de Bono Rules! (no not that Bono!)

One of the most powerful problem solving techniques to aid creativity is compare. We use the verb compare all the time to make decisions. Is this better than that? Why? When faced with the purchase of a new car or house or or or... we often narrow our choices down to two or three possibilities and then it's time for the lists to come out. On a piece of paper list the choices across the top. Down the left side of the paper we now need to list all the options that are available to us such as price, colour options, availability and anything else that will have a bearing on our decision. Once you have listed all your options and choices and filled in all the spaces, you can much more easily see how everything compares and you will have a much greater chance of making the best decision.
One factor that is very important relates back to an earlier post. The Explorer. The more time you have spent exploring the world, the better the chance you will have of adding more interesting choices.
Edward de Bono, one of the Gods of gifted education, has developed a number of thinking skills and techniques. One of the most useful is known as PMI. Positive, minus, interesting. Much more on de Bono later but for those who would like to explore him..

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm

"Go to the mirror boy."

Back to "The Thinker's Toolbox" and empathy which is the next verb. Without empathy, you can never hope to really make something appealing to others. As a teacher, one needs to understand what your students want and need, if you want them to get involved and learn. One phrase that meant much to me as a teacher was, "significant other." My job was to become a significant other to each and every student. When you become significant to that student, and only when you become significant, can you hope to reach and motivate them. How does one learn to have empathy? This leads to today's fun homework assignment. To quote The Who... "Go to the mirror boy." Stand in front of the mirror and (if it hasn't broken) feel an emotion. Think a happy thought and watch your face. Look for the subtle and not so subtle expressions which pass by your face. Try bored. Have you seen that look on the faces of someone you have been speaking to? Try every emotion and see what you see. This is a beginning step to start to feel what others are feeling. Have fun!

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
William James


A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely . . . but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nurture Your Inner Disney

"The creative process is the lifeblood of the Disney Company. If it is to thrive, we must do everything possible to establish an environment in which it can once again flourish.

Creativity is a funny thing -- difficult to quantify, but obvious when it's missing. It's a living, breathing force with a life of its own, and it tends to flower among individuals or small groups. It doesn't always show up on demand ... or at convenient times or places. And it often gets killed by committees or by something called strategic planning. So we need to always be on the lookout for ways to nurture it, and not let it be trampled by a lowest-common-denominator mentality."

This is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Roy Disney in a speech from 2004. Disney Corporation has obviously had some ups and downs but they are trying to redefine their roots. reativity and Walt Disney obviously run together.

What do you do for yourself to give yourself the nurturing that you need to be creative. The best situation for me is simply a walk, best in the woods, where I can just let my thoughts flow. I find that the first half hour or so is the time it usually takes to let my conscious mind go quiet and then the thoughts start to flow.

Share with us your tips and techniques.

Exaggerate Your Creativity!!

Creativity works in strange and mysterious ways. Sometimes to see the essence of something we need to exaggerate what we do know, which can enlighten us to what is really there. Now that sounds deep!
Comedians have used exaggerate and cartoonists have learned to take a feature and make it larger than life. For today's treat, boys and girls, I offer one of the best exaggerations I have ever seen.
Enjoy!

How do You Eat an Elephant?

The next creative technique from "The Thinker's Toolbox" is a word I'm not too happy about...reduce. As someone who has needed to drop a few (lies) pounds most of their adult life, I immediately equate reduce with diet. But wait! There's more. One of my favourite questions when talking about essays was, "How do you eat an elephant?" One bite at a time is the old answer. When we have a diificult problem or situation we need to break it down to bite sized chunks to enable us to get our mouths or minds, around the problem.

In his most excellent book, "99% Inspiration Tips,Tales & Techniques for Liberating Your Business Creativity", Bryan Mattimore describes Fermi problems. Named after Enrico Fermi, that fun guy who brought the world the atomic bomb, these problems never have enough information to solve them. You must reduce the problem down to a number of smaller areas and then make assumptions about the rest of the information. An example from the book.
You are travelling on your yacht across the Pacific Ocean and your Captain tells you that you are now over the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. One of your guests, a clumsy gentleman, drops your Prize cannonball over the side. How long will it be before your cannonball hits the ocean floor?

