| Title | Author | Created | Published | Tags | | ------------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------- | ---------------- | ---------------------- | | Intro to Creativity | <ul><li>Jon Marien</li></ul> | January 17, 2025 | October 17, 2025 | [[#classes\|#classes]] | # Creativity: A Quick Introduction # Creativity – nature or nurture? * What is your definition of creativity? * Tends to be this idea that creativity is an innate talent seen in primarily artists…do you agree? * The reality is much different, with many now identifying creativity as a skill one can learn and develop * Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book _Outliers_ : 10,000 hours * Do you think this concept is accurate, and if so, does it apply to everything? * A 2014 study examined this idea in detail…found that practice is not as important in certain areas. # Creativity as a formula for success * Dr. Ruth Noller, who helped develop creative problem solving, proposed a creativity (C) formula: * C = _f_ a(K,I,E) * Where a is attitude, K is knowledge, I is imagination, and E is evaluation * Attitude then, has its own formula: * _f_ a = V,DP,IM * Where V is vision, DP is deliberate practice, and IM is intrinsic motivation # Creative Problem Solving (CPS) * Four stages to the CPS process: * Clarification * Ideate * Develop * Implement * Link to Scientific Method? # Clarification Clarification involves the preliminary steps of identifying what the true nature of the problem being examined is It includes collecting as much data on the problem/issue as possible It also focuses on emphasizing what the primary goals and objectives are The end result of clarification is hopefully a very clear, precise question to address in the next stage Questions usually begin with something like ‘How might I…’ # Ideate * This stage involves the generation of ideas that could help solve the problem or issue * Ideation has two key phases: * Divergent thinking * Convergent thinking * The idea behind these two phases is to create as many ideas as possible initially, then systematically evaluate and narrow them down * Most popular ideate tool is brainstorming  From: Puccio, Murdock, and Mance (2005). # Divergent Thinking * Four key guidelines when creating ideas in the divergent stage: * Defer Judgement * Go for Quantity * Seek Novelty * Make connections – build upon other ideas * A useful tool to help produce novelty is forced connections # Convergent Thinking * Four key guidelines when narrowing down your ideas in the convergent stage: * Use affirmative judgement * Keep novelty alive * Be deliberate, stay focused * Check your objectives # Development * Once the ideate stage has provided some ideas, the third stage is to evaluate those ideas further * The end goal of the development stage is to find one or two ideas that would provide a valid solution to the problem * A great tool to accomplish this evaluation is POINT: * Pluses * Opportunities for future pluses * Issues * New Thinking to overcome issues # Implementation * The final stage of the CPS process is to put the fully-developed idea into action * Important elements to consider at this stage are the stakeholders involved, namely who may assist with the implementation process but also who may resist * An action plan can sometimes resemble a ‘to do’ list, and assigning individuals or teams to the specific tasks provides greater accountability # Creativity Exercise * In small groups, come up with an idea for a theoretical machine that currently doesn’t exist that ‘solves a problem’. * Then using the modelling clay provided, create a model for a prototype of your machine. * Come up with a description of how it works. * Think about the four stages of CPS… * Your first step will be to determine your problem, Clarification * Be prepared to share your machine with the class.