Developing creativity (Opportunities and Ideas)

1. Developing creativity (Opportunities and Ideas) Entrepreneurship 30

2. Objectives • Creativity • Barriers/Mental Blocks and How to overcome them • Stimulate Creative thought • Problem Solving – Roles and Thinking Skills (Explorer, Artist, Judge, Warrior) • Idea Generation and Evaluation – Six Modes of Thinking • Ideas and Opportunities • Trends – Opportunities for you this semester!

3. Activity • Hidden Messages – mind stretching activity • Define creativity: • Imaginative, original, artistic, inventive • Everyone has some degree of creativity and it can be developed by understanding how the brain works • More than one way of doing things Handout – “The Brain and Creativity” Which side of the brain will be more valued in the future in regards to the labour market?

4. http://www.humanbodydetectives.com/blog/brain-left-right-brain-thinker/http://www.humanbodydetectives.com/blog/brain-left-right-brain-thinker/

5. Barriers/Mental Blocks • Looking for the right answer • Thinking logically • Following the rules • Being practical • Play is frivolous • That’s not my area • Don’t be foolish • I’m not creative

6. Attitude and Creativity • One idea is not enough! • Innovation is your friend! • In relation to creativity, experts feel that, by being positive, you become more confident, tend to generate more ideas, and have a much better chance of turning these ideas into reality.

7. Where there are problems there are opportunities, where there are opportunities there are ideas – needs, wants, market, • Problems Solving Model (problem finding, idea finding, solution finding, re-evaluation). • However, there are four roles and thinking skills in the process of problem-solving: • Two think creatively and two think critically – need to pay attention to each role and when to use them • Roger von Oech “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants” • Explorer • Artistic • Judge • Warrior Assignment

8. A New Way of Thinking • Lateral Thinking • Means generating ideas by being flexible, and creative, think side ways not up and down, unique perspective, think outside the box • Edward De Bono – expert in creative thinking and says there are six modes of thinking. The “Thinking Hats” – idea creator/problem solver. • The hats are colour coded to help people remember which type of thinking is associated with each one.

10. Review • Agents of Change: During 1930’s, a company tried selling packages of low-priced cheddar cheese powder. No one wanted them. Left with cases of the stuff, one salesman tied packages of cheese powder to boxes of macaroni and stared selling the two together. What was it called? • How was this an example of lateral thinking? Which hats did he probably wear? • Problem Finding = white and red hat • Idea Finding = green hat • Solution Finding = black, yellow and red hat • Assignment

11. Ideas and opportunities • A venture can succeed only when a good idea and an opportunity come together. • Turn problems into opportunities: • Opportunities for New Products and Services: