2010 Cre8ng Challenges 1st qtr
2010 Alan’s
Cre8ng Challenges
Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-01
Happy New Year CC folks
During the past month I have been reading several books to prepare for 2010 professionally and personally and just for fun. One of my goals was to find a theme or plan for my 2010 Alan's Cre8ng Challenges.
Previous years I have used the list or 52 traits of highly creative people (20 from Paul Torrance's TTCT work over 50 years and 32 from a study I did of traits of highly creative people I did in 1980 as part of my doctorate when I collected of 400 different traits from reading articles by 147 different authors, consultants, researcher, professors who focused on creativity and creative thinking development.
This week I have chosen to use lessons learned from the book:
Change the Way You See Yourself (spelled on the cover as
eht egnahc uoy yaw ees flesruoy)
written by Kathryn D. Cramer, Ph.D. and Hank Wasiak
to create the 2010-01 CC.
Then the remainder of the year's 51 other CCs I will use traits from my collection of 400+ traits.
I will choose 5 separate traits each week and create activities or exercises for each of them and focus upon one per day: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
My plan is to create, discover and share exercises that focus on a balance of divergent and convergent thinking skills. I will also use a combination of exercises, tools, activities that can be used with the individual steps/stages of my Creative Solution Generating Model: C,r,e,8,n,g and the basic Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving as I learned it in 1978 and have used it ever since for 31+ years personally and professionally (O-F-P-I-S-A).
So let's start off the year at looking at ways we can CHANGE HOW WE SEE OURSELVES this year from one day to five years.
Your challenge this week is to spend time each day focusing on how you might choose to change how you look at yourself.
In the late 60s I read Benjamin Franklins autobiography where I read about how when he was in his late 50s or early 60s he decided to do exactly what Cramer and Wasiak's book focuses on. He began by asking several friends and relatives to make a list of traits they believe were strengths that BF had and weaknesses they believed he should eliminate.
It was probably one of the very first 360 degree feedback exercises in the US.
from the total list he chose 13 traits to work on. He then would work on one per week for a week and then move on the remaining list until he had worked on all 13. Then he re-examined his list to see if any had been corrected well enough and could be replaced by another on the list he had collected. He continued this for a couple years.
This week focus on thinking about things you might choose to change about yourself.
MONDAY
Today think about things you might change during a single day
TUESDAY
Today think about things you might need a week to change.
WEDNESDAY
Today think about things you might need a whole month to change.
THURSDAY
Today think about things that may take a quarter (3 months) to change.
FRIDAY
Today think about things that might take an entire year.
On Saturday review all 5 lists and review what you are willing to work on and begin next week one by one.
This week the goal was to think about things you might want to choose to change about yourself.
After a very rest-filled and fun weekend you have 51 other weeks to begin to change what you choose to change.
Best wishes for a highly creative, productive, meaningful and fun year in 2010.
Remember every day it is your choice to be creative and to grow as a person.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-02
2010 Year of Developing Creative Traits
As I mentioned last week my theme and focus for all 52 of 2010's CCs will be exploring a different human trait that experts, researchers, authors, consultants of creative thinking and problem solving write about are traits they have found in "HIGHLY CREATIVE" people.
"Dr. T" (what his students called Dr. E. Paul Torrance) began with 4 traits:
fluency
flexibility
elaboration
originality
in his earliest research in creativity in the 1950s. Over the next 40 years his list expanded to 20. During one short research project I did while his student I collected a list of over 400 from 147 different authors, researchers and professors. From that list of 400 I narrowed it down to a collection of 32 that many of the experts wrote about. Since 1980 I have used that list as an exercise with people one on one to audiences of hundreds to get them to begin thinking about how creative they are/were and could possibly become through training, practice, coaching, counseling.
Each week throughout 2010 I will share 5 from my collection. If you have others you have discovered please share them and I will in turn share them with the group during the year as well.
Each of these can be trained, taught, coached, counseled and improved daily throughout our entire lives.
We as human beings through our various roles and jobs are: teachers, trainers, counselors, coaches, managers, supervisors, parents, friends can help ourselves continuously improve, expand, enrich and deepened our creative thinking and the creative thinking of our children, friends, fellow employees and staffs.
Each day this week think about and practice the trait of the day: mentally, physically, emotionally, socially.
MONDAY
Abstract, can easily move from reality to
Examine challenges and problems from both the concrete and the abstract from the micro to the macro to the infinite universal level. Think and see things in the abstract.
TUESDAY
Adaptable
Practice being adaptable as often as you can, at least in your imagination. When you hear or see someone do something that does not fit your life paradigms, perspectives, ways of living deliberately take a few moments to explore things from their minds, perspectives, paradigms.
WEDNESDAY
Breakthrough from Current Limits, can
Take time today to look at challenges and problems from the other side of any limits you see in them. Let yourself imagine a universe with infinite possibilities, no limits.
THURSDAY
Change of Context (cross-interpretation on)
Throughout the day a few moments at a time look at the various challenges, projects, ideas, concepts, problems you work on in multiple contexts and combined contexts. We all live in a world of multiple to billions of contexts.
FRIDAY
Combination of Ideas/Facts (Synthesis)
This one can be great fun. Combine ideas. Combine even the strangest, weirdest, unusual and totally unrelated ideas. Bob Eberle focused much of his life and the teaching of creative thinking to teachers and children through his S.C.A.M.P.E. R. creative thinking tool.
Best wishes for a week of creative thinking fun and growth.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-03
2nd week of develop specific creative thinking traits
This week's 5 traits of highly creative people
to focus and work on, one per day, are:
Curious
Divergent thinker
Elaborative - in drawing, speaking
Energetic
Fantasy life when young
MONDAY
Curiosity breeds creativity
Throughout the day today a few minutes at a time let your curiosity muscles go wild. Ask the famous questions: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, WHERE, HOW about many things preferably things you know little about. Practice Stephen Covey's 5th Habit of Highly Successful People: SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, BEFORE TRYING TO BE UNDERSTOOD.
TUESDAY
Divergent Thinkers produce more creativity than convergent ones alone
Deliberately throughout the day today strive to generate a dozen, two dozen perhaps even a dozen dozen ideas about things you are working on or studying. Look and think in many different directions not just the direction that leads to conventional thinking or the answers in the teacher's book.
WEDNESDAY
Elaborative - in drawing, speaking
Add details to your stories. Tell rich stories. Show people through your words and images what you are thinking and talking about. Spend time drawing what you are thinking about and working on. Turn your words into images, pictures, drawings, symbols, diagrams and add lots of details to each of them.
THURSDAY
Energetic
Go for a walk, Exercise, Listen to inspirational music, look at inspiring photos, meet with people who energize you. Do what ever you can through all of your senses to be as energetic as you can today for as much of the day as you.
FRIDAY
Fantasy life when young
Think about the fantasies you had when you were young. Then think about the fantasies you have had lately. Then spend time fantasizing about all aspects of your life now and into the future.
Its your life.
Live it as creatively as you can.
Every day do things that will increase your creativity.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-04
Positive F Words
Let's use some of the positive F words this week to stretch, increase and re-strengthen our creativeness
MONDAY
Feelings & Emotions, expresses
Open yourself at least in your journal and your mine with your feelings. Feel more today and think less. Let your feelings control many of your thoughts.
TUESDAY
Flexible in problem situations
Look for many options, possibilities, perspectives, directions on each idea and challenge that you work on today.
WEDNESDAY
Flexible thinker - creates different types of ideas
When you are ideating today generate 12 to 24 different types of ideas. Be as flexible as you can be. Stretch. Stretch. Stretch.
THURSDAY
Fluent - produces many ideas
Torrance and Guilford's first tests of creative thinking skills focused on FLUENCY, numbers of ideas generated. Today push yourself to 12, 24, 48, 144 ideas and more before you decide which one or ones to work on to implement into successful solutions.
FRIDAY
Future Oriented
Stretch your ideas, thinking and planning out to 5 years, 10 years, 20 years even 50 years. Let your creative imagination soar today. Think about things that don't exist, things that would make your life much easier and more successful if they existed. Even a simple thing like Post-It Notes took 13 years from concept to implementation and mass production.
Grow every day.
Expand your creativeness and your creative traits
every day of your life.
Using my creativeness today just sending this out. My DSL Direct from AT&T died last night and after two long phone calls early this morning with the repair and tech help all I managed to get as a result was.....a guaranteed appointment with a service tech some time between 8 and 12 tomorrow morning.
Hopefully that is.
Have a very creative week.
Wandering Alan in gray, foggy, wet Athens, Georgia
alan@cre8ng. com
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Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-05
From Humor, Laughter, Clowning, Joking comes humor
This week practice being funny. Find many ways to laugh. Clown some with friends or at least by yourself. Read humor websites, cartoon strips, comic books, Mad magazine or other humor magazines.
MONDAY
Humor, unique sense of
Highly creative people generally have unique senses of humor or very mixed or varied senses of humor. They tend to see humor almost in everything.
Think about the various comedians and humorists or comedy writers or movies you usually enjoy. Take some time today to explore some that you do not.
TUESDAY
Humor, varied sense of
Watch different types of comedians or comedy shows today when you can. Read different types of humor books or cartoon strips. The www is filled with comic strips on syndicate websites.
WEDNESDAY
Humorous Perspective
Use a humorous perspective throughout the day. Talk with friends at lunch or on breaks who have the same senses of humor you have. Also talk to some who have completely different senses of humor than yours.
THURSDAY
Idealistic
Highly creative people tend to be more idealistic.
Today looks at as much as you can from an idealistic point of view. Make notes of what you really want things to become.
FRIDAY
Imaginative
Highly creative people generally have rich imaginations. Visualize often today. Sketch ideas of what you wish, dream things could become. Look at very imaginative websites (photography, painting, sculpture, design). Read some very imaginative articles and short stories.
Have a creative week this week using humor, humorous perspectives, idealism and imagination.
best wishes,
Wandering Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-06
Exploring some more traits that will expand your creativeness and creative thinking skills and traits.
Here are the next 5 in my basic list of 52 Traits of Highly Creative People.
Think about and focus on these this week, one per day.
Not motivated by money
Observant, highly
Open-ended
Openness-resisting early closure or completion
Original - uniqueness
MONDAY
Not motivated by money
Take time today to think about what is really important to you. Ask yourself yourself what you want, desire, crave, must have. Then ask why, what do you benefit from those things you want, desire, crave, must have. How has getting more of them motivated you to do more, learn more, improve, work harder?
TUESDAY
Observant, highly
Using all your senses today focus on being observant. See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Touch more today. More than you normally do.
One set of simple exercises might be.
Sit in a room you normally sit in and list all the things that are blue. Than list all the rectangles you can see. List all the various sounds or smells that are in that room.
WEDNESDAY
Open-ended
Strive to be open-ended in your questions, answers and decisions as you can for as long as you can today. Give yourself the opportunity to collect multiple answers, possible solutions before actually doing what you need to do.
THURSDAY
Openness-resisting early closure or completion
When someone asks you a question or you are seeking an answering resist accepting or going for the first answer, the first six possible answers. When you doodle keep your drawings unfinished, unclosed, open.
FRIDAY
Original - uniqueness
Look for original ideas, solutions today in newspapers, on the radio on television, on blogs, websites in your life in general.
Then strive to be as original today in as many ways as you can be.
Have a highly creative week this week it’s your choice.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
2010 ACE - Atlanta Creativity Exchange May 6th - 8th
one way to expand, enrich, explode your creativity and creativeness
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-07
Five More Traits to Explore, Apply and Develop
Each day take time to focus on a trait you haven't capitalized upon lately or can develop even more. All the traits I am sharing this year are traits of highly creative people. Most had at least 5 they maximized or focus upon consciously in their lives. All of them are learnable.
MONDAY
Independent
Spend some time about how, when, where, and what you have been or are independent about: mentally, emotionally, physically, visually, personally, professionally.
Then deliberately be a little more independent often today.
Remember it only takes one degree to cause water to boil.
TUESDAY
Ingenious
Highly creative people often are seen as ingenious. Look up the word in your favorite dictionary. Then spend time thinking about who have you known or read about you think were or are ingenious. Sometimes being ingenious takes timing, determination and commitment. The person who invented the first wheel was strange. The person who invented the other two or three and hooked them together was ingenious
WEDNESDAY
Learning, always
Spend time every day learning new things about old subjects and new subjects both. Read books, watch videos, DVDs, read websites or blogs or articles. Listen to tapes or speeches on YouTube or websites in your topics of interest or specialty.
THURSDAY
Multiple Idea Combinations
Use a morphological grid, ZWICKY Box today to generate lots of ideas. A box/grid of 12 ideas by 12 ideas can yield 144 ideas potentially or more.
A 3-dimensional grid 10 x 10 x 10 can yield 1,000 ideas.
What can you combine to solve more problems?
What can you combine to eliminate problems?
What can you combine to create new processes or products?
