Why being an expert can imprison creativity

Expertise can restrict progress and imprison creativity

As we slowly but surely emerge (at last) from lockdown we should all be looking forward to some kind of boom. Exactly who will benefit from a hopefully steep incline of new demand is still a little unknown at this time but betting on retail, travel, hospitality and technology is a pretty good idea right now.

Regardless of more optimism, there is surely an opportunity out there for those of us who are prepared to adapt. And I emphasise the word try. To try and fail is in 2021 far, far better than to not try at all.

I know that failing is not easy. It is a sobering experience, particularly for people who have grown accustomed to success with relative ease, whether by luck or judgement. It's a human thing to apportion any success mostly to self. Therefore we tend to feel good about our hard-earned expertise status. It is validating, and it reassures our ego.

But expertise can also get in the way of progress, particularly so in terms of innovation and creativity. The problem is that many experts suffer from an affliction called confirmation bias. They will scan the horizon for information that aligns with their particular world view and ignore or diminish that which doesn’t. Emotionally, people and our egos need protecting, and this is something that we all do (to varying extremes) as a matter of course. It is human.

The downside of being an expert is that we tend to look at a problem or a challenge through the lens of an established paradigm. Therefore an expert will follow rules. This is OK when things are predictable and stable, and if the specific task is menial, or safety is paramount. For example, you don't really want a hugely creative airline pilot who is trying out a new set of aerial moves for the first time while landing a plane full of passengers. This is not sensible :)

It's normal to think that following rules is really important by the way. We all went to school and learned parrot-fashion basically a bunch of rules. Those with logical minds, a great memory for often rather mundane information, and an ability to excel in certain subjects gain easy validation and this continues into tertiary education, and then into working life. The dominant culture dictates that mistakes are to be avoided, and the shame of feeling like you're stupid (because that is how you are made to feel) still has a huge social stigma attached to it. Experts, therefore, will want to avoid failure at all costs, instead preferring to operate within a pretty narrow field of usefulness that then enables them to become experts in the first place. This is a comfort zone of sorts and still has its uses, don't get me wrong, but from time to time it might make sense to just stop feeling we need to be right all the time. Because by being frequently wrong, we are far more likely to hit the gold seam of innovative value. Whether by luck or by judgement.

If there is a social stigma attached to being wrong then there is a social status for those who are right. So those who enjoy this position in society often react strongly against an idea that challenges their position. That is understandable, but it is unhelpful if you need to create new solutions to a new problem. In this instance, expertise is actually imprisoning creativity and therefore strangulating progress.

So what?

As Einstein once said, (an innovator, by the way), “It is the definition of insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.”

So ask yourself, what kind of mindset do you have? What lens do you look through and do you suffer from any kind of confirmation bias? Are you prepared to try something different? Or are you actually tethered to a paradigm that might be preventing you from growth and stopping you from adapting to changing demand?

Try a new idea, and accept being wrong from time to time, it will increase your chances of being right and potentially in a very big way.

Written by Marcus Timson, Co-Founder, FuturePrint. Email.