Creativity, History and You. Historical Examination of Creativity Look at people and times to understand creativity better –What traits made creative

Creativity, History and You

Historical Examination of Creativity

• Look at people and times to understand creativity better– What traits made creative

people creative?– What environmental

conditions existed during highly creative periods?

– What was the process of creativity?

Time

Pro

gress

Creativity

Creativity and Society

1. Creativity affects society – "Creativity is the engine that drives cultural evolution." -M. Csikszentmihalyi in Handbook of Creativity, Robert J. Sternberg (ed.), 1999, 320.

2. Society affects creativity – "There are indeed certain instances in which social/cultural realities largely determine the possibility or lack of possibility for developing creativity in a given field." -D. H. Feldman in Handbook of Creativity, Robert J. Sternberg (ed.), 1999, 179.

Renaissance• Creativity is

enhanced by learning about many fields– Lateral thinking

Leonardo

Michelangelo

Brunelleschi

Reformation

• Creativity requires the courage to think new thoughts and break with tradition

Baroque• Creativity can be

motivated by– Love (of God or

church or king)– Glory (desire to

impress)

Scientific Awakening – Enlightenment

• Creativity can come from developing a new way of thinking and applying it to many different fields

Classical

• Creativity can come by using the benefits of the rules and exploring within the limits

Romantic• Creativity can

express personal feelings about country, love, nature, or something only dreamed

Impressionism and Post-impressionism

• Creativity can be based on new techniques to explore and express the world

Modern

• Creativity can exist without the rules if there is still communication

Technology

• Creativity can satisfy human needs and can then be used either for good or bad

"The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot

learn, unlearn, and relearn."

– Toffler, Alvin (author of Future Shock), quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think Like Einstein, Barnes & Noble Books, Inc., 2000, p. 26.

Improving Creativity Skills

• Thinking better– Linear and lateral– Conscious and

subconscious

Focus

Depth

Skills

Hard Work

Experience

Growth

Expansion

LinearCreativity

Lateral Creativity

Breadth

Analogies

Uniqueness

Non-Logic

Innovation

Out-of-the-Box

(Intuitive/Imagination)

(Logic/Knowledge)

Creativity begins with thinking

Brain control

– Example: Napoleon"Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard. When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another. Do I wish to sleep? I simply close all the drawers and there I am – asleep." – Napoleon (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2162/napmem.html)

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2162/napmem.html

Use Mind ControlPut difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives. Ponder and pray quietly and persistently about them. The answer may not come as a lightning bolt. It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, “line upon line, precept upon precept” (D&C 98:12). Some answers will come from reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration.

― Boyd K. Packer (“Prayers and Answers,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 21.)

Roger von Oech has identified

10 mental blocks to creativity

The following information is taken from his book

From these five figures, select the one that is different from all of the others.

• B is the right answer — Why?• C is the right answer — Why?• A is the right answer — Why?• D is the right answer — Why?• E is the right answer — Why?

Mental Blocks1. The right answer

Barriers to creative thinking

Barrier: The right answer

An elementary school teacher told me the following story about a colleague who had given her first graders a coloring assignment:

The instructions said: “On this sheet of paper, you will find an outline of a house, trees, flowers, clouds, and sky. Please color each with the appropriate colors.”

One of the students, Patty, put a lot of work into her drawing. When she got it back, she was surprised to find a big black “X” on it. She asked the teacher for an explanation. “I gave you an ‘X’ because you didn’t follow the instructions. Grass is green not gray. The sky should be blue, not yellow as you have drawn it. Why didn’t you use the normal colors, Patty?’

Patty answered, “Because that’s how it looks to me when I get up early to watch the sunrise.”

—Roger von Oeck, A Whack on the Side of the Head.


• Children enter school as question marks and come out as periods.—Neil Postman, educator

Overcoming Barrier #1

• Look for alternate answers



2. That’s not logical


Take a blank sheet of paper and write the words ‘Soft’ on the top left and ‘Hard’ on the top right.

Which column would you place the concepts that appear on the next slide?

• Logic• Metaphor• Dream• Reason• Play• Work• Exact• Approximate• Fantasy• Reality• Generalization• Specifics

Soft Hard

Soft– Metaphor– Dream– Play– Approximate– Fantasy– Generalization

Hard– Logic– Reason– Work– Exact– Reality– Specific

Two sides of the brain

Barrier: That’s not logical

• Some people have little use for soft thinking. Their feeling toward it is “that’s not logical.” When faced with a problem, they immediately bring in their hard thinking strategies.

Barrier: That’s not logical• Metaphors help us to understand one idea by

means of another.• The key to metaphorical thinking is similarity. In

fact, this is how our thinking grows: we understand the unfamiliar by means of the similarities it has with what is familiar to us. For example, what were the first automobiles called? . . “horseless carriages.” . . . first locomotives . . . “iron horses”

• We refer to resemblances between things all of the time. We say that hammers have “heads,” tables have “legs,” roads have “shoulders,” cities have “hearts,” and beds have “feet.” It’s all very soft, but it is how we think.


