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Name:
#bCreative Portfolio

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2015 Cyndi Burnett, Julia Figliotti, Kaylene Waite, John Cabra

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Module One: Introduction to Everyday Creativity1

Definition: Human originality at work and leisure across the diverse activities of
everyday life, which is central to human survival and found, to some extent, in
everyone (Richards, 2007).

Create a list of ways that you are creative in day-to-day life. The list can include problems
youve solved, opportunities youve seized, and anything else you can think of. Once youve
done that, highlight one that really stands out to you, one that you think represents who you are
as a creative individual.

I am creative!

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Richards, R. (2007). Everyday creativity and new views of human nature: Psychological, social, and
spiritual perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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Your Definition of Creativity

What is your definition of creativity?

Defer Judgment
Do you defer your judgment? We would like you to take the test! Spend the next 24 hours
monitoring your judgment, and see things from different points of view. Keep your eyes open for
an idea that you dont like or that you love and consciously defer your judgment around it for a
few minutes. Now it is important to realize that you are not agreeing to the idea, you are
simply giving yourself the space to explore all aspects of the idea. Who knows? You might find
something fascinating. And when you are offered something different or unexpected, practice
relaxing, listening, and understanding. Share your experience deferring judgment below.

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Developmental Trajectory of Creativity2

After watching the Developmental Trajectory of Creativity videos, think about your own
creativity, and write about your own examples of each of them in your life.

mini-c creativity: the novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experiences, actions,
and events

little-c creativity: everyday creativity

Pro-C creativity: professional-level creativity

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Kaufman, J.C., & Beghetto, R.A. (2009). Beyond big and little: The four C model of creativity. Review of
General Psychology, 13(1), 1-12.

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Module Two: The Creative Person

Characteristics of a Creative Person3
Here are some of the characteristics associated with creative people. Check off all of the words
that relate to you:

Thorough
Needs alone time
Ethical
Emotional
High energy
Curious
Open-minded
Sense of humor
Risk-taking
Capacity for fantasy
Artistic
Perceptive
Original
Independent
Attracted to complexity/ambiguity
Aware of own creativity

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Davis, G.A. (2004). Creativity is forever (5th ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

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Here are some of the creative people in my life.

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The Big Three Affective Skills4

Tolerate the Ambiguity: the acceptance of vagueness and even thriving in unclear situations.
Tolerate Complexity: staying calm and persevering when large amounts of information, complex
issues, and opposing viewpoints are present.
Openness to Novelty: having a willingness to explore new, strange, or different ideas, actions,
or solutions.

Think about a complex problem you solved. What was involved, and why was it complex? How
did you manage the big three when faced with this problem, and what could you do better next
time?

Play!5 6
Be spontaneous, be expressive, be creative, be fun, and be silly. Lose yourself in play, and find
a more creative you! Post a photo below.

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Puccio, G.J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M.C. (2011) Creative leadership: Skills that drive change (2nd ed.).
Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications
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Brown, S., & Vaughan, C. (2010). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates
the soul. New York, NY: Penguin.
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Diamond, M.C., Krech, D., & Rosenzweig, M.R. (1964). The effects of an enriched environment on the
rat cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 123(1), 111-119.

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Creative Behavior7
The tricycle metaphor helps us to remember a set of creative behaviors so we can freely
encourage them. With these cues in mind, please write notes after each TRYCycle part to
communicate how you have exhibited that aspect of creative behavior in your everyday life.

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Handlebars (curiosity):

Wheels (experimentation, reflection, and incubation):

Pedals (attitude):

Seat (playfulness):

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Uribe, D., & Cabra, J.F. (2014). TRYCycle: Creative behavior. Santiago, Chile: IdeMax.

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The Four Components of Divergent Thinking8 9

What might be all the possible uses for an umbrella?

Please take 4 minutes and generate as many and original ideas as possible. Remember the
divergent thinking guidelines: Defer judgment; Go for quantity; Strive for wild and crazy ideas;
and Seek combinations.

How many ideas did you generate? This is your fluency score.

How many categories can you break your ideas into? This is your flexibility score.

Take a look at the originality worksheet in the supplemental materials section. How many ideas
did you come up with that are not on that list? This is your originality score.

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Guilford, J. P. (1959). Three faces of intellect. American Psychologist, 14(8), 469-479.
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Runco, M. A. (1991). Divergent thinking. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.

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Mindfulness
For a half an hour, explore a city through the website http://www.360cities.net/ and take on the
perspective of a tourist, truly living in the world around you. Take journal notes of the things you
see. Try to imagine what it would feel like being in the streets of Rome or London or any other
city of your choosing.

Then, as you go through your day-to-day activities, look at your own city, as if you were a
tourist, experiencing it for the first time. What new things do you notice?

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Progress10
Make a to-do list for an upcoming project. As you complete each step, cross it off of your list.

Pay close attention to how you feel as you cross items off of your to-do list, and write about it
here.

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Amabile, T.M., & Kramer, S.J. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy,
engagement, and creativity at work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

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Module Three: The Creative Press (Environment)

Take pictures of a space where you feel creative. In particular, make sure you photograph the
aspects of that space that truly bring out your creativity.

Give us a brief description of what really makes that space a creative hub for you!