Paul Torrance created a project he called the INFINITE MUFFIN. His wife Pansy loved muffins. After she suffered several strokes and he became the main caregiver he set up a grid of ingredients to prepare non-repeating infinite numbers of muffins for her every day.
You can do the same thing nearly with 6 columns of 12 examples of each of parts of a lunch to produce so many different lunches for your children without ever repeating. Challenge yourself to do that with $100 or less in food. 12 x 12 x 12 x 12 x 12 x 12. That's a lot of different lunches.
Fred Stryker did something similar to create hundreds and hundreds of different stories for the Lone Ranger Radio Show.
FRIDAY
Non-conforming
What does it mean to be a non-conformist in your town, neighborhood, family, occupation, workplace, classroom. Be a little to a lot non-conforming today for at least some time.
Keep working on your traits of highly creativeness.
Best wishes for a fantastically creative week
Alan
alan@
http;//
Atlanta Creativity Exchange
May 6th to 8th
KSU Continuing Education Center
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-08
5 More Traits of Highly Creative People
Let's work with these 5 traits this week.
Passionate about their work
Perceives world differently
Perspective, Internal – easily sees in to problems & things
Perspective, Macro Scale [seeing from larger view]
Provocative Viewpoint, takes
MONDAY
Passionate about their work
Think about your current work, work you have done in the past and work you dream about doing some day in the future. Which of those have you been, are you or might you be passionate about?
Then ask yourself what aspects, factors, details, or parts of the work tended to help you be passionate about it
TUESDAY
Perceives world differently
Think about this trait in a past, present and pfuture perspective.
How have you seen the world differently in the past?
How do you see the world differently now?
How might you see the world differently tomorrow, next week, next month, year, 10 years from now?
WEDNESDAY
Perspective, Internal – easily sees into problems & things
Spend time thinking about problems, challenges, projects from an internal point of view. Imagine yourself a tiny creative who can walk around easily inside of them. Look from inside looking outside of them rather than from the outside looking in.
THURSDAY
Perspective, Macro Scale [seeing from larger view]
Take a bird's eye view, a space station view. A moon's surface view. A Milky Way galaxy's view. Look at the big picture, bigger than the picture, from a city, county, state, country, continent, global perspective.
Learn from how changing scale of perspective changes your understanding and the ideas you have and additional problems you begin to see.
FRIDAY
Provocative Viewpoint, takes
Deliberately be provocative today.
Choose to be a contrarian about some things deliberately today.
Use Edward de Bono's PO approach, assume anything is possible and then attempt to see ways for how to make that true.
word of caution you might do Friday's exercise inside your head or in your journal. People tend to react negatively to people who are contrarian about things, especially those things they are committed to or INVENTED HERE.
Work on expanding your creative traits this week and have fun growing and increasing your creativeness.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-09
Stretching your Creative Thinking Skills and Traits
Practice each of today's traits as often as you can this week.
MONDAY
Question asker
Ask questions as often as you can throughout the day. Keep a running list of the questions you ask at work, in school or a home. Challenge yourself to ask a wide variety of questions.
TUESDAY
Richness & Colorful Detail in thinking and communicating
Throughout today add richness, color in your thinking and communication
WEDNESDAY
See possibilities
From when you wake up until you go to sleep tonight see more possibilities as often you as you can in all you do.
THURSDAY
Self- knowledgeable
Spend time examining yourself today.
What are your current goals?
What are your dreams?
What are your concerns?
FRIDAY
Self-actualizing
Explore what your ultimate dreams, goals, desires, wishes are now.
Make lists of the ways you will stretch yourself this week, month, year.
Stretch, stretch, reinforce, challenge yourself throughout this week.
Wandering Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-10
Many, Many Traits Yet Being Creative is a Personal Choice
Each week since the beginning of January I have been sharing groups of traits of highly creative people to encourage members of this group to examine themselves and their own traits while practicing one trait per day each week.
In my original study in 1980 I collected over 400 traits that were written about by researchers and professors who taught courses on creativity and creative thinking.
Among the 400+ I found 32 that at least 5 of the experts agreed upon. Those I have been using to encourage people to develop their creativity in a regular plan by focusing one per day.
Last weekend I participated in and presented at the 7th Florida Creativity Weekend where people tried varied arts and crafts techniques, some tools problem solving processes.
This week let's step back and clarify some terms that are thrown around today daily in media, print and electronic yet are we becoming more creative?
Each day take time to think about the given word and ask others you know at work, school, among your friends or in your family for their definitions of the specific words.
MONDAY
creativity
TUESDAY
creative thinking
WEDNESDAY
imagination
THURSDAY
innovation
FRIDAY
exploratory thinking
Next week I will return to creating and sharing tools for ideating from discovery or generation to selection to implementation to evaluation all leading to help you become more creative.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-11
Systems, Tools, Techniques, Approaches, Methods, Processes, Strategies
In 30 years what I have discovered is that people who are creative or think creatively simply are or choose to be.
Those who are not or do not believe they are not.
Yet when they were all young children they were naturally creative until they or someone else told them that either they were not or that it was not a good idea to be creative or to think creatively.
Get into line.
Find your line and get into it.
This week choose to get out of the lines you are in at least in your imagination for 15 to 30 minutes each day.
MONDAY
Use your imagination today to pretend what your life might be if everything you fantasized could happen and come true.
TUESDAY
Choose to spend time creating ideas throughout the day for a few minutes each time before you decide to do something.
WEDNESDAY
Focus on being innovative today. Explore each thing you are doing and think about how might you innovate new ways to do things.
THURSDAY
Spend time pretending today if everything would be perfect tomorrow and in the future how might you describe things looking back.
FRIDAY
Ask friends, family members, fellow workers or students how they used their Imagination, Creativity or Innovation this week throughout the day and take notes. At the end of the day review your notes looking for patterns or clues that might help you become and be more creative next week.
Best wishes for a highly creative week this week because you choose to.
The following are some ramblings you may choose to read or not. I woke up at 2 am this morning after laying down at 9 pm with the intention and concern about waking up at 4 am to provide myself enough time to get up, ready and go to the Athens Airport to fly to Atlanta and then to Philadelphia where I am going to attend the 2010 American Creativity Association' s annual conference and to present the closing keynote speech/presentation /experience on Wednesday at noon.
In 1980 I had an AHA about how I might organize the various creative thinking tools, etc. I had been reading or hearing about at CPSI and other workshops and in the books and articles I was reading. I would start collecting them and organizing them like STAMP COLLECTORS do. The initial AHA was the catchy name S.T.A.M.P.S. representing
SYSTEMS
TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
APPROACHES/ATTITUDE S
METHODS
PROCESSES
STRATEGIES
Over the past 30 years my actual collecting of them has wavered and waned simply because of the vast numbers of them and my tendency to be looking for the NEXT NEW THING to interest me.
Shortly after I got onto the internet, then into a couple internet chat groups all pre-commercialization on of the internet I had another FLASH of Insight: I would create a website that was focused on CREATIVITY. It would have articles, books, quotes, filmstrips, movies, slide shows and whatever media possible. It would become an ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CREATIVITY.
Soon I was told by Mark Runco that he was editing a two-volume book set with that title.
I then changed the name of my dream project to the VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF CREATIVITY.
I shared the concept, dream, goal.
The more I thought about it the more I began to realize the enormity or potential enormity of such a task and potential technical problems and my growing lack of knowledge and skills. Technology was growing at exponential rates and my knowledge and skill levels were not.
Then along came the www, Google, blogging, and so many other new technologies and people who had similar goals who created their own websites devoted to articles, books, slide shows, filmstrips, videos, etc. about creativity.
One Google search now can produce in micro-seconds more hits and access to more material than anyone could review, study, read in decades if that is all they did each day from when they woke up until they laid down to sleep once again each night.
Since the first weekend in January 1997 I have been sharing, S.T.A.M.P.S. out of my continually growing collections, shelves, boxes, table tops, piles, rooms that I gather or place them in.
So far this year I have encouraged you to think about, work on, practice using 52 different traits that are seen in highly creative people that are traits of being human if we choose to use them.
From my short study in 1980 of traits of highly creative people based upon reading articles by noted authorities who had had articles published in 4 separate journals (2 educational, 2 psychological) I gathered over 400 traits that were mentioned once to dozens of times by the approximate 145 to 150 different authors.
From those I discovered 32 that at least 5 of the authors had discussed.
Those I have used to ask people wherever I speak and travel:
Are you creative? or Do you think you are creative?
Even among people who might mark/select/ circle/check 12 or more of the 32 there are people who still say I am not creative.
Urgh!
30 years have passed
hundreds of books bought, borrowed and read
thousands of articles read
hundreds of conferences, workshops, training programs
and still the same questions are being asked
and still the same responses
Are you creative?
Me, no I am not creative!
Is creativity supported, promoted, recognized/rewarded, encouraged/educated, applied, developed in your workplace.
and still people tend to say no.
What do you think?
Are you creative?
Are you more creative now than you were last week, month, year, ten years ago?
Let me know what you think.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-12
EXPANDING CREATIVE IMAGINATION POWER THROUGH ACTIVE PERCEPTION
by Frank Hajcak, Ph.D. and Tricia Garwood, MS
This past week I attend the 2010 American Creativity Association' s annual Conference held in Philadelphia. One of the things I attempt to do during the ACA conference is to meet as many of the attendees and the new presenters during meals, breaks, sessions, after hours.
One of the people I met this year had been told by Rolf Smith, one of my long time creativity friends to meet me during the conference. Her name is Tricia Garwood. She is one of the key people in the creativity training/teaching program at Disney for the international interns.
Though my house is somewhat filled with books on creativity, creative thinking, problem solving and innovation I had not come across her book until this week.
I read it on the airplane on the way home and found it fun and very interesting and valuable.
The first chapter sparked this week's CC2010-12
Methodically work on developing your creative thinking skills and abilities.
Like J. P. Guilford and E. Paul Torrance, Calvin Taylor, Morris I Stein and many others from the 50s, 60s, 70s up to the past few years she begins with 5 basic areas of skill:
1. ORIGINALITY
2. FLEXIBILITY
3. DIVERGENCE
4. ELABORATION
5. FLUENCY
So this week let's work from basics. Spend some time each day focusing on one of these traits that are found in all HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE.
MONDAY
1. ORIGINALITY
Today strive for original ideas, ways of thinking, ways of doing things from when you wake up until you lay down to go to sleep from how you choose to get out of bed, get dressed, how you eat, what and where you eat to all the challenges you work on. CHOOSE TO BE ORIGINAL throughout the day.
TUESDAY
2. FLEXIBILITY
Today focus on being flexible in all that you do and think from sunrise to sunset to when you go to sleep. Think from many perspectives, mindsets, approaches all day.
WEDNESDAY
3. DIVERGENCE
Generate many more ideas today by thinking divergently much more often than you think convergently to choose a solution.
THURSDAY
4. ELABORATION
Add detail, add senses: smells, tastes, texture, feelings, shapes, sizes, sights, sounds to your ideas throughout the day. Think of adjectives, adverbs, describe your ideas with much more detail throughout the day.
FRIDAY
5. FLUENCY
Strive to generate many more ideas that you normally generate. If you usually generate 6 push for 12. If you generate 12 push for 24. Push, Push, Push. The more ideas the higher the probability you will generate, discover, create more creative ideas and eventually better solutions.
Creativeness, creativity, creative thinking require practice, development, concentration.
Best wishes for a highly creative week this week.
Willingly, Wondering, Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-13
Let Your Environment Help Explore and Explode Your Thinking
Here in Athens, Georgia (April 5th) nature is exploding. Various flowers, individual, ground covers are blooming. Many different flowering trees are exploding with color. Flowering bushes and shrubs are beginning to show their flowers with many others about to this week
Let's use this environment to provide us with inspiration or direction for exploring and exploding new ideas or reviving and expanding past or existing ones.
MONDAY
Look for and enjoy the color, the beauty, the richness in your life, in your challenges. Spend time today thinking about the color in your life and in your challenges. Write down as many examples as you can. Then think about how might the color help you find more ideas
TUESDAY
Take some time today to wander in your area, neighborhood, part of the city your office, workplace or school is located. Look, smell, listen for what is different, what is changing. Use those changes as metaphors for how you might change your view of your life and challenges.
WEDNESDAY
Variety often helps to spark ideas. Today use each of your senses to explore the varieties of things, people, animals, birds, insects, flowers, trees, smells that surround you. How might you apply variety to your life, your challenges, your dreams?
THURSDAY
What is coming next? Looking down on my yard from my deck I can see several flowers that have bloomed and lost their flowers. I can see flowers that are now blooming. I can see buds on trees, bushes, flower stems just beginning to open, hiding their wonderful colors that will appear in the next few hours, days perhaps weeks. Take time to think about what is coming next for you. Write down things you want to have happen. Then write down how might you help make those things happen.
FRIDAY
Become part of your environment. Collect small samplings of flowers that surround you and put them in vases, bowls, jars, dishes and scatter them around your house. Bring your changing environment inside with you. Then simply enjoy looking at them, smelling them, touching them. Let their colors, designs, shapes, sizes, textures serve as clues to new ideas you need.
