Conventional Intelligence versus Creative Intelligence
Creative intelligence is not just something we bring to literature, art and music. Each and every moment of
our lives can be met with a consciously creative approach.
One way of understanding our creative intelligence is to compare it to the conventional intelligence that has traditionally been more prized by our schools and workplaces.
This conventional intelligence (sometimes called left-brain intelligence) is associated with intellectual, rational and analytical thought; creative intelligence (sometimes called right-brain intelligence) is associated with thinking that is more imaginative, inventive and innovative.
These are sweeping summaries of complex neurological and social processes but in broad terms:
- Conventional intelligence communicates through thoughts, concepts, opinions and ideas. Creative intelligence communicates through feelings, emotions, imaginings and intuitions.
- Conventional intelligence categorises, creative intelligence breaks the box.
- Conventional intelligence critiques, creative intelligence explores.
- Conventional intelligence controls, creative intelligence allows.
- Conventional intelligence looks out, seeing human reality as material and given (shit happens!). Creative intelligence looks in, seeing human reality as imagined and co-created (shift happens!).
- Conventional intelligence likes answers, creative intelligence likes questions.
- Conventional intelligence sees failure as an avoidable defeat. Creative intelligence sees failure as a necessary learning opportunity.
- Conventional intelligence persuades through intellectual opinion and argument. Creative intelligence persuades through story, symbol and song.
- Conventional intelligence consumes art, writing and music as entertainment. Creative intelligence creates art, writing and music as expression.
- Conventional intelligence sees life as fixed and ultimately meaningless. Creative intelligence makes meaning through pattern and metaphor.
As Bill Moyars once said, ‘creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous’. You don’t have to be making an artwork or a piece of literature to do that. It can happen in the making of relationships, or work, or money or anything else.
The same process that makes one thing makes all things.
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I trust you’d write more write ups. It’s certainly worth reading.
Amazing article for newbies like me! Bookedmarked your site to read your next article.
Very nice information.
I’m not so sure what some of the previous posts are defending. I do smell clear odours of defence. While I could understand the preceeding responses, it is pityful that some (without over analysing) have refused to accept the reality that a dead, conventional, closed, blinding and unloving conventual intelligence exists. I would submit we urgently need to be aware of the dangers and hurt it can and does bring to individuals, groups and societies.
When I do not conform, meet targets, pass your exam, sell enough – then conventionally I have failed, period. An open and respectful spirituality and appreciation of being at our most creative, being for one another, particularly in a place of work is priceless and indeed rare.
Get off the fence if you believe conventual controlling work places and practices don’t demean people. Get off the fence if you are not afraid to discover, uncover and rediscover the spiritual mystery so many negate. Oooops, nearly got extremely angry there!! Damn right I did. Wake up, smell the defence, get off the fence. Defence! Get angry or very scared.
[...] ‘creative’. Many work “regular” jobs and may not think of themselves as creative at all. Creative intelligence has little to do with particular activities and more to do with a way of meeting and understanding life. I define it is “the ability to engage [...]
To me, the difference between creative intelligence and conventional intelligence is analogous as genius is to smart. A smart person can think very well within the box of convention, while it takes genius to break out of the box.
Creative Intelligence can also apply to business too… Thinking with an open mind and being open to new, different, and innovative ways of doing business is unusual but invaluable. There are some of us in business who imagine… we use our right brain more than our left… we are often labelled as “Mavericks” because we are unconventional. Our intuition is important in sensing the right direction to steer – we understand people as well as processes.
James Rock
http://www.cultivar.co.uk
[...] over-emphasis on linear, analytical intelligence (the kind measured by IQ – which I call conventional intelligence), linked to a system of regimented oppression, has created a grave imbalance on planet earth that [...]
Hello,
Thanks for you thoughts on Creative Intelligence–a complex idea that may possibly be distilled down to the difference between thinking and knowing. In my view, take it for what it’s worth, there is the mind and then there is the spirit. The mind thinks, draws conclusions from random impressions. The spirit–you, has the ability to reach out into the world and become engaged with reality, touch it. The spirit knows, the mind is a process of thinking. If you, the spirit were to stop thinking, reach out and touch, feel a tree with all your senses, with yourself in essence, you would know with certainty the tree. On the other hand, if you sit there looking at the tree, all kinds of thoughts from every conceivable source would present themselves. So, in my world, Creative Intelligence would be the spirit using the mental process to communicate what it knows. There is only what one knows with abolutely certainty and what one thinks one knows from the impressions recorded in the mind. You, the spirit, either uses your mind or it uses you. If the mind is using you, it is not creative, it is simply a rehash of things already said and done.
[...] over-emphasis on linear, analytical intelligence (the kind measured by IQ – which I call conventional intelligence), linked to a system of regimented oppression, has created a grave imbalance on planet earth that [...]
