Creativity has the following ingredients:
Ø Imagination-not literal, linear thought.
Ø Exploration.
Ø Openness.
Ø Willingness to drop prejudice and conventional wisdom.
Ø Broad goals in mind.
Ø Heuristics.
Ø Humour.
Why creativity?
Ø The need for totally new, daring and as yet untried solution for the problems that face the world.
Ø In an interconnected world, we must seek joint solutions that are inclusive.
Creativity in practice:
· Breaking away from routine
· Being experimental-nothing ventured, nothing gained.
· Asking challenging questions-questioning the trodden path.
· Force of serendipity-aimless looking.
· Seeking hidden connections.
· New ways of seeing.
· Asking patently absurd questions.
· Reverse brainstorming (counter-intuitive methods).
· What/where/when is NOT the problem? (As opposed to situation analysis and problem definition).
· Seeing the whole and the part.
· Thinking in pictures-diagramming-mind mapping
· Thinking around the subject, not just on it.
· Thinking afresh and in depth.
· Relationship diagrams
· Logical diagrams
· Force field diagrams
· Soft systems method (stresses on learning about rather than solving problems; debating rather than ignoring conflicts in values and expectations; and participating in the process rather than simply accepting it).
· Networks everywhere.
Action learning and a sense of discovery:
The essential spirit of creative eye is freshness of discovery as opposed to invention. One must approach anything with ‘willing suspension of disbelief’; shed all filters. Truth is not a concept. If we cling to our concepts, we lose reality. It is necessary to kill our concepts so that reality can present itself.
Dialogue: The art of thinking together.
A centre without sides: Dialogue is a flow of meaning; a conversation that has a centre but no sides. All revolutionary and peaceful change such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid or the truce efforts in Ireland arose out of a deep and meaningful conversation that began with neither prejudice nor seeking winners and losers. Parties are not the focus but the issue is.
At the heart of good dialogue is a simple but profound instrument-the capacity to listen.
Listening holds the key:
Managing and living creatively is all about preparedness of the mind. The new can never flow from a disturbed mind. An absence or at least temporary abatement of acute sense of the ego is called for. Until we realize this connection between the state of mind and the challenge of thinking differently and seeing fresh, we shall merely be floundering in a sea of prescriptive tricks and techniques.
We need to bring attention to the surface, which alone makes discovery possible. This leads to a new kind of learning, with emergence of a fresh set of solutions or at least a new perspective on familiar organizational problems. Another good outcome of listening so completely is the improvement in inter-personal relationships with colleagues and neighbours.
Creative Living:
Speed kills!
The negative fall-out of speed such as major errors, health breakdowns and loss of self-esteem amongst those who cannot match the pace-all these represent a waste of most valuable asset, which is the human being, the person.
The very need for speed of thought has to be questioned. Making management decisions is not simply about speed. It takes months to make the truly important decisions, including rounds of hierarchy and committees.
The tendency to associate any question or challenge thrown at us with fast, quick-fire responses is very risky.
“The effective executive does not make too many decisions. He makes the important ones.”-Peter Drucker.
Thinking fresh on any subject requires a mind that is not cluttered or under pressure. Since speed is almost always spurred by competition, ambition and anxiety to succeed, it is extremely difficult to come upon the truly creative idea under pressure. On the other hand, the total cycle time of getting an important task done can be better distributed, as the Japanese are known to do, by spending a little more time living with the problem, absorbing the situation and making up for it in swift execution.
Scenario Building:
A manager must find a way to look at the future that is realistic yet visionary at the same time.
While one part of this approach is similar to brainstorming, the other is like story telling or writing a script for a film. We use our imagination as to what alternatives may unfold, given some key developments in the next 20 years. It is the way of considering possible alternative futures and not about a single point forecast.
The objective of the exercise is not about precision and accuracy, but about mental preparedness and creating the scope for a wide-ranging search for alternatives.
Roots of creativity:
Is there such a thing as a creative personality? Personality theories or models are metaphors to describe something that is intrinsically indescribable-the human personality. Personality tests are typically paper-and-pencil self-reports, which have been tested for validity and reliability. Testing is recommended to be only one of the instruments to be used for recruitment and assessment. As we always manage with and through people, understanding their individual differences helps us in all sorts of ways.
Creating the Energy: Pranayama and Yoga.
