!! CONFIDENTIAL !!
Thinking Hats & Coloured Turbans......
Due out in October (Prentice-Hall)
Intro....
Which came first? - the fruit orange or the colour orange? When I was asked this question I immediately replied "the fruit". But this also made me think of another well-known question: which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
From as far back as I can remember, I used to interject, to the annoyance of all those around, Where does the rooster come in? Because I figured, without the rooster, the chicken-and-egg thingy remains incomplete. It is amazing to note just how much time, energy and effort people spend, arguing, fighting, discussing, thinking, trying to figure out which came first -the chicken or the egg. And yet that crucial other, the rooster, seems to escape most peoples notice.
Why does this happen? Why do we allow the most significant items, things, notes, to slip from our fingers and minds? Why do we respond in predictable ways? Why are we afraid of being provocative? Why? Why? Why?
Many years ago when I was teaching at the National University of Singapore I gave a lecture on Arthur C Clarkes insightful novel (Arthur -for he is a friend -is always insightful) IMPERIAL EARTH and when the students feedback (students are powerful these days, their feedback can ruin you if you are not careful..!)came to me I was quite astounded to read quite a few complaints about me like Kirpal Singh talks bullshit in class; Mr Singh ought to know his science better; Kirpal Singh should not talk about things which my religion objects to; etc, etc. Why? Because I had lectured that, given Clarkes novel and the extrapolations it contained, one day soon we were bound to see cloning come about (I meant, of course, the cloning of humans!). Boy, was I attacked. Very luckily my Head and my Dean - a very interestingly creative individual himself -was compassionate and said Kirpal, I think it might be better for you to tone down your lectures a little…. Even if you are right, this kind of feedback does you no good.e
Precisely! Unintelligent, uninformed and worst of all, anonymous criticism given without the slightest consideration as to whether what the lecturer might have been saying had some merit does nothing but destroy the morale of most young university dons. I have had colleagues who have told me, again and again over the years, it is no use fighting, the system will always win and will always find ways to make sure it is right. Yes, as does every being when attacked. We all fight for our survival and because we are supposed to be sentient beings, morally endowed, we rationalize our conduct. So, too, systems. Now at my present university I constantly urge my students to empower themselves by not hiding behind the veil of anonymity when giving feedback; what is the point when one is afraid to take ownership of the criticism, complaint one is making? More and more of my students, I am happy to state, are starting to do this. And this leads to a very critical point in the interest of Creativity.
I believe, fervently, that real Creativity cannot and will not come about unless there is at least a modicum of transparency. Yes, there have been countless examples in tyrannical states, in communist nations, in dictatorships, to prove me wrong, yes, but we should also remember that in all of these instances, the creative element demonstrated itself in spite of the system, not because of it. And a nation, a culture, a community devoting itself to the making of a creative population, surely, understands this most basic of pronouncements: the more secretive one is, the more time it is going to take to nurture, sustain and nourish a genuinely creative/innovative culture.
I was reading a book about Mind tools in which it was stated that it is very necessary to sometimes ask truly provocative questions: for example, why must houses have roofs? By asking such seemingly silly and even stupid questions, the author argued, the mind is forced to think of reversals and alternatives. So we may come up with substitutes for roofs and this may lead to new products being offered in the market! Well, well, well. I guess I have always been provocative, right from the time when in third year of my Primary school I wore 9 underpants to escape the pain of extreme caning. (Just to clarify: the 9 underpants didnt help me because our smart teacher, noticing the bulk below my waist, made me take off ALL 9…-sometimes being creative, trying to outsmart the other results in worse punishment). But I cannot but agree that asking awkward questions is a sure hallmark of the creative individual. This creature doesnt just sit there accepting all and absorbing all; he does but what he does even more exactingly is to raise challenging questions….
There was this teacher in an elementary school who always had a way of putting the pupils down. For example, in one lesson on the Geography of the Earth, she reeled off facts and figures about the oceans and the seas and the rivers and the mountains, etc. at the end of the lesson she asked if there were any questions. One small hand went up: yes, teacher, said this shy little boy, what is the weight of the earth? not knowing the answer the teacher replied: That is a very good question. Now boys and girls, I want you to go home and find out the correct answer; consider this your homework for today. She went straight to the Library after school and noted the weight of the earth.