Feel free to leave your answers. Solution tomorrow.

You Can Have a Serendipity When you Substitute!

Creative thinkers don't usually associate substitute with creativity. We tend to think that we substitute something when we've run out of something. Many stories and novels have been written by substituting a previous hero with a new hero and changing the setting a bit. There are only so many basic plots!!
"The Thinker's Toolbox" tells the story of George Washington Carver who decided to substitute a southern weed, the peanut, for an industrial crop. Fortunes have been made with his "Peanut Oleo".
Take, for example, that you had your sites set on a wonderful holiday in a fantastic destination and because of various circumstances, like not enough money to stay at Sandals, you ended up going somewhere Like Oak Ridges. You could whine and complain and have a miserable time or you could go and experience it for all it is worth and maybe, just maybe a wonderful serendipity would arise.

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”
Mary Lou Cook

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality overcomes everything.”
George Lois

“Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm”
Earl Nightingale
Can you tell us of a serendipity that happened when you had to substitute something?

Classify Your Friends and See....

The next verb in "The Thinker's Toolbox" is classify. Not only in developing your creativity, but in all areas of our lives, the ability to classify things and ideas is very important. We can often find solutions to problems just by classifying all the information we have and maybe seeing what is missing. We used classifying to develop our concepts of our world and to attain mastery. When our teachers asked us to go home and find all of the things in our homes that were ovals we ended up with a much deeper understanding of ovals and we started to see them even though they were always there. It was like when we learn a new word and all of a sudden we see it everywhere. It was always there, we just never noticed it.
Today's fun activity: Write down the names of 10 or 12 of your co workers, bosses, friends, family members etc. You can mix up the list or do a list for each. Next come up with 4 or 5 headings such as reliable, hard working, flaky, stupid, intelligent.... Have some fun with your categories. Now make a chart with your friend list down the side and the category list across the top. Place a check mark or an X in the appropriate square.
Now the analysis. Are all of your friends jerks? Do you have a boss that's reliable? What are you missing??? What do you have too much of? Please let us know if you have had any revelations or insights and what you need to correct the situation. Hope your colleagues are not like mine.

Rearrange Your Life to Make it More!

Rearrange is the next word from "The Thinker's Toolbox". At first glance this doesn't seem as creative or inspiring as many of the other verbs because you're not creating anything new. But you are. You are creating a new flow, a new feel! Often we have all that we need and we just need to highlight something different in a new space to see it in a different light.
Feng Shui is something you might want to look at to rearrange your room or your house. Then again, just picking up your dirty socks and underwear and rearranging them into the laundry basket, may be all you need.

http://www.circle-of-light.com/fengshui/fs-tips.html

But check out the link. Hey, anything from Circle of Light has got to be interesting!

“Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.”

Thomas Disch

Combine Your Way to Riches!

That's right! The fourth verb to help your creativity is combine. Fortunes have been made using this simple word. The classic example of how somebody used combine effectively is the pencil with an eraser. Simple? Yes. But that is the essence of combine. Just take two things that nobody has ever put together and voila!! It sucks or it's great. Who knows. You have to experiment. Often when you have a challenge or problem that you have clearly stated and you really understand... Your brain is looking for a solution. The subconcious is putting things together in a way that your poor, weak conscious mind will never understand. So make sure you understand exactly what you're looking for and then you get to combine new and interesting things.
Today's challenge.... what two interesting (cookie dough and ice cream???) things would you combine? Let us know.

“Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable”
Kenyan Proverb

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams



"http://www.koreus.com/jeu/traveler-iq-challenge.html"

Although this link doesn't have anything to do with creativity, it's a lot of fun.

How do you Describe Creativity?