Perhaps in your part of the world or even your town or city you can not find natural examples of the changes we are experiencing here in Athens as Spring truly explodes. Then perhaps you can explore how people are changing their environments or how they might change their environments to improve them now.
Look for ideas, insights, inspirations that surround you this week. Let your external environment impact your internal, virtual, mental environment.
Best wishes for a week filled with creativity and ideas.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-14
Creativity is Everywhere Around the Globe
A few years ago I wrote a series of short articles based upon my international traveling during my World Creativity Tours 2001 and 2003.
One of the articles is the basis of this week's CC. You can find it by going to the FILES section of this page and clicking on the file.
As I have traveled the world I have continued to find many examples of people being creative, even people who say they are not creative.
The first time I began noticing examples was when I lived and taught in Cortona, Italy for the University of Georgia in the summer of 1982. Though the people in the town tended to dress alike, seemingly act alike, live in homes or apartments that appeared to be alike I began noticing that there front doors were different, the flower boxes under their windows were different and when given the opportunity to visit inside their homes I saw no two homes or collections were the same.
Now when I travel I have my CREATIVITY SENSORS set on high and am always looking for more examples of people being creative.
That is your challenge this week. Look for. Smell for. Taste for, Listen for. Touch for examples of creativeness from small to very large things.
MONDAY
Focus on visual examples of creativeness today
TUESDAY
Focus on aromatic examples of creativity (smells).
WEDNESDAY
Focus on gustatory examples of creativity (tastes).
THURSDAY
Focus on creative sounds.
FRIDAY
Focus on creative surfaces, textures
When we are creating we can increase our creative thinking strength and abilities by focusing on using all of our senses and using them independently.
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Alan
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-15
Your Creative Muse or Muse of your Creative Thinking
This week's CC was sparked by watching/listening to a TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, a very successful recent book.
In her talk she shares about her own frustration caused by having written a very high selling book. "Will it be my last?" "Will I ever be able to write as well ever again?"
She shares about two principles of sources of creativity
1. within
2. without
Without being a/the Muse or God
Within meaning that the individual creates what they create.
Without meaning that the individual is a vessel for what God or their Muse(s) provides them sporadically.
This week let's focus on external sources of inspiration, of ideas, of solutions, perhaps your Muse(s).
The most famous muses are the 9 Greek Muses who were the source of an artist's or scientist’s inspiration.
Calliope (Epic poetry),
Clio (History),
Erato (Lyric poetry),
Euterpe (music),
Melpomene (Tragedy),
Polymnia or Polyhymnia (religious music),
Terpsichore (dance),
Thalia (comedy)
Urania (astronomy).
But what about engineers, business people, teachers, counselors, waiters, garbage collectors? Do they have muses too? Or do only artists and astronomers have muses?
For the sake of this week's exercises to help you spark, enrich, expand your creative thinking and creative thinking skills and abilities I am using MUSE to represent external sources of inspiration, ideas, solutions.
Have you experienced instant insights while doing things totally unrelated to the idea that instantly appears in your mind?
while showering
while walking
while cutting your grass
while doing chores
while doing any type of thing totally unconnected to the challenge the idea relates to.
Most every person I have ever met in my life has shared experiences like these from waking from a dream or nightmare, any time during the day, to while they are falling asleep after a long day.
This week focus on exploring external sources of ideas and inspiration. Throughout the week keep a journal, note or sketchbook with you at all times to write down ideas that POP into your mind while doing these exercises.
MONDAY
Spend time looking through magazines you normally do not read. Simply flip through them, stopping to read what attracts your attention.
TUESDAY
Spend time looking through coffee table, photo books, letting your eyes and mind just to float from page to page from corner to corner of the images. Explore the details. Scan over the entire images.
WEDNESDAY
Choose a mix of music. Simply listen to 3 minutes of 5 to 10 different pieces of music. Focus only on hearing the music. Keep as open and unfocused as possible.
THURSDAY
Walk through a department, toy, retail store that has many different types of products and displays. Let your eyes scan over and explore all the shelves. Roam from department to department with no distinct plan or pattern to follow.
FRIDAY
Go to a library and wander the rows of books with no specific plan from aisle to aisle from area to area from floor to floor. Stop and randomly look at book titles. Randomly pick books off the shelves and flip through them. Look at chapter titles. Look at photos, diagrams, images. Read sentences sporadically. Read a paragraph and then read another with no intent to read consistently in any single chapter or book.
Contrast the experience of being in a totally blank room, white or black, with walking through a market, like those in Turkey, Africa, Asia or a farmer's market or a flea market.
The blank room is similar to searching for creativity totally WITHIN.
The busy, highly detailed, highly displayed market or stall is similar to searching for creativity totally WITHOUT (OUTSIDE) of yourself, looking for external inspiration or ideas.
May you have a very creatively filled week: within and without.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-16
Deliberately try to be uncreative to become more creative
Several years ago while attending one of Ned Herrmann's Creativity Programs (week-long) co-lead by Ted Coulsen and Alison Strickland, we were asked to do an exercise where we created the DIRECTOR OF ANTI-CREATIVITY. We were asked to describe the person, their job, their actions, behaviors, habits in detail.
It was a fun exercise. What I learned from was listening to the other participants who were from major corporations describing their own bosses and in some cases the ahas by some who realized that they were the DIRECTOR OF ANTI-CREATIVITY in their departments or organizations.
This week I came across the
Anti creativity check list in 14 points
blog/ #post369
You can watch a short video about it at...(I strongly recommend you shut off the sound...I found it extremely negative/anti- creative/ annoying) . I found the slide show interesting and thought-provoking
. com/watch? v=AsyAtkjYcEk& feature=player_ embedded
creativores. com Apr 22, 2010 18:26
Here are 14 tips for people who don't want to be creative and who think out of the box thinking is a wacky activity.
1. Play it safe
2. Know your limitations: pigeonhole yourself
3. It's jus a job, keep your mouth shut
4. Show you're the smartest guy in the room, make skepticism your middle name
5. Be the tough guy, demand to see the data
6. Respect history, always give the past the benefit of the doubt
7. Stop the madness before it can get started
8. Been there, done that. Use experience as a weapon
9. Keep your eyes closed... your mind too
10. Assume there is no problem
11. Underestimate your customers
12. Be a mentor, give sound advice to people who for you
13. Be suspicious of the "creatives"
14. When all else fails, act like a grown-up
This week spend 15 to 30 minutes thinking about how you can deliberately become un-creative, non-creative, the opposite of the 14 years purpose of these Cre8ng Challenges.
MONDAY
Today focus on how you can be un-creative, non-creative
TUESDAY
Today focus on how you can make your children un-creative, non-creative
WEDNESDAY
Today focus on how you can make people you work with un-creative, non-creative
THURSDAY
Today focus on how you can make friends, neighbors, people you meet un-creative, non-creative
FRIDAY
Today focus on how you can make relatives un-creative, non-creative
Remember this week your focus is to become, be, act, live un-creatively while being un-creative, non-creative
Please have fun and take this with "tongue-in-cheek"
This too will pass.
alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-17
Use the Virtual Creativity Library on the WWW
In the early 90s after being on the internet (the original pre-AOL and all the ISP companies like Mindspring) I dreamed about creating a website that would serve as a VIRTUAL CREATIVITY LIBRARY providing access to books, tapes, movies, videos, filmstrips, slide shows and articles, general and academic from around the world available through a simple click. This was all before Wikipedia was invented.
This week use the VIRTUAL CREATIVITY LIBRARY that is available to all of us through a simple click or two.
MONDAY
Search for Creative Thinking Tools websites.
Scan 5 of them
Pick one and read what you can in 20 to 30 minutes
save the pages as pdfs for future reading
TUESDAY
Search for Creative Thinking websites
Scan 5 of them
Pick one and read what you can in 20 to 30 minutes
save the pages as pdfs for future reading
WEDNESDAY
Search for Creative Problem Solving websites
Scan 5 of them
Pick one and read what you can in 20 to 30 minutes
save the pages as pdfs for future reading
THURSDAY
Search for YouTube videos about Creativity, Creative Thinking, Creative Problem Solving
Scan 5 of them
Pick one and read what you can in 20 to 30 minutes
save the pages as pdfs for future reading
FRIDAY
Search for university or college courses on Creativity, Creative Thinking, Creative Problem Solving
Scan 5 of them
Pick one and read what you can in 20 to 30 minutes
save the pages as pdfs for future reading
Please share your list of favorites so that we can create a list to share with all the member of the CRE8NG CHALLENGES GROUP
Best wishes for a highly creative, fun and rewarding week
If you are in the Metro Atlanta Area or have some FF miles come join us at the 2010 ACE - 3rd Atlanta Creativity Exchange at KSU Continuing education Center
reativity. org
check out the nearly 40 presenters
and their excellent sessions
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-18
Yes You Can Think, AND You Can Learn to
THINK BETTER
THINK BETTER is a best-selling book written by a former student, friend, and excellent creative thinking consultant and superb speaker and storyteller,
TIM HURSON from Toronto, Canada, when he isn't traveling around the world
You can watch him begin a workshop he just did this past weekend during our 2010 ACE - Our 3rd ACE - Atlanta Creativity Exchange held at the KSU Continuing Education Center.
Hear the beginning of Tim Hurson's presentation on THINK BETTER.
. com/watch? v=9iycZ1gaRSI
As he says often people are offended by presenters, speakers, consultants, authors when they say I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU HOW TO THINK CREATIVELY OR THINK CRITICIALLY OR ANALYTICALLY.
Over my years of speaking and consulting I can remember specific examples of groups or audiences that I noticed that they were annoyed, frustrated or even P..... Off because I was there, brought in by their bosses to TEACH THEM TO THINK BETTER, as if they didn't already think well.
Specific example was a very successful electric equipment company. I had all their scientists and technical people in a two day creative thinking program that I did twice in one week to reach all of them.
I clearly remember one of the scientists come up to me saying at the first break saying:
"I have 37 patents that this company makes money from. Don't they know that I can already think pretty well."
Over my years as a speaker, trainer and consultant I have learned to win over the participants and help them respect and trust me and accept I am there sincerely and honestly to help them add to their already existing skills in thinking and problem solving whether they are scientists, engineers, architects, designers, secretaries, police officer, fire fighters, poultry factory or automobile factory or credit union office supervisors.
The whole focus and purpose the past 14+ years I have been sending out my weekly (52 on the average per year) Alan's Cre8ng Challenges is to help you ADD TO YOUR EXISTING AND PREVIOUS THINKING SKILLS AND STYLES.
This week let's do just that add to what you already do thanks to Tim's motivation.
MONDAY
Today make lists of ways you think. Specific tools, techniques, processes, approaches, styles.
TUESDAY
Think about one of the thinking approaches you have used for years and spend time thinking about how you might add to it/them, modifiy it/them, change it/them.
WEDNESDAY
Today explore the internet for new ways of thinking and practice a few.
THURSDAY
Go to my website . com and click on the MIND Design icon/link and complete the short 9-question, questionnaire and read the short 2 page report the software generates based upon your 9 answers. Then think about how you tend to think that way and when you think in other ways by choice or have to.
FRIDAY
Go to Dale Mann (European/UK based global expert on the use of TRIZ techniques and principles and other topics)'s website...
. net/
scan down to the TECHNIQUES section on the right hand of the screen down a ways.
Then click on 2 or 3 of the techniques, read about them and take time to practice them.
Best wishes for a great week ADDING TO YOUR PAST AND PRESENT THINKING SKILLS AND ABILITIES.
Alan
alan@cre8ng. com
. com
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-19
It's Your Imagination, Use It Often!
Remember when you laid on the grass in a park, your backyard or out in the countryside I imagined what the clouds were, "the places you would go" (thank you Dr. Seuss), when you would fly a jet plane or travel to the moon.
Are you using your vast capacities to imagine now?
Do you imagine good to great things (thank you Jim Collins)?
Do you imagine sad, bad, tragic things?
In either case you are imagining.
"Boss" Kettering imagined safe, inexpensive, refrigeration.
Thomas Edison imagined an electrical system around the world.
Steve Jobs imagines Apple computers in every school, office along with iPad, iPods, i everything to come.
What are you imagining today? Right now?!
This week use your creativity development time imagining as often each day as you can.
You may imagine what has been, what is, what will be, what will happen far, far into the future.
Experiment each day this week using your imagination.
I continue to imagine a world filled with 6+ billion highly creative people, living creative lives, solving their problems, eliminating problems, helping the other 6+ billion minus one people live fantastic lives.
MONDAY
Use your imagination to explore you childhood whether it was just a few years ago or decades ago. Imagine the happy times. Imagine the great times. Imagine your imaginings that have happened and those you have yet to make happen in your life.
TUESDAY
Use your imagination in learning today. While reading articles, books, blogs, websites imagine everything you can. Experience, experience, experience using your imagination.
