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Creativity Quotient: Currency of the Future. Uma G. Gupta President Alfred State College State University of New York. Individual Workplace Challenges. Too busy at work! Lack of time! Information Overload! Stressed! Inability to keep pace with demands! Always playing catch-up!
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Creativity Quotient:Currency of the Future Uma G. Gupta President Alfred State College State University of New York
Individual Workplace Challenges • Too busy at work! • Lack of time! • Information Overload! • Stressed! • Inability to keep pace with demands! • Always playing catch-up! • No end in sight! • Desire for more balance in life! • Technology pain. • Email addiction. • Benign neglect of friends and family. • The more you do, the more you have to do!
Creativity • Old models and old solutions to new problems won’t work! Don’t work! • Continue to reinvest in ourselves, our thinking, learning, and re-learning, and unlearning. • At the heart of this approach, lies creativity and our commitment to creativity.
Changing Face of Education • Two inherent challenges to human thinking: • We think locally (human nature) • We are all darned specialists (aren’t you?) • Education is no longer the privilege of elite nations. • Significant Implications: • A common world language - English • Well-informed by historic standards • Access to knowledge • Instant, global communications • Concerned – locally; Driven by global events • What does all of this mean for problem-solvers and decision-makers?
Currency for Progress • Education • Training • Technology • Systems • Capitalize Human Potential • Expand Monetary Resources • Health Care • Transportation • Narrow the Divide • Attack hunger and poverty • Control Terrorism • CREATIVITY
Creativity • Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun." Mary Lou Cook • "There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish."Warren G. Bennis • All knowledge is already present, and the most we can do is create conditions in which intuition will occur. It's like rain pouring down from the heavens--to have more of it, we need only to remove our umbrellas - Jagdish Parikh.
Creativity Quotient Creativity is the real currency of progress. • There is nothing you can build, invent, or license that cannot be reproduced. • Focus not just on how we work together, but how we think together.
Fundamental Questions • What is creativity? (Producing, not reproducing) • Where in your organization is creativity most needed? • Why? • What attributes would you look for in a creative person? • What spurs creativity (not what you think!)
The Curse of Knowledge • The well-trodden path kills creativity. • Peter Watson’s exercise (2,4,6). • Most people don’t search for alternatives and don’t ask questions even when there is no penalty. • Einstein and the needle in the haystack. • Looking for alternatives even when the “solution” is found. • Producing, not reproducing solutions.
What if? • What if every customer was greeted at the door? • What if everyone donated a dollar to cancer? • What if I can shop on-line? • What if I can heat my car from my house? • What if I can ….what? • Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, "The World's Foremost Expert on Nametags"
Obstacles to Creativity • Bureaucrats • Leaders (or, our ideas about leadership) • Purpose, power, and wealth. • Control, consistency, and predictability. • Patriarchy – the belief those at the top are responsible for the success of the organization. • Partnership – distributes power to where the action is. Accountability is derived from stewardship, not control.
Answer this! • Here's a riddle. What is the only business book ever to spend more than 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, sell more than a million copies, and be nominated for the prestigious National Book Award? • Fast Company
Take away • What is your take away? • What is the one problem to which you look to produce a solution, rather than to reproduce a solution? Good Night!
So, what is your business? • If you answered, “teach engineering”, you are still in the 70s. • If you answered, “teach engineering and career skills”, you are in the 80s”. • If you answered, “teach engineering, business, e-commerce, and career skills”, you are in the 90s. • If you answered, “teach them not to invest in a dot com company”, you are in 2002”. • If you answered, “teach them to teach themselves” you are in 2004. • If you answered, “I am continuously learning and relearning what I need to teach” you are qualified to teach the student of tomorrow!