Group Flow and problem-finding creativity

Most established literature regarding task-based groupwork 3i7 assumes for the most part that workplace groups are trying to solve a particular problem; much of the psychology literature-on-group creativity starts from a similar assumption.

Indeed, problem-solving has arguably become a sub-discipline of creativity studies, Simonton's discussion of Campbell’s BVSR^i^ being a typical example 220. This is a challenge for the study of songwriting groups because the 'creative problem' that must be solved (i.e. 'what should our song sound like?') is difficult to define or to evaluate until the point of completion. The completion point itself, where the song successfully achieves value, is difficult to identify with any certainty due to the post-songwriting elements of the song production process and later cultural processing by the field.

Keith Sawyer's work with jazz bands32i and later with a wider selection of creative groups ³²² addresses this issue effectively by using the term problem-finding creativity. Songwriting teams are not required to find their way to a specific song,

because no team member knows exactly what the song will sound like until it is completed. Therefore, while the collaborative creative process can easily be framed as a problem-solving exercise, the partnership has an additional imperative duty - to create the problem that must be solved through creativity. Sawyer sites improvising

317 Arrow, Sm all Groups as Complex Systems; Lickel et al., "Varieties o f Groups and the Perception o f Group Entitativity"; Forsyth, Group Dynamics.

313 John M Levine and Richard L Moreland, "Collaboration: The Social Context of Theory Development.,"

P ersonality & Social Psychology R eview 8, no. 2 (May 2 004): 1 6 4 -1 7 2 , doi:Article.

313 Blind variation and selective retention.

320 Dean Keith Simonton, "Creative Problem Solving as Sequential BVSR: Exploration (total Ignorance) versus Elimination (inform ed Guess),” Thinking Skills and C reativity 8 (April 2013): 1 -1 0 ,

d oi:10.1016/j.tsc.2012.12.001.

321 R Keith Sawyer, Group C reativity: Music, Theater, Collaboration. Mahwah NJ: L Erlbaum A ssociates, 2003.

Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative P ow er o f Collaboration. N ew York: Basic Books, 2 0 0 7 .

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jazz bands at the extreme end of the solving/finding continuum, but notes that such problem-finding creativity is not unique to jazz:

Business teams are expected to solve specific problems. They know that by the end of the meeting they have to come up with a resolution of the budget shortfall, or find a way to fix a software bug that threatens to spiral out of control. If the goal is well understood and can be explicitly stated, it's a problem-solving creative task. The group members then are more likely to be in flow while working towards such a goal if they've worked together before, if they share much of the same knowledge and assumptions, and when they have a compelling vision and a shared mission. One study of more than five hundred professionals and managers in thirty companies found that unclear objectives became the biggest barrier to effective team performance.

Jazz and improv groups are at the other extreme. The only goal is intrinsic to the performance itself - to perform well and to entertain the audience. This is problem-finding creativity because the group members have to "find" and define the problem as they're solving it. At first, this might seem very different from everyday business contexts. But many of the most radical innovations occur when the question or goal isn't known in advance.323

Songwriting, of course, differs from jazz improvisation in the im portant respect that it is not a real-time activity. Song creation and song performance are linearly separated from each other in time; in jazz, (improvisatory) creation and live performance are simultaneous and indistinguishable from each other, at least to the audience. Notwithstanding this separation, 1 contend that Sawyer's term problem- flnding creativity describes group songwriting perfectly, because the only clearly

defined problem that exists ('what should our song sound like?') is a macro-level one, leading immediately to equally elusive questions such as 'how should we write our song?' and 'which among us should contribute, and in what way?'). The micro-level problems that must be solved (e.g. 'what's the best rhyme for the fourth line of verse 3?') are created by the partnership in order to be solved, and themselves only exist due to prior creative decisions born of negotiation (e.g. 'do we need three verses in this song?').

323 Sawyer, Group Genius.

Sawyer uses 'Flow' after Csiksentmihalyi, who describes it as a mental state where time becomes fluid from creators' points of view; they become more productive, and experience feelings of happiness/enjoyment. 224 Csiksentmihalyi contends that Flow is biologically derived, with the brain being evolutionarily predisposed to reward creativity:

...we are the descendants of ancestors who recognised the importance of novelty, protected those individuals who enjoyed being creative, and learned from them. Because we had among them individuals who enjoyed exploring and inventing, they were better prepared to face the unpredictable conditions that threaten their survival. So we too share this propensity for enjoying whatever we do, provided we can do it a new way, provided we can discover or design something new in doing it. This is why creativity, no m atter in what domain it takes place, is so enjoyable.

325

Csikszentmihalyi identifies four prerequisites for Flow; the Merging of Action and Awareness (that is, an almost 'automatic' state where creative actions may not be conscious); Avoiding Distraction; Forgetting Self, Time, and Surroundings; and Creativity as Autotelic Experience (that is, the creative process is emotionally rewarding for its own sake rather than for any anticipation of later reward).

Sawyer applies these prerequisites of Flow to his studies of creative groups, and asks 'what happens when everything comes together to help a group be in flow?'.

326 He identifies ten conditions for Group Flow, which are, helpfully, mostly self-

324 Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, "Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow" - TED Conference Presentation (Monterey, California, 2 0 0 4 ), http://w w w .youtube.com /w atch?v=fX leFJC qsPs; Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology o f D iscovery and Invention.

325 Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology o f D iscovery and Invention, 109.

326 Sawyer, Group Genius, 4 3 -5 4 .

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Moving it forward^z?

[accepting] The potential for failure

These conditions would work well as a set of house rules for a songwriting session, because, as my case studies will show, they describe some of the extra­

musical skills that songwriting teams demonstrate in practice. 328