In A Pinch: Developing Creativity

The study of creativity and intelligence has always been a central concern of psychology. There are many views about the nature of creativity, and there is some agreement that the creative process involves the application of past experience.

Definition of Creativity: The ability to imagine or invent something new.

The Creative Problem Solving Model (CPS by Osborn and Parnes) suggests that creativity is a 5 step process:

• Fact Finding
• Problem Finding
• Idea Finding
• Solution Finding
• Acceptance Finding

Personality traits that may be innate and learned will underlie the creative behavior:

• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Visualization
• Imagination
• Expressiveness
• Openness

To develop Creativity you will need to:

• Step One: LOOK
• Step Two: See what you look at
• Step Three: Understand what you see
• Step Four: Learn from what you understand
• Step Five: Act on what you learn

Creativity Development is WORK!

• Keep a file of ideas, it will be important.
• Keep a note pad and pencil beside your bed. Ideas come when your mind is resting.
• Tag onto ideas.
• Spend time each day in reflecting, day dreaming, in thought.
• Risk

Tips for Developing Creativity:

1. Look for the second right answer
2. The answers you get depend on the questions you ask. Play with the wording to get different answers.
3. Thing “soft thinking” in the germinal phase and “hard thinking” in the practical phase.
4. Think of yourself as a poet and look for the metaphors or similarities.
5. Pay attention to the metaphors others use.
6. Play the revolutionary and challenge the rules ( use some caution).
7. Check your ideas to see if they are contributing to your thinking effectiveness.
8. Avoid “falling in love” with ideas.
9. Organize, inspect and discard when necessary.
10. Don’t judge before you are the “artist”.
11. Cultivate your imagination. Ask yourself “what if” questions each day.
12. Look at ambiguity and think about what else it might be.
13. Pose creative problems.
14. Write down ambiguous descriptions of things.
15. When you error, use it to step to a new idea.
16. Strengthen your “risk” skills. Risk at least once every 24 hours.
17. Remember: If you fail, you will then try a different approach.
18. When you find a problem, play with it.
19. Make your work a fun place to be.
20. Become a hunter. Look for ideas everyplace you go.
21. Don’t become so busy that you forget to idea-hunt.
22. Diversify your idea hunting grounds.
23. When you capture an idea, WRITE it down.
24. Make yourself try some new things and build on what you find. The small ideas will develop for you.

Remember to “turn the light on”!

References:

• James L. Adams, The Care and Feeding of Ideas, Addison Wesley
• Alfred Binet (1911/1962 pg. 150)
• Joseph Kasof-University of Texas 1995
• CPS Model, Osborn (1955), Parnes (1967)
• Roger von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, 1986, Perennial Library