Creativity is discussed with special attention to organizational management.

1. Muhammad Abdul Monem 1

2. Introduction to Creativity
• Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into
reality.
• Creativity is characterized by the ability
• to perceive the world in new ways,
• to find hidden patterns,
• to make connections between seemingly unrelated
phenomena,
• and to generate solutions.
• Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing.
• If you have ideas but don't act on them, you are imaginative but
not creative.
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3. Quotation - 1
“Creativity is the process of bringing something new
into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment.
It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden
and points to new life. The experience is one of
heightened consciousness: ecstasy.”
– Rollo May, The Courage to Create
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4. Quotation - 2
“A product is creative when it is (a) novel and (b)
appropriate. A novel product is original not predictable.
The bigger the concept, and the more the product
stimulates further work and ideas, the more the
product is creative.”
— Sternberg & Lubart, Defying the Crowd
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5. Definition
Stein (1953) maintains that
creativity
• is a process
• that results in novelty
• which is accepted as useful, tenable, or satisfying
• by a significant group of others
• at some point in time.
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6. Stein once again
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by
SIGNIFICANT
OTHERS
AT SOME POINT OF
considered
USEFUL
SATISFYING
TANABLE
CREATESIS

7. In easy words…
• The result of using the imagination rather than routine skills
• The capacity which each of us has to imagine new and
useful solutions to problems
• A drive to see things other than they seem
• Lateral thinking (Edward de Bono)
“When a low probability line of thought leads to an effective
idea, there is a ‘Eureka’ moment and at once the low-
probability approach acquires the highest probability”
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8. We have two brains: Left & Right
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9. Both are required
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10. Creativity & Development
We are living in the age of creativity. Daniel Pink in his book,
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
defines Economic Development as:
1. Agriculture Age (farmers)
2. Industrial Age (factory workers)
3. Information Age (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)
Economic development is closely linked with “Office
Management”. We need creators and empathizers here too.
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11. Mr. Pink points out...
• Left-brain linear, analytical computer-like thinking is being
replaced by right-brain empathy, inventiveness, and
understanding as skills most needed by business.
• In other words, creativity gives you a competitive advantage
by creating value to your service or product and
differentiating your business from the competition.
• Without creativity, you are doomed to compete in
commodity hell!
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12. Process of Creativity: Koestler
• Arthur Koestler’s 1964 anatomy of creativity, The Act Of
Creation.
• Koestler coins the term bisociation to illustrate the
combinatorial nature of creativity.
• He identifies creativity as “the bringing together of two
previously unrelated planes of thought.”
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13. Bisociation
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14. Process of Creativity: Boden
• new combinations of familiar ideascombinational
• generation of new ideas by the
exploration of structured concepts
exploratory
• transformation of some dimension
of the structure
transformational
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15. Incubation as Creative Process
• Incubation is a temporary break from creative problem
solving that can result in insight.
• A period of interruption or rest from a problem may aid
creative problem-solving.
• Incubation aids creative problem-solving as it enables
“forgetting” of misleading clues.
• Absence of incubation may lead the problem solver to
become fixated on inappropriate strategies of solving the
problem.
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16. Role of Creativity in Organizational Growth
• Service value creation.
• Service simplification.
• Work/operation standardization.
• Increasing ease for employees.
• Reducing wastages.
• Improving service quality.
• Improving process efficiency.
• Improving environment and safety.
• Solving problems.
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17. Four C Model of Creativity
• Dr. James C. Kaufman and Dr. Ronald Beghetto have
identified four developmental levels of creativity.
• Mini C
• Little C
• Pro C
• Big C
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18. The mini-c level of creativity
• Creativity is inherent in learning. Any time one attempts a
new task, there is a level of creativity involved. At the mini-c
level of creativity, what one creates might not be
revolutionary but it is new and meaningful to them.
• Example: Jacob brings home his first painting from school. It
is his first attempt to be appropriate to the task and it is new
and meaningful to him.
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19. The little-c level of creativity
• The little-c level of creativity reflects an aspect of growth
from the mini-c level. With appropriate feedback,
advancements are made and what was created might be of
value to others.
• Example: Jacob’s parents love the new painting Jacob
brought home today. They place it on the refrigerator
because they think it is good and they get enjoyment out of
seeing it. It’s on its way to becoming art.
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20. The Pro-c level of creativity
• At this level, one has the ability to be creative at a professional
level and in a professional venue. At this point, one would have
had many years of deliberate practice and training. Not everyone
at the Pro-c level can make a living with their creative pursuit;
however, it is generally the goal of those at this level to support
themselves doing something they love.
