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 business life right up to the level or art.
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TIP OF THE DAY: Measuring Creativity
Creativity if often perceived to be intangible, non-measurable and non-usable.
This is incorrect.
Creativity can be easily measured at any one point in time.
By measuring the number of ideas produced, the novelty of those ideas, the diversity of those ideas and the frequency of their production, we can benchmark creative output at any point in time.
But remember, these results are not stable (individuals may perform today but not tomorrow) and they are not transferable (individuals may perform in one domain but not another).
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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
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