What the Wizard of Oz can teach us about creativity

Do you remember any “creativity scars”, any specific incidents in your life where you were told that you had no talent to make art, music, sing or write? In their book “Creative Confidence” Tom and David Kelley quote the expression “creativity scars” as used by author and researcher Brené Brown. I certainly can remember more than just one of those incidents where I was made to understand by either a parent or a teacher that I had no talent for something I loved doing and those memories feel very much like scars. Those memories had a long lasting effect on how I saw myself as a non-creative person and what I thought I was able to do. So, why is it so important to heal our scars and start nurturing our creativity?

Steven Kotler begins his Forbes article “Creativity: The secret behind the secret” with a reference to a 2010 survey run by IBM’s Institute for Business Value in which over 1500 Chief Executives were asked what they thought was the most important leadership competency for this new millennium. The top answer was creativity. Creativity is going to be the most valuable quality for a successful business. Yet creativity is also the quality which has been most neglected in our education and our lives. It is time to recognize that creativity is an essential part of our humanity not just to create more business success but also to access a deeper experience of happiness.

The graffiti artist and creativity speaker Erik Wahl writes in his blog post “Rediscover your Fearless Creativity” that “the truth is that creativity is in all of us”. He also says “Creativity is everywhere and in everyone who has the courage to rediscover their fearless artistic genius”.

Now let’s bring in the Wizard of Oz story and the lessons this story has to offer us in relation to our creativity. Erik Wahl is also the author of the book “Unthink” in which he used the story of the Tin Man as a parable of what happens to us when we do not honour our own innate creativity:

A young woodcutter falls in love with a girl and they intend to marry. They’re dreaming dreams of living in a beautiful house he is going to build. Unfortunately the girl’s mother is not too happy about her daughter’s plans as she doesn’t think the young woodcutter will make a suitable husband. So she goes to the Wicked Witch of the East and pays her a handsome sum to ensure the marriage is not going to take place. The witch wickedly puts a curse on the woodcutter’s ax, the very tool the young man is going to use to build the dream house. As the young man starts his work, each time he attempts to cut down a tree, the ax switches direction and attacks him. The first time this happens his arm is seriously wounded. The only person he can find to help him is a tin smith who crafts a new arm out of tin for him. On and on the story goes, each time the young man attempts to cut down a tree he loses another part of his body until his entire body has been replaced by tin, his heart included. Without a heart, he is unable to feel love for his fiancé. He is stronger than ever and efficiently cuts down tree after tree having forgotten the original purpose of his work which was to build a future home for the girl he loved. One day a storm breaks out, it rains hard and endlessly. This is a disaster for the Tin Man, his tin joints rust and stop to function. He is left deep in the woods unable to move. Fortunately one day Dorothy comes along with Toto and the Scarecrow. They are able to rescue the tin man and he joins them in order to find a heart and rediscover who he really is. (Whitehouse Motion Picture created a short movie about the Tin Man Story called “Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man).

When we shut out our creativity, we lose touch with the very heart of our being. We are unable to fulfil our full potential and live the kind of happy and meaningful life we are meant to experience. If we have neglected our creativity we need to start a journey of rediscovery.

In the comments section to Steven Kotler’s Forbes article a reader wrote that “The most important words for any creative individual are, "what if I ...?”.

What would happen if you really believed that you have untapped creative potential? What could you do differently?

Erik Wahl reminds us that every one of us is “a one-of-a-kind artist, capable of producing a one-of-a-kind work of art, every day. Be a whole artist. Mind and heart. Logic and emotion. Strategy and soul.”