• Example: Jacob majored in art in college and his pictures now
hang in galleries. His paintings are recognized by art experts and
critics as being creative. His paintings hang in the homes of
others—not just his friends and family, but people who do not
know Jacob personally but who appreciate and are moved by his
art.
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21. The Big-C level of creativity
• Those at the Big-C level will be remembered in the history
books. The Big-C level includes an evaluation of one’s entire
career and entire body of work and then evaluates the
entire body of work against other great contributors and
decides where one fits in.
• Example: Over the years, Jacob’s paintings have been
bought by people who have tremendous collections of
artwork. His paintings hang in famous galleries and are
regularly discussed by experts. Decades from now, Jacob will
be considered one of the greatest artists of all time.
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22. What we learn from “Four C”
• Nurturing creativity is an essential piece of the office
improvement process.
• Creativity is a process that happens throughout our lifetime.
• A small child and a grown adult can both be creative.
• Likewise, we need to recognize and find value in creativity at
all levels of our employees.
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23. As Dr. Kaufman points out…
• Now, more than ever, creativity is essential.
• We need to have these innovative ideas.
• We need to enable cooperation and communication, and
the sharing of these creative ideas.
• Once we start limiting creativity, we start limiting
everything.
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24. 7 Elements of Creativity
COGNITIVE
1. Imagination and Originality
2. Flexibility
3. Decision Making
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL
4. Communication and Self-Expression
5. Motivation
6. Collaboration
PHYSICAL
7. Action and Movement
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25. Imagination & Originality
Imagine and explore original ideas
• Creativity Involves producing original ideas:
unusual or novel.
• It sometimes involves
• combining two or more different concepts,
• to create a new, synthesized idea.
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26. Flexibility
Maintain openness to
unique and novel experiences
• Flexible combination of prior concepts
to produce new representation.
• Seeing from different perspectives.
• Remaining open to new and challenging experiences.
• Gaining awareness of how only seeing from a single
perspective can limit creativity.
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27. Decision Making
Make thoughtful choices
that support creative efforts
• Discretion, judgment and decision
making play an important role in
development of creativity.
• Decision-making skills require convergent thinking.
• It allows to refine ideas and select the best possible answer
from ideas generated to solve problem.
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28. Communication & Self-Expression
Communicate ideas and
true self with confidence
• Communicating one’s unique perspective
plays a vital role in creativity by allowing
individuals
• to express their feelings, ideas and desires,
• through language, art and physical movement.
• A sense of confidence and connection to authentic feelings
allows to express one’s unique insights and thoughts with
others.
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29. Motivation
Demonstrate internal motivation
to achieve a meaningful goal
• Motivation is at the core drive of
developmental experience.
• It inspires individuals to explore and to be curious.
• When internally motivated, acting without the promise of a
reward, one becomes more creative.
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30. Collaboration
Develop social skills
that foster creativity teamwork
• Collaboration allows for exchange of ideas.
• It helps finding for a problem.
• Working together towards a shared goal fosters perspective
taking and provides to explain and expand thinking of new
ways.
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31. Action & Movement
Boost creative potential
through physical activity
• Exercise and physical activity are
associated with
• Better focus,
• Enhanced memory,
• Greater ability to learn.
• It stimulates building blocks of learning in the brain.
• Regular exercise can act as a cognitive enhancer to promote
creativity.
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32. Other Elements
• Fluency – Fluency means the ability to provide ideas in volumes.
It means having lots of ideas, but the ideas may not be
necessarily unusual. Creativity is not a one-time or isolated
activity. Creativity is somewhat regular activity. Chance or
accidental discovery of new idea does not mean creativity.
• Awareness – Imagination to perceive connections and
possibilities beyond obvious.
• Value or appropriateness or usefulness – It should have some
value according to some external criteria. It should have some
useful application.
• Capable of being reduced to practice – It must be more than just
an idea and feasible of being reduced into prcatice
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33. Creativity at workplace
• Is it possible at workplaces?
• Can ordinary employees be creative?
• We should believe so.
• But we have to be willing to take risks.
• And we have to be pro-active in taking initiatives.
• Finally, we must progress through discomfort to get to the
finish line.
• Creativity is the Most Crucial Factor for Future Success.
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34. Creativity and Problem Solving
• Creative thinking involves seeking answers to questions or
problems.
• Open-ended questions are very helpful for idea generation
as these elicit a wide range of answers.
• Some of these open-ended questions are:
 “Why” questions to discover the roots of the problem
 “How” questions to discover different routes to significant
improvement
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35. Innovation
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Creative
idea
Product/
Service
Process
Customers/
Subscribers
Value
creation
Innovation is the
process of translating
an idea or invention
into a good or service
that creates value or for
which customers will
pay.

