I recently gave a presentation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design on a topic entitled "Is creativity management an oxymoron?"
The essential confusion to people resistant to the idea of "creativity management" was the word "management." Replace it with the word "optimization" and the resistance disappears; all we're really trying to do is optimize the quality of the idea pool and optimize the implementation process.
Then you can suggest that most people already implicitly accept the idea of creativity management: if you ask them to solve a problem or engage in a particular endeavour, one of the things they're likely to do is herd people into a room with a flip chart and conduct some sort of brainstorming session and implicit in that action is the acceptance that certain methods, processes and procedures enhance creative output.
Then you can begin discussing how to improve the enormous amount of creative output people generate, from problem solving in everyday business life right up to the level or art.
***
TIP OF THE DAY: MOTIVATION
Motivation in creativity and innovation is more important than personality traits. This is like possessing high intelligence – one must be motivated to improve and apply it.
Moreover, motivation and creative output are positively correlated. The more motivated an individual, the more likely he or she is to engage in the task at various cognitive levels until an outcome is achieved.
Motivation factors include:
a) The gap between the person's ideal and real self. If an individual perceives that he is not what he wishes to be, he is more likely to be motivated to engage in activities that bring him closer to his ideal self.
b) The perceived enjoyability of the task. Terms such as "fun," "amusing," "fascinating" and "inspiring" are common.
c) The degree of challenge. The more a task is perceived as challenging and competency expanding, the more the intrinsic motivation.
d) Feasibility. If a task is perceived to be unreachable, intrinsic motivation decreases.
e) Control of ones destiny. If an individual perceives that a task is not under his control, then intrinsic motivation decreases.
f) Recognition is noted by many to be a powerful driver of task engagement.
***
If you haven't already done so, you can buy the MBA Research Project on Managing Creativity and Innovation, DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator software and the 50 slide Powerpoint Presentation from http://www.managing-creativity.com
Best
http://www.managing-creativity.com
_________