Time and energy are two things that all managers wish they had more of. Living and managing creatively demands that we be prepared to at least see things anew and try out a wider repertoire of responses. This implies afresh, energetic approach; from a healthy, free and fresh mind, and a new pair of eyes to see oneself and the outer world. Cultivating the body’s energies through the right kind of breathing is a boost to this process. Investment in time and efforts to practice the ‘life giving science’ of yoga ought to rightly be part of the corporate HR policy of company believing in the slogan ‘people are what make an organization’.
The Insightful and Meditative Walk:
For those interested in work as a facilitator of a group, either as a trainer or consultant, it may be worth trying to open the morning session with a meditative walk, after five minutes of meditative silence, if the location has a pleasant green surroundings. It works well when pondering over a major decision or issues. It can also be an excellent icebreaker to start a meeting.
Competition and Creativity in Practice:
Learn not to look for solutions outside the problem. In organizational matters, actors are part of the problem-and eventually of the solution! ‘Problem solvers’ are themselves part of the problem. Knowledge in the people field is limited.
Competition between organizations has to be redefined. Dog-eat-dog competition driven by organizational hubris and ego is detrimental to collective survival. Strategic alliances, competition, seamless organizations, virtual organizations and shared outsourced resources have become the new mantras.
Summation:
The object of this book is to edge you towards a more naturally authentic behaviour-not the socially sanctioned way. Being creative is to find one’s true nature and live in consonance with it-for, conflict within oneself divides the person artificially.
You are a part of the cosmic system; there is a scientific and rational basis to ‘go with the flow’ and let the wholeness operate through you. And yet, what prevents us from ‘letting go’ is fear. Fear, anxiety and prior assumptions act as a powerful screen against us seeing reality.
The search for certainties, the correct answer and precise formulae are the very antithesis of creative living.
Comments:
Creativity in action implies unconditional freedom; willingness to try new alternatives; not resisting. The higher we go in hierarchy, the expert self-image rebels against the very spirit of listening to juniors. As long as we are unwilling to suspend prior judgement, the door to creative living will remain shut against us.
The book has used the technique of mind map effectively, to stimulate associative and divergent thinking. The use of cartoons and charts also facilitate learning beyond the written and aimed at triggering the ‘Aha!’ reaction. We could use the lessons from this book to introspect and do soul-searching, be it individual or corporate. The book addressees issue of HR Department in particular and Management in general. As a Learning centre faculty, I derived immense pleasure as also utility in studying this book. I strongly recommend this book to be a part of our library.
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Ø Imagination-not literal, linear thought.
Ø Exploration.
Ø Openness.
Ø Willingness to drop prejudice and conventional wisdom.
Ø Broad goals in mind.
Ø Heuristics.
Ø Humour.
Why creativity?
Ø The need for totally new, daring and as yet untried solution for the problems that face the world.
Ø In an interconnected world, we must seek joint solutions that are inclusive.
Creativity in practice:
· Breaking away from routine
· Being experimental-nothing ventured, nothing gained.
· Asking challenging questions-questioning the trodden path.
· Force of serendipity-aimless looking.
· Seeking hidden connections.
· New ways of seeing.
· Asking patently absurd questions.
· Reverse brainstorming (counter-intuitive methods).
· What/where/when is NOT the problem? (As opposed to situation analysis and problem definition).
· Seeing the whole and the part.
· Thinking in pictures-diagramming-mind mapping
· Thinking around the subject, not just on it.
· Thinking afresh and in depth.
· Relationship diagrams
· Logical diagrams
· Force field diagrams
· Soft systems method (stresses on learning about rather than solving problems; debating rather than ignoring conflicts in values and expectations; and participating in the process rather than simply accepting it).
· Networks everywhere.
Action learning and a sense of discovery:
The essential spirit of creative eye is freshness of discovery as opposed to invention. One must approach anything with ‘willing suspension of disbelief’; shed all filters. Truth is not a concept. If we cling to our concepts, we lose reality. It is necessary to kill our concepts so that reality can present itself.
Dialogue: The art of thinking together.
A centre without sides: Dialogue is a flow of meaning; a conversation that has a centre but no sides. All revolutionary and peaceful change such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid or the truce efforts in Ireland arose out of a deep and meaningful conversation that began with neither prejudice nor seeking winners and losers. Parties are not the focus but the issue is.
At the heart of good dialogue is a simple but profound instrument-the capacity to listen.
Listening holds the key:
Managing and living creatively is all about preparedness of the mind. The new can never flow from a disturbed mind. An absence or at least temporary abatement of acute sense of the ego is called for. Until we realize this connection between the state of mind and the challenge of thinking differently and seeing fresh, we shall merely be floundering in a sea of prescriptive tricks and techniques.
