The Secret to Creative Growth

The Secret to Creative Growth: Managing the Creativity-Conformity Polarity

When I was a younger creativity trainer, teacher and scholar, I, as many have want to do, tended to rail against conformity. Conformity was the enemy of creativity. Conformity was the chief obstacle to new thinking, imagination, and original ideas. However, as I have matured I now recognize the important, and interdependent, relationship between creativity and conformity. Readings in the areas of biological evolution, evolutionary psychology, and polarity management, have given me new insights into the complex and crucial interplay between creativity and conformity. Indeed, I would argue, and do so in this post, that an individual’s, an organization’s, and society’s ability to adroitly manage the balance between creativity and conformity is the key to growth and prosperity.

Humans are innately wired both to create and to conform. Both creativity and conformity provide a competitive advantage. At first glance, one might assume that these two fundamental human characteristics work in opposition of one another. While there is a natural tension between creativity and conformity, the reality is that the healthy interplay, that is the successful integration of both, is essential to maximum growth and the realization of potential. I elaborate on this belief through a series of propositions.

First Proposition
The dynamic interplay between conformity and creativity is innate and, therefore, hard wired into every human being. The creativity-conformity dynamic is so deeply embedded in the human experience that it plays out unconsciously, naturally, often without our direct awareness or thought. Observe children, they naturally play. And within play we can witness both conformity and creativity. Conformity can be seen in how children imitate to learn, figure out ways to collaborate with others to successfully engage in team play, and learn that cooperation facilitates goal attainment. Yet at the same time we can witness the creativity bias innately possessed in all children. Innate predispositions towards creativity promotes imaginative play, independence in thought, and fantasy.

Second Proposition
Both conformity and creativity contribute to survival. We are not the most powerful species on our planet. How have we survived? Humans have at least two qualities that give us a competitive advantage. Yes, conformity and creativity. Humans are creators. Like no other species, we possess the thinking skills to imagine a new solution and to envision a different future. And with our opposable thumbs we can turn what is imagined into reality. We use creative solutions to respond to environmental threats, problems, and new opportunities. Ultimately, creativity results in new knowledge and ideas. Humans are designed to be creative; we are creativity machines.

Yet, creativity alone is not sufficient for survival. As we are wired to be creative, we are also wired to conform. Relative to other species humans are weak. Therefore, we had to learn to work together for our mutual survival. Our tendency to so easily conform allows us to establish norms that form the basis of our society, to cooperate with one another to solve problems, and to work together to achieve grand goals (from hunting mammoths to space exploration). Ultimately, conformity promotes learning. It is our conformity that makes us pay attention to others and to mimic the novel and valuable ideas produced by others.

Where our bias to be creative produces new knowledge, it is our bias to conform that allows these new ideas to be disseminated and adopted. Together the interplay between creativity and conformity leads to growth – for individuals, for organizations, and for society.  

Third Proposition
Imbalance leads to stagnation. The greatest threat to growth and success is an imbalance between creativity and conformity, and generally this means an overemphasis on conformity over creativity. The social pressures to conform often undermines individuality and creative imagination. Where once there was a healthy balance between conformity and creativity in children, as humans grow into adulthood this balance swings heavily in favor of conformity. The result is the suppression of creativity. The same growth pattern can be seen in organizations. Generally, it is an imaginative idea for a new service, product or process that serves as the catalyst for a start-up organization. But as the organization matures, conformity becomes the rule of the day. As an organization transitions from the start-up stage to the growth stage the need for efficiency, productivity, predictability, and stability, begins to overshadow creativity. Sadly, as creativity atrophies an organization can lose its ability to adjust to changes in the environment. With this imbalance towards conformity and against creativity the ongoing success, and very survival of an organization is under threat… think Blockbuster, Kodak, Nokia, and Sears. 

The key to survival for an individual, an organization, and for society is to maintain a healthy balance between creativity and conformity. To do this individuals and leaders must be aware of the warning signs that signal a prolonged bias towards one pole in the interdependent relationship between creativity and conformity.

Related Literature Sources
Johnson, B. (1996). Polarity management: Identifying and managing unsolvable problems. Amherst, MA: HRD Press.

Puccio, G. J. (2017). From the dawn of humanity to the 21st century: Creativity as an enduring survival skill. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 51, 330-334.

Puccio, G. J., Cabra, J. F., & Schwagler, N. (2018). Organizational creativity: A practical guide for innovators & entrepreneurs. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011). Creative leadership:  Skills that drive change (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.