The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt.

In this film, Brad Pitt grows younger as he ages. If we could use some imagination and creativity in this for all our benefits, think of the creative experiences we could have with the knowledge of wisdom of age, passion and energy of youth.

My thoughts drift to our pre conceptions as adults and parents. Children have no fear, they climb walls & trees, put silly things on, experiment and generally act like children should do, but us adults, this can be a problem, we worry about young children, especially when they start walking, so afraid that they will fall and burse themselves on impact. But it dawned on me one day, they only have a few inches to fall, while we see this from the view point of us 5 ft plus adults. When we fall, its from a greater height, and the potential exists to have more serious injury, but for a child, tis all part of the learning process.

Sometimes being creative needs that sense of being 5 and a child again. Put us adults in a group of our peers or same, and would we act creative? ….. groupthink would come into play.

Why can’t we adopt the child’s perspective, children have no fear, no prejudices, nothing what so ever to be worried about, only what us adults manifest onto them… watch out, dont do, keep quiet, sit still. These are lessons from the adult world manifested onto them.

‘Are we there yet?’ sounds familiar to most parents. Children have some amazing qualities about them that perhaps make them more creative: open mind, make connections, playful, curious, expressive, forgetful and forgiving, hands on, direct without reservations, fun to be around, enjoy things, cry out for small things, sleep well, and have a great sense of humour. But perhaps the most important quality of a child as he or she is growing up is asking questions! Not just, “Are we there yet?”, but also, “How does this work? What happens when you do this? Why does it go this way? When will something happen? Who is that person on TV? And many many more…” Did we ever tell our children that this is a dumb question? Perhaps not until they grow up to a certain age. And even then, we are always careful in inspiring them to ask more questions and learn more.

Do these qualities make children more creative than adults? Do adults lose some of these qualities as they grow older?

Creativity in the workplace, stems from the ability to have a comfortable environment where we can experiment and experience becoming a child again. We must release our brain to do what is so capable of being creative. Our workplace environment seldom is conducive towards being creative, we must challenge this. Fear of being creative in front of others, letting our guard down is common in many organisations.

So if we had the wisdom of old age, with the enthusiasm of youth, we would have a more enjoyable business environment, forgetting the Mother Nature aspect.

My thoughts for you to ponder on:

Are you more creative today than when you were a child?

Did you do some amazing things as a child?

Do you have more ideas as a child?

Do you still do those amazing things?

Is your workplace making you more or less creative?

Are you able to create new innovations?

There are many techniques to allow you to become creative, challenge ideas, thoughts and processes in organisations. Challenge yourself and we can help.