A new method for training creativity: narrative as an alternative to divergent thinking

Abstract

Creativity is a major source of innovation, growth, adaptability, and psychological resilience, making it a top priority of governments, global corporations, educational institutions, and other organizations that collectively invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually into training. The current foundation of creativity training is the technique known as divergent thinking; yet for decades, concerns have been raised about the adequacy of divergent thinking: it is incongruent with the creative processes of children and most adult creatives, and it has failed to yield expected downstream results in creative production. In this article, we present an alternative approach to creativity training, based in neural processes different from those involved in divergent thinking and drawing upon a previously unused resource for creativity research: narrative theory. We outline a narrative theory of creativity training; illustrate with examples of training and assessment from our ongoing work with the U.S. Department of Defense, Fortune 50 companies, and graduate and professional schools; and explain how the theory can help fill prominent lacunae and gaps in existing creativity research, including the creativity of children, the psychological mechanisms of scientific and technological innovation, and the failure of computer artificial intelligence to replicate human creativity.

Cultures of reading: Then and now

“…The students are trained not only to understand the implications of a set of institutional arrangements in real life as narrative structures, but also asked to work through counterfactual scenarios, all the while learning to shift among various perspectives the same way as they would when encountering a complex fictional narrative. The effects of this training in narrative capabilities, for the authors, attest to the theory that creativity can extend into the ‘action-based neural processes’ that help human beings adapt to contested domains in life (Fletcher and Benveniste, 2002: 38).…”

Multilingual semantic distance: Automatic verbal creativity assessment in many languages.

“…Finally, future studies should also expand the scope of automated assessments to creativity tasks beyond the AUT, such as narrative creativity (Fletcher & Benveniste, 2022)—particularly given the recent success of text analysis tools applied to short stories in English-speaking samples (Johnson, Kaufman, et al, 2021; Toubia et al, 2021; Zedelius et al, 2019)—with an eye toward diversifying creativity research and increasing the accessibility of creativity assessments beyond English.…”

Artificial intelligence capabilities, dynamic capabilities and organizational creativity: contributing factors to the United Arab Emirates Government’s organizational performance

“…To address challenges through nontraditional means, it is imperative to integrate both acquired knowledge and experiential insights. Fletcher and Benveniste (2022) posit that the process of creativity necessitates divergent thinking, which enables the generation of multiple potential solutions during problem-solving. When confronted with a problem, public managers may adopt diverse approaches and adapt their strategies accordingly, leading to a range of solutions aimed at enhancing the performance of government organizations.…”