The third verb in "The Thinker's Toolbox" is describe. This seems like a simple word, but so much of the time we don't use it as effectively as what we could. Next time you have a problem, put it in words. Either written or verbally, whatever is best for you. One of my favourite tactics to get an answer is to go for a walk in the woods and talk to myself. It helps if the woods are mainly deserted! When I talk to myself I hear the problem in a new way and very often solutions appear. If you don't have woods handy then a portable recorder can also keep a record of your thoughts. As a last resort find a dog. They'll listen!
A challenge I would like to put out there is: How do you describe creativity? Please leave a post and let's see what others think.

Elaborate on Your Creativity

Elaborate

Technique#2 Today's verb is in many ways, the opposite of eliminate. Sometimes a creative problem is too cluttered and sometimes we need to add something. Flexibility in creativity is very important. The authors of "The Thinker's Toolbox" give an excellent example of adding. Portable listening devices, like the Sony Walkman, have had many elaborations added, usually one at a time. This obviously creates a whole new product with great new marketing potential.
If you are a teacher I suggest you try this practice exercise with your class. We usually had some hilarious results.
Instructions: Take the simple sentence and elaborate by adding details to make it more interesting.
1. The man cleaned the house.
2. The dog ran.
3. The bird flew into the street.
4. The door opened.

After a few chances where the students read their work out loud, give them
5 The teacher went to the movie.

Obviously these simple sentences become much more interesting with extra elaboration.

Note Your boss' name could make for an interesting substitution.

Please feel free to share any of your more "interesting" sentences.

Start Your Toolbox!

One of the excellent books that I used for years in my classroom was, "The Thinker's Toolbox" by Pamela Thornburg and David Thornburg. I believe strongly that if you want to be creative then the most important thing you need to do is say, "Darn I'm Creative". After that the rest is learning techniques and strategies. Once you have given yourself permission to be creative, a switch starts being turned. It's not an off on switch but more of a rheostat. I've often wondered why we call those things dimmers and not brighteners. After you have practised strategies and techniques for a while you can gain the ability to crank up the creativity or to turn it down when it's not appropriate. More later on when it may not be appropriate.
In The Thinker's Toolbox they talk about gathering a number of techniques or tools that can be used to generate a larger numbers of ideas and possible solutions to our challenges and problems. Creativity seldom shows up in a vacuum. For those who would like to be less vacuous, explore. Oops that was the last book. ( see earlier posts )
As you acquire new tools and techniques it is necessary to practise with them so take each of these tools and look for ways to use it to solve a situation in your real life. Please share any of your experiences with the rest of us. We can learn vicariously!!

Eliminate


In our busy, complicated lives, things can often get too complicated, too messy, too much and what we need to do is eliminate many of the unnecessary distractions and time wasters. When faced with decision making we must often get rid of what doesn't matter. Sometimes by eliminating the impossible, what we have left is the possible.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Here's a practice situation. It's March Break. You are ready! You have been compiling a list of great activities for yourself or for your family. You have generated a list of 86 fun, exciting activities. You can't do them all. How would you go about eliminating some of these activities?
Please share with us one or more of the techniques you might use to pare this prodigous list down to something more manageable.

Time to Fight For Your Creativity!!

The fourth personality of the creative individual is The Warrior. First you went out and explored and found some very interesting things. Secondly you used your developing artist to do something to those interesting things you found. You resisted the temptation to judge too quickly and when you finally looked at what you had in a critical way, you said something like, "Wow! I like this! What can I do with it?" This is when you now need to develop your warrior.
The warrior aspect of creativity is really two personalities. The first part is the General who needs to get the big picture. The General needs to overlook the field and decide all of the armaments that will be necessary to take the battle. The second part of the warrior is the foot soldier. The hard working grunt who needs to get into the trenches and make all the calls or do what is necessary on a daily basis.

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
Albert Einstein

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
Napoleon

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy

I highly recommend that you read, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. Which one of the personalities do you think is the easiest for you to master?

Here Comes the Judge! Here Comes the Judge!