• Use metaphorical thinking

Barrier: That’s not logical



3. Follow the rules


1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, ??

What comes next?

Humans are adept in discerning patterns and that gives us abilities to solve problems.

But, we also get locked into those patterns

Barrier: Follow the rules

1. We make rules based on reasons that make a lot of sense.

2. We follow these rules.

3. Time passes, and things change.

4. The original reasons for the rules may no longer exist, but we continue to follow the rules.


In 333 B.C., Alexander arrived in Gordium to take up winter quarters. While there, he heard about the legend surrounding the famous “Gordian Knot.” Whoever is able to untie this knot, will become the ruler of Asia.


He attempted to untie it but failed and got frustrated. So he pulled out his sword and sliced the knot in half. Asia was his!


• Every rule here can be challenged except this one. – A corporate motto

• Warning: When I encourage you to challenge the rules. I’m not advocating you to do anything that’s illegal, immoral, or unethical.


Q W E R T Y U I O P

• Why the following typewriter keyboard?

• To keep from jamming the keys.

• We follow the same system even though there are key arrangements that facilitate faster typing.


Barrier: Follow the rulesPlaying the piano by different rules


• Try different ways




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical


Several years ago, the president of a glass manufacturing company said to the chief scientist, “Glass breaks. Why not change that?”

What is your reaction to that question?

Barrier: Be practical

The engineer continued, “Have you ever noticed what happens to paint after it’s been on a house for five or six years? It chips and cracks and is very difficult to remove. There has to be a better way to get it off. If we put gunpowder in our house paint, we could blow it off the house.”


The chief scientist challenged the others in the R & D department to take the president’s challenge seriously and ask the question: What if it could be done?

The result: Corelle® dinnerware


Each of us has an “artist” and a “judge” within us.

The artist is open-minded and is used in the imaginative phase when ideas are being generated.

The judge represents practical phase when ideas are being prepared for execution.

Avoid bringing in the judge before the artist has had a chance.




• Ask “What if”




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical

5. Play is frivolous


• How deep is the ocean?– Just a stone’s throw.

• What do John the Baptist and Winnie the Pooh have in common?– They have the same middle name.

• What do you get when you combine the Godfather with a lawyer?– An offer you can’t understand.

Barrier: Play is frivolous

What do the squares look like to you? Try to think of at least three different things.


Now what do you see?


During what kinds of activities and situations do you get your ideas?

What, then is the right way of living? Life must be lived as play. — Plato




• Use play as a way to think new thoughts




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical


6. That’s not my area


A solar energy lab technician has a problem. Her research lab is experimenting with a solar cell material, gallium arsenide, which is causing her problems in the slicing stage of cell production. Her task is to use a special high-speed wafer saw to make precision cuts in the material. But every time she cuts the material it cracks. She tries changing the position of the saw. The material still cracks. She is quite frustrated.

Barrier: That’s not my area

At home that weekend, she is in her husband’s shop watching him make cabinets. She notices that when he wants to make precision cuts on certain types of wood, he reduces (rather than increases) the saw’s cutting speed. She gets an idea: why not try the same approach on the gallium arsenide. She does, and it works.


What this woman did exemplifies an important part of creative thinking: recognizing the basic idea of one’s situation and applying it to another.

The benefits of transferring knowledge gained in one area to another seem obvious.

Why don’t people do it more often?

One answer is specialization.



Steve Jobs: “Innovation is usually the result of connections of past experience. But if you have the same experiences as everybody else, you’re unlikely to look in a different direction. For example, I went to Reed College in Portland. At Reed, most of the men took modern dance classes from a woman named Judy Massey. We did it to meet the women. I didn’t realize how much I learned about movement and perception from that class until a few years later when I worked for Nolan Bushnell at Atari. I was able to relate how much resolution of movement you need in terms of perceiving things for video games.”



• Be an explorer




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical



7. Don’t be foolishBarriers to creative thinking

Barrier: Don’t be foolish

Looking at the fool’s wildly-colored clothing and donkey-eared cap, it’s easy to regard him as a simpleton….. don’t be fooled! It takes intelligence, imagination, cleverness, and insight to play this role.

The fool was consulted by Egyptian pharaohs and Babylonian kings. His opinion was sought by Roman emperors and Greek tyrants. He played an important role at the courts of the Chinese emperors. The fool was prominently employed by European royalty in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

What did the fool do?

