Creativity & Management

S Jeyavelu

Lifelong Creativity
S Jeyavelu

What is Creativity?

Can you name a few creative products/outputs? Take a moment to look into your life and identify a few things you have done creatively.

What is Creativity?
Novel / Unique & Appropriate / Useful

Levels of Creativity

Elaboration Improvement Synthesis

Transformation

Source: Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

Types of Creativity

Essence Creativity
..distilled creativity, the heart made visible.. ..a fresh idea or concept or definition, a novel view point or interpretation or relationship or hypothesis/generalization, fresh wisdom, Gandhis Non-Violence,

Elaborative Creativity
Distinctive elaboration of an idea, view point, principle, law, or issue which is contextually appropriate Epics, poems,
Source: Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

 Expressive

Creativity

Novel & appropriate communication

Long years ago, India made a tryst with destiny and the hour has come to redeem her pledge. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom

Existential

Creativity

..concerns with effectiveness, creativity, self actualization potential of one own self & enhance human and natural worlds
SriSri RaviShankar, Sadhus, etc
Source: Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

Entrepreneurial Creativity
..generation and implementation of novel, appropriate ideas to establish a new venture ..novel prods/services, means of producing them, ways of utilization of resources, markets, resources, use of technology, etc JRD Tata, Ambani

Empowerment Creativity
..concerned with effectiveness, creativity, self actualization potential of others Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (Sulabh), Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank)
Source: Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

Potential for Creativity

Personality
Creativity
CPSS

Creative Intelligence

Motivation

Adopted from Amabile, How to Kill Creativity; Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

Components of Creativity in A Task/Field

Expertise Knowledge i.e. technical, procedural and intellectual Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation, an inner passion to solve the problem at hand leads to creative solutions than external rewards. Influenced by work environment

Components of Lifelong Creativity

Creative Personality - Hunger for Knowing, Sensitivity, Complexity, Venturing, Independence & Courage, Reality Contact, Self Sufficiency Creative Intelligence - Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Problem Sensitivity, Guessing Causes & Consequences, Elaboration, Problem Restructuring Creative Problem Solving Skills (CPSS) fluency, flexibility, originality, problem sensitivity, problem restructuring, elaboration, guessing causes and consequences and most importantly persistence.

Components of Lifelong Creativity contd

Lifelong Motivation Pioneering/Innovation, Altruistic, Self Actualization, Status & Safety Motives Environment - Professional, Societal, Family, Social

Potential for Creativity

Blocks to Creativity

Personality
Creativity
CPSS

Creative Intelligence

Motivation

Adopted from Amabile, How to Kill Creativity; Khandwalla, Lifelong Creativity

Creative Personality Traits

Creative Personality Traits

Hunger for Knowing Sensitivity Complexity Venturing Independence & Courage Reality Contact Self Sufficiency

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Hunger of Knowing
Curiosity, constant questioning, strong interest in stimulating ideas, theories, and philosophies, always wanting to know the how and why of things, strong interest in trying to understand peoples motives and interests.

Sensitivity
Responsiveness to literature, arts and other fine and delicate things; interest in meeting interesting and sensitive persons; empathy for suffering; responsiveness to beauty and elegance.

Complexity
Intuitively finding correct solutions; being a visionary; having odd, even conflicting ideas, moodiness.

Venturing
Calculated risk taking; preference for starting own ventures; aiming big; striking out on ones own.

Independence and Courage

Questions status quo or established order; sticking to core convictions; listens to experts but makes up own mind; clear and forceful assertion of feelings and viewpoints.

Reality Contact
Initiative taking in finding out operating constraints, confidence in managing crisis, quick adjustment to new challenges and information, grip on reality despite fantasying.

Self-sufficiency
Absorbed in challenging tasks; confident in operating in alien situations, tendency to take on tough tasks, persistence in getting ventures accomplished

Interpreting Creative Personality Scores

Any score above 80% indicates a potential for creativity. Focus on your top 3 traits and identify areas where you can be creative

Personality Traits & Creativity Types

All Traits are Important for Each Type of Creativity The top three trait for each type Hunger for Knowing Essence Creativity H, S, C Sensitivity Elaboration Creativity S, C, V, Complexity Expressive Creativity S, C, RC Venturing Existential Creativity S, RC, SS Independence & Entrepreneurial Creativity V, IC, RC Courage Reality Contact Empowerment Creativity S, IC, RC Self Sufficiency

Source: Adapted from Pradip Khandwalla, 2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Environment & Creativity

Environment & Creativity

Formative Environment Adult Environment

Home Environment

School Environment

Social Environment

Learning/Work Environment

Your Creativity

Environmental Stimulants of Creativity

Stimulation Nurturance Optimal Tension Constructive Feedback Learning Opportunities

Diversity of Viewpoints Accountable Freedom Creative Role Models Infrastructure Support by Authority/Boss

Working With Your Scores

Check whether your familial and school environment was conducive for creativity Is your current environment conducive for creativity?