If you haven't started at the first post and read forward I would suggest you do that now.
The judge is the third personality of the creative individual. This is all well and good but most people have a problem with the judge part of their personality. They use it wayyy too quickly. What happens most of the time is, we get an idea. It's usually too early to decide whether it has merit or not but our immediate reaction is, "That's stupid." or "That'll never work." or "If it was any good, somebody would have thought of it already."
Many people use the judge as an immediate second step. Slow down. We need to let the artist have his or her say. Work on the idea. Change it around. Do something to it. It is reported that the Mona Lisa took over ten years to finish.
Keep a notebook and write down your ideas. Review it regularly and see which ideas still seem vibrant to you. Don't judge too quickly.

For those of you who are too young to remember or for those of you who would like to stroll down memory lane: I present for your viewing enjoyment;




http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2380356790445047102
&q=Here+Comes+the+Judge&total=303&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

And finally, I would like to leave you with a creative judging situation that you can use immediately. Please follow this link...
http://www.bjcp.org/index.php

How You and Eeyore Can be Artistic!

Becoming and developing the artist in you has other benefits for you and your life besides just increasing your creativity.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower... hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour...
William Blake
I mean who can ask for more than that.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.
Truman Capote

What we call creative work, ought not to be called work at all, because it isn't. I imagine that Thomas Edison never did a day's work in his last fifty years.
Stephen B. Leacock

I believe that if we are able to find what we truly love, we enjoy it. I love this blog. I really do. I love it so much it reminds me of a quote of my favourite character. He is my favourite so much that if I ever decide to get a tattoo it would be of of......Eeyore.
It isn't if there was anything wonderful about my little corner. Of course for people who like cold wet ugly bits it is something rather special.


Eeyore (or A.A.Milne...if you must)
For those of you who prefer those nice pretty things, I thought I would leave you with a link to something really pretty.

This is a very nice blog for those who you who like photos and colours and flicker...

http://layersofmeaning.org/wp/?p=327

How to Become the Artist!

For those of you who actually did go and start reading from the first post, you know we are looking at the different personality characteristics that you need to become creative and develop your creativity. The first step in developing your creativity is to become an explorer. Many of the earlier posts were designed to start people exploring more in their life. Exploring gives you more things to use to make connections. It is now time (ta da) for the second personality which is being an artist. Most people see an artist with a paint brush and for those lucky people, draw on. Painting and drawing are only two aspects of the artist. I am a person who draws a great deal of laughter whenever I attempt to play Pictionary. Not for my creativity but for my total inability to draw anything that looks like anything. I discovered a great test for obtaining a grade level for your artistic ability called, "Draw a Man". The instructions are quite simple. Take a piece of paper and draw a man. I have performed this test a number of times and am pleased to report... my scores consistently show about a solid, really good grade 2 ability. I can't draw!!! Does this mean I can't be an artist?? NO!!! My talents lie in different areas. Being an artist can mean using words or arranging furniture or noses(plastic surgeons) or or or. You need to find our talents. You need to learn to not feel bad because you can't draw but revel in developing what areas you do have abilities.

I would like to leave this post with a few neat quotes to get you started on accepting and developing your specific style of artistry.

“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people”
Vincent van Gogh

“Writing is very much a playground; an artistic playground. It's the most fun thing I do.”
Shania Twain

“Doing things the way you see it, going by your own heart and soul, that is pure artistic integrity. Whatever the hair is six or sixty inches long, the eyes have make-up or not, the riffs are in 'E' or 'F' sharp, the amps are Marshall or not, all those things don't matter if you are doing it for the right reason, which to me means doing it for yourself!”
Lars Ulrich

"You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life."
Salvador Dali

"Everyone in my family is in the film business; I knew I wanted to be creative and it was important in my family to be artistic."
Sofia Coppola

"All gardening is landscape painting."
Alexander Pope

Please feel free to add your thoughts.

Lie down and Learn to be Creative

Sometimes as we explore our world, we need to take time and relax, giving our brain a chance to help us sort out life. The practice of meditation is one of the most misunderstood skills in our western society. So go make some nice herbal tea. Relax and enjoy this link to a very nice site. You're getting sleepy.......oops sorry that's for the post on hypnosis.

http://www.abc-of-meditation.com/meditationandyou/creativity.asp

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust

When you decide that you are going to be more creative, it is time to explore. Yes you can go to Tahiti or Antarctica or Oak Ridges but the most important exploration is of yourself. Take time to look around your life and see everything with new eyes. Asking questions is a great way to look at things in a new and creative way. I found this question today as our temperature soars.

