How to be Creative Looking for the last piece of the puzzle? Try these 7 research-based techniques for increasing creativity. Everyone is creative: we can all innovate given time, freedom, autonomy, experience to draw on, perhaps a role model to emulate and the motivation to get on with it. But there are times when even the most creative person gets bored, starts going round in circles, or hits a cul-de-sac. 1. People often recommend physical separation from creative impasses by taking a break, but psychological distance can be just as useful. Participants in one study who were primed to think about the source of a task as distant, solved twice as many insight problems as those primed with proximity to the task (Jia et al., 2009). ◊ For insight: Try imagining your creative task as distant and disconnected from your current location. 2. Like psychological distance, chronological distance can also boost creativity. 3. The mind is desperate to make meaning from experience. 4. 5. 6. 7. Everyday creativity
Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance 6 Ways My Brain Stops Me From Creating – And How I'm Fighting Back I have a lot of ideas in my head. And for the most part, that’s where they used to stay. In my head. Where other people couldn’t see them, interact with them or build upon them. Where they were safe and untested and uncriticized. Sure, I’ve created some. Because the riskiest, most dangerous and potentially most interesting ideas are the easiest to hold back. And while it might feel creative to think of these ideas, they were dying a lonely death when I wasn’t doing anything with them. I lost out, too, with this arrangement. It wasn’t the best life I could give my ideas—or myself. So I decided to change. 1. The No. 1 thing that keeps me from creating is that the idea doesn’t feel complete yet. A former editor of mine called these “glimmers”—a little spark of an idea, not fully formed but on the cusp of being something. The main thing is that idea glimmers need nurturing, which can be hard to do. How to fix it: 2. And sometimes I don’t want a struggle. How to fix it: 3. 4. 5. 6.
Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance CreativityRulz: Brainstorming Rules: What TO DO and What NOT TO DO... These two short videos are priceless! They were created by students at the Stanford Design Institute. The first one shows how NOT to brainstorm and the second one shows HOW to do it effectively. The worst case example happens all the time. Here is a video summary of what NOT to do: Here is a video summary of what TO DO: - Defer judgment- Capture all the ideas- Encourage wild ideas- One conversation at a time- Build on other people's ideas- Be visual - use words and pictures- Use headlines to summarize ideas- Go for volume - the more ideas the better!
Improving Creativity Can You Teach Yourself to Be Creative? I pour a cup of coffee, sharpen my pencil, and get ready to create. I’ve dusted off a half-conceived novel outline I abandoned three years ago, but this time I’m not waiting for my muse to intervene. Instead I hit the play button on the Creative Thinker’s Toolkit, an audio lecture series from The Great Courses that I’ve downloaded on my computer. Gerard Puccio, a psychologist who heads the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY Buffalo State, and the voice of the toolkit, tells me to engage in “forced relationships.” I’m intrigued. After all, creativity may be the key to Homo sapiens’ success. Creativity is certainly a buzzword these days. “We’ve moved beyond the industrial economy and the knowledge economy. But can you really teach yourself to be creative? Some of the earliest scientific studies of creativity focused on personality. Above all, though, two personality traits tend to show up again and again among innovative thinkers. I try to be likable.
Creativity and innovations Neat vs. Messy: Which Is Better for Creativity? There's a general assumption--in homes, in workplaces--that neatness corresponds to productivity. It begins in elementary school, with the annual rite of buying school supplies. You have the intent of staying organized, subject by subject, throughout the year. In adulthood, the habit continues. Every December, you buy an annual planner or calendar. As it happens, the fine art of getting organized is an official profession, with formal certifications, a code of ethics, and an official industry group (the National Association of Professional Organizers, or NAPO, 4,000 members strong). And that's just the beginning. And all that is just a yellow brick in the road of America's $4.3 billion stationery industry. Yet it's possible--and even demonstrable--that you'll be more creative if your work space is disorganized and messy. The Argument for Messiness Last year, she described her work in the New York Times. What This Means for Businesses Of course not.
Measuring Creativity | Explore how creativity is measured Learn how experts are measuring creativity ... Rarely do we ever see the terms “measuring” and “creativity” in the same sentence, let alone placed snuggly together causing the reader’s mind to do a double flip over the meaning. Some might even consider “measuring creativity” an oxymoron. When staring at a colorful abstract painting, dancing, watching a movie, or losing ourselves in a book, our minds do not travel to statistical indices or cold, complex calculations. We might, however, question how composers, writers, directors, or painters think in such a way as to produce such original and novel pieces of work. Yet if examined more closely, we might ask how exactly, and by what standards, do experts and the public rate – or measure – novelty or originality? For a group of psychologists who study creativity, measuring creativity – or determining how to accurately measure originality and novelty – is precisely their passion. The start of creative measures Guilford proved otherwise.
How to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing At Sketchfab, we’re always itching to find new and unique ways to stay ahead of the creative curve. We’ve dug deep on how the most creative minds around the world keep their creative juices flowing. Here are 5 ways you can begin to keep your creative juice flowing: 1. No, there’s no fire. What we mean is: Stop what you’re doing, Drop your pen, and Roll out of the building. Most of us are sitting down, staring at a screen for eight-hours a day. 2. While you’re out of the building, why not get some exercise? According to Psychology Today: “the creative process springs as much from the subconscious as it does from a conscious thought process. Exercise allows your conscious mind to access fresh ideas that are buried in the subconscious. Go for a walk, run, or even try some yoga poses, as long as it’s keeping your mind off of the task at hand. 3. Let’s face it. Not all of us were gifted with a photographic memory. 4. Good artists copy, great artists steal. — Pablo Picasso 5. Sean Kim
Scientific process skills education and scientific creativity The purpose of science education is to enable individuals to use scientific process skills; in other words, to be able to define the problems around them, to observe, to analyze, to hypothesize, to experiment, to conclude, to generalize, and to apply the information they have with the necessary skills. Scientific process skills (SPS) include skills that every individual could use in each step of his/her daily life by being scientifically literate and increasing the quality and standard of life by comprehending the nature of science. Therefore, these skills affect the personal, social, and global lifes of individuals. Scientists use their creativity in every stage of scientific research (Abd-el Khalick & Lederman, 2000). In this context, it can be accepted that the creativity is an important aspect of scientific skill. Scientific creativity (creativity in science) can be considered to help achieve new and original steps in performing the targets of science.
Managing Creativity and Innovation: Coming Up with a Perfect Brainstorm At Digital River, ideas are everything. So every Friday morning, at 8 a.m. sharp, CEO Joel Ronning calls his "entrepreneurs council" to order. For the next hour or so, about 45 senior employees of the Eden Prairie, Minn., e-commerce company huddle in a conference room and hammer out one suggestion after another, in hopes of hitting upon something, anything, that will add revenue or cut costs. n Over the past three years, the council has hatched new ideas for everything from training new hires to smarter selling strategies--ideas that Ronning says have saved or made Digital River hundreds of thousands of dollars. As for inspiring his team to strive for such creative heights, Ronning credits a fun, informal corporate culture, which includes, among other things, free beer on Friday afternoons. A $2,500 quarterly award for the best idea doesn't hurt either. Ronning is pleased with his results. An Army of One Asking the Right Questions That leads to poor results, says Paulus. Bad Ideas