Culture11
What customs are there in your national, social, or organizational cultures that positively
influence your creative environment?

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Johnson, G. (1990). Managing strategic change: The role of symbolic Action. British Journal of
Management, 1, 183-200.

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The Ten Dimensions of a Creative Climate12

Think about an environment of which you are a part. Rate each of Ekvalls Ten
Dimensions on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high) as they are present in your
environment. Feel free to use the handout from your Readings section for reference.

Idea Time: Please rank

Idea Support: Please rank

Risk-Taking: Please rank

Freedom: Please rank

Dynamism: Please rank

Playfulness/Humor: Please rank

Debate: Please rank

Conflict: Please rank

Challenge: Please rank

Trust/Openness: Please rank

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Ekvall, G., Arvonen, J., & Waldenstrm-Linbald, I. (1983). Creative organizational climate: Construction
and validation of a measuring instrument (Report 2). Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish Council for
Management and Organizational Behaviour.

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Overcoming Barriers
Think about all of the ways that you can improve your creative environment from the previous
assignment. What do you need to do in order to take action?

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Module Four: The Creative Process

Annoyances
Come up with a list of 30 things that annoy you. As you go through your day, keep a notepad
with you and make a list of the little things that bother you. Youll be surprised at how quickly
you reach 30 annoyances.

When youve come up with at least 30 things that annoy you, try to come up with a solution for a
few of them. It doesnt have to be the perfect solution. It can be a far-fetched idea, something
physically impossible or something that would cost millions of dollars. It doesnt have to be
workable.

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Divergent Thinking13
Take five minutes to generate as many ideas as you can for the following challenge: What might
be all the ways to improve a shower? Remember the divergent thinking guidelines: Defer
judgment; Go for quantity; Strive for wild and crazy ideas; and Seek combinations.

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Basadur, M., & Thompson, R. (1986). Usefulness of the ideation principle of extended effort in real
world professional and managerial Creative Problem Solving. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 20(1),
23-34.

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Convergent Thinking
Go back to your divergent exercise from the previous page and copy and paste your ideas onto
this page. Look at your divergent ideas and choose the top ideas that you think have the most
potential. Mark those with a star, smiley face, or asterisk to show that they are hits.

For this exercise, were going to ask you to choose your top five. Remember to Use affirmative
judgment; Be deliberate; Check objectives; Improve upon ideas; and Consider novelty.

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Incubation
Take some time and think about your own creative problem solving process, which you drew for
our previous discussion. Do you see areas where Incubation might fit into your own model? If
so, draw the stage right in! If not dont worry! Incubation might not be obvious in every
problem-solving process, but its always there right in the corner of your mind! Insert your
updated process picture here.

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Clarifying Problems
Copy and paste your list of annoyances from the beginning of this module onto this worksheet.
Using divergent thinking, go through your list of annoyances and phrase them as questions.
Then, using hits, choose your top five annoyances. Which would you be willing to work on for
the remainder of this course?

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Ideation
Go back to the list of your top five annoyances - phrased as questions. Choose one, and
generate ideas on possible inventions that would solve your challenge. Practice using Forced
Connections (When you think about __________, what ideas do you get for solving your
challenge?) and SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Eliminate, Reverse)!14

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Eberle, B. (1984). SCAMPER: Games for imagination and development. D.O.K. Publishers.

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What I See Myself Doing Is (WISMDI) and How/How

Take a large sheet of paper and make a t-chart. On the left side, fill in your goal after the
statement starter WISMDI Then ask yourself, How will I do this? Record those answers on
the right-hand side of the paper. Now, look at each individual answer that you have on the right-
hand side. One at a time, write those on the left-hand side, and ask yourself How will I do this?
Once again, write the answers to your new questions on the right-hand side of the paper. The
cycle, as you will see, continues until there are no more ways to ask How?

Once youve completed the divergent phase using how/how, take some time to converge and
organize your WISMDI statements into short-term, mid-term, and long-term categories.

Lets move forward with this plan of action, developed using the how/how tool. Try to apply
WISMDI to your action plan what do you see yourself doing next? Take a picture of your
How/How chart and WISMDI statement.

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Module Five: The Creative Product

Definitions of a Creative Product

Generate a list of products that you think are creative.

What makes them creative?

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Your Pitch and Prototype15

Write up a pitch for your product proposal. Any type of pitch should grab the attention of the
audience and a great way to do this is by combining relatively unrelated elements and making
new connections that others most likely have not considered.

You may also want to prepare a prototype of your invention. Post a picture of your prototype.

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Warfel, T.Z. (2009). Prototyping: a practitioner's guide. Rosenfeld media.

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Novelty, Utility, and Surprise16

Find some friends, colleagues, or family members and describe your invention to them. When
youve finished explaining it, walk them through the PPCo and invite them to go through the
process with you. With their help, evaluate your invention and dont be afraid to improve upon
it!

Pluses

Potentials (use statement starter, I might, It might, We might)

Concerns (phrase concerns, How to, How might I, What might be all the ways)

overcoming key concerns (select one or two how to statements, and generate ways to
overcome it)

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Simonton, D.K. (2012). Taking the US Patent Office criteria seriously: A quantitative three-criterion
creativity definition and its implications. Creativity Research Journal, 24(2-3), 97-106.

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