Creative Intelligence(CI) – A Force That Will Complement Artificial Intelligence(AI)

CI in Action

Recently, I met with my son’s class teacher over a parent-teacher conference. They usually provide a rundown of how the kid is progressing across academics and overall. The first thing she asks me – “when did he start writing?” I didn’t remember the exact age but gave her a ballpark. 

She flips out a two-pager that he had written a week ago and reads it aloud – all animated, with the intonations, exactly how it happened! And at the end of it, both of us had tears in our eyes, out of laughing our guts out. When we settled down, she said – “this is the creativity that we need to preserve and treasure in every kid and each one of us.”

And that made me think of the macro. In times when AI is pretty much going to take on most of the drills of life, this gives us a chance to explore that side in each one of us, the side that has immense potential to express and share our experiences in new and unique ways with the force of Creative Intelligence(CI). 

This is not to counter AI. It is pretty much here to stay to better our lives in lots of ways. This is to complement it and create that 'brave new world.' And this will be important to all of us to stay relevant, at the workplace, at home, at school, and in our community.

Knowing Our Creative Intelligence Quotient(CIQ)

So, again we come down the big question – how do we ensure that we first identify our creative intelligence quotient (CIQ) and then hone it. First off, there’s no test to do this, and it will be experimental. I’ve written a few blogs in the past talking about some of these concepts but will organize them in the context here. You can use these as ‘experimental paths’ when working with your teammates, with your kids, or pretty much anyone.

For me, a lot of this learning has come from working with kids, but there’s no reason why you’d not be able to extrapolate. 

Three Hacks to Derive a High Creative Intelligence Quotient (CIQ)

1)  Meet Your Headspace, Everyday – in my interactions, I believe that this is essential and it is not easy, especially when life demands. For example, kids need to have a structure and rigor every day - get up, get ready, get breakfast, pack bags and be mindful of the time to get to the flag salute, get back, go to classes, etc. 

The mechanics jog them up physically, but perhaps not their creative side. And that’s why we have weekends, right? Right and wrong. Kids and us, we need headspace every day, not just on the weekends. 

So, we need to identify a time in the day where we are with ourselves, exploring that headspace, where we are actively creating something. A PowerPoint slide or a blog could be that. A beautiful looking piece of code could be that. A piece of art, a new recipe, a well-reorganized wardrobe, you get the idea. You got to keep your headspace well oiled. I’m quite happy to say, that in our family all of us do that quite diligently.

2)  Be Open, Everyday – the high CIQ has to be supported by other pillars to ensure continuous growth. And one such pillar is being open to seeking opinion and feedback.

Now, this helps with a couple of things, one it helps us to avoid the ‘my way or highway’ or an opinionated mentality which is quite common in creative people. Two, it helps us to stay grounded when criticism hits because it is not just about creating in isolation, but being appreciated for it. Third, believe it or not, it helps to explore our creative horizons even further.

When we open ourselves to external input and possibilities, fresh ideas come into our system of engagement, which when channeled right, could help in creating more beautiful work. We have to be cautious not to get into the analysis-paralysis rut, and it’s much harder to teach this to kids. But we can teach them by leading with an example.

For example, if they see parents healthily critiquing their work, they learn. So every day, we have to help them and ourselves to learn to establish the ‘trust’ to seek the right input and become better. There are some other nuances to this to gauge real, genuine input, but if we train ourselves to stay ‘out of the box’ with our interactions, we are good here.

3)  Stay Current, Everyday - the millennials and Gen Z are digital natives. They are wired to stay current with new technology, new devices, new emoji’s, and new high-fashion. 

And if you are a parent with kids in middle school and high school, you know what I’m talking about, and if not, you’ll know soon. But the key is staying current to integrate that into your headspace work every day and ensure usability. 

One way to wire this in is to help them create this work in context. “So, you watched that movie last night on robots, or you visited the tech park, why don’t you write an opinion piece on it, or why don’t you sketch it out to show what it looks like to you?”

Easier said, but guys, the creative intelligence quotient(CIQ) is going to get increasingly crucial for all of us to live cohesively, peacefully, and meaningfully as the world around us keeps changing.

Good luck and I’d love to get your opinion on how you are prepping for this AI driven new world order for the next 20-years.