[...] are the process of moving from an industrial-based economy that most prized conventional intelligence to an economy that values creative intelligence more highly. This transformation is not yet [...]
No one gets to the end of a creative process without slaying the dragon. The dragon is the critical voice in your head that says you work is no good. Of no use to anyone. Without meaning. Without style. Without genius. If one cannot look that devil straight in the eye, tell it to go to hell and proceed forward with the next sentence or stanza or brush stroke — their vision is lost. Swallowed hole by the dragon or burnt to nothing by its fiery rage. Nothing will come of the vision one has held with such love for so long. Nothing. Not without facing the dragon down. There is no getting around it. It takes courage to create. It takes losing a thousands times in a row but still coming back to try again . If one does that, then they climb higher. It’s the law. The law is this: If you don’t give up you win. One day youy will reach the summit, which is where the gift in you never fails. Never falters but sings like a bird straight from your heart.
Consciously drawing a thread of creativity through a day makes each day a work of art in itself. Through free writing, as taught to me, by you Orna I feel fully connected with my creative intelligence at every moment. All my senses are enhanced by this. Noticing. Enjoying. Every moment more cherished. Every challenge more achievable. By connecting with my wishes and dreams, through this writing process, I have over time achieved many personal joys which may have remained hidden or dormant. I believe that anything is possible with creative intelligence. I wish you well Orna. Liz X
oops there it is LOL
A very interesting topic Orna. I fear it can ultimately result in over thinking a subject, that is, the subject of the essence of creativity itself.
Intelligent: Quick at understanding (Webster’s New Dictionary)
This is obviously a trait that is desireable in any endeavour, creative or otherwise. (and perhaps all that we do is creative in one way or another in how we are doing it?) My finding is that intelligence is just that, intelligence. It applies to all that we do.
If we are working on a creative project, that is, making something from nothing, or making something new, unique, imagined but never seen before, well, what does intelligence have to do with it? I think it will come into play where study of information is required,for example, techniques, background, marketing, tools, niches, formats, and so on. The better able one is to collect information, dissect it, use it and comprehend it, the better one can apply these things to whatever is being done.
In the creative process however, I am bothered by the term “creative intelligence” since it seems to me to be a combination of two unrelated abilities…creativity and intelligence.
Creative expression does have more to do with the feelings, emotions, intuition and so on, as you have written, Orna; exploration, yes, soul-centered, I would agree. The intelligence of the creator again has more to do with his or her ability to access and comprehend and analyze information.
Therefore, perhaps the person who is more intelligent, (a questionable measurement, to be sure) would be better able to find and use the information required to create a finished “product” but it is to me separate from the creation process itself. In many cases, such research is not required to create. The great men and women of our history often had no need to know what has gone before to come up with something new.. composers for example. Some did not even read music!
In other words, yes, collecting information and background and techiniques can be useful and sometimes important, but when push comes to shove, the Thing Of Which We Have No Understanding comes into play and creation takes place. The cloud of unknowing.
It has been confirmed by those who study these things that people with higher intelligence are more likely to suffer from depression, for example, because they use their imaginations more intensely. If this is true, then their imaginations are very active and in constant play, and it would not be too far a stretch to say that perhaps therefore they are imaginating and creating more in their minds…? Intelligence may come into it then as a highway to more vivid imagination or more creative thought. If you can imagine more clearly the many possible outcomes of a situation and are made depressed by it when another is oblivious to your mental machinations, then ergo, you could, conceivably be better placed to paint that vision, or sculpt it, or write it out. If you cannot imagine it, you cannot create it.
In summary, I think intelligence is one of the inherent traits of the person who is creating and will therefore have an affect on the creation. How that could be measured is beyond me. I know that if I think too much about what I am painting, it will not work out. If I have researched where necessary tools and so on, or foundational instruction, that information is absorbed and becomes part of me, and then THEN I call let loose the creator in me. What happens is the descending of that bubble, that ‘zone’ many talk about where time and space are suspended, your earthly surroundings are blurred, and the work becomes the focus and reason for being. Yet I am reminded that intelligence can hamper creativity very effectively. When you know that something cannot be done, you won’t try to do it; if you are unaware of that fact, then, as many inventors will tell you, you DO it. Convoluted? I hope not.
I am writing this listening to a Brahms violin concerto and reading Annie Dillard, while trying to pick apart the conventional from the creative intelligence that powered the woman who was my mother in order to write her biography; and as I do so, I have no doubt that there is a fundamental chasm between the two – a tension as strong as two magnets repelling each other – a tension I always feel in myself when I am writing. Its not to say that a value judgement can be made, and I often want to change the energy so that the magnets are drawn together and that the effort that I have put into my conventional education is not entirely wasted.
