THE BIG FIVE: NONCONFORMITY

Why creativity begins by questioning the default.

Last but by no means least, the final Creative Behaviour; Nonconformity.

This is a big one, but also a tough one because we live in a world where we are conditioned to conform. And that’s no bad thing. We need to, social conformity is what makes civilisation civil. It’s what separates order from chaos, right from wrong, cohesion from separation, function from failure and it keeps life as we know it, ticking along smoothly. Or somewhat smoothly at least. For the most part then, conforming is in our best interest.

Except that is, when it comes to our creativity.

When conforming becomes habitual and therefore our default way of thinking and operating, our creativity is jeopardised.

When we conform we follow conventions, we follow rule books, and most of all, we follow each other and the rest of the pack. This offers social cohesion and a sense of belonging, but it also means that we do as we’re told and think as we’re meant to, within the confines and restraints of the norms we all agree to live by.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the expression, “Think outside the box” - most of us are. Perhaps this has been asked of you, or maybe you’ve found yourself asking it of others. It’s a common request, thrown around with great expectations but usually with results that fail to live up to them.

Why?

We might be familiar with what that term means but don’t always understand as to how it’s achieved.

The idea of a box is a useful way to think about the relationship between conformity and creativity. It helps us visualise conformity as being something contained within the box. The box itself, representing the norms and conventions we all agree to, whether these are societal norms, organisational ones or even individual norms - the personal expectations we set for ourselves, all providing the tangible and defined edges for us to conform within. When we conform we think, live and operate inside the box, even if that box is one we’ve constructed for ourselves.

When conformity becomes the dominant behaviour, as it does inside the box, our creativity will suffer as a consequence, it will become stifled and suffocated. It’s the box that keeps our creativity caged.

This is why people love to tell us to think outside of it. Especially within organisations. The great irony there of course being it’s often the organisational culture that has created that very box they’re asking everyone to think outside of.

To activate and use our creativity, to ‘think outside of that box’, we must be willing to step outside of it first, sometimes that means breaking the box in order to do so. To do that we must be willing to practice nonconformity as a creative behaviour. Turning it on and dialling it up.

This comes with risk.

Inside the box everyone is compliant, the status quo is maintained, and so it feels safe. We are literally protected by the box. In turn we want to protect the security that provides - we don’t want to disrupt the status quo. Then, we can quietly blend in, enjoying the anonymity the pack provides. We’re safe.

Practising nonconformity as a creative behaviour and dialling it up, means deliberately stepping outside of the box, challenging the norms and disrupting the status quo. Stepping away from consensus thinking, being willing to think differently even when others don’t, involves thinking and acting outside conventional boundaries. It also means, we have to be willing to step outside of the pack.  Doing so exposes us to risk, blame, shame, ridicule and rejection.  We are immediately vulnerable. No longer protected by the pack because we’ve intentionally chosen to remove ourselves from it.

This is the ultimate rebel move. And one that takes tremendous courage. Nonconformity is only ever celebrated retrospectively. Before then it can leave you feeling outcast.

Creativity, though, exists and lives outside of those norms. It exists beyond those conventions, by scrapping the rule book and breaking free from the pack.

Nothing new is created if the status quo is never challenged. It’s nonconformity that breeds originality.

There is an important caveat here though. And it’s one we need to remember when we’re thinking about creativity.

Even though creativity and conformity struggle to coexist in the same box, it’s because of the struggle that a much-needed tension is created. Creativity might hate the box, but it needs the box in order to know how to escape it. 

It’s conformity that gives creativity a clear set of boundaries that can then be stretched, bent or overthrown in order for the fullest expression of creativity to be realised. Creativity thrives on breaking free from convention and constraint but in order to do so it needs something to push against and respond to in the first place.

Nonconformity isn’t about becoming a rebel for rebel’s sake and being disruptive without good reason.  Being disruptive for the sake of your creativity is good reason. It’s refusing to be limited by what already exists when something else could. Questioning the default. Not defaulting to it. Challenging assumptions and habitual ways of thinking and operating in the interest of openness and other alternatives.

As soon as conformity becomes a choice rather than a default, nonconformity becomes one too. Then we begin to activate our creativity, drawing on it as a much-needed resource and waking it up.

And I think that’s what the Big Five has really been about all along. Not changing who we are, but becoming more intentional about the behaviours we choose.