Creativity

Being creative. hmmm. Many of us wonder what it takes to become creative, some even doubt they "really" are creative.

Complete nonsense, we're all creative in different ways and a recent article in 'Scientific American: Mind' - Let your creativity soar (June/July 2008) demonstrates that our ability to become creative can be taught and be tracked.

According to one of the authors there are four core competencies of creative expression:
- People need to learn to preserve their new ideas (what he calls capturing)
- second to surround oneself with interesting people and 'things',
- tackle tough problems (challenge oneself),
- and expand their knowledge (broadening)

So, by 'capturing' they mean making your idea concrete be it by writing it down, sending yourself an email or even getting up and actually trying to do the idea in question. The important point is not to judge the idea itself. Next try tackling difficult problems, be it a crossword puzzle or a challenge at work, home, etc. Current research according the author that in tough situations multiple behaviors compete with each other and their interconnections create new behaviors and new ideas. Third, how do you manage your current social and physical surroundings? Fine at work one may not control the social millieu however you can change your physical environment (i.e. your desk). This is related to 'broadening', that is keeping your knowledge base diverse, the more interesting and diverse the things and the people surround you, the more interesting your own ideas become.