The next day the teacher came into class and asked, so did any of you
Find the answer to the question what is the weight of the Earth? nobody raised his or her hand. Well, I knew you lazy guys would not get the answer. Saying this, she triumphantly walked to the chalkboard and wrote a long set of numerals…. This, she said, gloatingly, is the weight of the earth. Now, are there any more questions?e…That small hand of the same boy who had asked the first question went up. Teacher, he said calmly, is that the weight of the earth with people on it or without people on it? at which point the teacher, blushing red with ignorance said, Keep quiet and read your text-book.e
The point of the story should be obvious. In our educational institutions are people who worry more about their own security than they do about the real pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Of course this is a sweeping generalization and of course there are those good teachers who truly go out of their way to ensure that their students learn in the best possible way. But I am speaking of the majority of teachers. In my lifetime I have come across very few, very preciously few, who have had the guts to admit to ignorance, to confess that their own education was, like most peoples, limited. Why are we so afraid to admit ignorance? Is it shameful? Is it a real loss of face? Well, we had better reconsider what shame and losing face is because we are not going to get very far in creativity if we allow these unnecessary emotions to cripple our style.
You, dear reader, will probably have read many books dealing with this strange and indefinable thing called Creativity. This book you are now reading is both about Creativity and yet not about it. Well, not simply about Creativity. My contention is that Creativity, no matter how one tries to define it, explain it, explore it, state it, vilify it, creativity cannot, and will never be, dissociated from the larger culture in which it finds itself. To talk about being creative minus those huge subsets of conditions which invariably collocate to either encourage or hinder creativity is to be naïve, to exist in a state in which somnumbulance takes over from reason.
So this book is about many, many things. From upbringing to PhDs, from the general sensibilities of a people to the language(s) we speak, read and write in. from pedagogies of learning and teaching to experiments in joking and working. By its very nature this book does not -and cannot -claim any finality: there are NO final answers when we explore Creativity/Innovation. There cannot be. What we do have, in the end, is at best a clearer awareness of the multitudinous complexity surrounding this vexed and vexing topic. Have we ever understood why God created Man? Indeed, when asked who are you, He merely responded I am who I ame…Creativity does not offer scholars the consolation of a QED.Creativity is not a triumph; it is a promise.it is not, truly, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; no, it is, perhaps, the many colours of the inviting rainbow. Creativity teases, it makes us uneasy about things, about people, about ideas, about life and living, about our systems, our institutions, our bosses and our colleagues, our friends, lovers, spouses, parents, siblings, children, about everything literally. And yet it eludes fixing. Creativity is NOT a problem which can be quick -fixed. It cannot even be slow - fixed. Creativity is a state of being, a state of realization that deep within us are immense possibilities for finding out new ways of doing things, new ways of being, new ways of co-relating- new connections, relationships, services, products, ideas.creativity is NOT a problem waiting to be solved, but a solution waiting to be used, processed, learnt.
Will I be honest in saying I learnt much from this book or that book? Not really because what I have to say here comes from more than 45 years of conscious living, of being alive to my environment and to the many delights and punishments it put in my way. i am a very blessed human being: I come from mixed parentage; my children are also of mixed-parentage. I grew up in at least 4 different countries: Singapore, where I was born, Malaysia (then Federation of Malaya) where I spent the first 6 years of my life; India which was the country which most informed my paternal grandmother who brought me up and Scotland from whose distant shores my mother traveled to the exotic east and fell hopelessly in love with this tall, handsome boxer who trounced his opponent with just one left hook while she, my mother, sat and watched from the ringside. How do I explain the crosscurrents of my own thinking? I will not even attempt to do so because I cant - and because it is useless to try and map the subtle maturing of mindscape which has been both traumatized by life as well as blessed in the most extraordinary of ways. When I was very young my grandmother used to cradle me in her arms and tell me stories about warriors who were now stars in the night sky and weird animals who kept vigilance over me as I lay asleep. As a writer, especially as a poet, I am still trying to fathom the fullness of metaphor -that powerful organizing human symbol whose business it is to tease us out of our complancies.are we still solving the puzzle about the serpents temptation of eve? Would we not agree that that great myth is one of the finest examples of the human creative spirit at work in strong metaphoric language?
