Introduction

I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t felt the stifling feeling of being constrained by requirements, guidelines, or expectations. We often perceive being restricted as an unwanted experience, but - just hear us out - what if the limitations you find yourself working within foster a broader ability to create? Though this may sound counterintuitive, as many of us learned in our Creative Process Honors class, it’s entirely possible to thrive in the very space that you think you can’t.

The Lesson

Dr. Bolinger opened class by showing students a 2013 TED Talk by Phil Hansen, an art student who developed a tremor in his hand that he believed was the end of his career dreams. After two years of swearing off art, Phil returned to his creative roots with a new perspective, “Embrace the Shake.” Working within the constraints of his tremor, Phil has adapted his creation style to use mediums and techniques he’s developed from working within what he at first perceived as a barrier only to find that the shake he once dreaded became his gateway to unbound creativity.

The Activity

Post-it notes. Dr. Bolinger is a big fan of post-it notes but it’s quite possible that it is less about the note part of their job description, and more about the innovation they can inspire. After splitting into groups of 3, we were tasked with listing five standard ways a post-it note can be used, and five additional non-standard uses for them. There were no guidelines, no constraints - just anything that each group could think of. After a few minutes each team shared the ideas they’d come up with. We were then instructed to repeat the activity but this time Dr. Bolinger challenged each group to brainstorm unique approaches for utilizing the post-it notes, but restricted the purpose to a specific, assigned target market. Afterwards, Dr. Bolinger asked the class if it had been harder to conceptualize with new applications for post-it notes, when confined to certain parameters. It was unanimous - it was easier to think of new uses when we knew what the defined purpose was.

GROUP Target Market Creative Idea

1) Cleaning: Use the sticky part to clean between the keys on a keyboard
2) Art: Use them to make Origami
3) Other Household: Use them as wallpaper in the dorm
4) Education: Use them to learn a new language by naming and tagging objects.

The Takeaway

When faced with challenges it’s easy to get tunnel vision and see things one-dimensionally. As the activity revealed, there are times when being limited helps us be limitless. If we can “embrace the shake,” work within the confines by adapting, reevaluating the context of the issues we encounter and, as the author of Creativity, Inc. Ed Catmull says, “hold lightly to goals and firmly to intentions,” we can thrive. So, the next time you feel that sense of being stifled by an assignment’s rubric, remember, the ability to reframe the way we think about limitations or constraints can allow us to identify blindspots in our thinking, and readjust our frame of reference, expanding our potential.