What Is Creativity, Innovation?

“May the Force Be With You…Always” What is the Force?

Creativity Adams: “The combination of seemingly disparate parts into a functioning, useful whole.” Picasso: “Every act of creation is an act of destruction” and “art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.” Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Robinson: “Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.” Richard Florida: “Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.”

Creativity Traditional teaching methods are worse than useless – they stomp out creativity by trying to eliminating mistakes. We are never as creative as when we were three. Becoming creative is getting in touch with our inner child. And getting rid of inhibitions We become creative by making mistakes.

Creativity Creativity can be learned. We’ll learn about the creative process. And some creativity-enhancing techniques

Three Creativity Perspectives The creative person The creative product The creative process We’ll focus on the process.

Three Creativity Elements Expertise: In-depth knowledge about a field Creative skills: Problem-finding and problem-solving skills, creative process skills Intrinsic task motivation Intrinsic rewards: Love of the work, the process involved, not extrinsic reward such as money, awards * Teresa Amabile, Creativity in Context, Westview Press, 1996

Innovation Innovation is the result – the working solution – of the creative process. Innovation is the most dominant trend in business … the key to success Non-profits, too. Innovation = problem finding and problem solving. Most of all, innovation is fun.

The Creative Person Six traits of creative people *: Self-confidence Unconventionality Alertness Ready access to unconscious processes (incubation) Ambition Commitment to work *Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham and Gandhi. (1996). Howard Gardner. New York: Basic Books.

Four Roles Of The Creative Process (von Oech) * The Explorer Gathers information, explores for knowledge in new places. The Artist Experiments with new approaches, combinations. Follows intuition, breaks rules, brainstorms, takes risks. A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, Roger von Oech, Perennial Library, New York, 1986.

Four Roles Of The Creative Process (von Oech) The Judge Evaluates ideas and solutions, critically weighs evidence. The Warrior Takes the offensive, fights for implementation, sells the ideas, has courage.

The Explorer Know what the objective is. Look in other fields. Camouflage came from cubist art (Picasso & Braque). Unbreakable code in WWII came from the Navajo language. Look for lots of ideas. Look behind the first right answer. “How do you stop a fish from smelling?”

The Explorer Don’t overlook things right in front of you. Look or ideas in places you’ve been avoiding. The drunkard’s search The Adjacent Possible * The city and the web are engines of innovation, created for creation, diffusion and adoption of ideas. * Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson

Create or find Liquid Networks. * Sharing of ideas (open, collaborative) - double-entry bookkeeping *

Forcing Mechanisms Trigger concepts Creative Whack Pack, Creative Strategies and 75 Tools for Creative Thinking apps Matrix Random words http://textfixer.com/tools/random- words.php

Starbursting (Who what, where, when, why, how) See “Creativity Techniques” paper on my website. Brainwriting and cyberstorming See “Better Brainstorming” paper on my website.

Brainswarming Hockey Puck (Google) http://hbr.org/video/3373616535001/brainsw arming-because-brainstorming-doesnt-work Hockey Puck (Google)

The Artist Adapt Imagine (“What if?”) Reverse (backward, upside down) Connect Compare (metaphors, literature, music, art, sports, warfare, gardening) Exaptation * Gutenberg, Apple * Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson

Parody Incubate Serendipity * Error * The Slow Hunch (Darwin, Tim Berners-Lee) * The 10/10 Rule – Ten years to develop a platform, ten years to build an audience – used to be. Google, Facebook cut it in half because of the web. Serendipity * In dreamwork. Error * Make mistakes. * Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson

The Judge Does it meet the objective? Positives? Negatives? Probability for success? Downside? Upside?

Timing? Deadlines? Biases? (assumptions) Blind Spots?

The Warrior Be bold. Develop a strategy. What are the consequences of failure? Get started immediately? Sell it. Persistence Learn from victories and defeats.

Creativity Blocks Accepting conventional wisdom Not taking time to investigate or elaborate Seeking only to satisfy the perceived needs of bosses Having tunnel vision, compartmentalizing problems Looking for quick, yes-no answers Fear of failure Adult thinking

Creativity Blocks Expecting others to be creative Being unwilling to question others Being unwilling to accept others‘ input Being unwilling to collaborate Darwin: “...those who learned to collaborate and improvise...prevailed.” * The wisdom of crowds Where Good Ideas Come From, Stephen Johnson

Methods For Killing Creativity Evaluation Fear of evaluation kills the love of creative activity. Surveillance Looking over creative people’s shoulder or policing them de-motivates them.

Methods For Killing Creativity Reward Extrinsic rewards lower motivation. Reward creative people with autonomy, the opportunity to learn. Competition Win-lose competition kills creativity. In a competitive environment many people think about how not to lose instead of how to win.

Methods For Killing Creativity Restricted Choice Making choices for creative people or severely limiting their options lowers creative output. Extrinsic Orientation External rewards such as prizes and money hurt creativity. Creative people love the intrinsic rewards of doing the job.

Creativity Enhancers Assume every experience can stimulate personal growth. Look for positives, growth, opportunities: Chinese character, “crisis.” Clearly visualize a positive outcome. Don’t react too quickly. Give yourself time (incubation), have patience.

Pixar’s Rules For Collective Creativity Empower your creatives. Give your creative people control over every stage of idea development. Development’s job is to find people who can work together. Create a peer culture. Encourage people to help each other do their best work. Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. (2014). Ed Catmull. New York: Random House.

Craft a learning environment. Free up communication. The most efficient way to resolve the numerous problems that arise in any complex project is to trust people to address difficulties directly, without having to get permission. So, give everyone the freedom to communicate with anyone. Craft a learning environment. Reinforce the mind-set that you’re all learning – and it’s fun to learn together.

Get more out of postmortems. Most people dislike postmortems. They’d rather talk about what went right than what went wrong. Structure your postmortems to stimulate discussion.

Number-one creativity rule: Get in touch with the child you once were.