Teaching Creativity
Teaching Creativity
Leading a discussion on the creative process
Goal of This Presentation
This presentation aims to help individuals understand the
creative process and the importance of creativity through a series
of exercises and discussions.
Introduction
Exercise 1
Debrief
Discussion of the creative process
Exercise 2
Debrief
Final remarks
Exercise 1
Problem: as a group, reinvent the umbrella
Time: 30 minutes
As an Instructor, Things to Look For
Strengths:
Being collaborative building on each others ideas
Pitching wild and wacky ideas
Weaknesses:
Shooting down the ideas of others
Group structure (hierarchy; uneven contribution of ideas)
Introduction to Creativity
What we know about the creative process
Thinking Outside of The Box
What is the box?
Our current method of learning and creating
The box is created by our mental models
A critical part of developing creativity lies in the
understanding of your current methods of thinking and perceiving.
We call this current method of thinking The Box. The Box is made of
mental models. Understanding what these mental models are will be
essential in breaking out of the box.
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What are Mental Models?
Critical part of life
Mental Models a crucial part of life. They are fundamental and
unconscious. They help filter and give meaning to perceptions.
There are a variety of things that create these models.
Definitions:
Language The idea that one can only perceive what it can
communicate
Culture mental maps that are formed by group decisions.
Biology Physiological limitations to what we can perceive
Personal History Aspects of your life such as race, sex,
religion, experiences and more that shape how you think
Communication Communication norms affect how you think
Amnesia The forgetting of previous paradigms of thinking
Certainty The assumption that reality has to be just as you see
it
Humor The awareness of how precarious our interpretations of the
world are
Examples:
-Driving a car You use language to understand the functions of
the car, personal history to reflect back upon your driving
experiences, culture to understand the norms of driving (i.e. when
to have your bright lights on and when not to).
-Group Presentations A stubborn member who sees things only his
was may be struggling to overcome the certainty model. Exchange
student may have odd scheduling habits such as coming late or too
early may be stuck inside of their cultural mental models. A member
having a hard time reading because of poor eyesight is succumbing
to biological models.
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Sources:
Language
Culture
Biology
Personal History
Communication
Amnesia
Certainty
Humor
Using Models to Break out of The Box
With this basic knowledge of mental models, you can begin to
understand how to break out of the box that they form. If you are
constantly considering what mental models you are using and make a
concerted effort to break out of them, you will make strides
towards breaking out of the box and enabling more creativity.
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Silencing
IDS Framework
Interest
Detachment
Human Quality
Creativity Myths
The Expert Myth
The Eureka Myth
The Brainstorming Myth
The Importance of Society
Creativity in Organizations
CREATIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS
Axiological Project
How organizations are structured
Organizational Project
Systems, procedures, and elements
of business
Creative Leadership
People who have an understanding of creativity
Scientific & Technical Project
Knowledge in the domain
Creativity in Organizations
CREATIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS
Axiological Project
How organizations are structured
Organizational Project
Systems, procedures, and elements
of business
Creative Leadership
People who have an understanding of creativity
Scientific & Technical Project
Knowledge in the domain
Constraints, Labels, Trial & Error
Constraints: Creativity is the art of circumventing them
time, laws, needs..
Labels: Everything known to humans to this day
table, friendship, gravity
Trials / Errors: unavoidable, must be accepted and
encouraged
Constraints:
Creativity is used to discover new ways to circumvent
limitations in order to reach a definite goal.
The ability to circumvent constraints is what makes a new
invention creative.
Constraints can take the form of: time, laws and needs
Labels:
Taken as granted by most, they are not the limit of the world
but the limit of our reality. They must be challenged in order to
innovate and invent. We live in an increasingly changing world
where new labels are created everyday
Trials / Error
One has to accept to search in all directions until finding the
working disruptive model.
Must not be reprimanded, by being at the edge of knowledge it is
to be expected not to find the right mechanism from the first
try,
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Exercise 2
Problem: reinvent the backpack
Time: 30 minutes
Pay special attention to our discussion of creativity
