Creativity in Research: Lessons for the Geosciences

Creativity is at the heart of successful research. In the geosciences especially, researchers articulate questions that span numerous spatial and temporal scales, synthesize theories and approaches from multiple disciplinary traditions, and define their own boundaries within a nebulous multidisciplinary space. Yet researchers are rarely taught how to manage their creative process, and modern academic life is not structured to optimize creativity. Based on curriculum developed at Stanford Universitys Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school), this talk will summarize a decade of research and teaching on building creativity in research. We will present key abilities that underlie creative research practice and share experiences of STEM researchers transforming their research process. By focusing attention on how research happens as well as its outputs, researchers increase their ability to address research challenges and produce the outputs they care about. At the same time, they may transform their emotional relationship to their work, replacing stress and a harsh inner critic with a more playful and emotionally empowered attitude.