WEDNESDAY
Today travel the world to places you have never been in times in the past, the present, the future. See the temples, cathedrals, museums, the art, the sports arenas, the vast vistas, the tiny walks through the woods or along streams.
THURSDAY
Today imagine where you have been and what you have done so far in your life since you started working. Imagine each first day at each of the jobs you have had. Imagine the great days, the projects you are proud of, the projects you will be proud of in the future.
FRIDAY
Today imagine your life in 5 years. in 10 years, in 20 years. Imagine it! See It!, Feel it!, Smell It!, Hear It!
Let your imagine take you to the past, the present, the future, wherever you have been, you are, where you are going, where you may go.
Best wishes for an imagination filled week
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-20
Turning Your Thoughts into Visuals Increases Creativity
This week's topic has been part of my nature since I was born. I was born with a severe cleft palette and cleft lip. Because of them both I was unable to speak like most babies at 8 or 9 months. The surgeries done in the 1940s were done in stages and much different than the standard ones today.
My last surgery wasn't completed until just before I began school.
So because I could not verbally speak I learn to visually speak. I drew, traced, copied pictures, drawings, symbols, used pantomime or just varied forms of facial expressions, body language and other non-verbal ways of communication.
Because of all that I was drawing well by the age of 6 and continued throughout school taking art classes, drafting and other technical drawing classes through to my architectural degree and my masters of arts degrees eventually I ended up for 4 years teaching in the Art Department and School of Environmental Design at the University of Georgia.
Now add my background to the actual inspiration for this week's Cre8ng Challenge..Wily Walnut's Brain Squeezer for this week...using a camera to think.
WIly (Sean) and I met via the internet exchanging emails a few years ago.
Then in 2008 when I spent a couple weeks in England, 9 days of that in southwestern England, my wonderful host and friend Chad Doveton drove me to Wily's town where we had lunch and met for the first time face to face.
For more sources of ways to improve your creative thinking skills I highly recommend that you visit Wily's blogs, ezines, websites.
"Wily Walnut" wily@
This week's Alan's Cre8ng Challenges.
Use visual images and thinking and drawing all week to capture your thoughts, ideas, problems, information.
MONDAY
Start this visual thinking week by drawing simple diagrams, symbols of your thoughts often today.
TUESDAY
Today use a camera to capture as much as you can today....camera phone or whatever photography equipment you have.
WEDNESDAY
This day use photos from magazines or old books to represent your ideas and thinking.
THURSDAY
Today use clip art sources to capture and represent your thinking.
FRIDAY
Trace drawing or photos from books or magazines to represent your thoughts, ideas, learnings.
Make your thinking visual this week and record it several different ways.
May this be a very creative week for you
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-21
Game Your Way to More Creative Thinking
This weekend I began playing Scrabble with a FB friend. I haven't played Scrabble in probably 15 or more years.
Waiting in between turns online caused me to think about this week's Cre8ng Challenge.
Challenge yourself: alone, with your family, with friends this week by playing different types of games all week long.
MONDAY
Start with word games today. Scrabble, Word Find, Crossword Puzzles, Sudoku
TUESDAY
Puzzle books like the Lateral Thinking Puzzle books by Paul Sloane from the UK,
WEDNESDAY
Today focus on solving Riddles. Ask friends for their favorite riddles or go searching for websites about riddles:
THURSDAY
Play mystery games like CLUE, ,
FRIDAY
Have fun and challenge yourself with visual puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, missing pieces puzzles:
Through games, mysteries, puzzles, mental challenges we can further develop and expand our thinking skills
Have fun stretching your creative thinking this week.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-22
Rudyard Kipling’s 5 Ws and 1 H Only a Beginning
Recently on CREA-CPS listserv Raul Collado reminded the members about Rudyard Kipling's famous 6 questions for writing
Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
Often at creativity conference workshops, creativity books, blogs and websites remind us of the value of using the Famous 6 Questions to generate information, generate ideas and to choose ideas. They can be used both to diverge and to converge while we are creating.
Raul (from Argentina, a television celebrity and creativity workshop and English as a second language teacher) suggests that we consider even more questions to diverge and converge while we are creatively thinking.
For example:
-Which
-Whose
-Whom
-Whether
or
"Wherewith," "Within," "Whereat," Wherefrom, Whereon," etc.
or
"Whatever," "Wherever," "However," "Whoever," "Whenever;" (are there more?)
or
Wish / Wonder / Wander / World / Way / Away
So this week practice using these various sets of questions to spark both your divergent and convergent thinking.
MONDAY
Use Kipling's Famous 6 questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
TUESDAY
Use Which-Whose-Whom-Whether to generate questions and ideas
WEDNESDAY
Make up words to generate questions and ideas using prepositions to spark your thinking:
"Wherewith," "Within," "Whereat," Wherefrom, Whereon," etc.
THURSDAY
Be an EVER THINKER TODAY...."Whatever," "Wherever," "However," "Whoever," "Whenever;" (are there more?)
FRIDAY
Today stretch beyond the norm, the typical, the general, the usual:
Wish / Wonder / Wander / World / Way
Question your challenges, problems, goals, wishes until you find new information and generate many new ideas.
Best wishes,
Alan
alan@
slowly learning how to use his new computer
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-23
Systems-7 LEVELS OF CHANGE
Hello CC readers and hopefully users
Somehow with my traveling and the death of my G-4 last week I have gotten a few weeks out of sync with my CC's.
This is Sunday, June 20th, the solace, the beginning of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and this morning I will catch up and begin a series of CCs focused on
SYSTEMS
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
APPROACHES/ATTITUDES
METHODS
PROCESSES
STRATEGIES
S-T-A-M-P-S was an acronym I had flash into my head at CPSI in 1978 for organizing the many ways of sparking and enhancing creative thinking on the spot or producing DELIBERATE CREATIVITY ON CALL.
Let's start with an excellent system created by my long-time creativity friend, Rolf Smith for examining CHANGE and how we are dealing with it.
Creativity produces change
Creativity requires change
Change can produce creativity
In his book The 7 Levels of Change (check it out on Amazon, Borders and other booksellers) he talks about 7 separate levels of dealing with Change.
LEVEL 1: Effectiveness DOING the right things
LEVEL 2: Efficiency DOING things right
LEVEL 3: Improving DOING things better
LEVEL 4: Cutting Stopping DOING things
LEVEL 5: Copying DOING things other people are
doing
LEVEL 6: Different DOING things no one else is doing
LEVEL 7: Impossible DOING things that can't be done
First step this week is to examine where you, your department, your company or organization is on the Levels from 1 to 7 From Doing Things Right to Doing things that can't be done.
Each day this week let's deal with one or two of the 7 Levels
MONDAY
LEVEL 1: Effectiveness DOING the right things
LEVEL 2: Efficiency DOING things right
Examine your current way of working. Which of these two do you tend to focus upon? How about your company? How about your industry, occupation, profession in general? How about the leaders in your I/O/P
TUESDAY
LEVEL 3: Improving DOING things better
Today focus on how you may/might/could do some of those things you are doing RIGHT, BETTER
WEDNESDAY
LEVEL 4: Cutting Stopping DOING things
Today focus on making lists of things you may/might/ought to/should STOP DOING in order to improve things in your work for your customers/clients/patients/students.
THURSDAY
LEVEL 5: Copying DOING things other people are doing
Today examine what the top 5 to 10 companies in your industry/occupation/profession are doing that you are not and think about how you could/might?
FRIDAY
LEVEL 6: Different DOING things no one else is doing
LEVEL 7: Impossible DOING things that can't be done
Today focus on both of these Levels. What are some things that no one else is currently doing that you could/might do? What are things that currently your industry/occupation/profession do not believe can be done? How might your company/department/team do some of them?
Use your imagination. Use Edward de Bono's PO process/concept....imagine that whatever can't be done is already being done. Then think about how it might be doable.
Focus on examining your LEVELS OF CHANGE this week.
Best wishes for a highly creative week filled with thoughts of CHANGE
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-24
SYSTEM-OSBORN PARNES
Creative Problem Solving Process (System)
To clarify my use of the terms System and Process I used the following definitions
SYSTEM - An organized series of steps more left-brained in intent, approach and application
PROCESS - A pattern of exercises or steps, more right-brained in intent, approach and application
The Osborn-Parnes CPS "Process" as it is known by its users and teachers can be used in many ways using many brain-styles.
This week let's use it as a distinct SYSTEM.
In 1978 I was first exposed to the O-P CPS Process at CPSI in a 3 hour overview led by Sid Parnes, who of the creators, assisted by volunteer CPSI leaders in training at each of the many tables in the room, who were learning how to facilitate the CPS Process.
The acronym I learned to use to remember the Process (System) was created by Bert Decker, a long time CPSI leader
O-F-P-I-S-A
of PISA, the visual metaphor of the Leaning Tower was used to help set the process in our memories.
MONDAY
O-OPPORTUNITY FINDING (also called MESS FINDING)
Today write down 10 opportunities or messes you want/need ideas for.
Then rank them by order of importance to you or by order in which they need to be done.
Then use the top ranked opportunity for the remainder of the week.
F-FACT FINDING
Write the highest RANKED Opportunity on a blank piece of paper, in a word processing file, on a white or chalkboard.
Then Ask the following questions that Rudyard Kipling gave us many years ago
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Write 5 questions using each of these leading words and answer them.
i.e.: Who is involved? Who isn't involved? Who can help me? Who will not help me? Who would be the right person to contact in order to reach other people I need to have help me?
At the end organize all your responses.
TUESDAY
P-PROBLEM FINDING....today create 10 Problem Statements using the following beginning stems
How Might I ______? write your chosen opportunity into the blank.
In What Ways Might I _________? write your chosen opportunity into the blank.
rephrase the opportunity portion of the question using synonyms
When you have reached your goal of 10 then choose the one that you prefer and then write it down on the top of a third blank sheet, word file, white or chalkboard.
WEDNESDAY
I-IDEA FINDING
Write down 10 ideas on your third blank sheet that could be used to accomplish your goal/opportunity. Think of ideas you used before. Think of ideas that you have seen others use before. Combine ideas to create new ideas. Open yourself to ideas you have never tried before.
THURSDAY
S-SOLUTION FINDING
Review your ten ideas and rate them 1 to 5 each.
Then arrange the 10 ideas based upon their ratings.
Then re-rate the top 5, 1 to 5
FRIDAY
A-ACTION/ACCEPTANCE FINDING
During this step it is time to take you idea and develop lists of the actions you will need to take in order to accomplish the goal. Also in this step your goal is to develop two plans:
1) plan of action listing the actions, who will do them, who else will be involved, when they need to be done or completed, resources you will need.
2) plan of who you will need to get to help you or get permission or support from.
This is a very simplistic, basic approach for using the Osborn-Parnes CPS Process as a left-brain system.
In a few weeks we will explore using it more as a "whole-brain", divergent and convergent PROCESS.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-25
SYSTEM - Kepner-Tregoe, a paraphrased approach
While I was attending CPSI for the first time in 1978 I also became aware of the Kepner-Tregoe Approaches to Problem Solving and Decision Making.
You can find much more information about K-T on their website and in their books:
The following is directly from their basic website:
Kepner-Tregoe, Inc.
The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix is a special, well-orchestrated, synchronized and documented Root Cause analysis and decision-making method.
It is a conscious, step-by-step approach for systematically solving problems, making good decisions, and analyzing potential risks and opportunities. It helps you maximize critical thinking skills, systematically organize and prioritize information, set objectives, evaluate alternatives, and analyze impact.
Kepner-Tregoe describes the following steps to approach decision analysis:
1. Prepare a decision statement having both an action and a result component
2. Establish strategic requirements (Musts), operational objectives (Wants), and restraints (Limits)
3. Rank objectives and assign relative weights
4. Generate alternatives
5. Assign a relative score for each alternative on an objective-by-objective basis
6. Calculate weighted score for each alternative and identify top two or three
7. List adverse consequences for each top alternative and evaluate probability (high, medium, low) and severity (high, medium, low)
8. Make a final, single choice between top alternatives
So this week let's explore using the K-T System
Kepner-Tregoe describes the following steps to approach decision analysis:
MONDAY (OBJECTIVE, FACT, PROBLEM-FINDING)
1. Prepare a decision statement having both an action and a result component
2. Establish strategic requirements (Musts), operational objectives (Wants), and restraints (Limits)
3. Rank objectives and assign relative weights
TUESDAY (IDEA FINDING)
4. Generate alternatives
WEDNESDAY (SOLUTION FINDING GRID)
5. Assign a relative score for each alternative on an objective-by-objective basis
6. Calculate weighted score for each alternative and identify top two or three
THURSDAY (ACCEPTANCE/ACTION FINDING)
7. List adverse consequences for each top alternative and evaluate probability (high, medium, low) and severity (high, medium, low)
FRIDAY (APPLY YOUR ACTION PLAN)
8. Make a final, single choice between top alternatives
As you use the Kepner-Tregoe System this week notice the similarities to the Osborn-Parnes CPS Process being used as a straight forward, linear, rational, logical SYSTEM.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-26
SYSTEM-Min Basadur's SIMPLEX SYSTEM
After learning the basics of using the Osborn-Parnes CPS Process and the Kepner-Tregoe I attended one of Min Basadur's sessions about his SIMPLEX METHOD/SYSTEM, his interpretation/adaptation of the O-P CPS Process
For more info visit this website or either Simplex or Basadur and visit his websites
You might also consider reading his book:
The Power of Innovation
SIMPLEX SYSTEM (8 steps)
1. Problem Finding
2. Fact Finding
3. Problem Definition
4. Idea Finding
5. Selection and Evaluation
6. Planning
7. Sell Ideal
8. Action
Once the action is firmly under way, return to stage 1, Problem Finding, to continue improving your idea.