We need to bring attention to the surface, which alone makes discovery possible. This leads to a new kind of learning, with emergence of a fresh set of solutions or at least a new perspective on familiar organizational problems. Another good outcome of listening so completely is the improvement in inter-personal relationships with colleagues and neighbours.
Creative Living:
Speed kills!
The negative fall-out of speed such as major errors, health breakdowns and loss of self-esteem amongst those who cannot match the pace-all these represent a waste of most valuable asset, which is the human being, the person.
The very need for speed of thought has to be questioned. Making management decisions is not simply about speed. It takes months to make the truly important decisions, including rounds of hierarchy and committees.
The tendency to associate any question or challenge thrown at us with fast, quick-fire responses is very risky.
“The effective executive does not make too many decisions. He makes the important ones.”-Peter Drucker.
Thinking fresh on any subject requires a mind that is not cluttered or under pressure. Since speed is almost always spurred by competition, ambition and anxiety to succeed, it is extremely difficult to come upon the truly creative idea under pressure. On the other hand, the total cycle time of getting an important task done can be better distributed, as the Japanese are known to do, by spending a little more time living with the problem, absorbing the situation and making up for it in swift execution.
Scenario Building:
A manager must find a way to look at the future that is realistic yet visionary at the same time.
While one part of this approach is similar to brainstorming, the other is like story telling or writing a script for a film. We use our imagination as to what alternatives may unfold, given some key developments in the next 20 years. It is the way of considering possible alternative futures and not about a single point forecast.
The objective of the exercise is not about precision and accuracy, but about mental preparedness and creating the scope for a wide-ranging search for alternatives.
Roots of creativity:
Is there such a thing as a creative personality? Personality theories or models are metaphors to describe something that is intrinsically indescribable-the human personality. Personality tests are typically paper-and-pencil self-reports, which have been tested for validity and reliability. Testing is recommended to be only one of the instruments to be used for recruitment and assessment. As we always manage with and through people, understanding their individual differences helps us in all sorts of ways.
Creating the Energy: Pranayama and Yoga.
Time and energy are two things that all managers wish they had more of. Living and managing creatively demands that we be prepared to at least see things anew and try out a wider repertoire of responses. This implies afresh, energetic approach; from a healthy, free and fresh mind, and a new pair of eyes to see oneself and the outer world. Cultivating the body’s energies through the right kind of breathing is a boost to this process. Investment in time and efforts to practice the ‘life giving science’ of yoga ought to rightly be part of the corporate HR policy of company believing in the slogan ‘people are what make an organization’.
The Insightful and Meditative Walk:
For those interested in work as a facilitator of a group, either as a trainer or consultant, it may be worth trying to open the morning session with a meditative walk, after five minutes of meditative silence, if the location has a pleasant green surroundings. It works well when pondering over a major decision or issues. It can also be an excellent icebreaker to start a meeting.
Competition and Creativity in Practice:
Learn not to look for solutions outside the problem. In organizational matters, actors are part of the problem-and eventually of the solution! ‘Problem solvers’ are themselves part of the problem. Knowledge in the people field is limited.
Competition between organizations has to be redefined. Dog-eat-dog competition driven by organizational hubris and ego is detrimental to collective survival. Strategic alliances, competition, seamless organizations, virtual organizations and shared outsourced resources have become the new mantras.
Summation:
The object of this book is to edge you towards a more naturally authentic behaviour-not the socially sanctioned way. Being creative is to find one’s true nature and live in consonance with it-for, conflict within oneself divides the person artificially.
You are a part of the cosmic system; there is a scientific and rational basis to ‘go with the flow’ and let the wholeness operate through you. And yet, what prevents us from ‘letting go’ is fear. Fear, anxiety and prior assumptions act as a powerful screen against us seeing reality.
The search for certainties, the correct answer and precise formulae are the very antithesis of creative living.
Comments:
Creativity in action implies unconditional freedom; willingness to try new alternatives; not resisting. The higher we go in hierarchy, the expert self-image rebels against the very spirit of listening to juniors. As long as we are unwilling to suspend prior judgement, the door to creative living will remain shut against us.
The book has used the technique of mind map effectively, to stimulate associative and divergent thinking. The use of cartoons and charts also facilitate learning beyond the written and aimed at triggering the ‘Aha!’ reaction. We could use the lessons from this book to introspect and do soul-searching, be it individual or corporate. The book addressees issue of HR Department in particular and Management in general. As a Learning centre faculty, I derived immense pleasure as also utility in studying this book. I strongly recommend this book to be a part of our library.
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