Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Why Study Creativity?

According to the International Center for Studies in Creativity, here are the top 12 reasons:

  1. Develop Your Potential Beyond the Boundaries of Intelligence. Expand on your abilities. Develop all of your potential!
  2. Rapid Growth of Competition in Business and Industry. In a world of increasing complexity, change and competition, generating new ideas and bringing them to market is now seen as the central task of corporate management. Successful businesses are the ones that instill creativity throughout the organization.
  3. Effective Use of Human Resources. Creativity is a human resource which exists in all organizations. To survive in today's economy, it is imperative for an organization to nurture the creative potential of its human resources.
  4. Discover New and Better Ways to Solve Problems. More and more, the problems you face are complex and open-ended. Knowledge alone isn't enough to reach innovative solutions. Creative thinking skills are required.
  5. Development of Society. Creativity is a central factor in our ability to continue to adapt to the changing environment. If a nation actively seeks to nurture creativity, it will play a part in making history.
  6. Builds on the Nature of Knowledge. Creativity skills can assist an individual in enhancing his or her knowledge base. Without creative thinking, an individual is condemned to stay within the knowledge base.
  7. Natural Human Phenomenon. Creativity is very democratic! Everyone has some, but to varying levels and degrees. Furthermore, we know this ability can be enhanced.
  8. Important Aspect of Mental Health. Individuals who are capable of incorporating creativity into their lives can enjoy the experience of discovering, developing, and utilizing their many talents. Skills relevant to creativity are also useful in coping with life's challenges. There is no doubt, creative thinking is a critical life skill.
  9. Growing Body of Interest. There is a growing body of literature that represents impressive progress in understanding the nature of creativity. Moreover, there have been a large number of national and international conferences on creativity for over 50 years.
  10. Builds on All Disciplines. Creativity is in all fields-from chemistry to engineering, education to computer science, sociology to business.
  11. Contributes to Effective Leadership. It is the application of creativity skills that distinguishes a manager who maintains the status quo from a leader who supplies a new direction or vision. By internalizing the spirit of creativity and the principles of creative problem solving, an individual can be transformed into a change leader.
  12. Enhance the Process of Learning. The nature of learning requires the use of skills associated with creativity. Educators adopt a creative approach to teaching are more likely to deliver content and create a learning environment that develops higher order thinking skills.
  • What areas of your life or work can you add a dose of creativity to enhance your success?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good looking blog Melanie, let me be the first to chime in!
Item number one here is closest to my heart. I file it under: art for art's sake.
Aside from all of the oft-mentioned practical benefits of creating (and I am focusing on the creation of art here), the nature of abstract and symbolic thought creates possibilities to go beyond intelligence. By "intelligence," I take these folks to mean, beyond the speakable and rational. In this realm lies the knowledge that all, ALL, spiritual traditions hold to be the most high.

Some have posited that creative artists have always been at the forefront of helping humans realize their place in the world, both physical and spiritual.

I think this also emphasizes something you and I know to be true: that everyone has a core of creativity. Whether or not one accepts or recognizes it, creativity is there and can be nurtured.

I know you'll do well nurturing any who ask!


PS. Don't you love those little jumbled words they use to make sure you're logging on properly?!
pblfizj!
tefriknds!
I could write a whole poem with them!

MELANIE said...

Thanks for beginning the dialogue, Jay!

PS I hate when you can't even figure out what the jumbled letters are because there are so many lines and swirls in the background. Sure does test your creative thinking skills trying to decipher them!