Let's apply it to some of our challenges this week step by step.
The following is based upon the write up on the MIND TOOLS website:
MONDAY
1. Problem Finding
Actively seek problems out. Wherever they exist you have opportunities for change and improvement.
Problems may be obvious, or can be flushed out using trigger questions like the ones below:
What would your customers want you to improve?
What could they be doing better if we could help them?
Who else could we help using our core competences?
What small problems do we have which could grow into bigger ones?
What slows our work or makes it more difficult? What do we often fail to achieve?
TUESDAY
2. Fact Finding-list everything you know and need to know about your chosen challenge.
Use the best ideas your competitors have had
Understand customers needs in more detail
Know what has already been tried
WEDNESDAY
3. Problem Definition
Min Basadur (who created the Simplex Process) suggests using the question 'Why?' to broaden a question, and 'What's stopping you?' to narrow it.
For example, if your problem is one of trees dying, ask 'Why do I want to keep trees healthy?'. This might broaden the question to 'How can I maintain the quality of our environment?'.
A 'What's stopping you?' here could be 'I do not know how to control a disease killing the tree'.
THURSDAY Today generate ideas and select the one you think has the best chance.
4. Idea Finding
The next stage is to generate as many ideas as possible. Ways of doing this range from asking other people for their opinions, through programmed creativity tools and lateral thinking techniques to brainstorming.
5. Selection and Evaluation
Once you have a number of possible solutions to your problem, it is time to select the best one. Use a grid with the top 5 ideas in it on the left side and criteria for comparing them across the top of the chart. Rank each ideas for each of the criteria against the other 4 ideas
FRIDAY
6. Planning
Now create an Action Plan, which lays out the who, what, when, where, why and how of making it work. For large projects it may be worth using more formal planning techniques.
7. Sell Idea
Now develop ways to sell your idea inside your company in order to sell it to customers or clients.
8. Action
Now create a specific step by step plan for applying your idea turned into a solution.
Chances are you will need to do the following...
"Once the action is firmly under way, return to stage 1, Problem Finding, to continue improving your idea."
- - - - - - - - -
Hmmm?
Are the Osborn-Parnes CPS Process, the Kepner-Tregoe Method and the Simplex System the same or similar?
What differences did you see in them?
If they are used as I have described them, as linear systems, they are distinctly similar. It is their actual application that separates them.
We will explore the differences in later CCs.
Alan
alan@
Alan’s Cre8ng Challenges 2010-27
This one was omitted by mistake this year and will be made up
through the creation of
Alan’s Cre8ng Challenges 2010-53
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-28
Daydreaming the underused creative thinking tool
When you read biographies or autobiographies of many people we usually label "Highly Creative" one of their habits is that they were DAY DREAMERS. They used their imaginations to see, hear, smell, taste, touch things that didn't exist or were not present to be experienced at the moment they were imagining them.
This week let's expand our creative thinking skills through daydreaming every day by choice
You may want to read this article about Why Does Daydreaming Get a Bad Rap.
Then read these articles about the use of daydreaming and its value in our lives.
So these week daydream often. Most of us do it automatically for many reasons. We often daydreaming while driving, walking, eating, listening (or supposedly) to friends and family talking, while taking a shower, bath.
Deliberately Daydream this week often
MONDAY
Recall what your daydreams were like as a child. What did you daydream about? Where did you? When did you? Did you dream about your future about the past?
Take time to daydream like a child today about things you don't usually think about.
TUESDAY
Recall what daydreaming did for you in school?
Imagine yourself in a classroom once again and "imagine" yourself sitting there staring out the window or into space or at the ceiling. What did your DD about?
Today take time to stare out a window, sit back in a chair, lay on a lawn somewhere.
WEDNESDAY
Recall when daydreaming helped you at work. What did you DD about related to work or at work.
Deliberately take some short DD breaks today throughout the day.
THURSDAY
Recall when daydreaming helped you in your overall life as an adult.
Today sit back, kickback, go for a walk/run/drive and openly DD.
FRIDAY
Jean Houston often talks about how when she worked with Margaret Mead that MM work lay down, close her ideas and deliberately daydream and ask JH to record what she saw, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, felt.
Today use a tape recorder to record your daydreaming.
"If we can conceive it (imagine/daydream)
and Believe It
We Can Achieve It."
Walt Disney, one of the most famous daydreamers or all time is often given credit for saying that.
Remember athletes all do it whether top pros or amateurs.
Enjoy as much daydreaming this week as you can and allow yourself.
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-29
Do You Think There is a Creativity Crisis in America in 2010?
NEWSWEEK magazine has published an issue with the cover story being CREATIVITY CRISIS in America in 2010.
if you receive a 404 error check to see if the entire url is in your browser search line. group software sometimes breaks url lines and inserts characters or spaces
also an article about brainstorming research
and on Friday evening's Charlie Rose he chose the theme of CREATIVITY and interviewed 3 people about the topic.
I am posting a rebuttal article written by Jonathan Vehar about the commonly reported mis-information or mis-interpreation of some research into brainstorming and group brainstorming compared to individual brain storming
This week's Cre8ng Challenge is for you/us to take time each day to think about and examine what Creativity Crisis or Crises you have, are and might experience in your life: personal, professional, societal.
One lesson I have learned about increasing, expanding, exploding creativeness, creativity, creative thinking, creative thinking skills is that the more you work at it, the more you think about it, the more you talk with others about it the greater these each become.
Good luck this week.
MONDAY
Read the Newsweek articles this week, watch the Charlie Rose show from Friday, July 16th about creativity. Then think about each and what your thoughts are.
TUESDAY
Take time to think about Creativity Crises you may have experienced as a child. Did you suffer from the "4th Grade Slump". Did you stop doing those creative activities, pretending, imagining as you got older?
WEDNESDAY
Take time to think about Creativity Crises you may have experienced as a teenager. Did your friends influence or impact your creativity? Did the other teenagers at your school in your neighborhood.
THURSDAY
Take time to think about Creativity Crises you may have experienced as an adult at work from your first job to the job you have now.
Take some time to listen to Richard Florida on the BIG THINK website.
FRIDAY
Take time to think about the possible Creativity Crises you see around you now.
Is the SKY of CREATIVITY really falling. Or has the interest in creativity changed once again as it has often through the history of the US or history of humankind in general?
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-30
There is or is there a Creativity Crisis in America/Anywhere in the World.
Two weeks ago I was sent the NEWSWEEK article authored by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman titled: CREATIVITY CRISIS. Then I read their sidebar article in the same issue titled: FORGET BRAINSTORMING. After that I listened to two short interviews (4 min +/- with each of them) on Newsweek radio. Follow that I read an article in FastCompany, the Death of Creativity and Innovation. After that an article appeared in the Huffington Post written by a Harvard researcher. Then finally on last Friday I saw the new movie BEEZU & RAMONA based on a series of books first published in 1955 in the US.
All that sparked me to write on Facebook, Twitter, and other electronic media, to write emails to many colleagues, to meet face to face with a couple colleagues and to call a few by phone.
My challenge for you if you choose to accept it (Mission Impossible TV show theme music plays here) is to review each of these, think about them separately in comparison with your life and experiences and your current views on the related subjects and then discuss them with friends, family, colleagues this week one at a time.
I would greatly appreciate your written thoughts and will share them with your permission with the CC group.
So....get to reading and thinking.
MONDAY
Read the CREATIVITY CRISIS article, think about it and discuss it
TUESDAY
Read the FORGET BRAINSTORMING article, think about it and discuss it
WEDNESDAY
Read the DEATH OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION article
THURSDAY
Read the Huffington article: CREATIVITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
FRIDAY
Go see the current movie BEEZU & RAMONA or read some of the Beverly Cleary books that the movie is based upon. Think about how creativity is encouraged or squelched by the adults in the movie or the books.
Much has been written on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many blogs about the topic since the CREATIVITY CRISIS article was released July 10th.
You might also listen to the short interviews with the initial authors and watch Ashley Merryman and two others on the Charlie Rose show from Friday a week ago as additional sources of info for you to think about.
Google searches showed this morning 147,000 hits for "CREATIVITY CRISIS" and 3,050,000 hits for just creativity crisis, which means the hits are for the words together and separate or independently of each other.
Have an interesting week, hopefully a highly creative one.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-31
101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques
In 1994 James Higgins' book:
101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques
was published.
I bought it soon after to read and add to my growing collection of creative thinking tools and techniques library.
This week I corresponded with Jim about what he is doing now. One of his projects is a new edition of
101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques
So this week let's practice with 5 different techniques on any problem or challenge each of us is working on.
MONDAY
MAKING ASSUMPTIONS
To work on a challenge often we need to make assumptions, many assumptions. Think about the various types of assumptions you need to make and list as many as you can today. Physical, mental, emotional, social, client specific, resources available, people available, expected support by others, etc.
TUESDAY
INVERSE BRAINSTORMING
Start with desired, dreamed of, preferred solutions and generate lists of problems that may occur if that is the solution chosen.
WEDNESDAY
BACK TO THE SUN
Often it is helpful to travel an object or process back to its beginning, perhaps even as far back to the SUN. Pick objects like Jim offers in his book:
rubber, string, leather shoes, roofing nails and travel them back step by step until you get back to the original source of the raw materials.
THURSDAY
Try this with a few colleagues or friends. Ask them to generate ideas for a problem, writing them down on index cards, small pieces of paper or Post-IT tm notes. Then each of you put them into large envelopes and randomly mix them up each taking time to look at each group of ideas. Then add to your original lists and compile all the lists.
FRIDAY
Photo Excursion
Collect photos or printed images from magazines that initially have nothing to do with a problem. Then one by one look at the photos as if it symbolically or metaphorically represents a solution or the problem. Then write down every thought that comes to mind.
Practicing idea-generating techniques can help to strengthen your creative thinking muscles.
Best wishes for a very creative week.
Alan
alan@
new website under process
temporary url address
PS to buy Jim's book go to...
Alan' Cre8ng Challenges 2010-32
TWEET YOUR WAY TO MORE CREATIVE THINKING
Over the past few years I have been playing on Twitter, TWEETing, using TweetDeck to organize other people's tweets by categories: creative, creativity, creative thinking and some times by particular Twitterverse members' names. Each day I check in 3 or 4 times a day and scan what others say about how to become more creative.
This week let's challenge ourselves in simple, quick ways all day long or sporadically for 15 mins at a time during the day.
MONDAY
take one crazy, off-the-wall, out-of-your-tree, out-of-any-box-or-container ideas and tame them down today.
TUESDAY
take dull, boring, plain ideas and make them exciting today
WEDNESDAY
take ideas and make them more creative today
THURSDAY
choose to do 6 things creatively today: at work, in school, at home, with friends, with old friends, with family, with neighbors
FRIDAY
if there are no trees where you live....do you hug cactuses? shrubs, telephone poles (the concrete ones)? Do something unique, daring, unusual, outrageous today and then laugh about it.
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
alan@
unconstruction new website about to be switched over to existing
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-33
Applied Imagination Yields Vast Creativity
In 1953 Alex Osborn's a APPLIED IMAGINATION was first published. It was then republished several times over the past 57 years including one addition published specifically with permission by Paul Galvin of Motorola for his employees in the 1980s.
One method I have used over the past 33 years has been to read books about creativity and to think daily about specific thoughts I have found in the book.
This week let's work with Alex Osborn (creator of Brainstorming) and co-founder/co-creator of both the Creative Education Foundation and its annual Creative Problem Solving Institute with Dr. Sidney J. Parnes.
Each day work with the 3 or 4 quotes from AP, think about what they mean to you at work, in school, in your general life.
Seek what they individually mean to you and what they might mean when combined together.
MONDAY
"Of the 1,000 or more creative achievements listed by Prof Lehman, the median age at which such creativity occurred was 74." Osborn 1953
"...most of the best ideas are originated by amateurs." Alex Osborn 1953
"In every community, there is a crying need for more creative thinking. Scores of municipal problems are begging for ideas" circle of life
TUESDAY
Washington in 1933 received thousands of letters...central theme "The creative spark so badly needed was sadly lacking" sound familiar?
Chrysler Corp hailed "imagination as the 'directing force' which lights tomorrow's roads, explores today for clues to tomorrow." 1950s
Alcoa coined word, "Imagineering" meaning "you let your imagination soar and then engineer it down to earth."
