================== Creativity -- Inspirational Messages ================= by M.D. Smith -- Huntsville, AL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "CREATIVITY IS THE SPARK OF LIFE AND IMAGINATION, BUT IT HAS TO BE CULTIVATED." It's just like growing a garden. You have to continually chop out the weeds, attend to the sprouts, add nutrients, and see that the garden gets enough sun and water. We all have more creativity than we believe we have. What we have to do is practice drawing it out and using it, as well as the creativity of others. Take the self evaluation quiz and see how to do it. If you are not satisfied with your creativity skills and would like to improve them, print out the questionnaire and work on improving all 20 items. When you feel that you are doing more of them and more often, retake the questionnaire. If you can raise your average by 20 points or more, you will be a far more creative person/manager. Remember, these are skill areas that take practice to become automatic. When they do, your creativity will seem easy. Criticism and fear of failure are the two "WET BLANKETS" of Creativity. One of the best ways to nurture the creativity of others as well as our own, is to remove all hints of criticism of new and different ideas. You have to emphatically encourage thinking outside of the traditional and normal in order to get creativity flowing. The best AND most practical ideas will come after the wildest and most outrageous suggestions. BRAINSTORM ! ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ "YOU CAN'T BE CREATIVE IF YOU INCLUDE WHY IT WON'T WORK IN YOUR THINKING !" M.D. Smith Before you can be creative, you have to put logic in a dark closet to rest. Nothing will stifle the buds of creativity faster than judgmental comments. As soon as any comment is made why this might not be such a good idea or why it might not work, you might just as well turn off the faucet of creativity. Creativity must flow freely. It must be encouraged, coaxed, primed and all the potential roadblocks moved out of the way. You can use your judgmental logic AFTER all the creative thinking and input is finished. Just don't try to do both at the same time. It won't work. Creativity is like a deer, it will run for cover and you'll see it no more if the `JUDGE' comes out. "LOGIC WILL STIFLE CREATIVITY." ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ From the book ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES compiled by Paul Reps, comes this story: "Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about ZEN. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" Your `mental' cup can be full of experience, things that don't work or were tried once before. But unless you EMPTY your mental cup of all these notions you will never be open to receive the new ideas from creative thought. So the next time you or a subordinate is about to blurt out why something is not a good idea, remember this story and say, "How can I show you CREATIVITY unless you first empty your cup?" ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ "IT WAS TURNED INSIDE OUT WITH THE OUTSIDE FACING IN!" Paradox #324 Yes, think about that. A paradox is two statements, usually opposites, in the same sentence. It causes you to think. Often it can not be explained because the two statements are impossible...or are they? While you are trying to figure out how it can be, you are using creativity because you are jolted out of your normal thought patterns. A Moebius strip is a strip of paper with only one side and one edge. You take a strip of paper and make a loop out of it. Just before you connect the ends, you give one a half turn, then attach them. If you follow one side with a pencil, you will come back to the beginning, but you will have traced a line on `both' sides. A three dimensional Moebius is like an inside-out gourd. If you want to be more creative, force yourself to tease your brain and try to make the impossible thoughts possible. After a while, put your efforts on the subject or problem you wish to get some creative thoughts about. You will be surprised with the results. "BELIEVE YOU ARE CREATIVE AND YOU WILL BE." ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ "Connect the 9 circles with 4 straight lines without lifting your pencil. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Try to solve it before looking at the answer ...... ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ x2 0 0 x5 0 0 0 1x4 0 0 x3 Draw from point 1 all the way up to x2, then diagonally to x3, then back to point 1 again, (actually point x4) then up diagonally to x5 and all points are connected. Solution requires creative thinking, OUT OF THE CONFINES OF THE BOX. ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ "CONFORMITY OR NOT " Have you ever seen a bunch of people on the street looking up at something? You look up. You see nothing. But they keep looking, so you keep looking too, thinking you must have missed seeing something important. Or think about this. A man goes into a foot doctor's office and sees that everyone is sitting with their shoes off, and holding them in their hand. So in a short period of time, the newcomer takes off his shoes and puts them in his hand. No one told him to do it. He just assumed that the group must know what it is doing, so he follows the same line of thinking and conduct. ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ For the most part, we are all conformist. We do pretty much what is expected of us. Our thinking follows much the same conformist patterns. To be creative, we have to actively think and sometimes behave, in an unconventional, nonconformist way. When a group member comes up with a single, good idea, we must not echo approval along with the rest of the group. Instead, in a nonconforming way, we should seek more and different solutions that MIGHT be better. Even if they are not, we need to use the creativity of the nonconformist to think differently from different perspectives when being CREATIVE." ------------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------ "If NECESSITY is the MOTHER of invention, then CREATIVE FUN is the MISTRESS of invention." There are two ways to be creative and invent new things and/or new solutions. The first is when the chips are down, the deadline is here and you have GOT to come up with an idea. At that point, you often do. Not much fun, but you do it. The flip side of being inventive (creative) is having fun, being a little wild and crazy. Think of ideas that defy the Laws of Physics and Nature. They may not work, but the ideas that will come after that may be the perfect one for a better mousetrap or safety pin. Use both methods. Let deadlines occasionally FORCE you to be creative. Then use leisure and fun times to be creative. You decide which works best for you. *********************************[ end of messages ]**********************