Creativity, mistakes and learning

I came across the TED talks on Youtube - films of stimulating talks/lectures/masterclasses by prominent people. I watched one by Sir Ken Robinson talking about education, intelligence and creativity - and how education squanders children's talent and creativity....

"companies stigmatise mistakes, we are frightened to make them - children are not frightened to be 'wrong'. If we are not prepared to be wrong, we won't come up with anything new or original". In my work supporting people's development in their professional and personal lives, this is central. There is a quote I've read that goes something like "we can't expect to get different results if we continue to do the same things".

Some of my best learning has come from my mistakes - recruiting the wrong person made me look at what assumptions I had made, and led me to change a recruitment process. Good managers cultivate an atmosphere where mistakes are valued (albeit within agreed levels of authority and responsibility which allow room for learning and development).

In the same lecture, Robinson quotes Picasso - "all children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up".

Hand with flowers: Pablo Picasso