We have an evolved brain that seeks survival. Its content is our template. Balance. Look at the whole...hello......holistic. All parts have relevance. Focus on one part to prove ones (ego) point of view blocks the function of the whole.

So as I see it (oh dear, ego?) We cannot find any answers to anything when we separate the parts from the whole and say....this part holds the key to the whole truth......this is crazy, ego driven, blind thinking....and our block to knowing anything.

Well stated. Weren't Einstein and Edison creative thinkers within the context of science.

The point that I like to make is that any creative pursuit (such as the Engineering exercises noted above or playing a guitar solo) has the effect of strengthening one's capacity for creative thought across all endeavors.

Great post, Andrew.

Another common misunderstanding is that creating works of art is activity that takes place purely on the "creative/right brain" side of the equation. As any working choreographer, composer, sculptor, or poet knows, it takes both sides of the brain to move ideas into structure.

I was at John Zorn's fine National Arts Marketing & Development Conference last weekend where I was surprised and gratified to hear presenters describing creativity as a potential detriment to effective arts management. Too much creative thinking and too little focus on analytical thinking, as it turns out, can undermine even the most well intentioned arts initiatives. Who knew? (Full disclosure: I was one of the presenters saying this.)

Yes, we have to be careful about over-promoting the value of art in business, but to be fair, we should probably also open ourselves up to a little more business in art.

I love John Shibley's "thinking that works" idea. Maybe this is the new mantra that will bridge the divide. (I just Googled the phrase and didn't see anyone using it - anyone have time to write a book?)

So true. I worked as a consultant in the business world for 20 years before making the switch to the Arts. You want creative? Watch a bunch of Harley Davidson engineers wrestling with the problem of how to cool an engine without messing up a bike's aesthetic, or a group of GE plant managers designing the floor of a factory so no one gets injured. The best leaders in the profit world can't afford the luxury of self-serving distinctions between kinds of thinking -- they need THINKING, period, thinking that works -- and are gratefully agnostic about which side of the brain it comes from.