Women in the news
"The Well Within ... with Susan Still"
Two years ago (1995), Susan Still, who keynotes our December 16, 1997 fall career program on creativity, "Tapping the Well Within," quit her day job in arts administration to start her own Baltimore-based company, Still Consulting. Since then, Ms. Still has led creativity workshops and retreats for a variety of people and groups, including boards of directors, prison inmates, performing artists, at-risk teens and government agencies. Her sessions focus on strategic planning, team-building and personal growth. Her chief interest is in exploring the nature of intuition and the creative process. Ms. Still has an M.S. in Applied Behavioral Sciences with a concentration in organizational development from Johns Hopkins University. AWC-DC interviewed her via e-mail in October, 1997.
AWC: In a world of information overload and intensified competition, women in communications must find new ways to position ideas and products, develop innovative methods, and forge unusual alliances. These days, everyone is smarter and faster, so the key skill for remaining competitive is thinking "out of the box" and doing differently. But how does one start to find that creative voice?
STILL: Be willing to be dumber and slower. Take yourself out of the running. As the Red Queen said to Alice, "Here, it takes all the running you can do, to stay in the same place." If I want to differentiate myself, why should I run with the pack? If I'm willing to be dumber and slower, I can ask all kinds of interesting questions. Where are they running, and why? Is smart and fast always good? Challenging the basic assumptions, in other words, can lead to new thinking. Or, instead of seeking novelty by going to new and exotic places, I can try standing still. By looking more carefully, more slowly, or from a different angle, one can make the familiar strange.
AWC: What is creativity?
STILL: It all depends on context. It is something unusual or inventive
compared with what we are aware of in a given time or place. Nobody would be impressed if I invented a telephone in 1997, nor shocked if I were to paint Picasso's "Guernica" or write Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." Some people are too late or early to be recognized as being creative. Some people are creative in arenas that are not recognized, such as raising children or day-to-day problem-solving at the office, but no one rewards you for it. Does this make you less creative? The creative process has a typical pattern or sequence regardless of whether it occurs within the arts, the sciences or the communications businesses. I call it the Five I's-immersion, incubation, illumination, illustration and implementation.
AWC: Are there any exercises, mental or physical, that people can do to
become more creative? What helps uncork the creative juices?
STILL: Everyone is creative, but some people neglect to develop their
creativity. Just like a muscle, creativity is developed through use. What
works best varies from person to person, depending on things like how your brain is "wired," what your skills are, how you approach risk, and so on. First, you need to get out of your own way. Learn to relax your body and silence your inner critic. Find a discipline such as meditation, yoga, or simply sitting quietly in the morning. Create a space in which you feel safe enough to be playful. If you do this repeatedly, something will begin to happen. Then you can try more specific techniques like mind-mapping, attribute manipulation, or lateral thinking.
AWC: Do women have a harder time developing their creativity than men?
STILL: Anyone who has been at home with children knows how little
uninterrupted time there is-no time or permission to be creative. For many
women, those restrictions have been removed. Women, on the whole, are more
independent and powerful than they've been in past generations.
We have many wonderful role models. But women have many new burdens. Many
of us have retained the prime responsibility for families and
simultaneously have gained responsibility for bread-winning. Many of us are
single mothers. Many of us feel fractured, torn. Balance is a key to
regaining or rediscovering one's creativity. Conversely, to find balance,
we also need to be creative.
AWC: How did you come to this field/science? How have you used creativity in your work?
STILL: I grew up in a creative environment. My father is a professional
musician, and I went to schools where we learned by doing. We did not use
text books, and even had to invent our own mathematical formulas. Everyone
made block prints, sang operettas, and wrote stories. When I saw more of
the world, I realized there were people who didn't approach life this way.
I realized it gave me great advantages. For instance, I've created most of
the jobs I've held. If I had to get grant funding to support them, I
learned to create grant proposals. When I became a management consultant
and trainer, I didn't have to rely on other peoples' formulas and formats.
AWC: What can one expect to gain from a creativity workshop?
STILL: Will it make a woman rich, famous, thinner? Hardly. But it can begin
a journey, a profound change in outlook. It's hard to do this in a business
setting, because we're suspicious of anything "spiritual" in the workplace. But if you want a fast track to creativity, get in touch with your
spiritual nature. Listen more closely to your inner voice. Breathe!"
