The Creativity Confidence Loop

As the research on what makes people more or less creative continues I’m interested in a seemingly simple aspect of how or if we feel we’re creative....confidence. The confidence to allow yourself to imagine new possibilities and the confidence to share your ideas with others, however crazy they may seem. And what is the connection between self-confidence and creativity?

A number of studies have been carried out over recent years into the link between self-concept & self-confidence and creativity. One of them was performed on children of around 5-6 years old by Clemente Franco Justo at the University of Almeria in Spain. The ‘creative relaxation programme’ produced the following results:

1) Children who have greater self-confidence will be able to express their creative potential more readily than those whose confidence is lower.

2) Children who manage to express their creative capacity to a higher degree will tend to acquire greater self-confidence and feel more secure.

And here we have the Creativity Confidence Loop. When self-confidence is high, anxiety is decreased and children are able to be more open, spontaneous, communicative and curious. When self-concept is poor and self-confidence low, children are far more likely to under-estimate their potential or be able to share ideas.

Many authors and studies have looked at the characteristics of creative children and found them to be: self-confidence, imagination and perseverance in the face of obstacles, whereas fear and weakness can drive creativity away or make it more difficult to find.

Translating this into the adult world – when our ideas are heard and acknowledged, we’re far more likely to come up with more. If we dare to share one small initial idea and feel it is heard, our capacity to broaden our imaginations begins to grow. As our confidence grows, so does our ability to come up with and share increasingly creative ideas. The key is to start the process. However small. However perhaps unusable that first idea is – if it is crushed, so is the possibility of a person’s imaginative growth and creative development. If it is heard – so begins the Creativity Confidence Loop that is potentially the beginning of a whole new and dynamic culture of innovation.

Philippa
Back to 4D website