CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

1. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION HOW CREATIVE ARE YOU?

2. Business and industry are stepping up their search for the Creative Person • Creativity-testingishelping organizations and agencies find imaginative people. • The corporate concern is both urgent and practical. Business need men and women with the knack for finding new solutions. • This instrument contains several examples of creativity tests now being used. One example is shown below.

3. Pictures That Test Your Creativity Tell whether you like or dislike each of the following drawings (L for like and D for dislike).

4. Creative individuals tend to pick numbers 1, 4, 6, and 8 because they are organized, orderly yet asymmetrical.

5. These types of tests have proved helpful in identifying IBM engineers and scientists rated as more creative. • Extensive experimentation with this test on engineering, scientific, and managerial personnel is also being carried out at General Electric, Lever Brothers, Dow Chemical, and several other firms.

6. Highly creative individuals tend to describe themselves by these adjectives: • determined, independent, inventive, enthusiastic, individualistic, industrious, absentminded, versatile, daring, dynamic, informal, impulsive, excitable, self-demanding, unassuming, worrying, thorough, sensitive, restless, reflective, preoccupied, moody.

7. In one study with writers, mathematicians, architects, research scientists, and engineers at the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research; the adjectives that the more creative individuals checked as descriptive of them, show that they have excellent self-images.

8. Yet, contrasting, they also checked more unfavorable adjectives than did their less creative colleagues.

9. In Dr. MacKinnon's words:"One finds in these contrasting self-descriptions a hint of one of the most significant characteristics of the creative person,his courage." • He says that it is not physical courage, though a highly creative person may have courage of this kind too. • It is rather personal courage of the mind that often makes a person stand aside from society and in conflict with it. • "It is the courage to be oneself in the fullest sense, to grow in great measure into the person one is capable of becoming."

10. Creativity Test • Now take the creativity drawing test passed out to you. • Remember the goal is to be creative. You have 15 minutes to complete the 9 drawings.

11. The following answers would not be considered creative: 1. Heart, candy cane, flower, moon, hook

12. 2. Sun, flower, face/person, balloons, snowman

13. 3. Birds, clouds, tree

14. 4. House, mountains, pyramid, kite, star

15. 5. Flower, rain/tear drops, figure eight race track, a fish(hook)

16. 6. Face, wheels on something, dice, stop light, Caterpillar.

17. 7. Buildings, piano keys

18. 8. Moon, moon/sun combination, banana

19. 9. Rainbow, bridge

20. Can creativity be learned? A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally creative and as we grow up, we are trained to be uncreative!

21. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. • Learning to be creative is similar to learning a sport. It requires practice to develop the right muscles, and a supportive environment in which to flourish. • Business leaders are increasingly adopting the principles and practices of art and design to help build creative muscle in their organizations.

22. Design thinking can help organizations manage the innovation process and overcome some of the barriers that prevent leaders from being effective innovators. • Art and design processes help people develop fresh thinking through aesthetic ways of knowing, imagination, intuition, re-framing and exploring different perspectives. • Art-based processes also help people learn to be comfortable with uncertainty, vagueness, and inconsistency.

23. Generative research shows that everyone has creative abilities!!! • The average adult thinks of 3-6 alternatives for any given situation. The average child thinks of 60!!! • The more creativity training you have plus the more diverse the training is, the greater potential for creative output.

24. Beliefs that only special, talented people are creative–and you have to be born that way– diminish our confidence in our creative abilities. • The notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Picasso and Mozart were `gifted' is a myth, according to a study at Exeter University. • Researchers examined outstanding performances in the arts, mathematics and sports, to find out if “the widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a person must possess an innate potential called talent.”

25. The study concludes that excellence is determined by: • opportunities • encouragement • training • motivation • AND MOST OF ALL–PRACTICE!!!

26. ”Few people showed early signs of promise prior to parental encouragement.” No one reached high levels of achievement in their field without devoting thousands of hours of serious training. Mozart trained for 16 years before he produced an acknowledged master work. Moreover many high performers achieve levels of excellence today that match the capabilities of a Mozart.

27. So, how can we improve our creativity?? • Remember: Being creative or artistic doesn’t mean you know how to draw or how to play an instrument. • Being creative is a way of thinking… A way of viewing the world and then constructing a product.

28. 1. Listen to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Classical music makes sense, is organized and promotes creativity. • 2. Brainstorm. If properly carried out, brainstorming can help you not only come up with sacks full of new ideas, but can help you decide which is best.

29. 3. If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking. 4. Define your problem. Grab a sheet of paper, electronic notebook, computer or whatever you use to make notes, and define your problem in detail. You'll probably find ideas positively spewing out once you've done this.

30. 5. If you can't think, go for a walk. A change of atmosphere is good for you and gentle exercise helps shake up the brain cells

31. 6. Don't watch TV. Experiments performed by the JPB Creative Laboratory show that watching TV causes your brain to slowly trickle out your ears and/or nose. It's not pretty, but it happens.

32. 7. Don't do drugs. People on drugs think they are creative. To everyone else, they seem like people on drugs. 8. Read as much as you can about everything possible. Books exercise your brain, provide inspiration and fill you with information that allows you to make creative connections easily.

33. 9. Exercise your brain. Brains, like bodies, need exercise to keep fit. If you don't exercise your brain, it will get flabby and useless. Exercise your brain by reading a lot (see above), talking to clever people and disagreeing with people - arguing can be a terrific way to give your brain cells a workout. But note, arguing about politics or film directors is good for you; bickering over who should clean the dishes is not.

34. 10. If you are struck by an idea, quickly write it down. Upon rereading your notes, you may discover about 90% of your ideas are draft. Don't worry, that's normal. What's important are the 10% that are brilliant. The best answers tend to be at the end of the list!!!