Date: Saturday, March 8, 2014
Time: 12.30pm – 1.10pm
Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom G, 500 E Cesar Chavez St

Do you consider yourself a creative individual? Or are you one of those people who dreads brainstorming sessions? Is creativity a genetic trait? David Burkus’ new book The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas discusses some of these questions.

David has been researching creativity for almost 2 years. “I was in a doctoral program on strategic leadership and in my final year of coursework when I bit into the innovation bug…and it bit back!” he said. “I became really fascinated with what the leaders of creative companies do to foster such a climate and, when I looked at a typical company, I found very little difference as far as potential. The main differences were in the beliefs about how to approach the creative process.”

The Myths of Creativity  demystifies the process of creativity.  “One of the more interesting things I’ve debated about is the motivation behind writing these faulty myths,” David explains. “At first I believed it was just because of the mysterious nature of creative insight but now, after talking with so many people who believe they aren’t creative, I think several people propagate these myths as an excuse to not have to tackle creativity. If they weren’t born with it, then the pressure to perform is off of them.”

So does this mean that there is a formula to creativity? Can creativity in fact, be taught? “Well, you can’t learn creativity but you can UN-learn all of the stuff you picked up in your life that led you away from it,” David explains. “We’re all born creative. The kindergarten classroom is the most creative room on the planet. But by the time folks enter the board room, most of them have dismissed their creative potential. The exercises and methods many people use to ‘teach’ creativity are really designed to get them back to a line of thinking they were already quite familiar with…albeit they were a little out of practice.”

David will be holding a book reading at SXSW Interactive this year. “Anyone looking to rediscover, or just enhance, their creative potential should come to this panel,” he said. “I think the stories many folks tell themselves about creativity are not only faulty, but their doing harm to their creative potential. I hope to help them re-write some of those stories.”