36. Creativity Vs Innovation
• There’s a lot of confusion surrounding creativity and
innovation.
• The main difference between creativity and innovation is
the focus.
• Creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to
conceive new ideas and putting them into reality.
• Creativity is subjective, making it hard to measure.
• Innovation, on the other hand, is related to introducing
something better into the market.
• Innovation is objective and so is completely measurable.
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37. The Relation
• Creativity is important in today’s business world, but it’s
really only the beginning.
• Creativity and innovation are normally complementary
activities.
• Creativity generates the basis of innovation.
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INNOVATION = CREATIVITY +
COMMERCIALIZATION

38. In workplaces…
• We all are creative too.
• We just need to shift our creativity from “self-interest” to
“peoples-interest.”
• If my eyes are stuck with myself, my people will die,
and I will die with my people.
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39. Can Creativity be Learned?
• The short answer is yes.
• A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally
creative and as we grow up we learn to be uncreative.
• Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that
can be managed.
• Creativity is not a fixed quantity, but a renewable resource
that can be improved and nurtured by optimizing
environment that allowes people’s creative potentials to
unleash and blossom.
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40. How?
• Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a
discipline, and mastering a way of thinking.
• You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring,
questioning assumptions, using imagination and
synthesizing information.
• Learning to be creative is akin to learning a sport.
• It requires practice to develop the right muscles and a
supportive environment in which to flourish.
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41. The Innovators DNA
Studies by Clayton M. Christensen and his researchers uncovered
The Innovators DNA: Your ability to generate innovative ideas is not
merely a function of the mind, but also a function of five key
behaviors that optimize your brain for discovery:
1. Associating: drawing connections between questions,
problems, or ideas from unrelated fields
2. Questioning: posing queries that challenge common wisdom
3. Observing: scrutinizing the behavior of customers, suppliers,
and competitors to identify new ways of doing things
4. Networking: meeting people with different ideas and
perspectives
5. Experimenting: constructing interactive experiences and
provoking unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge
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42. Overcome myths about creativity
• Beliefs that only special, talented people are creative (and
you have to be born that way) diminish your confidence in
your creative abilities.
• The notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Picasso, and
Mozart were “gifted” is a myth according to a study at
Exeter University.
• The widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a
person must possess an innate potential called “talent” is
not factual.
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43. Excellence is determined by
• Opportunities
• Encouragement
• Training
• Motivation
• Discipline
• Most of all, Practice.
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44. Fostering Creativity at Work
• Believe you can change the world.
• Believe that together we can do anything.
• Trust and respect your colleagues.
• No groupism. Full collaboration. Be inclusive – no one
should be left outside.
• Radical ideas are not bad ideas. Share ideas. Be inclusive –
receive other’s ideas with attention and appreciation.
• Invent different ways of working.
• The subscriber defines the quality of a job.
• Make a contribution every day.
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45. What Kills Creativity?
• Lack of freedom of expression.
• Fear of dissent and contradiction.
• High degree of orthodoxy.
• Uncompromising adherence to traditions.
• Autocratic functioning of management.
• Lack of respect for individual initiatives.
• Intolerance for honest mistakes.
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46. Creativity Dies as We Grow
• One’s own thought process, attitudes and approaches can
kill his/her creativity.
• Children are naturally creative.
• We become less creative as we gradually learn and become
older.
• From 0 to 5 years of age – we focus on learning “WHY.”
• From 6 to teen age – we try to find out “WHY NOT” i.e. why
not pursue alternate or different ways?
• From adulthood to death – we are guided by “BECAUSE”, i.e.
by our past experiences which leads to stifling of creativity.
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47. We Die at 25
• We gradually develop habits and routines in our actions and
thinking, i.e. we become stereotyped as we grow older.
• Many a times, we are too anxious to get the “right” answer and in
the process we restrict our vision.
• Sometimes, we are too willing to reject so called “bad” ideas
because of our risk- averse attitude.
• Sometimes, we do not have the positive attitude to believe that a
better or alternate solution exists.
• As we grow older, we stop exploring discovery questions –
what if, why not, how etc.
• We may die at the age of 25 and our funeral may take place long
after the death.
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48. Sources
Nothing original from my part is in this presentation. In all most all
of places, I just copied and pasted texts from various sources. These
sources are:
• Creativity at Work
• The Four C Model of Creativity
• Inspiring a Generation to Create: Critical Components of
Creativity in Children
• Brain Pickings
• Creative Manager’s Pocketbook by John Townsend & Jacques
Favier
• Creativity Process - Presentation prepared by Dr. Vijay Kr Khurana
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50. Muhammad Abdul Monem 50