Creative Streak

Characteristics of the Creative Individual

The confluence of three events – the month-long summer holiday, a broken toe, and the imminent move to a new office – meant I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I could take my time packing boxes. (Why can’t all moves be this stress-less?)

While packing the bookcase last night, I found myself sitting back to re-read one of my favourite books on creativity – Creative Thinking in the Decision and Management Sciences, by James R. Evans. (Not an easy book to find, but see details below.) While much of the book focuses on the role of creativity in quality management, it's also an excellent 'textbooks' on creative thinking.

Here's an example: Evans' characteristics of the creative individual.

1. Awareness and sensitivity to problems. Notices things others do not. Knows that nothing is perfect and that everything can be improved upon. Recognises that a problem exists or can cut through details and misleading facts to find the real problem.

2. Memory. Has good memories, and displays remarkable powers of recall. Good retention and retrieval of information. The individual has a memory bank of life’s experiences to be able to recall them for creative’s sake.

3. Fluency. Can generate a large number of ideas easily. Can judge an excellent idea by seeing it in context with mediocre ideas.

Nothing is Original?

In her post last December, Nancy King published this piece of art "in defense of bloggers," but it's just as applicable to creativity.

The act of “combining” (which I jokingly refer to as “combinotics”) is an essential element of creative thought. To merge your need, problem or issue with another an unrelated idea, concept, notion. I love too the quote from Goddard: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

Check out Nancy's great website - See Change Happen - focusing on design, advertising and social change.

Best Books on Creativity

There's nothing like a thriving conversation on LinkedIn to inspire you to research a topic further. Well, it also helps to break two toes over the holidays so your activities are curtailed to sitting much of your day in your home office.

Anyway, I'm a member of the Outside the Box Thinkers group on LinkedIn, and Francois Lavallee of Aliter Concept in Montreal, Canada, asked for suggestions to start a collection of books on creativity. With a couple of days, he had some excellent suggestions. It prompted to me to think about what books on creativity I like.

Of course, any list of "Best of ..." is contentious by its very nature. There are a lot of great books on creativity and innovation, both from an artistic/personal and a business perspective. However, of the 200+ books I've amassed in my career, I ultimately chose just a few books, based on just one criteria. Did I use the book again as a reference after the first reading?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on other books that you've considered, or even take a suggestion to re-read another book that you've particularly found helpful or insightful.

• 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving, by Arthur (Andy) B,. VanGundy © 2005 – Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (ISBN 0-7879-7402-1)

• 101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques: The Handbook of New Ideas for Business, by James M. Higgins © 2005 – Published by New Management Publishing Company (ISBN 1-883629-00-4)

• The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self, by Julia Cameron © 1994 by Souvenir Press (ISBN 0-330-34358-0)

The Best Writing Tips for Business

When I taught a class in public relations at Columbia College in Chicago (circa 1987), a colleague shared with me Frank Visco’s original list of tips for good writing, entitled How to Write Good.

Over the years, I read additional points. Similar lists began to surface. I threw everything in a folder until last month, when I culled the list for a Business Writing workshop for a client in Melbourne.

I'm a clearly a word geek. This list always makes me chuckle.

• A writer should not shift your point of view.
• Alors!  Why use words from another language?
• Always avoid alliteration.
• Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
• As you know, don’t repeat what the audience already understands.
• Avoid &s and abbrev., etc.
• Avoid clichés like the plague. They’re old hat.
• Be careful of commas, that, are not, necessary.
• Be more or less specific.
• Choose words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
• Do not use hyperbole.  Only one in a million can do it effectively.

What If They Say It's Not Creative?

In the last post (here), I listed the five most common responses I get when presenting idea - but left out the most difficult client response to answer:  "That's not creative."

How do you refute a response based entirely on the abstract? Unlike flour, blood pressure, earthquakes, synesthesia and waist lines, there's no known measurement of creativity.

Yet, people understand that every idea has some level of creativity, but it's difficult – perhaps impossible – to quantify how much or how little.

A different solution to presenting ideas is to show several ideas together, putting them in context from one another with a tool I call the Creative Speedometer.

Ideas are placed on a spectrum from simple and safe on the left side, to wild and heart-stopping and on the right side.

Before you unveil any specific idea, show your client the Speedometer and explain the creative continuum from mild to wild. Then, ask the client to select any idea among all positioned in the Speedometer. It not only suggests a range of creativity, it's a great psychological tool, because you learn a lot about your client by which idea they select first.

The tool's also is infinitely adaptable. For a pitch to a global restaurant chain, we changed the Speedometer to an oven dial. When he presented publicity ideas to launch a new hair dye for women, it became the broadness of her husband's smile. For a government tender, we used the size of a crowd - their constituents - who turned up to vote.

What are some other ideas you've used to address someone's response that "It's not creative"?