Creative People...

1. Get bored easily

2. Have busy minds

3. Like to take risks

4. Are driven by their intuition

5. Are willing to make mistakes

6. Question the rules

7. Are independent thinkers

8. Are viewed as being a bit eccentric

9. Frequently change their mind.

10. Dream big. 

TJ

10 Traits that Lead to Success

1. Independence

2. Self-confidence

3. Persistence

4. Creative thinking

5. Being thick skinned

6. Knowing who you are and what you want from life

7. Setting clear goals – and going after them 

8. Staying focused

9. Optimism

10. Passion for life.

t

The Creative Process - Divergence and Convergence

In creative work, there are two modes of thinking that we use that are very different, but are both very useful for different parts of the process.

Divergence

Divergence is the process of thinking broadly, of expanding one's mind, of going places where one does not normally go. In fact it is very much what most people think about when they consider creativity.

Social variation

Divergent thinking is very important in creativity as the process whereby ideas are generated. Although everyone can do it, some take to it more easily and find idea creation (sometimes called ideation) both natural and fun.
For others, it is something more of an effort, both to create the ideas and also to get over the internal blocks that prevent them from telling others about their half-formed ideas.
The fear of social punishment and ridicule keeps many from even admitting to themselves that they could be good at divergent thinking.

Quantity first

Divergent ideation creates a constant flow of ideas, no matter how good or bad they are (and without even a thought about this), with the knowledge that they will be sorted out in the subsequent convergent activity.

Convergence

When you have created a big pile of ideas, the creative activity does not stop there. The next stage, which can be very difficult, seeks to thin down the idea set into a very small set of ideas (maybe one) that will be taken forward for further development.

Judgement and Selection

This approach requires skills of selection, evaluation and judgement to whittle down the list to the most useful ideas. In this process, there can be argument and debate about the true potential of ideas.

Retaining creative seeds

A danger here is that the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater, as good ideas are thrown out with the bad. It is important here to keep a balance, and the divergent thinkers have an important task to challenge the ejection of any ideas that may have serious potential.

Keeping them separate

Have you ever been in a thinking session (creative or otherwise) and seen two groups of people crossing swords, where one group are constantly trying to keep the exploration open, whilst the other group is trying to come to a closure point and get a decision made? Maybe you were in one of these two groups.

The dangers of simultaneity

Divergent and convergent activities do not go well together, and keeping them deliberately separate is a very good idea. Thus you can explain the principles to people you will then be able to use the language, saying 'excuse me, I hear convergence' if someone starts criticising ideas in the middle of a divergent session.
Likewise in convergent sessions, further divergence needs to be carefully managed. It is, however, more important to keep convergence out of divergent activities, as people easily take criticism of one of their ideas personally and may just clam up and sit back if they feel this has happened.

How to keep them separate

Separation can be achieve in several ways. You can separate the sessions by having one after the other (this is most common).
You can also separate them further in time (eg. to give space for more ideas to be generated by incubation first).
You can have different groups of people diverging and converging.
You can change location for each - for example having the divergent session in a relaxed lounge and the convergent session in a formal meeting room.

Sequencing them

Divergence and convergence are not a one-shot thing in serious creativity and invention practices. They constantly sequence, one after the other and form a matched pair of activities that enable you to both think broadly and also stay focused.
Thus you may diverge and converge in problem identification, idea exploration, product development, market planning, etc.




Quidquid agis, prudenter agas, et respice finem!
"Whatever you do, may you do it prudently, and look to the end!"

T

10 Traits that Lead to Success

1. Independence

2. Self-confidence

3. Persistence

4. Creative thinking

5. Being thick skinned

6. Knowing who you are and what you want from life

7. Setting clear goals – and going after them

8. Staying focused

9. Optimism

10. Passion and a zest for life.

t

The Myth of UnCreativity

There is a myth about creativity that it is all about genius and talent. Certainly, there is no smoke without fire, and some people do have a particular bent for it, but the reality is that we all have far more capability to be creative than we realize.

When we were children, we were more creative than our parents and teachers could handle. We thus learned not to be creative, and most of our lessons were structured and controlled, and the lessons were so effective for many of us, we were left with the belief that we were never creative and could never be creative.

The patterns of non-creativity often carry on as we grow older and we get stuck in habits and 'I am not creative' goes from being an excuse to a description the mental ruts into which we fall.

Learning to think

Just as we can learn to swim, so also can we learn to think. People such as Edward de Bono have put significant effort into teaching thinking as an acquired skill. Socrates did it many years ago. He would answer a question with another question, forcing his disciples, including Plato and Aristotle, to think for themselves.

A simple way you can do this is to buy puzzle books, especially those that include tricky and lateral thinking games. Crosswords are another mind-bender that can help you climb out of your rut. You can also vary the method – working on jigsaw puzzles, for example, helps your visualization.

Another variant is to sign up for a class where you will have to think outside your normal patterns of thought. If you are a scientist, take an arts class. If you are an artist, study philosophy. You can also do these in your spare time. Books cost pennies and contain gold dust and gems.

Learning by doing

The army uses a term: 'muscle memory'. When you go on a long march, your muscles seem to remember how to march a long way and months later a similar march is nowhere near as hard. The same is true with creativity. Once you have opened the gates and got stuck into some really hard creative work (it is a myth that it is all fun and easy).

Get engaged in any creative activity you can. Offer yourself as an out-of-the-box thinker for other people's brainstorming sessions. Paint, sculpt or take photographs. Climb mountains and shout from the hilltops.

Do things to break your own paradigms. Wear different clothes. Get a different haircut. Enter for creative competitions. Read things you wouldn't normally read. Step outside the box and push the boundaries to expand your comfort zone.

Practice, practice

The secret is to keep on going with as many different things as your brain can take. Go on different holidays. Take up different hobbies. Drive to work by different routes.

Build yourself a regular schedule of practicing creativity. Just like going to the gym, spend quality time in practice. Plan the activities and exercises you will do, as well as the ways you will use it to enhance your life.

Many people have found simple, but valuable ideas that they have turned into profitable businesses. Do you think you could not do that? What is stopping you?

Keep generating ideas. Look around you for problems to solve. There are many opportunities all around you, right now. Look at the issues you and others are facing. Look at the little difficulties, from unscrewing a tight lid in the kitchen to lifting heavy items out of the car.

Practice may not make perfect, but it will make you a whole lot better at creativity.

T

“Inter caecos regnat strabo”
Among blind people the squinting one rules.

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Thinking About What Is Not There (Creativity 101)

Think about what you are thinking about, and then think about what you are not thinking about.

When you are looking at something (or otherwise sensing), notice what is not there.

Watch people and notice what they do not do.

Make lists of things to remember that you normally forget.

In other words, deliberately and carefully think about what is not there.

 

An artist draws the spaces between things.

A market manager for a furniture wonders about product areas where customers have made no comment. She watches them using tables and notes that they leave the tables out when not using them. She invents a table that can be easily be folded and stored.

The psychology of thought is such that we are very good at seeing what is there, but not at all good at seeing what is not there. Thinking about what is not there compensates for this by deliberately forcing us to do what we do not naturally do.

 Ab amicis honesta petamus
"One should only ask from a friend what he is capable of." 

*T