Objectives:
- The learners will be able to explore the relationship between creativity, ideas generation and problem solving
- They will individually and in groups explore the characteristics of creative persons and creative occupations and they will discuss what stops us being creative
- The group exercise will evidence the effects of 'Unleashing the Power of Routine Activity' as more ideas are created when the brain is occupied by activities that are enacted automatically, without even thinking about them.
Overview:
This activity focuses on how the audience perceive creativity as individuals and establishes a qualitative estimate on how creative each individual in the groups feels they are.
It proceeds with individuals choosing and listing their top 5 creative persons and top 5 creative professions. The names and professions put forward are collated and then act as a focal point for discussing any common traits for creativity that emerge. These traits should be identified as broadly as possible and the links made that everyone will have some of these traits, supporting the proposition that we all are creative in different ways and this brings into focus what stops people from being creative.
The class is then split into groups of 4-6 and goes through an exercise that connects idea generation and creativity.
Finally, the session is brought to its conclusion through comparing the traditional problem solving and creative problem solving approaches.
Activity:
- Ideally this session becomes more exciting and interactive if there is the possibility of interactivity (wifi enabled) between the audience and the person delivering the session, although good old paper and pencil will do the job.
- The activity can be tailored to a 50 minute or a double session, depending on what needs to be achieved, i.e. ideas generation and creativity only (50 minutes) or Idea generation and Creative Problem Solving (double session).
- The session opens with the question of 'What does creativity means to the audience'; they are being asked to write what they associate with creativity (5 minutes). This should bring into focus their perceptions of creativity.
- The audience are then asked to rate themselves on how creative they feel (from a scale of 1 [not creative at all] to 7 [extremely creative]). This can be done by using electronic interactive devices (if available). Typically, the class falls within a normal distribution curve and as this exercise has been done over the years it is good feedback to show them typical curves from past student groups that demonstrate this (3-4 minutes)
- The audience are asked to individually write down (on post-it notes) 2 lists: a) 5 creative persons & b) 5 creative professions (5 minutes). Once the lists are compiled they are brought together on the board or a flip chart and a discussion can follow on what are the common traits of creative people and professions as they are perceived by the group. Points of interest are that few individuals such as Da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. are quite commonly found on their lists and typically there are no women. In addition, on the professions, depending on the audience, engineers usually do not appear as a creative profession, once again typical professions being, artists, musicians, actors, etc. All this points can be used for discussion (5 minutes).
- A short presentation follows on how we learn, mind-sets and how they can be very useful in routine activities but how they can negatively influence creativity. (10 minutes).
- This is followed by a slide describing barriers to creative problem solving in the form of a list and a short discussion as to their effects on creativity (10 minutes).
- What follows is a slide with the 4 (or 5) stages of the creative process and once again a discussion around it. (5 minutes).
- Three examples of historical figures of creative, innovative and enterprising persons are shown and briefly discussed, bringing into focus that creativity is in everyone but innovation and enterprise although dependent on the creative spark, form usually the later part of the innovation process; bringing into focus the relationship between creativity and innovation (5 minutes).
- A slide with a 'Creativity toolbox' showing various techniques that promote creativity, e.g. Brainstorming, Free association, Day-dreaming, Lateral Thinking, Metaphorical Thinking, Free-writing, Drawing & doodling, Synthesis, Crazy questions?, Sabotage thinking, Mind maps, Wear different hats, Role playing, etc. is used to provide the audience with a source of tools they could use in their problem solving exercises (10 minutes)
- Final slide is a conclusion that 'creativity is an attitude' based on openness to experience, flexibility, and receptiveness to changes in conditions and situations. Creativity, is not looking to others for approval, it is the ability to play with concepts and elements, to see relationships between seemingly unrelated elements and concepts, ability to combine them in new ways. (2 minutes)
What follows next is a group exercise.
The audience is split in groups of 4-5 members and are either given a common object, say a brick, and are asked in their groups to find and list in 2 minutes as many uses for it as possible.
The alternative is that each group are given their own object, such as a paper clip, or a coffee cup, or a wire coat hanger, etc. and once again are asked to find as many uses for their object as possible in 2 minutes. (The common object is preferable as it gives a direct comparison between the workings of the groups).
Once this part of the exercise is completed, the groups are now given different tasks to do.
These tasks have been designed to be under three categories: demanding; non-demanding-routine-repetitive; and one that requires no thinking at all.
You can engage the students with Legos or packs of playing cards.
- One group is asked to build a house with Legos or with playing cards
- Another group is asked to separate the Legos into piles of different colours
- One group is asked to sit and think of nothing; sleep if they prefer
If more than three groups choose what the other groups should be occupying themselves with, i.e. demanding; non-demanding-routine-repetitive; and one that requires no thinking at all tasks.
Typically there are moans and groans from the groups that are given the menial task and those that will be doing nothing as opposed to the groups that they get to build something and the facilitator has to explain, without giving too much away, that there is a reason behind this process that should come apparent after completing the exercise.
- Give the groups 3-4 minutes to complete their give tasks (more than that it will start feeling too long for those that do nothing).
- Have a timer available to make sure groups are under time constraints and once time is over, stop the exercise.
- No need to admire what the group constructing something have come up with.
The groups are now asked to spend the next 2 minutes adding to their original lists of things to be done with their originally given objects.
After the 2 minutes are up collate the results of 'how many different ways of using their particular object' each group has come up with and most probably the results will show that the group that had the 'non-demanding-routine-repetitive' task will have come up with most ideas.
The group is then shown a short clip from the BBC Horizon programme: How insight works and are introduced to the summary of the scientific findings of how the brain reacts to being occupied by different tasks, demanding the use of different parts of our brains and how these influence the onset of 'insight'; directly related to creativity. (10-15 minutes)
To close the session few more slides follow on traditional problem solving as opposed to creative problem solving, the use of divergent/convergent approach especially to engineering problem solving and a list of how to 'Get unstuck' in problem solving. (10 minutes)
If electronic devices are available, the facilitator can once again ask the audience to assess themselves as to how creative they feel on the scale 1-7 (as done at the start of the session); the results will show that although the spread of the answers are still close to a normal distribution, there is typically a shift towards the more creative side of the graph, purely because they understand more about creativity and they feel themselves capable of being more creative.
Skill Development:
Through this interactive session the students derive a number of benefits:
- The session is designed to promote creativity as an attitude; it helps the audience to discover how creative they are and give them ownership of the process to make themselves more creative by removing the barriers to their creativity.
- The session provides a hands on demonstration of the relationship of brain activity and insight; the start of the creative process
- At the end of the session the students should be able to choose and employ appropriate creative techniques to enhance their problem solving capabilities.
Resources:
- Post-its or similar sticky pads
- Pens
- Electronic Voting Devices or any sort of interactive voting system
Option 1: a brick and Lego
Option 2: A number of simple everyday items (one per group), e.g. a paper cup; a coat hunger; an A4 sheet, etc. and Lego
References:
Key authors in this area include T M Amabile (1989; 2008) ; Tony Buzan (1998) Mind maps; Edward De Bono 1985 (Thinking Hats) 2008 (Frames for thinking about Information); H Gardner (1983; 2013)
Books: Managing Innovation, design and Creativity, Bettina Von Stamm, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008
BBC Horizon: How insight works