Early in 2014, as part of an initiative to make Education Scotland a more creative organization, two Creative Conversations brought together the various administration teams from across Education Scotland to explore and define what creativity meant in their work – increasing confidence and empowering staff to be more creative in their work and lives.

“Forget definitions and waiting for lessons others develop – you have great ideas of what a creative lesson, a creative learning environment, and creative administrative support might look like… begin now and change the world, re-centering it in Scotland. ” – Eric Booth

Creative Conversations

The conversations were led by Education Scotland’s Development Officers for Creativity – Stephen Bullock and Julia Fenby with administration teams travelling from Clydebank, Glasgow, Livingston, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness.

Working with administration teams was a fresh, focused approach that tackled a specifically identified need and reinforced the creativity vision – that everyone can be creative, and that it needs to happen more often in more places.

Developing creativity skills

By exploring and defining creativity as a concept, staff were able to overcome the linguistic barrier, increase understanding and then develop confidence in their own creativity skills. Research tells us that often the simple confidence to say “I am a creative person” is enough to instil a step change in behaviour. The conversation focused on using creativity in a work setting but often explored other contexts, encouraging staff to apply creativity skills to other situations – including mention of research into the importance of creativity in long-lasting family relationships.

We learnt that administration staff often work within very formal systems. This has two effects – staff are forced to be extremely creative in making things work within a rigid system, whilst also being frustrated at a lack of freedom at times to be more creative. The importance of involving administration staff at the beginning of change and planning was identified as of importance in empowering staff and avoiding systems that are more obstacle than enabler.

For further detail please contact Stephen Bullock: stephen.bullock@educationscotland.gov.uk or Julia Fenby: Julia.fenby@educationscotland.gov.uk