Haven’t we all experienced this? – We can sit for hours in our offices trying to come up with a brilliant new idea, to solve a problem, to shape an important text or to find a nagging error in our computer code. And then out of nowhere, once we have set off to go home or for a coffee – there is the solution, straight and neat. Apparently when we let things go and don’t pursue them, the solution comes to us. Intriguingly there is an old story in the Welsh legends of the Mabinogi describing how a king tried to pursue a beautiful woman on horseback, but the faster he rode the larger the distance between them became. Finally the king figured out that he had to ride more slowly, not faster. This did the trick and he eventually caught up with the lady of his heart.
Often even a small change of perspective helps when you stand up, go for a short walk or talk to a colleague in the corridor. Recently I read that someone had reviewed where researchers said they regularly have their best ideas. Not surprisingly the various locations mentioned rarely include the office.
Obviously we are sharing this experience with many others who have creative professions outside research and higher education.
How can we make better use of such flashes of creativity? Is there something wrong about our offices? Is it the noise, the disturbance or is it simply the change of locations and situations that fuel our creativity? Probably not easy to say and quite dependent on everyone’s personality. In any event, the culture of occasionally working from home, at other universities and abroad is certainly something that stimulates research output. Quite frequently I even experience fits of creativity in airport cafes and while travelling in planes and trains packed with people. Also blocking other activities such as teaching and administration opens up windows of quality research time that can be used to think things thoroughly through – a rare commodity in this day and age.
Increasingly I am enjoying the chats I am sharing with my staff and other colleagues at lunch, coffee break or on the corridor. After each of them many research ideas appear in a new light, thoughts have become deeper and above all – a renewed flow of inspiration and love for my research field has filled my heart and on this wave of energy I get carried away to new shores.
An intriguing question in this context is, if we can actually “teach” creativity to our students or can we just inspire and promote it?
It is probably an important part of our research quest to find for ourselves what works best for us. Still, there may be some common “laws” and “principles” that work for many and that we can adopt to improve our research culture. I am curious to discover more of them as I am experimenting with myself.
