Resilience through creative thinking.
A few hundred years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a sneaky man who decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. However, the catch, there’s always a catch, was that we would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Basically, Beauty and the Beast vibe!
The loan-shark said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped, but the loan-shark would then marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped, but the daughter wouldn’t have to marry the loan-shark.
Now, standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. Whilst he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he cheated and actually picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. What a cow!
He proceeded to then ask the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one.
The daughter had three choices as to what she could have done:
Refuse to pick a pebble from the bag and denounce the loan-shark.
Take both pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan-shark for cheating.
Pick a pebble from the bag fully well knowing it was black and sacrifice herself for her father’s freedom.
But this girl was smart! Faced with this problem, she came up with a creative solution. She drew out a pebble from the bag, and before looking at it, ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the midst of the other pebbles and said to the loan-shark:
“Oh, how clumsy of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”
The pebble left in the bag is obviously black and seeing as the loan-shark didn’t want to be exposed in front of the whole village, he had to play along as if the pebble the daughter dropped was white and clear her father’s debt and the girl was free!
Moral of the story: there is always a fourth option, that is not immediately obvious. Do not give in to the options that appear to the be the only ones, back yourself and think creatively.
Much of the research on creativity emphasizes the need for the time and space to reflect and experiment — luxuries that many people do not have, especially during a pandemic. And yet, the constraints of our current crisis have proven to be a profound driver for problem solving, connection, and creativity. Why?
Because resilience is built through ordinary, everyday actions, not extraordinary innovations.
Resilience is looking at a problem — whether that is how to engage with family and friends during a lockdown or how to deal with a cheating loan-shark — and thinking creatively about the many possible solutions rather than fixating on the worst-case scenario.
Creative resilience is the capacity to generate and act on positive solutions under the pressures of challenge and change. It is re-imagining our environment and shifting our perspective to discover new possibilities, even when our fight or flight response is kicked into high gear. Just like the protagonist of our story, instead of thinking how to denounce the loan-shark, she thought of how to use his trick to her advantage, while also taking advantage of her environment (the pebbles on the ground) and the reluctance of the loan-shark to have his reputation tarnished.
The fact that resilience can be cultivated through our everyday actions can give us hope. You can approach your inevitable challenges in work and in life with a more creative outlook marked by curiosity, experimentation, and even gratitude. Doing so can open your mind to re-imagine what is possible so that you can direct your growth in this time of crisis to build the future you want for yourself, and those around you. And hopefully, as our global shut down has exposed so many poorly designed social systems, perhaps our collective creative thoughts can be the building blocks for an improved, more inclusive global society. That’s creative resilience operating at its highest level.