Generating Creative and Innovative Ideas: Enhancing Your Creativity Presentation & Facilitation...

Generating Creative and Innovative Ideas: Enhancing Your Creativity

Presentation & Facilitation Guide

© 2011 SkillSoft Ireland Limited

Generating Creative and Innovative Ideas: Enhancing Your Creativity2

Introduction and Ground Rules

• Presenter: [enter name of presenter or facilitator].

• Target audience: Any individual who wants to be more creative and innovative at work.

• Goal: To enhance your creativity in the workplace.

• Ground rules: • List ground rules here.


Agenda

• Course Overview.

• Topic 1: Assessing Your Creativity.

• Topic 2: Overcoming Barriers to Creativity.

• Topic 3: Boosting Your Creativity Quotient.


Course Overview

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” - Albert Einstein

• Everyone has creative potential.

• Innovation often results from being creative.

• Creativity gives a competitive advantage.

• Imagination needs attention and exercise.

• Believe in your own creativity.


Topic 1: Assessing Your Creativity

Recognize the importance of various personal characteristics of creative people.


Personal Characteristics for Creativity

• Creativity can be fostered in many ways.

• Anyone can become a successful innovator.


Reflect

What characteristics do you possess that help boost your creativity?


Being Open-minded

Open-minded people are:

• Not limited to their assumptions.

• Curious about their surroundings.

• Receptive to new ideas.

• Able to examine problems differently.

• Able to make connections among diverse ideas.


Making Connections

• You need a critical mass of knowledge.• Creative ideas from working on a project or task every day.• Find patterns and create combinations of ideas.


Rate

How open are you to taking risks?

A. I often take risks.

B. I like the idea of taking risks but I don't often do so.

C. I don't think risk-taking pays off, so I avoid taking risks.


Being Willing to Take Risks

Taking risks

•Stimulates creativity.

•Increases the flow of innovative ideas.

•Can lead to real innovation.


Possessing Communication Skills and Being Persistent

• Good communication skills

• Enable you to explain and sell ideas.

• Help to secure buy-in for new ideas.

• Affect collaboration.

• Help you draw on new ideas.

• Being persistent means

• Having tenacity.

• Refusing to give up on ideas.


Personal Characteristics for Creativity - Examples


Discussion

Can you think of any occasion(s) when your communication skills helped you generate and build support for new ideas or solutions?



Other desirable characteristics for being creative:

• Technical ability.

• Analytical skills.

• Molding ideas into solutions.


Practice

Having communication skills is an essential personal characteristic for creativity. Explaining your idea and its benefits is vital for securing buy-in.

Which statements describe why the other essential characteristics of creative people are important?

A. Pushing against convention, taking risks, and thinking outside of the box in order to be innovative.

B. Understanding how to assess the potential risks of a new idea so you can decide to pursue it or not.

C. Considering all ideas fully so you don't dismiss a potentially successful idea too early.D. Taking ideas from one situation and applying them to another because you recognize

a similar pattern or need.E. Being well versed in organizational standards so you know what's expected of you.F. Refusing to give up on an idea because you believe it's promising.


Reflect

Now that you know more about the personal characteristics that are both essential and desirable for creative people, re-assess your level of creativity. What inventive attributes do you have?


Topic 2: Overcoming Barriers to Creativity

Recognize ways to overcome personal barriers to creativity.


Barriers to Your Creativity

• Develop creative ability.

• Identify organizational and personal barriers.


Organizational Barriers to Creativity


Practice

Which examples illustrate organizational barriers to personal creativity?

A. Coworkers who tend to be judgmental.

B. Lack of funds to carry through an idea.

C. Team members who need to collaborate closely are placed in the same work area.

D. Emphasis on following rules.

E. Managers who don't allow for enough training time.

F. Managers who don't allow employees sufficient time.


Reflect

Sometimes, you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to creativity.

Think about the ways you might be hampering your mind. What factors do you think can affect your creativity?


Personal Barriers to Creativity


Personal Barriers to Creativity - Example

Joe• "I have no experience doing this.“• Critical of his own ideas.• Exhibits negativity.

Annie• Shoots her ideas down before presenting them.• "I need to get this right.“• Fears failure.

Boris • Has a novel idea but doesn't communicate it.• Makes assumptions.

Savannah• Researches solutions.• Can't progress as finds contradictory evidence.• Applies too much logic.


Practice

Which statements are examples of personal barriers to creativity?

A. "We can't continue testing this idea without more funding."

B. "I don't think this can be resolved."

C. "We need to get this right."

D. "The client will never accept that."

E. "The facts show we're on the wrong track."

F. "I don't think your idea has merit."


Overcoming Personal Barriers

• Deal with barriers effectively to avoid:

• Difficulty exhibiting creativity.

• Feeling stifled.

• Different strategies for different barriers.

• Personal barriers are self-imposed.

• Experiment with techniques.



• Redirect your thoughts.

• Wish, hope, and be optimistic.

• Suspend judgment on yourself.

• Recognize when you're being negative.



• Expect that some ideas will fail.

• Test your ideas out.

• Treat any mistakes as experiments.



• Question things.

• Change the way you get information.

• Expose yourself to diverse stimuli.



• Practice divergent thinking.

• Recognize the role that serendipity plays.

• Ask "what if".


Discussion

Can you think of any occasion(s) when a personal barrier prevented you from following through on an idea? What could you have done to overcome this?


Practice - Case Study Info

Now that you've gotten some ideas of how to overcome personal barriers to creativity, try and help Ian, who is struggling to come up with creative ideas for a new product line. He's been working on it most of the morning, and so far has nothing down on paper.


