Creativity Tip 13 – What’s needed to develop creativity?
One of the most exciting findings about creativity is that it may be picked up at
almost any stage of the life cycle and developed. The single most effective means
for developing creativity is often the hardest for adults: taking the time to create
something as often as possible, while allowing yourself to make mistakes and trying
things that may fail miserably.
But what are the characteristics that signal creativity? It’s generally accepted
the following are some of the good indicators:
Intense absorption
Curiosity
Ability to put together seemingly unrelated things or ideas
Sense of humour
Unusual vocabulary
Eagerness to share new discoveries
Spontaneity
Willingness to consider new ideas.
Creativity can sometimes involve jumping from idea to idea very quickly and/or need
an interest in ongoing experimentation which requires a longer time to pursue in
depth. Experimentation involves finding out what happens if you do X. Then perhaps
what happens if you do X but add Y? Is it better that way? Would it still be better
or worse if you added Z? Or is there a better way altogether, that doesn't involve
X at all?
Creativity requires fluency and flexibility of thinking and an ability to ask surprising
questions. Developing a new idea often requires stepping out of the mainstream and
maintaining excitement about new solutions and ideas even whilst ‘going against the
grain’.
Balancing Analytic, Synthetic, and Practical Abilities
Synthetic ability is the ability to generate novel and interesting ideas. i.e. making
connections between things that others don't recognise spontaneously.
Analytic ability is a critical thinking ability. A person with this skill analyses
and evaluates ideas. The most creative person has many many ideas, some of which
are more useful than others. Without well-developed analytic ability, the creative
thinker is as likely to pursue bad ideas as to pursue good ones. The creative individual
uses analytic ability to work out the implications of a creative idea and to test
it.
Practical ability is the ability to translate theory into practice and abstract ideas
into practical accomplishments. The creative person uses practical ability to convince
other people that an idea is worthy. For example, every organization has a set of
ideas that dictate how things should be done. To propose a new procedure you must
sell it by convincing others that it is better than the old one. Practical ability
is also used to recognise ideas that have a potential audience.