Because of my sustained study of literature, particularly English literature, I am frequently asked to give lectures on English Language, English Literature, just about anything which touches on these interesting subjects. I often quote the famous lines from Robert Burns:
MY loves like a red, red rose
Thats newly sprung in May…
Most of my listeners, especially these days have never heard of burns so I tell them this was the same fellow who wrote Auld Lang Syne ( ahhhe…I hear them sigh). I continue: Look just at that fantastic first line, My loves like a red, red rose. What do we make of it? and time passes and my respondents suggest several different readings of this line. But none, literally none till now, has ever said anything like the following: It is necessary to note that real roses always have thorns, therefore Burns in one remarkable line has summed up the glory and the tragedy of love: it both gives life and it kills… on a lighter note, many of us chant, Jack and Jill went up the hill/To fetch a pail of water/Jack fell down and broke his crown/and Jill came tumbling after. Yes. But few, so precious few, ever ask the question why did jack and Jill have to UP a hill to fetch water?
I am being serious; like the clowns of yore. We remember that jesters were so designated that their freedom to question the monarch was a guarantee. I sometimes ruefully wonder whether in losing the great tradition of jesters we have also lost the capacity for creative thinking? Jesters, jokers, men and women who almost always have a way of twisting what is said/heard -these are very special people with very special gifts. They show us how we may look at the world with original, fresh eyes and in so doing, may be, just may be, still retain our sanity.
For in a world going so manifestly silly where people risk their lives for embedded truths, where the grooming of a cocker-spaniel is more vital than feeding a six month-old baby, where the wild ecstasy of scoring 100% over a machine is more orgasmic than the orgasms realized in sex, where the saving of ones face is more important than the truth which is being shared - in such a crazy world we need creativity and we need creative people. It is no longer enough to say we have all the paraphernalia to bring creativity about; what is wanted is the nerve to truly bring it about. Too much talk with empty delivery has resulted in the impoverished condition we are in today; all over the world people are crying out for creative solutions to their problems, for creativity to bring new meaning to the lives of men and women lost in the bewilderment of a confusing humanity.
This book does not promise immediate results. No. But it guarantees engagement, it guarantees challenge, it guarantees provocation. While reading this book is not going to make you an instant creator, it IS going to dig out and dig up your own deeply embedded creative self. For we all have one. This is the way we were/are made. Whoever it is who is ultimately responsible for the greatest software of all - our brain, our mind (what IS the difference, pray? - I am told that in the language of the worlds most populous nation, China, the difference is very confusing, if not practically non-existent!)-the tremendous resource of creative wealth which awaits us there is beyond refute.
This is not a scholarly book; at least not in the usual/normal sense of that word. It is not meant to be one. Indeed, scholarship can be said to be opposed to creativity because while creativity deals with the unborn, scholarship merely probes the already. Throughout there will be repetitions, there will be gross statements, general thrusts of intellect with no undertow, crude simplifications (how simple the act of sex, how complex the result!), broad demonstrations and amplifications - all with a view to impress upon you, the reader, just what a journey the voyage of Creativity entails. Are you ready for it? Truly ready? Here is an exercise, which should tell you whether you are ready to embark on this journey.
Sit comfortable. Anywhere. Take a few deep breaths to relax. Gently close your eyes. Travel to where you feel totally at ease with the world, at ease with your self. Enjoy the space. Think of love. Think of the one person with whom you have not made love for a long, long time. Think of that one person for whom you havent even had time. This is you. Your Self. Think. Make love to your self. Ask forgiveness from your Self because you have neglected it for so long. Being forgiven, ask for blessings. Blessed, be happy. Luxuriate in this newfound joy.now, gently, come back to where you are. Slowly open your eyes. Are you ready?
