David Kelley gives an example from childhood to illustrate how creativity is killed early on in life
Criticism was a big reason why one of his school friends stopped pursuing creativity in his work
Albert Bandura, a Stanford psychologist was his first stop
Bandura developed a step by step process to help people overcome their phobia of snakes
Finding of this medical journey?
OVERCOMING FEAR IN ONE DOMAIN SUBSEQUENTLY GAVE PEOPLE CONFIDENCE IN OTHER AREAS OF THEIR
LIVES, TOO
At the D.School at Stanford, Kelley says he sees people from all disciplines entering the program and learning a singularly useful lesson: to consider themselves as creative.
Finally David Kelley narrates two stories to show that everyone and anyone can be creative
• The first story is of a friend and colleague, Doug Dietz, a designer at General Electric who creates complex medical imaging equipment
• One day, Dietz saw a little girl crying, scared of the treatment she was about to receive
• And whereas he’d once been proud of the lives he’d helped save, now he was disappointed to realize the fear the machine caused
• So he turned the machine into an adventure. The results were dramatic: From 80% of kids who had previously needed to be sedated, now only 10% required anaesthetic
• Repeating a story that has by now entered GE lore, Kelley recounts Dietz waiting with a mother for her child to come out of a scan. The little girl ran up: “mommy? Can we go again tomorrow?”
The second story is more personal to Kelley
• He tells us the story of his own recent dealings with hospitals, diagnosed with cancer, he was given a less than 40% chance of survival
• He started asking himself many questions like -‘am I going to survive? What will my daughter’s life be like without me?’ But also other things: ‘what’s my calling?’ ‘What was I put on earth to do?'”
• And it dawned on him. “The thing he most wanted to do was help people regain the creative confidence they lost along the way. If he survived, that’s what he wanted to do. And he survived
Takeaways from David Kelley
Don’t divide the world into “creative” and “non-creative,”
Let people realize they are naturally creative.
“When people regain that confidence,
magic happens.
Let their ideas fly; let them achieve
what Bandura calls self-efficacy
Recap:
• People have a misconception that creativity is for a few people
• If discouraged it puts people out of their comfort zone when trying to pursue creativity
• Overcoming fears can help one become creative
• Everyone can be creative irrespective of their profession
• Regaining such confidence can help create magic
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