WEDNESDAY
New Yorker magazine has said, "Ideas are what the United States are made of." many years ago that is
"Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar you present a new place for new ideas and progress." Charles Kettering, inventor, educator
"Civilization itself is the product of creative thinking." Alex Osborn 1953
THURSDAY
"Whatever one (person) is capable of conceiving, other (people) will be able to achieve." Jules Verne
"DeWitt Wallace, Ed and Pub of the Reader's Digest, in 1939, started me on making creativity my major interest." Alex Osborn 1953
"Automation has done much to bring about freedom from want, has also led to freedom from thinking" Alex Osborn 1953
FRIDAY
"the common thread of education--is the development of the ability to think." Alex Osborn 1953 novel idea
oldest program--creative education conducted by General Electric. 2 yr course 4 incoming engineers. Wall Street grads 3 times # of patents
"The history of civilization is essentially the record of man's creative ability." Alex Osborn 1953
"Let's suppose that creative power is possessed by everybody; & that there R ways of stimulating and training it" Prof Harry Overstreet 50s
Think about creative thinking.
Think about how to improve your creative thinking.
Encourage yourself to think creatively
May this week be one filled with much growing creativity for you.
Alan
alan@
current beta version of new website is...
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-34
Ideas to Solutions Due to Association
Often ideas come to us through associations that we make with related things, unrelated things, accidental comparisons.
This week let's practice idea generation through various forms of association.
MONDAY
Today generate ideas using similes. Peace is like a flower. The economy is like a...
Generate a minimum of a dozen similes for 3 to 6 problems you are working on and write them down.
TUESDAY
Today generate ideas using metaphors. My office is a kindergarten.
Generate a minimum of a dozen metaphors and then describe how they might be true.
WEDNESDAY
Often our minds do CHAIN THINKING. A reminds of B. Then B reminds us of C. Then C reminds of X and X reminds us of Q. Experiment with chains of thought to see how far you can take them.
THURSDAY
Association through opposites or contrasts. X is not Y. Z is the opposite of R.
Generate a dozen different opposites or contrasts for some of your problems.
FRIDAY
Forced Associations is a technique where we take totally unrelated things and find likenesses or similarities between them. Experiment with a half dozen forced relationships using objects you find around you in your office, classroom or home randomly and relate them to problems you are working on.
Best wishes for a creative week.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-35
Creativity at Work Takes Some Work
This morning I did a search for creativity at work and received 11,500,000 hits.
So for the past 15 minutes I have been sharing websites, articles, blogs related to the topic through Twitter.
This week use you Creative Skills Development Time reading and thinking about what others' recommend about how to increase Creativity at Work. They translate their thoughts into actions you as a manager or an employee can begin doing at your workplace.
If you are a teacher or a student how might you translate them into actions in your classrooms.
If you are a parent of simply working on developing your own creative thinking skills how might you translate their thoughts into actions in your life?
The following are recommended websites. You are of course welcome to do your own searches also.
MONDAY
Ground Report
Creativity at Work another source of thoughts
TUESDAY
How to foster creativity at work
interviews from the American Creativity Association
WEDNESDAY
a creativity at work ppt slideshow
creativity in the European Union
THURSDAY
7 obstacles to creativity at work...
careers for the highly creative of us...
FRIDAY
creativity culture at work...
Creativity at Work...another blog to check out
There are tremendous resources on the WWW.
Next week I am going to share some of my favorite TED Talks as inspiration and motivation for us all to become more creative
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Alan
brand new website
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-36
TED TALKS (Technology Education Design Conferences as Inspiration for Creative Thinking
TED Conferences have been held for nearly 30 years and over the past 5 or so the founders have been posting many of their excellent yearly talks through their website.
http:
This week my challenge for you each day is to watch and listen to the two recommend talks focused on creativity.
MONDAY
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on
• ... and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
•
Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity | Video on
• Larry Lessig, the Net's most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the "ASCAP cartel" in his argument for reviving our creative culture.
•
TUESDAY
Tim Brown on creativity and play | Video on
• At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you sh...
•
Amy Tan on creativity | Video on
• Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved.
•
WEDNESDAY
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on
• Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It'...
•
Isaac Mizrahi on fashion and creativity | Video on
• Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi spins through a dizzying array of inspirations -- from '50s pinups to a fleeting glimpse of a woman on the street who makes him shout "Stop the cab!" Inside this ramb...
•
THURSDAY
Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids | Video on
• Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups...
•
Shekhar Kapur: We are the stories we tell ourselves | Video on
• ...ndia, Hollywood/Bollywood director Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth," "Mr. India") pinpoints his source of creativity: sheer, utter panic. He shares a powerful way to unleash your inner storyteller.
•
FRIDAY
Jennifer Lin improvs piano magic | Video on
• Pianist and composer Jennifer Lin gives a magical performance, talks about the process of creativity and improvises a moving solo piece based on a random sequence of notes.
•
Nathan Myhrvold: Could this laser zap malaria? | Video on
• ...nd team's latest inventions -- as brilliant as they are bold -- remind us that the world needs wild creativity to tackle big problems like malaria. And just as that idea sinks in, he rolls out a live demo of a ...
•
Best wishes for a highly creative week this week
Alan
alan@
http:/
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-37
THINKING SKILLS ARE LEARNABLE---BELIEVE IT!
Years ago it was thought that THINKING SKILLS could not be taught. They were thought to be innate.
This MYTH has been disproven and unfortunately continues to need to be disproven even now many years later.
Edward de Bono, Don Treffinger, Sid Parnes, David Schwartz, E. Paul Torrance and many other authors, professors, teachers, researchers have committed their working lives to dispelling this MYTH.
This week let's practice some THINKING SKILLS through working with PUZZLES.
Start by visiting this website focused on THINKING SKILLS
"I am still learning"
Michelangelo Buonarroti (in his 80s)
We can continue to learn and improve our thinking skills as long as we live. Explore this website to review many thinking skills.
Each day this week spend 30 to 60 minutes having fun working on challenging puzzles of different types.
MONDAY
Visit the Puzzle Box and choose a mix of puzzles to work on.
TUESDAY
Visit and choose a mix of puzzles to work on.
WEDNESDAY
Have fun practicing with WORD FIND PUZZLES. Then create some of your own
THURSDAY
Work on a couple jigsaw puzzles with or without the photo on the cover to practice your visual skills.
FRIDAY
Visit the Ultimate Puzzle site and experiment with a mix of riddles.
Then do a search for puzzles and try some puzzles you have never tried or seldom try.
Have a puzzle filled week while using your current thinking skills and learning some new ones.
Best wishes for a creativity filled week.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-38
Once Upon a Time on a Dark and Stormy....
This year at both the 16th ACRE (African Creativity Conference) and the Creativity in Education Conference being held at Klein Kariba Resort in Bela Bela, South Africa 90km north of Pretoria the theme will be Stories and Storytelliing.
This week let's expand and explore our creative thinking skills using stories we know, stories we read and stories we create.
Stories have been used for millennium to share information, to challenge minds and to entertain from laughter to fright.
Mixing facts and truths into stories helps us learn them, remember them and understand them and then use those learnings to solve future problems.
Here are six different ways we can increase of thinking and especially our creative thinking skills.
Read Write Think
Read Think Write
Write Read Think
Write Think Read
Think Write Read
Think Read Write
Use your personal library, your public library or university library or the worldwide web to find stories, books, poems to read this week.
MONDAY
Work on Descriptive Writing Reading Thinking today.
TUESDAY
Work on Expository (explaining) Writing Reading Thinking today.
WEDNESDAY
Work on Narrative Writing Reading Thinking today
THURSDAY
Work on Persuasive Writing Reading Thinking today
FRIDAY
Work on Technical Writing Reading Thinking today
To learn to think
To increase your thinking skills
Read
Write
Think
in all 6 orders
Next week we will add draw, sketch, diagram, symbolize, abstract...by using or visual skills to
Look
See
Draw (Depic or Record)
Best wishes for an extremely creative week this week in all you do.
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-39
ORBITING THE GIANT HAIRBALL
In September of 1997 I met one of the most creative spirits I have ever met in my life, Gordon MacKenzie. He was one of the luncheon speakers at the Innovation Convergence, sponsored by the Innovation Network that I was part of then.
I saw and watched him give, experience, and live his presentation in a state of joy while his stories produced an inspired state in me sitting there at one of the front tables.
Though our professional life stories were not identical they were very much the same we both had devoted many years of our lives to creative work. For him it was creating contemporary, unconventional greeting cards for Hallmark, Inc. For me it was creating contemporary designs for my employers or clients: architecture, interior designs, graphic designs, signage, displays, articles for their publications.
Gordon spent exactly 30 years to the day orbiting the Hallmark, Inc GIANT HAIRBALL. I had spent over 37 years ORBITING for days to weeks to months to a few years each ORBITING various size HAIRBALLS of my employers, clients or government officials.
This week let's explore GORDON MACKENZIE's wonderful book about creativity in large corporations and how he learned to survive and actually thrive.
For an hour that day in September in 1997 at the Evergreen Conference Center the nearly 70 year old Buddhist monk like man with long flowing whitish gray hair with his bright red shirt, black leisure slacks and white running shoes walked back and forth on the stage with his clothesline on which he had hung 12 storyboard sketches, all stories from his life that he was offering the audience to choose from randomly that he would use to weave his story about how he
ORBITED THE GIANT HAIRBALL of Hallmark, Inc. for 30 years.
This week I am quoting from various parts of the book where I had placed many small Post-It notes with my notes inspired by his stories and messages. When I opened my hand-made, hand-crafted copy, designed and illustrated by Gordon.
Spending time with highly creative people.
Listening to highly creative people
Talking with highly creative people
Reading the writing of highly creative people
Working with highly creative people
All these activities and experiences can greatly impact, expand, enrich your creativity.
MONDAY
"Curious children began milling around the truck. Some noisily reached up to touch the coarsely tethered animals while others, holding back, watched silently. Perhaps a few realized that what was to be the highlight of their day had just arrived. The Diversion. The Disruption. The Hope of Escape, however temporary, from the routine of another day at school.
Not pointless disruption. Disruption with purpose."
For a few years Gordon visited schools to show children how he made animals from transforming flat, cold sheets of steel that were touched with enough spirit and soul to be almost alive. For the students it was like magic.
Today think of ways you can add Diversion, Disruption and Hope of Escape to your work life each day for 5, 10, 20 minutes or perhaps during your lunch hour.
Much creativity and creative ideas appear during times of diversion, disruption, and periods of escape.
TUESDAY
"After having worked for a couple of daily newspapers where a measure of eccentricity was celebrated, the spirit of the world of corporate decorum, new to me, seemed incongruously anemic compared to the colorful, exciting products we were working on. I was beginning to regret that I had even hired on at `the Big Grey Place,' as the corporation was referred to by some of the less reverent old-timers."
How are you eccentric at work? What eccentric things do you do or are allowed to do? How might you become more eccentric?
From Eccentricity often comes fresh creativity, fresh perspectives, fresh solutions.
WEDNESDAY
"If we drew a line to represent a creative occurrence the only portion that would reflect measurable productivity would be a short segment at the end of the line."
Think through some of the creative projects or the projects you worked creatively on recently. Draw lines representing the length from the beginning to the end of the projects. Then indicate which parts were when creativity happened and where measurable parts occurred.
THURSDAY
Once Gordon was approached by the Hallmark, Inc. training department and asked to create a 3 hour session about the Creative Manager. First he asked to see all the other material for the existing multiple-day required first-time manager training program. Shortly he saw that it was all very, very boring. At first he refused to create a program to follow up such boredom. Pushed to create a segment he finally agreed to create one that would be called, "GROPE". During the 3 hours the participants would be thrown situation after situation that they would end up saying "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
The purpose was to share reality through short experiences.
Today think about times when you have said to yourself or other: "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Then think about how you dealt with or possibly solved the problem. Look for the examples of creativity and creative thinking.
FRIDAY
Its Friday. Gather up a box or bag of loose wax crayons, pencils, markers. Take a blank sheet of copy or typing paper and create a collection of lines, shapes, sketches, drawings that represent creativity and creative thinking in your workplace. Do this a few seconds at a time and once you are done at the end of the day examine it for what you can learn from the completed drawing, depiction of creativity at your workplace
Hanging out with, working with, listening to and reading the thoughts and experiences of highly creative people can easily increase your own creative thinking and creativity.
Have a great week.
Why not?!
It's your week to create anyway you want.
Alan
alan@
PS off to South Africa for the 12th time to be part of the 16th African Creativity Conference and the 6th Creativity in Education Conference.
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-40
UNLEASING THE IDEAVIRUS
By Seth Godin
I am standing here sleepless in Athens, Ga at 4:37 am on Sunday, October 17th
My time in South Africa this year was filled with FACES NOT PLACES. I spoke several times: 2 creativity conferences, 2 times at TUT – Tshwane University of Technology, 3 times at TUKS – University of Pretoria, 2 Toastmasters clubs, PSASA, CSIR - Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (2nd time in 2 years).