"Where does the white go when snow melts?"

What other creative and interesting questions are there all around you right now?

Please leave any questions for others.

I thought I would leave with two great quotes by musicians.


"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
Duke Ellington

"So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?"
Christina Aguilera

Portrait of the Artist Picasso as a Young Man

Portrait of the Artist Picasso as a Young Man.......... read on

It sounds so Joyceian......but that's another post

Be Creative... Have Some Fun!!

Be Creative... Have Some Fun!!


http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html

Okay boys and girls.... go be creative and play with Picasso!!

How to Be Creative When You're Not An Artist

How to Be Creative When You're Not An Artist
PABLO PICASSO:

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

The answer is in the quote. Be childlike. Explore like a child. Do this on your own so that you are not embarrassed in front of your friends. Later you can have childlike parties and drink Kool-Aid (but only with those you really trust).

Creativity comes out of exploring the world with new eyes. You had them! You have them! You just need to find them again.

A picture of Wayne Dyer


I thought the blog needed more pictures to keep up that old visual appeal.
Wayne Dyer --- Another Really Creative Guy
“There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.”
Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer is an amazing writer about creativity and an amazing motivational speaker, one of my favourite mentors.
He went from foster home to foster home when he was young and now gets to do whatever he wants. lol

If you want to be successful at life, you first need to find out what is it you love to do. What are you passionate about? What fills you with excitement? Keep exploring you and start to keep lists of all the things you love. How to do it comes along later. We're still working on exploring.

Ansel Revealed!! To be a Creative Genius

Ansel Revealed!! To be a Creative Genius
OK I'll give you another great link to this creative genius. As I think about what these words really mean I am struck by the fact that this was really just a guy who found a place he loved and was passionate about, and he worked hard to be able to show it in a new and "creative" way. I don't think he saw himself in the light of great creativity just as a somewhat tortured soul who had a lot of hard work to do. Have you found out about the great parties yet???

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/adams/

Quotes for the Creative Soul!

Quotes for the Creative Soul!
“In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.”

Ansel Adams

Please leave your comments and thoughts about any of the creative quotes.

How to Become More Creative by Doing Something New!!

How to Become More Creative by Doing Something New!!
The first step in becoming more creative is to develop "The Explorer" personality. We all have it. We just need to develop it. Creativity usually involves joining together different elements in a way that nobody else has imagined. The more "things" we have to join together, from as many diverse areas as possible, often results in new and interesting connections. The next time you're at a boring party, or in my class, try to find out something new and interesting about someone you didn't know before. Start looking for the interesting. It's there, in everyone.

For those of you who have seen my classroom this wall needs no introduction. The inspiration came from the wonderful book by Roger von Oeche called "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants". More about that later!!

Creativity and Kwanzaa

Kuumba
I just found this great link. Kwanzaa is an interesting time.

http://serenitylife.vox.com/library/post/kwanzaa---6th-principle---kuumba-creativity.html?_c=feed-atom

Enjoy!!

Creativity and Sir Ken Robinson

Good day and welcome to this New Year. Attitude, creativity and thinking are the purposes of this blog. Hopefully as we journey through many exciting authors, thoughts and exercises, we will all grow and learn to be more effective in the areas that are important to us. As a great way to get started I highly recommend you take the time to view this video talking about how our school system is failing to adequately prepare the students of today to be effective thinking, creative people of tomorrow.
You may have to use Control c ---I'm still working out the bugs---

Sir Ken Robinson
I highly recommend taking 20 minutes of your obviously valuable life and check this out if you care about education.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/66

Exploring Creativity

Welcome!! I hope you can say I'm creative but the purpose of this blog is to help you and me to become more creative. Sit back, think and get ready for a great ride!