Enhancing Communication through Creativity

Enhancing Communication through Creativity

Mike Busby

Tiffin University

Transmission theories of communication dominate modern discourse, and they speak well to the delivery systems of communication.  However, they provide little insight to the formation of knowledge, creative resolution, or the expression of meaningful content.  Much like the field of creativity, people tend to associate communication with expression more so than with reflection and the acquisition of knowledge.  The field of creativity mirrors many aspects of communication, and their synthesis heightens awareness of communicative opportunities, strengthens creative content, and encourages greater diversity and communicative resourcefulness through the exploration of everyday occurrences.   

Communication is broader than conveying and receiving thoughts.  It is a system of understanding that interfaces our minds with the world (Radford, 2005).   The great communicators project more than personal positions and ideas. They listen to form understanding, they encourage meaningful dialogue, and they adapt to the communication needs of others (Myatt, n.d.).  Communication is a system of exchange that creates and synthesizes knowledge within the human mind.  The best communicators focus on enhancing their view of reality and broadening their mental resources through diversity of experience.    

Perceptions of reality are challenged everyday through encounters with the unknown or the unexpected.   Albert Camus calls these encounters the Metaphor of the Absurd (as cited in Sleasman, n.d.).  These are points of realization when someone’s constructed view of their environment collide with the hard realities of the world (as cited by Sleasman, n.d.).  Everyday encounters with problems, puzzles and frustrations reflect disconnects with reality.  They are encounters that remove us from the mundane, and they can range from horrible events to new revelations.  Dewey viewed problematic encounters as fostering agents that create information gaps,,and they compel to mind to action (as cited by Carey, n.d.).  Rollo May (1975) reflects this idea from the creative world.  He refers to creative encounters as what someone believes to be true against the emergence of new ideas and perspectives (May, 1975).   May (1975) writes that encounters form incomplete patterns, or Gestalts, that actively engage the mind.   

Camus and May concur that encounters foster activity in the mind, but more importantly, they agree that people can exercise choice in how they approach and address issues.  Camus encouraged the direct acceptance of conflicting realities rather than dismissing them or rationalizing them favorably to an existing or biased belief (as cited by Sleasman, n.d.).  May (1975) does the same by encouraging people to approach conflicting realities with courage.  The intent is to approach issues with active engagement, clarity and intent. 

The notion of problematic encounters and the choices to approach them are critical to the foundation of communication.  Modern convention and social structures reward resolution based on quick thinking rationalized through the easiest path of resistance.  Unfortunately, this method tends to dismiss or marginalize opposing views to fit the dominate culture.  Problems and conflict are facts of life, and they are emotionally draining and can be overwhelming.  However, Camus, Dewey and May instill the idea that problems are signals of creative opportunities for learning, self-reflecting and can serve to improve perceptions of reality.   In addition, they emphasize the individual choice of active engagement to foster mutual resolution. 

While conflict and emotions serve as signals for communicative opportunities, it is the imagination that manifests understanding.  May viewed the imagination as “the key function that participates in the formation of reality” (May, 1975, p. 133), and Stephen Spender (1985) viewed the imagination as the ability to relive memories.  Spender articulates the imagination into a practical tool by saying, “our ability to imagine is our ability to remember what we have already once experienced and apply it to some different situation” (Spender, 1985, p. 122).  This notion suggests the imagination compares and contrasts previous experiences, and those evaluations become new experiences in and of themselves.  This cycle returns on itself and functions as a queue to extrapolate numerous and diverse possibilities.  The creative field relies on infusing the imagination with the unconscious to foster metaphorical expressions.  However, the idea of the imagination relating and realizing alternate points of view has powerful implications to the field of communication.

The imagination suggests the mind can increase its internal resources by populating itself with alternate points of view.  But what views should be considered and explored?  Answers are not found with linear communication models; they are revealed from everyday experiences.   Problems, frustrations and revelations all serve as signals to the Metaphor of the Absurd, or disruptions to reality.  They may be information gaps associated with race, gender, politics or religion that require increased understanding, or they may be challenges that require creative resolution.  Regardless, it is the problems in people’s lives that reveal the areas that need the most attention. 

Camus and May thought problems should be met directly, they encouraged honest and thoughtful dialogue and they demanded active participation.  In other words, they encouraged communication to gain new experiences.  In this context, communication means listening with intent to understand another point of view.  It means asking questions to stimulate the imagination to create meaningful dialogue.  And finally, it means creating new experiences from alternate perspectives to populate and fully engage the power of the creative mind.   

While transmission theory speaks to the delivery systems of communication, May, Dewey, Spender and Camus speak to the content of messages, and more importantly, to the relationships of trust that are formed with honest and sincere dialogue.  The essence of things are found in their utility and reliability (Heidegger, n.d.).  True art is not the art-object, but what the object reveals in people (Heidegger, n.d.).  In other words, the value of things are not found within the things themselves; they are found within their relationships to people.  Communication is not found within descriptive models; it is found in the relationships people form with each other and their environment.  Heidegger’s thoughts are further realized as sincere dialogue fosters the trust  necessary to create open spaces for the consideration of differences with greater freedom and authenticity. 

 The great communicators listen, understand and adapt their communication styles to their audience.  They have discovered that problems are signals of opportunity to explore other points of view.  They have learned how to listen and inform the imagination to generate new understanding.  They have learned how to instill trust through open and honest dialogue, and more importantly, they know how to create open spaces that allow their audience the freedom of exploration.  The synthesis of creativity and communication philosophies articulates the methods of the great communicators, and they offer real and practical insights for people to identify, practice and hone their communication skills.

References

Carey, J. (n.d.).  A Cultural Approach to Communication. Retrieved May 11, 2014, from http://www3.niu.edu/acad/gunkel/coms465/carey.html

Heidegger, M. (n.d). The Origin of the work of art. Tiffin, OH: Tiffin University.  

May, R. (1975). The Courage to Create. New York, NY: Norton & Company.

Myatt, M. (2012). 10 Communication secrets of great leaders. Forbes. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/04/04/10-communication-secrets-of -great-leaders

Radford, G. P. (2005). On the Philosophy of Communication. South Bank, Vic., Australia: Thomson Wadsworth.

Sleasman, B. (n.d.). A Philosophy of Communication as the Absurd: Albert Camus and the Ethics of Everyday. Tiffin, OH: Tiffin University

Spender, S. (1985). The Making of a poem. In G. Brewster (Ed). The Creative Process: A Symposium (pp 113-126). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.