Exercise and Creativity
By Kate DowlerEver-curious about the science of creativity, we’ve been exploring the links between creativity and health, and how to translate the science into day-to-day creative practice, enabling a world where more people are creative at work. And, in this article we’ll be exploring the topic of exercise and creativity.
When it comes to tools and methods that help with ideation and creative problem solving, innovators are spoilt for choice. What’s sometimes overlooked, however, is the role that people play within the creative process, and how to enhance individual and group creativity for project teams working on innovation challenges.
At INDUSTRY of Us, we’ve been exploring the topic of ‘Creative Health’ and more specifically, what impact does your health (in its broadest sense) have on your ability to be creative? This article looks at the role physical exercise plays in enhancing creativity and whether it can be deliberately harnessed as a tool to boost the creative power of teams.
The science of exercise and creativity
There is a significant body of research devoted to exploring the link between aerobic exercise and creativity. One of the first studies, conducted by Gondola & Tuckman (1985) tested a small group of college students on three measures of creative thinking, finding small but significant gains in the fluency (number) and flexibility (originality) of ideas generated following exercise sessions.
A more recent study by Colzato et al. (2013) found a link between some aspects of creativity, namely convergent thinking and exercise, but also found that the intensity of exercise is an important factor to consider. Where the intensity of exercise was high, there was a tendency for exercise-induced ego depletion which interfered with both divergent and convergent thinking. This suggests that moderate rather than intense exercise may be more helpful for enhancing creative thinking, with the exact duration and intensity of exercise tailored to the individual and their own fitness level.
More recently, Rominger et al. (2020) looked at the link between physical exercise, creativity and PAA, (positive-activated affect). Or, in simple terms, one’s mood. The positive impact of exercise on mood due to endorphin release is well known, so the researchers were keen to explore the association between exercise, PAA and creativity. Could PAA be the reason for enhanced creativity? Interestingly, they found that although creativity, PAA and exercise are associated with each other, PAA was not the mediator for the association between exercise and creative performance. In this instance, the positive impact of physical exercise on creativity is not simply due to improvements in mood—there’s more to it than that.
How is creativity tested?
There are two aspects of creativity that are typically measured in scientific studies.
Divergent thinking: the ability to ideate freely, generating a wide variety of ideas and multiple paths forward.
Convergent thinking: the ability to make sense of complex information to define an outcome or actionable next step.
Within the innovation process, divergent thinking is typically seen during the ideation stage and when you are looking to generate new ideas. In scientific literature, the Alternative Use Test (AUT) is a simple but effective tool for measuring divergent creativity. During the test, participants are presented with a particular object and are asked to generate alternatives for as many possible uses of the object. For example, think of as many uses as you can for an empty water bottle. As an aside, this is also a screening question we use when recruiting creative consumers to take part in co-creation sessions.
Convergent thinking is seen at different points within the innovation process. This might be when trying to craft and agree on a problem statement. Or, during the generation of insight-led themes from diverse data gathered during consumer research. One of the most commonly used tests for convergent thinking is the Remote Associates Test (RAT). During this test, participants are presented with three seemingly unrelated words and are asked to identify the common associate word, or rather, a word that links these three together. For example, the three words, ‘time, hair, and stretch’ are all associated to the word ‘long’; long time, long hair, long stretch.
Have a go at these examples (*answers at the end!)
Food, Forward, Break
Over, Plant, Horse
Trying-it-out-ourselves
As a team, we were keen to explore the relationship between creativity and exercise. So, we decided to try it out ourselves, setting up a short experiment using a Remote Associates Test (RAT) to measure our individual creativity before and after a 30 minute session of moderate exercise.
The team individually completed a 10 minute test and then headed out to do 30-60 minutes of jogging, cycling, breakdancing—whatever suited them! Following their exercise, each team member then completed a new set of RAT questions.
For most of the team, RAT scores improved post-exercise, with people feeling a lot more focussed and able to think more clearly to solve more of the trickier word combinations.
The team in action doing their pre-test. Love the way Will is shielding his answers!
How to harness the power of exercise
So, what does this all mean for creative practice? Well, it suggests that we could indeed use exercise as a tool to help boost individual and group creativity at key points.
As we’ve seen from the literature, exercise not only enhances creativity, but also helps raise mood and positivity. Therefore, it makes sense that if we use exercise as a tool, we bring it in when the going gets tough, during ‘harder’activities. During the innovation process, it’s often during convergent thinking tasks that people struggle the most; for example, when defining the project challenge, analysing insight to generate themes, or decision-making to move forward. Here, it’s common to hit a roadblock and morale can drop. In contrast, more divergent, ideation activities typically feel more energising, and there are usually inputs that can be used to inspire and move you forward such as stimulus, user insights and trends.
The other important consideration is whether you’re working solo, or as part of a group. When working individually, you typically have more control over how, where and when you work, and can personalise the use of exercise to suit you. When working as a group however, it’s more difficult, particularly during face-to-face creative sessions and workshops where the idea of taking an hour break to all go and exercise may not be very practical, or suitable for everyone.
Top Tips for Individuals and Groups
So, how can we practically apply exercise to help promote creativity, both when working individually, and as a group?
For Individual Creativity
Start by finding the intensity and duration of exercise that works for you and has the most beneficial impact when working on creative tasks. Colzato et al. (2013) showed that there is a fair amount of variation between individuals based on their underlying physical fitness. For me personally, a 30 minute jog does the trick!
Plan your day so that your more difficult creative tasks follow exercise—these could be convergent tasks or anything you’re struggling to move forward with. Research by Blanchette et al. (2005), shows that there is a big impact of exercise on creative potential within two hours of exercising (immediate effects). And, the impact of exercise endures for several hours after that (residual effects). So, don’t worry if there’s a bit of time gap.
For Group Creativity
Start by thinking about the agenda you are planning for your creative workshop/session, and the types of activities involved. Which activities are divergent and stimulating, or likely to be high energy? And, which activities are convergent tasks where the group needs to align and make sense of something before moving on?
Plan how you will stimulate and help the team to move forward through convergent activities and remain energised. Exercise may indeed be a tool here. Plan the day so that any physical activity is practical, and also optional—it may not be something everyone wants to try! Before work, or during a long workshop, breaks are also options here.
Consider a form of exercise with low intensity which the whole group can easily take part in. A great option here is to run part of the session as an outdoor ‘walkshop’. This leverages the creative benefit of being outdoors combined with movement to help teams discuss and creatively problem-solve together over a 30-60 minute walk before coming back indoors. (For more on the topic of walkshops, read Garry Pratt’s brilliant book Outside Thinking.)
Conclusion
So, the next time you’re planning a creative workshop, or struggling during an individual creative task, consider planning in, or taking a 30 minute exercise break to help give you and the team an injection of positivity and the clarity to solve those difficult creative problems!
“The moment my legs begin to move my thoughts begin to flow, as if I had given vent to the stream at the lower end and consequently new fountains flowed into it at the upper.”
— Henry David Thoreau
*Answers to the examples above: 1. Fast, 2. Power