Creativity, Imagination and Innovation
adapted from Habits of Mind mini-course
To be Creative, Imaginative and Innovative is to be able to generate new ideas, to come up with novel solutions and to bring into being original thoughts. Successful people are good at original thought and this can give them an edge.
Many people see the ability to generate ideas as a gift. Some people are good at it and others (probably themselves) aren't. But this need not be true. Like all the other Habits of Mind there is a skill set to Creating, Imagining and Innovating that can be mastered by anyone.
Most people when they try to generate new ideas go through some sort of "brain storming" activity. This can be useful at times, but in the long run tends to generate ideas that aren't terrible original. To be really effective at generating ideas one has to learn how to break out of the patterns and old ways of thinking that are resident in our minds. Only then can we start generating genuinly original thought.
There are several schools of thought about how to allow our minds to break free of our usual patterns. There are those like Edward de Bono that advocate a deliberate effort and the use of creative thinking tools. And there are others that advocate methods to free the mind like meditation or relaxation type exercises. The strategy used hardly matters and which is most effective for you is probably a personal choice. But what we are trying to do is to release our minds from it's usual constraints.
For me personally, I like the creative thinking tools such as those designed by Edward de Bono and others. I've found them to be extrremely useful in helping me generate new ideas and to help me have a generally more open and flexible mind.
We should also note that this Habit has nothing directly to do with being artistic. Although there are artisitc people who are also highly creative the two do not necessarily go together. Take for example a person who an only produce art in one particular style or who can only copy other peoples work. These people would be considered highly artistic, but not very creative. On the other hand consider someone with little or no artistic ability that has enormous creative powers, such as an engineer who may be able to generate highly original and unique solutions to a problem.
Many people see the ability to generate ideas as a gift. Some people are good at it and others (probably themselves) aren't. But this need not be true. Like all the other Habits of Mind there is a skill set to Creating, Imagining and Innovating that can be mastered by anyone.
Most people when they try to generate new ideas go through some sort of "brain storming" activity. This can be useful at times, but in the long run tends to generate ideas that aren't terrible original. To be really effective at generating ideas one has to learn how to break out of the patterns and old ways of thinking that are resident in our minds. Only then can we start generating genuinly original thought.
There are several schools of thought about how to allow our minds to break free of our usual patterns. There are those like Edward de Bono that advocate a deliberate effort and the use of creative thinking tools. And there are others that advocate methods to free the mind like meditation or relaxation type exercises. The strategy used hardly matters and which is most effective for you is probably a personal choice. But what we are trying to do is to release our minds from it's usual constraints.
For me personally, I like the creative thinking tools such as those designed by Edward de Bono and others. I've found them to be extrremely useful in helping me generate new ideas and to help me have a generally more open and flexible mind.
We should also note that this Habit has nothing directly to do with being artistic. Although there are artisitc people who are also highly creative the two do not necessarily go together. Take for example a person who an only produce art in one particular style or who can only copy other peoples work. These people would be considered highly artistic, but not very creative. On the other hand consider someone with little or no artistic ability that has enormous creative powers, such as an engineer who may be able to generate highly original and unique solutions to a problem.