions and the change to create them are embedded in the problem. For example, your car breaks down and the mechanic has an instruction manual and training in how to repair what is wrong. Or, you lose your job and jobs are plentiful -- all you need to do is go down to the local hiring hall or employment office where a new job awaits you. Or, you retire and your pension or savings or social security is enough to pay the bills and you are in good health. All you need to do is to decide where you will live and what activities you want to do. Or, you can afford to live in the community where you have lived your whole life or the past decade. Life circumstances are the frame for our lives. When times are easy, problems can be solved. Change is easy.
When our lives are disrupted by major changes – even change we choose to make, or when problems go on and on and aren’t solved, we need to create something new. That requires a creative approach rather than problem solving. We need to engage our creative mind so that we can open ourselves to new possibilities -- to the creative process which is the source of all new ideas and solutions.
To create with the creative process requires that we: |
Focus on what you wants to create (instead of on what’s wrong) |
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Create space for different ideas |
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Honor differences and build connections with others |
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Avoid “shoulds” (as in they should do it my way or this is how this should work out) |
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Find the green lights – the opportunities and possibilities |
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Use symbol-making and arts activities to access the picture-making part of your brain, the source of innovation and breakthrough |
This creative mindset is the source of aha! experiences and breakthroughs. A problem solving mind can’t create something new. Only a creative mind can.
Piercy’s creating method activates your creative mind. It’s question/ vision/action (QVA) process connects left brain analytic and right brain creative thinking and action to attain desired results. Creative thinking is not about artistic ability. It’s about the capacity to access one’s imagination, the part of the brain that thinks in images and pictures rather than words. It’s about awareness and understanding that the creative process is the source of change that works. It’s about creating with rather than reacting to whatever happens. It’s about connecting to the creative process – the power to create.