Expand your social circle Identify people who are very different from you and interact with them regularly Get involved in activities which enhance your sensitivity Create a circle of friends who push boundaries of the known

Creating a Creativogenic Environment

Coalition Making oneself attractive to others Marketing of Creative Ideas Choices in terms of people, activities, situations, etc

Motivation for Creativity

Motivation for Creativity

Safety Motive Competence Motive Status Motive Pioneering Innovative Motive Altruistic Motive Self-Actualization Motive

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Motivation for Creativity

Pioneering Innovative, Altruistic & SelfActualization Motive lead to creativity Creative people are weak in safety and status motive Innovators are high in both competence motive and Pioneering Innovative motive

Pioneering Innovative Motive Motivation for Entrepreneurial creativity Art & literature Scientific & technological invention Theoretical work
Altruistic Motive Motivation for empowerment creativity Social change agent Self-Actualization Motive Motivation for existential creativity Sustains in struggle for self actualization in chosen vocation

Improving Motivation for Creativity

Awareness Desired Change Role Model Action Reinforcement

How to Interpret the Scores

Check your net motivation for creativity

Net motivation for creativity = (PI+Altruistic + SA) (Safety +Status)

This is indicative of whether your efforts are likely to be towards creativity

How to Interpret the Scores

Check whether your safety and status scores are the top two scores
If yes, identify incidents from your childhood and growing up which influenced you to believe so, write down what happened considering the people, feelings and how you changed because of that incident. Re look at the incident and review your feelings about it

How to Interpret the Scores

Check whether your competence score is lowest two

If yes, you may be facing issues of perseverance, completion, or staying the last mile in the tasks you take up Identify the statements you make to yourself to rationalize such behavior For each major/critical decision you take ask yourself what is the price I am willing to pay? and be conscious of the commitment you make.

How to Interpret the Scores

Identify the top score, or combination of scores top two scores or the patterns in the three PI, altruistic and self-actualization Based on the pattern identify your natural inclination for the type of creativity Based on your personality and motivation scores, identify the nature of task/job / profession/hobby where you can be naturally creative and build on that

Creative Intelligence
Fluency Flexibility Originality Problem Sensitivity Guessing Causes & Consequences Elaboration Problem Restructuring

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Creative Abilities
Problem sensitivity
Can state difficulties or deficiencies in common products or in social institutions, make judgment that desired goals in a described situation have not been achieved.

Fluency of thinking Word fluency

Able to think well and effortlessly

Can easily state words containing a given letter or combination of letters

Can easily state synonyms for a given word Associational fluency Expressional fluency Can easily write well-formed sentences with a specified content.

Ideational fluency

Can easily produce ideas to fulfill certain requirements, for example to name objects that are hard, white and edible, or to write an appropriate title for a given story.

Creative Abilities contd.

Flexibility of thinking Spontaneous flexibility Adaptive flexibility
Can easily abandon old ways of thinking and adopt new ones. Can produce a great variety of ideas. For example in suggesting uses for a brick, subject can jump among categories, from building material to weight to missile to source of red powder. Can generalize requirements of a problem to find a solution. For example, in a problem of forming squares using a minimum number of lines, can abandon the usual idea that all squares have to be the same size. Comes up with ideas that are statistically unusual

Originality

Remote associations

Forms associations between elements that are remote from each other in time, or remote from each other logically

Creative Abilities contd.

Redefinition / Restructuring Elaboration Causes guessing ability
Which of the following objects could best be used to make a needle: pencil, radish, shoe, fish, carnation? (fish - use bone) Given a general task, fill in the detailed steps. Given two simple lines, draw a more complex object Understand underlying patterns; causes & consequences

Thinking towards one right answer, as in solving a Interest in mathematical problem stated in a textbook convergent thinking Interest in divergent Open-ended thinking, where there is not a single right answer thinking

Problem Sensitivity

Creative Abilities and Problem Solving

Convergent Thinking / Causes Guessing Ability

Problem Restructuring Ability

Fluency Originality Convergent Thinking Elaboration Convergent Thinking

Flexibility

Causes Guessing Ability

Creative Solution

Enhancing Creative Abilities

Sensitivity

Practice Nave Perception Ask Dumb Questions

Cultivate Curiosity Exposure & Experience Play the Role of a Researcher/Anthropologist

Guessing Ability

Abstract facts & work back to causes Theorize, Use Analogy, Metaphors

Identify key operating forces & guess causes Practice Guessing Causes of Everyday Phenomena

Restructuring Ability
Look from different professional viewpoints Ask how would an artist / engineer / doctor / accountant / student / philosopher look at this Ask provocative questions Look for critical data Look for alternative interpretations

