Why Artists Think Better
And How You Can Learn To Be More Like Us
I offer a lesson at the start of every semester on Divergent vs. Convergent thinking. I’m going to get into what that is, and offer up the lesson here — For you! For free! — in a moment. But first, I want to explain why I began this bi-annual ritual.
I currently teach three lower division Performing Arts classes: Acting I, The Actor’s Voice, and Oral Interpretation. All three classes are open to non-majors, so I wind up with a really delightful mix of students with all different levels of interest. To me, this is a tremendous strength of our program — it keeps our Performing Arts majors humble (because my goodness, it’s good to remember that anyone with the drive can be truly stellar on stage, regardless of their chosen area of study!) and it helps the Perf student make friends with non-majors (an important part of being a well-rounded human, after all, is being social/working with a variety of humans). But sometimes students come into my classes with resentment because, rather than taking the class as a personal interest course, these non-majors are taking my class as a means of meeting an elective requirement.
Now, I don’t have to tell you that trying to reach a highly reticent student is difficult. But in a theatre course, where the work is a highly visible and shared process, skepticism and resentment can derail things quickly. So much of our work requires group focus, positive energy, and a willingness to just get weird with your peers! If enough people in the room refuse to “Buy in” to the work, the work suffers and growth stalls.
So, rather than just talk about how good theatre is for the soul/why we love telling stories, I begin every class talking about Divergent and Convergent thinking…
In a nutshell, Convergent thinking is that which applies logic, whereas Divergent thinking prioritizes creativity. When you apply both, you are thinking Laterally.
And Lateral Thinking is where it’s at!
It’s been my experience that artists are, by and large, Divergent Thinkers — BUT, due to our education system’s obsession with Convergent Thinking, artists learn from a young age how to navigate both worlds, thus developing stronger Lateral thinking skills than non-artist peers.
Think about how much emphasis is placed on fact-based learning vs. creative. Most subjects we learn in school are presented as a set of rules to be followed or a series of facts to be memorized. Even literature often stresses there is a “Correct” way to read/interpret written works rather than allow for personal interpretation (a surefire way to turn young people off reading entirely, but nobody asked me). This priority is also visible in how much more community support there is for school sports, which are inherently rules/logic-based, rather than school art programs, which stress creativity and individual expression.
Talking about these concepts with my students provides an entryway for the more logical thinkers in my classroom to understand how theatre can benefit them even if they never intend to take another theatre class or set foot on another stage in their life! Theatre requires that its participants be adept at improvisation, outside-the-box thinking, and resilience… which are all skills that can serve EVERYONE in their chosen fields!
Which brings us (very nicely) into the Growth/Fixed mindset discussion.
A Growth mindset is one in which failure feels doesn’t hit a person as “AGGGHH! I’M DOOOMED!”, but rather as an opportunity for learning/improvement. A person with a Fixed Mindset, on the other hand, tends to see failure through the “AGGGH! I’M DOOOMED!!” lens, which turns it into a roadblock. Concurrently, a Fixed Mindset individual considers talent/intelligence to be givens, leading them to think that they are either “good” at something, or not. They perceive speedbumps as injurious, and tend to surrender too soon. Growth Mindset individuals, on the other hand, know that talent/intelligence can be cultivated, and therefore view challenges as opportunities to learn, improve, and evolve. They are less likely to see failure as reflective of their value as individuals, and therefore take set-backs less personally than the Fixed Mindset individual does.
I’m betting by now some of you are going “Uh-oh…” because you see yourself as firmly in the Fixed camp…
Well, guess what? You can move out of that camp if you want to!
That’s the beautiful thing about all if this: no one is a fixed point!
Which is a beautiful way to begin a semester — celebrating our ability and collective desire to grow into our better selves!
And Theatre classes are a wonderful place to do just that, because theatremakers inhabit a constantly shifting world which requires near-daily creative problem solving skills. There is never enough money to do exactly what we want to do onstage; there is always going to come a point (or many) in a production where the thing we THOUGHT would work doesn’t and new creative solutions must be tried; and we will always be working with a large team of other artists, which means we must be good at both generating, and navigating generative work, with others.
The best part of all of this is that these skills can be learned, practiced, and strengthened!
Because — remember — you are not a fixed point.
Click HERE for a short, easy to understand video on Convergent/Divergent thinking.
Click HERE for a great Ted Talk on the Growth Mindset.