I have been practicing what Seth Godin preaches in his book UNLEASING THE IDEAVIRUS.
So for this CC let's work on some of his ideas about spreading ideas.
Finding, creating, generating ideas is one stage.
We also need to spread them to get them used.
MONDAY
"Interrupting people isn't cost-effective any more" advertising
"…establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other."
Who at work, school, among your friends, in your family are also interested in developing their creative thinking and supporting you in your efforts.
Begin by making a list of these people.
Then contact them to share what you are doing.
Then ask them what they are currently doing to develop their own creative thinking skills and abilities
Build a network of people focused on developing their creative thinking skills.
TUESDAY
Begin to become, if you are not already one, a SNEEZER, one who spreads the ideavirus about idea generation.
Today think of 12 to 24 ways you are already and can SPREAD creative thinking at work, school, at home, with friends.
WEDNESDAY
Using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks and listservs or chat rooms you belong to spread the word about how you are increasing your creative thinking skills and abilities and ask your friends, followers, contacts to share how they are.
THURSDAY
Start your own blog, Facebook page, begin to send 6 to 12 tweets per day about how to increase creative thinking that you know and ask for others from your various friends and contacts.
FRIDAY
Think of 6 to 12 ways you can include learning more ways to improve and expand your creative thinking skills each day with friends, family, fellow workers, fellow students. Set goals for each day of a minimum of one hour.
Best wishes for a very creative week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-41
GROWING UP CREATIVE
Nurturing a Lifetime of Creativity
By Teresa M. Amabile, Ph.D.
This morning to catch up with my weekly plan for my CCs I wandered to the oldest part of my creativity book collection in my office and choice 3 books randomly.
I have discovered over the past 34 years since I first read articles by E. Paul Torrance and NEW THINK by Edward de Bono that often I can spark, expand, enrich, recharge my creativity, my creative thinking by randomly reading under linings in books I have read in the past.
For CC2010-40 I chose UNLEASING THE IDEAVIRUS by Seth Godin a book about creative marketing today.
For this CC2010-41 I chose GROWING UP CREATIVE: Nurturing a Lifetime of Creativity by Teresa M. Amabile, Ph.D.
For the next one CC2010-41 I chose THE CARE AND FEEDING OF IDEAS by Bill Backer
Quoting Pablo Casals
"Beauty is all about us, but how many are blind to it! They look at the wonder of this earth—and seem to see nothing. Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?"
Who they can become?
How to be what they want to be?
MONDAY
"The most crucial factor in creativity is the motivation to do something creative."
T.M.A.
Take time to think of 6 to 12 ways you motivate yourself or can motivate yourself and others to do something creative today.
Yesterday I went to the UGA Bulldawg game with two friends. One was an LAR and Art student who walked into my Art Dept office many years ago asking for guidance or for someone to listen to him. Now he is an artist and teaches art at a local private school. He told me of several art shows and exhibits about to happen over the next couple weeks in Athens and helped me to want to create again.
TUESDAY
Recognize creativity and creative thinking in yourself and others today. Keep a running list of all examples of them in people around you at work, school, home, on the street. Compliment as many of them and yourself for being creative today.
WEDNESDAY
Think about ways creativity and creative thinking are stopped or destroyed at work, school, home, on the street in life. Make a list. Then write next to each 1 to 3 ways you might stop or eliminate these CREATIVITY KILLERS.
THURSDAY
Spend time today making a list of creative projects or other activities that will involve creativity and creative thinking for your children to do at home by themselves and with you.
FRIDAY
Today generate a list of ways you will increase the use of creative thinking in yourself and others at work, school, home with friends
Thinking about creative thinking is the first step
The second step is choosing to be creative.
The third step is being creative and doing creative things
The fourth step is thinking about what you did and learning what you can from doing them.
Best wishes for a highly creative week this week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-42
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF IDEAS
By Bill Backer
Published in 1993
"From all corners of America hears the complaint that good ideas are in short supply.
Ask yourself when was the last time you encountered an idea—say, in politics, business, or humanitarian work – that moved you in the direction you would like to be going, an idea that provided fresh responses to the wants or needs of the nation, your customers, or the particular group you want to help." (yourself, family, friends, company, school)
"Every brainchild, like every real child, needs a supportive family that knows how to help it grow and prosper. And also understands how to help it through rough times."
MONDAY
"The Idea Family" Chapter 3
Who are the members of your IDEA FAMILY?
Make a list of those people who support your ideas, encourage your ideas, help you accomplish your ideas.
Today make a list of them. Then think about how you can get together with them regularly for their support, encouragement and help in accomplishing your ideas.
TUESDAY
"The Idea Channel" Chapter 11
Backer talks about the significance and need of what he named "IDEA CHANNELS" connected links of people who help ideas go from conception to reality.
Take time today to make a list of who are the members of your Idea Channel or Channels at your workplace, school, neighborhood or town. Think about ideas you have had that were accomplished. Who helped you from the beginning to the end along the way.
WEDNESDAY
"The Pull of Ideas" Chapter 17
Many people have written about the concept of THE PULL OF IDEAS rather than the PUSH OF IDEAS from Charles Fritz to Backer and others.
What might be the thing or people who have PULLED your ideas from conception to accomplished or finished reality? How does PULL work at your workplace, school, home?
THURSDAY
"Keeping the Faith" Chapter 19
How have you kept the faith in your ideas to keep working at them no matter what happened along the way. Charles Goodyear struggled for 30 years to replicate vulcanization of rubber after first discovering it by accident. Walt Disney struggled for many years. Abe Lincoln struggled for years. Chester Carlson (Xerography that led to the creation of Xerox) spend 30 years with much help.
Think about how you have kept the faith in your ideas.
Think about how you have helped your children, friends, fellow workers, family to keep the faith in their ideas and projects.
FRIDAY
"Backer's Definition of `Creative'" Chapter 25
written in 1993
" `Creative' is the buzzword today in every corner of the advertising world (Backer's world for 40+ years). In fact it is an operative world in defining opinions in all forms of communications—motion pictures, art, music, and so on. We have thousands of (professionals in media)…using the word in verb, noun, and adjective form."
In 2010 the same appears to have become true about INNOVATIVE and INNOVATION.
Ask yourself what are your definitions for the words:
Creative
Creativity
Creative thinking
Innovation
Innovative
Innovative thinking
Then ask yourself how are these impacting your life at work, school, home.
Be more creative by first choosing to be creative.
Then practice being creative in many ways every day.
Best wishes for a highly creative and fun week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-43
Hanging out with Creative People Sparks Creativity in US
For over 30 years I have been going to and presenting at creativity conferences or workshops. Much of the benefit is from HANGING OUT WITH OTHER CREATIVE PEOPLE.
Often I have heard participants say "I FOUND MY COMMUNITY". "I HAVE FOUND PEOPLE LIKE ME", "I HAVE FINALLY FOUND MY TRIBE".
This week spend an hour or more each day with people you find to be very creative personally or professionally either face to face, by phone, SKYPE, internet or virtually through websites, books, articles.
MONDAY
Take a look around your office, workplace or school for the "highly creative" people and find ways to spend 10 to 30 minutes with them throughout the day. Ask about their recent creative projects. Ask about what they are doing creatively just for fun. Ask about some of their future or dream projects for the future.
TUESDAY
Take a look around where you live today and find ways to spend 10 to 30 minutes with them throughout the day. Ask about their recent creative projects. Ask about what they are doing creatively just for fun. Ask about some of their future or dream projects for the future.
WEDNESDAY
Go internet surfing among "highly" creative people you know located somewhere else in your town, state, province, country, the world and find ways to spend 10 to 30 minutes with them throughout the day. Ask about their recent creative projects. Ask about what they are doing creatively just for fun. Ask about some of their future or dream projects for the future.
THURSDAY
Go internet surfing among "highly" creative you have heard of in business, industry, sports, education and write to them through their websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn or other similar social networks. Ask about their recent creative projects. Ask about what they are doing creatively just for fun. Ask about some of their future or dream projects for the future.
FRIDAY
Go library searching in your library at home or your public library through magazines, newsletters, books for a list of the most "highly" creative people today or in history. Imagine that you can interview them and then...
Ask about their recent creative projects.
Ask about what they are doing creatively just for fun.
Ask about some of their future or dream projects for the future.
At the end of the week take some time to write down what were the benefits of spending time with "highly" creative people.
First-hand exposure to "highly" creative people and their works can help spark our own creativeness or creative drive.
I missed an opportunity to attend to art openings on Friday. I simply wasn't in the mood for socializing. Today I am going to visit the Lyndon House Art Gallery/Museum and the Georgia Art Museum on the UGA campus to explore current art work on display.
Plus I am going for a long walk in nature to clear my cobwebs from a week back in the US.
Best wishes for a highly creatively inspiring week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-44
Deductive, Inductive, Conductive, Reproductive Thinking
Deductive...thinking from where you are or have been towards where you want to go or be
Inductive...thinking from where you want to go or be back towards where you are or have been hoping to discover how you might have gotten there.
Conductive...thinking with other people, face to face, via written or electronic media, virtually through reading what they have written. Another name for this is TEAM Thinking (everyone thinking on their own sharing their thoughts) rather than GROUP Thinking (everyone thinking the same thing)
Reproductive...thinking using only what you have accepted or has been accepted in the past as correct. In non-changing times this can be productive
This week practice a variety of DUCTIVE THINKING approaches, one per day either alone or with a small team of colleagues, fellow workers or friends.
Each day review some quotations, new or long-time favorites.
Then choose a challenge you are working on and think using one specific approach to thinking.
MONDAY
Deductive Thinking
Begin where you are and move towards your goal step by step connecting all your thinking.
TUESDAY
Inductive Thinking
Begin where you want to be or go and step by step imagine or think of how you might have gotten there connecting your thoughts in a step by step fashion.
WEDNESDAY
Conductive Thinking
Begin where you are or where you want to go and ask others to give their thoughts about how to go either way.
THURSDAY
Reproductive Thinking
Begin where you are and look for examples in other fields, industries, businesses or professions for ways that your challenge has already been solved.
FRIDAY
Reductive Thinking
Start where you want to be or go and think of ways that have not worked before and focus on how you might change those methods, techniques to make them work.
Thinking in a mix of ways or approaches can open our thinking, generate unknown ideas, help us discover previously unconsidered approaches.
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Wandering Alan
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-45
Being Creative on Demand - Being Creative in Transition
I arrived in Singapore after 35 hours of traveling 23 hours ago at the Changi International Airport.
Sitting here thinking about what type of Cre8ng Challenges I would create for you and all the of the 200+ members of this group for this coming week the central theme of my life came through.
I live my life accomplishing my goals, solving my problems, lessening the problems that occur in my life while having fun and living creatively or with my daily choice of being creative when I choose as best I can.
For most of the past 15 years while creating these (mostly) weekly CCs I have relied on my training, my books, my files, my colleagues for inspiration. At the same time my life has been the inspiration for the exercises I offer to you to help you increase, expand, deepen, widen your creativeness and your creative thinking skills.
This week....living creatively is what I am recommending that you practice.
So far my trip to Singapore, my 10th since 2001 to teach creative thinking courses, give speeches, spend time with Singaporean colleagues and friends who also professionally focus on the development of their creativity and the creativity of their clients or audiences, I have had to be deliberately creative many times.
I am writing the many examples in my travel journal and will turn them into an article that I will share later rather than make this weekly message extremely long.
The focus this week is on what I called the CREATIVITY G.A.P.S.
G - the myth to still too many people think that ONLY SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN CREATIVE, that it is a GIFT only a small percentage are lucky to have been born with. Yes Creativeness, being creative, thinking creatively and living creatively is a GIFT, a gift we can all give ourselves and others all the time if we choose.
A - being creative, at least more creative is the result of our attitudes. Most of the past 30+ years I have shared that it is necessary to have a positive attitude, positive work, school or home environment in order to be creative. I still believe that it is better to surround yourself with positive spaces, positive people, and positive attitudes. At the same time you can be creative in any setting by SIMPLY CHOOSING TO BE by not letting negative or depressive environments, situations control you.
First step...be objective....THINGS HAPPEN, accept them, think about the outcome, objective, goal you have and focus on the end result and use what you have.
Second step...ask yourself, no matter how negative or depressing a situation is WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT? WHAT MIGHT BE GOOD ABOUT IT THAT I AM NOT NOTICING? WHAT MIGHT I LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE?
Third step...then use your creativeness and your creative skills and tools to make it more creative by being creative and thinking creatively.
P - all human activities are the result of using processes (S.T.A.M.P.S = systems, tools/techniques, attitudes/approaches, methods, processes, strategies). Most to many are sub-consciously used. When things are not going well then consciously choose to be creative and act creatively.
S - Strategies - it is generally the strategies, the ways we choose to work and think that determine our success or results and achievements.
SOOOOOOOOOO!