Elaboration
Practice extending an ideas implications and ramifications Look for Logical, Functional & Uncommon Linkages Buildup network of ideas Mind Mapping

Fluency

Practice listing before deciding Brainstorm defer evaluation & associate

Practice brainstorm as play individually and with others

Flexibility
Deliberately look for new views/ ideas/ solutions/ perspectives Journalistic Six Checklist of Questions Triggers Free Associations

Originality
Practice associative thinking Remote Associations Shifting Perceptions Look for deeper understanding

Creative Abilities
Fluency Flexibility

Problem Sensitivity Guessing Causes & Consequences Elaboration Problem Restructuring

Originality

Brainstorming Multi perspective thinking Naive perception / Qs Roots & prescriptive thinking Network of ideas Diverse expert thinking All others included

Blocks to Creativity

Blocks & Enablers of Creativity

Resource Myopia Following the rules Seeing play as only frivolous Focusing on just the right answer Being judgmental, critical Fear of failure

Resourcefulness Ability to think outside the rules Playfulness Focus on exploring possibilities Being accepting Ability to accept failure & learn form it

Blocks & Enablers of Creativity

contd.

Discomfort with taking risks Difficulty hearing another perspective or opinion Lack of openness to ideas Political problems and turf battles Avoiding ambiguity

Intelligent risk taking Active listening, acceptance of differences Receptivity to ideas Collaboration, focus on mutual gain Tolerance for ambiguity

Blocks & Enablers of Creativity contd.

Intolerance Lack of flexibility Giving up too soon Worrying too much about what people will think Thinking you are not creative

Tolerance Flexibility Persistence Having an inner focus

Recognizing creative potential in self

Blocks to Creativity

Fear of Failure Allergy to Ambiguity Fear of Humiliation Fear of Social Criticism Resource Myopia Starved Sensibilities Rigidity

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Fear or Allergy to Ambiguity / Uncertainty

Causes
Excessive routinized life Excessive specialization

Symptoms
Tendency to avoid unclear tasks, and complex brain teasing tasks

Uses
Helps in clearing up confusion Prevents from invention, discovery, creation

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Conformity / Fear of Social Criticism

Causes
Excessive social dos and don'ts Severe punishments for deviations

Symptoms
Herd mentality Lack of independent judgment Excessive attachment to traditions

Uses
Necessary for collective existence & acceptance Misses opportunities for growth and self actualization

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Fear of Failure

Causes
Excessive punishment for failure Excessive concern with loss of honor/ face

Symptoms
Tendency to restrict options & actions Restricting to sure of winning situations

Uses
Galvanizes a person for better effort Prevents from taking risks Inhibits from achieving full potential

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Touchiness / Fear of Humiliation

Causes

Symptoms

Being painfully rejected / humiliated in the past leading to low self confidence & low self esteem Aversion to meet strangers, Tendency to seek flatterers, Sticking to same old group, coldness towards threatening persons, excessive shyness For artistic / scientific fields touchiness provides a shield from intruding outsiders A sense of loneliness may direct energy towards creative activities of non-interpersonal type

Uses

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Resource Myopia

Causes
Excessive dependence Excessively sheltered life Lack of experience in dealing with problems

Symptoms
Tendency to get dependent and passive Feeling of helplessness Participating in narrow set of activities

Uses
Inhibits risk taking & divergent thinking

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Rigidity

Causes
Ignorance Deep seated anxiety / conflict

Symptoms
Tendency to stereotype Be dogmatic Fixation with tools, ideas, etc

Uses
Provides protection in turbulent times Impedes growth, experimentation, learning & innovation

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Starved Sensibilities

Causes
Over specialization in activities An ethic of asceticism

Symptoms
Feeling of dullness Inability to feel or experience or imagine richly

Uses
Provides concentration & single mindedness Reduces curiosity & openness, sense of fresh encounter with life

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

Working with Your Scores

Scores above 80 indicate a psychological block Scores above 60 indicate that you need to be aware and work with it Scores 20 and below indicate that you have to be cautious that your life orientation / attitude does not interfere with being effective as a manager

Working with Your Scores

See the pattern in the score and identify how the fears and blocks prevent you from
Taking risks, experimenting, being open minded, learning, etc

Attempt to deblock

DEBLOCKING Blocks to Creativity

Fear of Failure Allergy to Ambiguity Fear of Humiliation Fear of Social Criticism

Awareness Analysis & Diagnosis Desire to unblock Help from a credible source Inoculation Reward Goal setting

Source: Pradip Khandwalla.2001 Lifelong Creativity. Tata McGrawhill :NewDelhi

You see things: you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never are: and say 'Why not?'- George Bernard Shaw All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up Pablo Picasso.

Thank You