Simply stated, it was his job to whack the king’s thinking out of habitual thought patterns. The king’s advisors were often “yes-men” — they told him exactly what he wanted to hear….. Therefore, he gave the fool a license to parody any proposal under discussion and to shatter the prevailing mindset….. By listening to the fool, the king improved his judgment, enhanced his creativity, and protected himself from groupthink.


Some suggestions:

Put on Your Fool’s Cap– The fool’s job is to shake, assault, massage, caress, and take a whack

at the habits, rules, and conventions that keep you thinking the same old stuff.

Laugh at It– There is a close relationship between the “haha” of humor and the “aha!”

of discovery.– Humor works wonders to stimulate the flow of ideas.

Reverse your Perspective– You’ll see the things you usually don’t look at.– It may “free your thinking from deeply engrained assumptions”.




• Change perspectives even if it means being different




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical



7. Don’t be foolish

8. Avoid ambiguity Barriers to creative thinking

In the following line of letters, cross out six letters so that the remaining letters, without altering their sequence, will spell a familiar English word.

BSAINXLEATNTEARS

BSAINXLEATNTEARS

BSAINXLEATNTEARS

What would I have left if I cross out SIXLETTERS?

Barrier: Avoid Ambiguity

Why don’t we like ambiguous situations?–They’re confusing–They cause communication problems

There are instances, however, when ambiguity can be a powerful stimulant to your imagination.

One way to “think something different” is to look at things ambiguously.

For example, what is half of 8?–One answer if 4

What if the question is ambiguous?–How about 0–How about 3–How about eig

Barrier: Avoid ambiguity



• Take advantage of the ambiguity of the world




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical




8. Avoid ambiguity

9. To err is wrong


Barrier: To err is wrong

From a practical standpoint, “to err is wrong” makes sense…..engineers whose bridges collapse, stock brokers who lose money for their clients…..won’t keep their jobs long.

Nevertheless, too great an adherence to the belief “to err is wrong” can greatly undermine your attempts to generate new ideas.

To err is wrong

History of discovery is filled with people who used erroneous assumptions and failed ideas as stepping stones to new ideas.• Columbus thought he was finding a shorter route

to India• Thomas Edison knew 1,800 ways not to build a

light bulb

Remember these two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work. Second, the failure gives you an opportunity to try a new approach.

If you hit every time, the target is too near or too big.—Tom Hirshfield, physicist




• Don’t be afraid of mistrakes




3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical




8. Avoid ambiguity

9. To error is wrong

10. I’m not creative


A major oil company was concerned about the lack of creative productivity among its engineers.

To deal with this problem, a team of psychologists was brought in to find out what differentiated the creative people from the less creative ones.

After three months of study, the psychologists found that the chief differentiating factor that separated the two groups was:

Barrier: I’m not creative

The creative people thought they were creative, and the less creative people didn’t

think they were.




• Believe in your creativity


The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility. They are able to shift in and out of different types of thinking depending on the needs of the situation at hand. Sometimes, they’re open and probing, at others, they’re playful and off-the-wall. At still others, they’re critical and fault-finding. And finally, they’re doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals. From this, I’ve concluded that people who are successful in the creative process are able to adopt four main roles, each of which embodies a different type of thinking.

Which creative person are you now?

The 4 creative rolls

1. Explorer ― open and probing

2. Artist ― playful and off-the-wall

3. Judge ― critical and fault-finding

4. Warrior ― doggedly persistent

First off, you — as a creative thinker — need the raw materials from which new ideas are made: facts, concepts, experiences, knowledge, feelings, and whatever else you can find. However, you’re much more likely to find something original if you venture off the beaten path. So, you must become an Explorer and look for the materials you’ll use to build your ideas.

Explorer

For the most part, the ideas and information you gather as an explorer will be like so many pieces of colored glass at the end of a kaleidoscope. They may form a pattern, but if you want something new and different, you’ll have to give them a twist or two. That’s when you shift roles and let the Artist in you come out.

Artist

Now, ask yourself, ‘Is this idea any good? Is it worth pursuing? Will it give me the return I want? Do I have the resources to make it happen?’ To help you make your decision, you adopt the mindset of a Judge. During your evaluation, you critically weigh the evidence.

Judge

Finally it’s time to implement your idea. You realize, however, that the world isn’t set up to accommodate every new idea that comes along. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of competition out there. If you want your idea to succeed, you’ll have to take the offensive. So, you become a Warrior and take your idea into action. As a warrior, you’re part general and part foot-soldier.

Warrior

• Your Explorer is your role for searching for new information and resources

• Your Artist is your role for turning these resources into new ideas

• Your Judge is your role for evaluating the merits of an idea and deciding what to do with it

• Your Warrior is your role for carrying your idea into action

Summary

The Importance of Creativity

CharityCreativity in the world

Thank You

Are you more creative?

Documents

Creativity, History and You. Historical Examination of Creativity Look at people and times to understand creativity better –What traits made creative