How do rules inspire creativity?

I was sitting at a restaurant today and there was a family sitting next to me. The booths are connected, and the family has one child who must have been around 3 or 4 years of age.

Children at this age are curious. Half way through dining the child wanted to explore. Increasingly we are becoming more and more unstable to a degree in which our attention span is abridged. As startling as this may be, I would go as far as to ask whether our attention span and a child’s attention span is homogeneous?

What is affecting our attention span?

According to Martin Lindstrom in his book Small Data, technology is increasing our need for constant change and novelty. Therefore, we cannot sit still and do nothing when our other option is to keep occupied with constant distraction and information consumption.

So what does this have to do with children?

I didn’t see this child exposed to technology, although it is not uncommon for parents to distract children with tablets, or Ipads that entertain them with games and shows.

What I found curious was not how the child was being parented, although I found it interesting that the father educated the child but stating that there is an invisible boundary between our booth and the booth they were sitting at.

This boundary cannot be crossed.

Mannerism is one thing, an assumption is another, yet taking away the privilege of creativity is something I would like to explore here.

I don’t have children so this is simply coming from a third person perspective. I do have nephews and I have had the pleasure of having that feeling of ownership and responsibility for them in public settings.

Don’t get me wrong by any means, just to clarify, when I say ownership I do not mean that I own their body, minds, or souls, I mean that I am responsible for their actions and my own in a given situation. The ownership is more in the context rather than the literal meaning.

When children get silly we feel the pressure of it reflecting negatively on us. Did we raise them wrong according to social standards? What are the social standards for children? Are they suppose to behave like dogs and listen to commands that we bark at them?

The thesis of this post is to let children be children. Okay, now if we do this and we set aside all of the rules then how will they outgrow this notion of carefree nomadic enduring?

Rules are meant to be broken. I am sure you have heard this saying before. My point is not to discourage parents not to teach children any rules, however providing the setting, children should be allowed to explore, wonder and use their imagination to the fullest.

Could this be stemming from a biased perspective? That is possible.

So I must consider how it would be like with my own children, that I do not have, versus other parent’s children. How can we teach creativity? When is the right time to do so? When are we harming and taking away the tools from them to be creative rather than reactive?

Do we set a specific time and place to allow this creativity, ironically aren’t we then setting boundaries again?

Boundaries are meant to be crossed and our imagination should be facilitated. Setting boundaries is society saying that you must live in a box. How can you live outside the box if your whole life the right thing to do is to abide by what society deems ‘right’?

That leaves me with questions of what is right and what is wrong, or what is good and what is bad?

Limitations are good, yet they can be harmful at the same time. Going a bit off topic, we are teaching our students the same material, yet none of us are the same, or in this matter learn the same.

How can creativity be applied in the workplace?

The argument would actually stem from rules. Setting specific rules, which instill discipline actually unlocks our creativity. The way this is done is by releasing the mind when knowing that you are following the company rules.

For example, when you have a set meeting every week, you do not have to think about planning, or designing the meeting, instead you eliminate factors of anxiety and stress building around the planning and you use that energy towards creative thinking. This is true especially when under duress.

I want to leave you with two questions; What is the purpose of parenting, and when do we find the balance of allowing a parent to inspire a child’s ingenious, yet governs the child to act civilized? At the same time asking what acting civilized even means?

Thank you for reading this post, the purpose was to inspire you to think intuitively while applying the principles that are set by society. Share this post and hit ❤!!!

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Originally published at karasingroup.com on September 30, 2016.