But my creative intelligence is not learned, and certainly not rational in the conventional sense. It has had to be released, but it’s source is deep, and draws on luck or intuition that is beyond my pragmatic control. As AD says “we are making hay when we should be making whoopee: we are raising tomatoes, when we should be raising Cain or Lazarus!” Orna, I’m not sure this makes any sense, but then again, maybe its not meant to!!
Orna, I’m so sorry for the double post. I forgot the time difference and reaction time. Saw your first post, replied, kept reading FB, saw your second post, didn’t see my comment, rewrote it. Now not sure which I like better. You choose and dump the other. Or maybe both. So glad you’re back and stimulating my right brain.
Any right-brainer will recognize that de Bono’s (see sidebar) “lateral thinking” is not the same as linear thinking favored by left-brainers. Lefties sometimes have trouble realizing there is another way, an alternative process or viewpoint, that some people really ARE different.
I noticed a comment above with a narrow definition of creative intelligence as applying to the arts. Boxing it in, categorizing it as lefties sometimes do. Implying there may be something outside their understanding is likely upsetting to them.
DNA research is a classic example. Much careful step by step research led up to it, but the discovery was a creative intuitive leap. Thinking outside the box, which some interpret as “straying from the fold.”
But I could be wrong…
Steve
Any right-brain thinker will immediately recognize that de Bono’s (se sidebar) “lateral thinking” is not the same as linear, favored by left-brain activity. In my experience, left-brainers sometimes find it difficult to recognize there is another way of thinking, another viewpoint, or that some people really ARE different.
I noticed an attempt above to confine creative intelligence to “actually being, well, creative.” The writer defines it as applying to the arts. Boxing it in, categorizing it, which left-brainers tend to do. You noticed this too. Implying there is something outside their understanding is upsetting to say the least.
DNA research is a brilliant example. Much research led up to it (conventional, linear, sequential) but the final breakthrough was a great creative leap of intuition. The classic term “thinking outside the box” which some interpret as “straying from the fold.”
Hi Kristian, Welcome to the site. Conventional Intelligence is my shorthand for the kind of intelligence that’s fostered by our education system — rational, analytical; what psychology terms left-brain activity. This form of intelligence is encouraged widely, by our schools, work places etc. It is highly valuable and the emphasis on it was essential in an industrial economy. Creative intelligence is right-brain activity (again these are shorthand terms, over simplifying complex processes). I understand creativity as an approach, rather than a specific field of endeavour (arts, crafts or other activities traditionally labelled creative) — an understanding that is fostered by a growing body of psychological and neurological research. It’s not that conventional intelligence is wrong; but that effective living – particularly in the fluid 21st century economy – requires creative intelligence too — and that kind of intelligence has been suppressed in most people. My interest is in rebalancing a dynamic, iterative interaction between the two and bringing creative intelligence out of the arts-and-crafts zone (ghetto?) and applying it to all life situations — yes, even the moment of death.
Thanks for your interest and in-depth contribution.
You’re trying to make creative intelligence into something it’s not. CI is about being good at combining understanding, intuition and skill in a creative pursuit. It is in no way new that those things need to be combined well in life in general. Combining them is in fact integral to having a well-rounded personality, and that is something our culture has always valued.
By definition, creative intelligence applies to the arts. It’s not creative intelligence unless you’re actually being, well, creative. But if we indulge this thought experiment, and allow creative intelligence to apply to other areas in life, what do we get?
We get a list of opinions that you have about what it means to lead a good life, about what attitudes, beliefs and opinons are best, as well as an attack on what you perceive as “conventional intelligence.” Many of the things you say about conventional intelligence are simply not true. Where does it say that conventional intelligence doesn’t “connect the observer to the observed”? Conventional intelligence is more “holistic” than you’re implying; being able to see the big picture has been valued long before the word ‘holistic’ took off. Since when is conventional intelligence not open and aiming to explore? Maybe it just isn’t open to the things you want it to be open to. No one has ever said that it’s smart to not learn from failures, so your brand of creative intelligence doesn’t bring anything new there. You say creative intelligence is spirit or soul based. Could you possibly pick anything less poorly defined to base it on?
The line you draw between creative intelligence and conventional intelligence is false. Many of the positive traits you ascribe to creative intelligence already belong to good old fashioned “conventional” intelligence. Since when is “conventional intelligence,” AKA simply ‘intelligence’, not innovative? The greatest innovators in history have been quite “conventionally intelligent.” Intelligence and creativity are not opposites. Sorry that this comment got a little long, but I’m posting it anyway.
Sincerely
Hi Jonathan, thanks for the feedback. I guess it would help the discussion to define what I mean by intelligence — to me it’s our capacity for learning and understanding, for grasping truths, relationships, facts and meanings.
This strikes me as reverse engineering to substantiate the concept of CI, not sure all that holds true and may not even come under the heading of intelligence, per se