MONDAY
Look at your day for times you were creatively instantly or out of habit. Think about what was it that helped you to be creative doing what you did no matter what happened.
TUESDAY
Choose today to take 3 to 6 minutes throughout the day to be consciously creative when you start to do something new from getting ready for the day, getting dressed, putting together your meals, how you drive or travel to work or school. Stop periodically throughout the day to be creative in your thinking for 3 to 6 minute before you start whatever you need or choose to do.
WEDNESDAY
Today check you changing moods throughout the day. Strive to be happy on purpose as often as you can. Make a list in the morning of various ways you help yourself to be happier purposely. Music you listen to. Books you read. People you spend time with. Jokes you recall or listen too. Choose to be in a neutral to objective to more deliberately a positive mood and help others to be too.
THURSDAY
As you go through the day be creative about the little things from how you arrange things on your tables, desks; how you walk; how you talk with people and what you talk about. Choose to be as creative as often today by choice.
FRIDAY
Take time today to list examples of how you chose to be creative and what helped you to be more creative throughout the week. Once you have completed your list group them by commonalities. Look for the pattern or patterns that occurred to use those as lessons for how to be more creative and to live more creatively next week and the next week and the next week for the many years to come.
Have a creative week.
I certainly will be as often as I can here in Singapore whether working, meeting with friends, meeting new people, going to parks to walk, going to zoos, museums, malls, bird sanctuaries, goat farms or simply just walking down a street or riding the MRT.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-46
Do many things to spark and regenerate your creativeness and creative skills
Last weekend while I was in Singapore I thought I had updated an Excel chart that listed all of my 2010 Cre8ng Challenges by title and dated created and sent.
Then I sent a note after returning after 30 hrs of traveling and flying that I would send out 2010-46 and 2010-47 today to catch up.
Then this morning, 4:32 am, still haven't gotten back onto USA EST sleeping habits yet, I noticed that I hadn't actually sent our 2010-45.
Well here it is sparked by a TWEET I just read and the website it linked to.
looks like a very interesting blog/website devoted to tips about writing.
This week try some of the samples of the blogmaster's 201 tips for being more creative on demand.
MONDAY Great hacks from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders
4. Take a shower; change clothes. Give yourself a truly clean start.
5. Write from a persona. Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn't you.
6. Get away from the computer. Take pen and notebook, and go somewhere new.
7. Quit beating yourself up. You can't create when you feel (BLOCKED).
8. Stop visualizing catastrophes, and focus on positive outcomes.
TUESDAY Rejuvenating Tips from Joel at Lifehack
19. Surround yourself with creative people.
20. Develop a morning ritual.
21. Do an info-dump so your head is clear enough to create instead of worry.
22. If you're a crime writer, read fantasy. If you're a productivity writer, read something about slacking off.
23. Imitate the real world.
WEDNESDAY from Steve Pavlina
60. Define a clear purpose. Vague intentions don't trigger the flow state.
61. Identify a compelling motive. You need a reason to be creative.
62 Architect a worthy challenge. If a task is too easy, you don't need to be particularly creative, so your creative self will simply say, "You can manage this one without me."
63. Provide a conducive environment. The optimal environment varies from person to person, so you'll need to experiment to find what works best for you.
64. Allocate a committed block of time.
THURSDAY Motherly advice from Michelle Mitton of Scribbit
125. Practice thinking. Think about things and formulate some opinions. They may be right, they may be wrong, but I bet they'll be interesting.
126. Use life markers for ideas. Old photos, family stories, a journal entry, a souvenir from a trip, a collection you love or a piece of clothing–if you've saved it for a reason there is most likely a story there.
127. Look at your life as if you're a stranger. Good writing is made up of details so learn to see the details of your own life.
128. Look at what inspires other people's creativity and then put your own personal spin on it. But whatever you do make it your own and bring your own life and talents to the task.
129. Make lists. What are your favorites? Foods, colors, flowers, cars, games, habits? What are your pet peeves, your thrills or your favorite vacation spots? Use lists to spark an idea and run with it.
FRIDAY Simple advice from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits
174. Play.
175. Don't consume and create at the same time — separate the processes.
176. Shut out the outside world.
177. Reflect on your life and work daily.
178. Look for inspiration all around you, in the smallest places.
179. Start small.
Have fun sparking, regenerating, resparking, jolting, jazzing up, increasing your creativeness and creative thinking skills this week in a variety of ways.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-47
Ideas from Fredrik Haren's THE IDEA BOOK
Last year among the many books I bought to read during my November and December annual read-a-fest was a book titled
100 Best Business Books
In the list was Fredrik Haren's THE IDEA BOOK, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies around the world.
In his words, he designed the book to be a dialog not a monolog.
150 pages of text,
150 pages blank for the reader to write down ideas or their own thoughts about what he had written.
Last week I spent two hours with Fredrik's twin brother Bastian in Singapore on Arab Street at a cafe talking about our common passion, his, Fredrik's and mine;;;;
Developing creativity and creative thinking around the globe.
This week I am highlighting 5 of Fredrik's messages and suggested activities.
I encourage you to find and read this book.
This week I am reading another of his books, both given to me as gifts by Bastian last week in Singapore:
THE DEVELOPING WORLD.
I have shown his short video about the essence of the main messages of the book in both South Africa at the 16th ACRE Conference and last week in Singapore.
You can find in on Youtube
This week THE IDEA BOOK
MONDAY
"The Unhappy Professor"
(who was retiring and not of today's time of rapid change)
Describe things that are currently impossible that which may become real in the next 10 years.
TUESDAY
"Broken Monitors"
"We often learn how to find the answer to something, but seldom how to find the question."
Take time to ask 100 questions today from when you wake up until you finally go to sleep. Record them. Share them and I will collect and share them with all the CCers.
WEDNESDAY
"Find Other Perspectives"
(Understand the value of ("ALL" forms of) diversity.
Make an ongoing list of various forms of diversity that are in your classroom, school, neighborhood, workplace, city, state.
THURSDAY
"What's in a name?"
Shakespeare once wrote "What's in a name? that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet."
Today name your ideas and create a long list of different names until you find or create really AHA! names that truly express the ideas.
FRIDAY
"Are you really going to throw that out?"
Spend time with a classmate, colleague, fellow worker and discuss what are the waste products generated in your school or workplace. Then think up 6 to 12 ideas each for what else might be done with them instead of simply throwing them out in the trash for the waste dump in your town.
THE IDEA BOOK
by Fredrik Haren
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-48
To Increase Your Creativity, Creativeness, Creative Thinking Simply Add Color to Your Life
Several years ago I created and presented a 90 minute workshop, first at CPSI, then at other conferences and for some of my professional clients titled:
ADD COLOR TO YOUR LIFE TO INCREASE YOUR CREATVITY
During the session I had people examine the metaphor of ADDING COLOR, adding difference, variety, uniqueness, novelty, to their lives through their senses and daily activities.
I am encouraging and challenging you to do the same for 15 to 30 to 60 minutes each day.
Use your senses in more COLORFUL or COLOR-FILLED ways each day to increase and challenge your creativeness, creative thinking, creativity.
MONDAY
Today choose to see things more colorfully.
Look for examples of specific colors surrounding you, one color at a time: blue, green, yellow, red, orange, purple, gray, white, black.
Focus on seeing color everyway you can see it.
TUESDAY
Today choose to taste more COLORFULLY.
Include a wider variety of tastes, flavors in your food during each of your meals.
WEDNESDAY
Today choose to smell more COLORFULLY.
Go where you can experience a wide variety of scents: flower shops, bakeries, restaurants, scent shops, nature....
THURSDAY
Today choose to move more COLORFULLY.
Experiment with your walking: strides, speed, size/length, movement
Experiment with how you pick up and put down your feet and how you move your knees.
If you can find access to MONTY PYTHON's episode about DEPARTMENT OF FUNNY WALKS, watch it and watch 3 or 4 times
FRIDAY
Today choose to hear/listen to many varieties of sounds from nature.
Varieties of sounds from the world of music: classical to contemporary
Varieites of music from many other cultures
Varieites of sounds from many different instruments or the sounds you hear striking different materials, objects.
Add as much COLOR, VARIETY, DIFFERENCE to your life as you can this week to spark your inner creativity.
Best wishes for a highly creative week.
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-49
Ideas Where Do They Come From
Have you spent much time thinking about when and how you get, discover, generate or create ideas?
This week my recommended challenge is for you to spend time thinking about when, where, how, perhaps why ideas come to you.
MONDAY
Out of the Blue
TUESDAY
In Meetings or with teams in work situations
WEDNESDAY
When Celebrating or having fun
THURSDAY
Through high concentration of work
FRIDAY
Using Creative Thinking Tools
At the end of the week ask yourself whether you learned that any of these are your greatest source of new ideas?
Best wishes,
Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-50
Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy New Year
So much creativity tends to be seen this time of year with all the decorations and giving of presents.
This week practice your creative thinking skills in your imagination related to the Holiday Season. Let your imagination and creativity fly with no limitations.
MONDAY
How would your decorate for the Holidays if money and time were unlimited?
TUESDAY
What gifts would you wish existed to give if their were no limitations?
WEDNESDAY
How would you celebrate the various Holidays during the season?
THURSDAY
How would you share blessings and wishes with your friends around the world?
FRIDAY
How would you enjoy time with all your friends and family around the world?
Best wishes for a wonderful and wonder-filled Holidays Season.
Willingly, Wondering, Wandering, Wishing Alan
alan@
go to the Holidays menu on my navigation bar and click on the 2010 Merry Christmas Happy Holidays to see my 2010 Holidays card for you
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-51
Alphabet for Creative Thinking
Last night while working on TweetDeck I instantly created what I called Alphabet for Creative Thinking, one tweet, one letter at a time using words that came to my mind. It received instant reaction from about a dozen followers with one suggesting that I put them on my website.
I did.
The Alphabet for Creative Thinking is a CHECKLIST, a list of words or questions that can spark thinking, change perspective, alter viewpoints all resulting in new ideas or direction in thinking.
This week practice using the Checklist by randomingly choosing words from the list of 600 verbs, a to z, using the given letters for each day.
Check the day's suggested letters
Then go to the website and randomly choose 1, 2, or 3 words from each letter's group of verbs.
Then apply them to a challenge to provoke ideas and thoughts about the challenge you are working on.
website address is...
MONDAY
letters c, h, m, r, w
TUESDAY
letters a, f, k, p, u
WEDNESDAY
letters d, i, n, s, x
THURSDAY
letters b, g, l, q, v
FRIDAY
letters e, j, o, t, y
The key behind this checklist is that all the words are verbs, action words.
Some may seem strange and do not fit at first. Stretch yourself to find ideas.
Be open to any ideas that come to mind.
Best wishes for a wonderful week and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS next Saturday.
Willingly Wishfully Wondering Wandering Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenges 2010-52
Review 2010 for your creativity
This week take some time each day to review the creative things you have done,
the creative ways you did normal things, and the ways you have been creative in
2010 in various part of your life.
MONDAY
Today focus on your work.
What have you done that was creative?
How have you done things creatively?
TUESDAY
Today focus on your classrooms or things that you learned in 2010.
What have you done that was creative?
How have you done things creatively?
WEDNESDAY
Today focus on your family.
What have you done that was creative?
How have you done things creatively?
THURSDAY
Today focus on your friends
What have you done that was creative?
How have you done things creatively?
FRIDAY
Today focus on your neighborhood and your community.
What have you done that was creative?
How have you done things creatively?
At the end of the week review all of theses looking for patterns, clues,
insights that will help you in 2011
Happy New Year
Alan
alan@
Alan's Cre8ng Challenge 2010-52
What Were Your Creative Accomplishments in 2010?
Generaly during the month of December or at least the last week of each year people take time to reflect and project: reflect on the year ending and project onto the year ahead.
This week as you enjoy your time of peace and relaxation reflect over 2010. For so many around the globe it has not been a great financial success, yet for some it has been.
Take time to think about the various creative things you did, enjoyed, the creative ways you did things to enjoy yourself, solve problems, create new things.
MONDAY
Take time to list the creative things you did at work this year from the small to the large. Think about them. Survey them for patterns. Search for clues that will help you in 2011.
TUESDAY
Take time to list the creative things you learned this year whether in school or simply learning outside of school or hobbies. Think about what you now know how to do that you didn't in December 2009.
WEDNESDAY
Take time to list creative things you and your family did and accomplished this year. Look for patterns. Seek clues among them. Remember them and think about the fun and rewards that were experienced or gained.
THURSDAY
Take time to list creative things you did with friends during the year. Learn from the list things that may be useful in 2011 and beyond.
FRIDAY
Take time to list creative things you did for other people: neighbors, towns people, people at your church, synagoge, temple, clubs, civic groups and think about what you may do that will be creative for these in 2011.
While you are enjoying your quiet time, slower time if you are working this week, reflect over 2010. Its over. Time to move on with new plans, goals, objectives, dreams.
Happy New Year
Alan
alan@
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