Practice

What statements represent personal barriers to creativity that Ian is facing?

A. "I don't think I'm creative enough to tackle such a high-visibility project.“

B. "I'm not going to overanalyze each idea; I'm just going to brainstorm."

C. "If I have too many nonworkable ideas, I'll cause budget problems for my manager.“

D. "I always thought customers wouldn't pay more for color choices, but I should rethink that idea.“


Practice

Match the barriers you've identified in Ian to appropriate solutions for overcoming those barriers.

A. Being negative.

B. Fearing failure.

___ Ian could tell himself he's more than creative enough for this task.

___ Ian could spend more time brainstorming creative solutions.

___ Ian could visit the production line at each factory to expose himself to different ideas.

___ Ian could pull some folks from R&D together for a half hour to test his new ideas and document what people say about them.


Topic 3: Boosting Your Creativity Quotient

• Identify the benefits of being creative.

• Match techniques for enhancing creativity with examples of how to execute them.


Creativity Benefits

• Exploration is at the heart of creativity.

• Happiness – not misery – enhances creativity.

• Correlation between creativity and satisfaction.


Creativity Benefits

• Happiness.

• Confidence.

• Problem solving.

• Motivation.


Practice

What are the benefits of being creative in the workplace?

A. Feeling happier.

B. Gaining confidence.

C. Becoming more organized.

D. Helping solve problems.

E. Improving emotional intelligence.

F. Increasing motivation.


Enhancing Creativity

• Creativity isn't just for a select few.

• People can boost their creativity.

• Ways to enhance creativity:

• Think outside the box.

• Pay attention to your unconscious mind.

• Use analogies.

• Draw ideas from different sources.


Thinking Outside the Box

• Go beyond the confines of the problem.

• Restructure or reconceptualize the problem.


Scheerer's Nine-Dot Puzzle


Scheerer's Nine-Dot Puzzle

How did you do?


Thinking Outside the Box

To think outside the confines of the problem:

• Challenge the accepted.

• Define the problem.

• Widen your span of relevance.

• Be open and prepared.

• Use creative exercises.


Thinking Outside the Box - Example

Maria, a computer games designer, generates ideas for a new computer game.

Challenge the accepted Her idea doesn't fit with the company's standard genre.

Define the problem She defines the game from the point of view of the player.

Widen your span of relevance

She plays other people's games.

Be open and prepared

She comes up with a real innovation by using noncomputing ideas.

Use creative exercises

She uses a 'stream-of-consciousness' exercises to generate names for the game.


Practice

You're designing a new motorcycle. Which options use the technique of thinking outside the confines of the problem or situation?

A. Challenging the fact that motorcycles run on gas and have two wheels.

B. Taking a magazine and cutting out random words and images, then putting them together in various ways.

C. Comparing motorcycles to scooters.

D. Noticing how others are doing things, and asking yourself how you can apply that to your own problems.

E. Riding a motorcycle on a long trip.


Using Your Unconscious Mind

• Allow your mind freedom.

• Don't jump to certainties.

• Your unconscious mind is

• The source of dreams and random thoughts.

• Where memories are stored.

• Where implicit knowledge resides.

• Able to make unusual connections and insights.


Practice

Your company is facing a hazardous waste disposal problem. There are many subtle complexities involved, and no one clear solution.

Which are examples of listening to your unconscious mind in this situation?

A. You create abstract doodles of lifecycles and let your mind flow freely as you draw.

B. Although you're sure of the waste tank's limitations, you ignore them as you dream up ideas.

C. You challenge the fact that the waste is hazardous.

D. You research how a company in another country is handling the problem.


Using Analogies

• Improve imaginative thinking.

• Help find existing models or solutions.

• Make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.

• Ideas are like light bulbs.

• Comparison shows the problem.


Practice

You work for a medical supply company, and you're trying to get past a problem with your idea for a new wireless blood pressure monitor.

Which are examples of using analogy in this situation?

A. You tell yourself, "the brain is like a computer that never needs rebooting".B. You create drawings of your idea for the battery case in the blood

pressure monitor.C. You think, "the monitor is like a guard dog that will alert its masters to any

intruders in the night".D. You consider that a vehicle dashboard is a good metaphor for a blood

pressure monitor since it gathers information from different sources and provides a snapshot of the current situation.


Drawing Ideas From Many Sources

Sharpen your curiosity.

Appreciate your surroundings.

Record your ideas.


Practice

You're an engineer with a large package distribution company. You're trying to come up with innovative ways to plan the distribution routes for the delivery trucks.

Which are examples of drawing ideas from many sources in this situation?

A. Researching dog rescue web sites, since they often transport animals to foster homes and shelters.

B. Questioning assumptions such as "a truck has four wheels".

C. Researching and watching how bees explore their surroundings but always get directly back to the hive.

D. Picking up on the fact that you keep dreaming of trees.


Drawing Ideas From Many Sources

• An "aha!" moment.

• Record your ideas.


Discussion

Think about a problem or situation you've faced in the past. Did you use any methods to boost your personal creativity? If not, how might using one or all of the techniques have resulted in a more creative outcome?


Wrap-up / Q&A

• Topic 1: Assessing Your Creativity.

• Recognize the importance of various personal characteristics of creative people.

• Topic 2: Overcoming Barriers to Creativity.

• Recognize ways to overcome personal barriers to creativity.

• Topic 3: Boosting Your Creativity Quotient.

• Identify the benefits of being creative.

• Match techniques for enhancing creativity with examples of how to execute them.

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