As many of you know, I write children’s books in addition to being a scientist. I especially love writing poetry. But I remember the groans of my high school classmates when our English teacher assigned a booklet of original poetry, each poem following a different structure. When the formats of haiku and limericks were explained, the groans grew into protests about how hard it was to write in such a regulated way.
The idea that structure has an effect on creativity has been on my mind a lot, especially in the years that I taught project management to scientists. I was always a little worried that brilliant scientists would balk at the suggestion that they regulate their projects in the same way that an engineer or IT professional might. Scientists are used to brainstorming and out-of-the-box thinking. Some of that thinking has led them down rabbit trails of thought or experiments leading to scientific discoveries. No doubt engineers and IT professionals also brainstorm, but that was not on my mind at the time.
Gloria Mark, in her new book Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, says that self-regulation depletes cognitive resources1. So that got me thinking even more about how project management structure might impede creative thinking.
Are the ideas I presented in the project management course, causing scientists to deplete their cognitive resources? Are they so busy tracking expenditures and progress that they can’t think up brilliant theories? I think that we have to admit that there is a juxtaposition between management and science, but it is best to identify the issues and work with them to make our science projects accountable and allow our scientists to be creative.
The way I approached this in my classes was to promote the development of habits to make the structure routine. In this way, the structure or routine becomes subconscious, so that it does not take away from the energy needed to brainstorm all those wonderfully brilliant and original scientific ideas.
Another way to approach this would be to think of the structure as a guardrail, where you have the wiggle room to be as independent and creative as you want while the guardrails keep you safe from going over the edge. A guardrail could be a low budget, that forces you to come up with an innovative solution or a word count limit that forces you to write a concise abstract or a children’s book.
Thinking about poetry again, last night I listened to a webinar by the children’s book author and illustrator Chris Van Dusen. His presentation was all about rhyme. He said the tight structure of poetry helps his creative process. And I have to agree, having written several picture books of less than 100 words—word choice in those books is creative and selective! I choose to believe that the structure of project management can help scientists (and others) as well. If we put a structure in place to guide our activities, making those into habits, we can create room for creativity within that structure.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any comments on structure and creativity because I’d like to explore this topic more in the future.2
I have not finished reading the book yet, and I know she has some solutions, so stay tuned for more in a future Substack. In the meantime, read David Epstein’s interview with Gloria Mark.
My first title was: Does structure stifle creativity? But David Epstein wrote in this same post that he doesn’t click on a post if there is a question mark in the headline because the answer is always no. And it was, so I was quick to change the title!
Great topic Victoria. I believe strucutre provides the space for creativity. Having a structure creates the flyhweel for my idea generation. When I don't stick to it, I find myself lacking ideas.