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10 Ways To Boost Your Creativity (By Julie Plenty)

Creativity is your birthright – but can often be hidden in the everyday. To facilitate your personal development and self growth, here are some creativity tips you can use to resurrect, refresh and enhance your creative faculties.

1. Look after yourself.

Sleep well/Eat well/meditate/do what you enjoy and do it more often (if it is life enhancing!). Creativity is reduced when your senses are dulled.

2. Do something different.

We do so much on auto - the route we take to work, newspaper we read, TV programmes we routinely watch. Vary one element of your regular routine for a while. If feasible, take a different route to work, read a different newspaper (especially one you would never read!).

3. Be curious about your world around you.

It always amazes me when people don't see what's around them. See the area you live/work in as a tourist would. How would you explore it if you were a tourist?

4. Read a book on something you previously had no interest in.

...and see if you can create interest whilst reading it. It is my belief that no topic is boring or uninteresting if it is enthusiastically and creatively presented. You know what you like - or you like what you know?

5. Do something childlike once in a while.

...and you don't have to have the children there as an 'excuse' to do it. Sit and play on swings/draw/paint 'silly' pictures - have fun. Children are incredibly creative and as adults we could learn a lot about how they view the world.

6. Create/prepare quiet time for yourself every day.

Not to do anything (unless it relaxes you), but just to clear and refresh your mind. We are human beings, not doings. There are times when our crowded schedule and minds don't allow space and time for the creative to be welcomed in. Einstein liked to go sailing in the afternoons after working in the morning. Okay, most of us don't have this opportunity, but you get the point.

7. Ask 'what if' questions.

Just for fun and see where the answers take you. What if that building could talk, what would it say, what stories would it tell?

8. We often make assumptions.

...about the people we work with (especially if we don't like them!) Try treating someone you don't particularly like at work as if you liked them (yeah I know...) What would you say, how would you act towards them?

9. Write and storyboard your life.

...as if it were a script you had to sell to a film company.

10. Talk to people you routinely ignore or dismiss.

Imagine their lives from their point of view, they often have viewpoints which you may never have considered before and ... carry a small notebook with you to jot down new ideas / sensations / feelings as they come to mind.

Do one, some or all of these and you’ll soon notice a rise in your creativity, personal development and self growth.

About The Author

Julie Plenty is a Personal and Business Coach, who helps writers, artists and photographers prosper in their business by helping them build a strong personal foundation, because they ARE their business. For more self growth and personal development articles, and to sign up for her Life Design newsletter, visit: http://www.self-help-personal-development.com.

My Work Is My Play - The Journey From Survival to Creativity (By Talia Shafir)

“For the love a’ creation!”, my father was fond of expounding, when “Pete” and “God” had run their course. It was years later until I realized that sentence actually held meaning for me – other than an expression of exasperation. It is, most literally, the love of my life.

For a remote viewer, creation is both the destination and the journey. It has a very real context, namely, the matrix. It is the void, the confluence of all things singularly rolled into one while simultaneously separated into individual parts made unique by a nuance of frequency. It is that vast and limitless outer expanse only reached by turning inward.

In my years of remote viewing, I’ve been on many journeys. The real goal of this process is to engage the consciousness of the matrix. In the advanced stages, the targets reflect this whether they be of a terrestrial or off-planet nature. There is no other way for me to describe my experience except to say that it is a direct interaction with the creative source and a distinct confirmation that we are part and parcel of this force.

As an embodied soul, I am both the creation, bound to a contract of safety and survival, and the creator, inextricably dedicated to risk and innovation. One way of describing survival is to say that it is the eternal quest for the mediator, the recognized other, regulator of our early bio-neurological processes. It is the search for the “savior”, the one who can assure us that no harm will ever befall us as long as we remain faithful to the other’s perceptions of the world.

Creation, on the other hand, is the direct experience beyond time and space. Creation is the personal responsibility of the individual to the collective and has no intermediary. Creation assumes survival.

A Biological Imperative

Survival is our biological imperative. No argument there. However, how we define survival for ourselves and others around us is a component of health and well-being of global proportions. We can, for example, be persuaded to go to war when we’re convinced that our survival is threatened. However, resistance not only arises from an immediate life and death scenario but also out of a question of quality of life. Enter creativity. In the final analysis, we are not content to simply “survive”.

Creativity then becomes the resourced state that sustains life. It is, in fact, an inseparable part of survival. The optimal word here is “resourced”. Our greatest resource is our consciousness. Obviously, the more parts (i.e. pieces of consciousness) of ourselves we can convince to stay present in the moment, the more resourced we are and the more creative we can be.
So what tethers us to the path of expectation? How do we mistake opportunities for opportunists, gifts for burdens, or vice versa? This is our survival mechanism in action; this is also our survival mechanism run amuck.

Past Tense or Present and Tense?

Does the past exist? My answer would be yes, it exists in the present. I have frequently had the experience of remote viewing events, places and life forms in the past. I absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is possible to focus on the signal line of such a target and experience that “past moment” in its sensory entirety. As a remote viewer, I am also trained not to take the experience back “home” with me. Consciousness helps me do that.

However, when an unconscious part of me is connected to the signal line of a past event, I don’t have the benefit of that conscious resource. It’s as if that particular part has no idea that a trained remote viewer also shares the same physical container. In that case, whenever some present sensory input amplifies the signal line (to which I’m already unconsciously attached), I experience that event all over again. And the experience registers in my body through the nervous system while my brain draws the same fearful, hopeless or delusional conclusion it’s always drawn, based on the limited resources available to that unconscious part of me.

Of course, I’m just using my remote viewer part to make the point. The same thing happens when consciousness is brought to that current event by any other method of integrated awareness, as long as it includes the body. The body really needs to know it survived. Otherwise, it becomes impossible to return to calm and safety, the portal to creativity.

Survival In the Workplace

One place to easily view this in action is in the workplace. When we’re growing up, choosing a career sounds like an exciting premise. We don’t take into consideration that the unspoken part of our job description will be to fulfill someone else’s expectations. The workplace, by its very nature, is an arena of external focus. That makes it a fertile field for the triggering of unconscious past wounds. We can use the experience to heal and grow (creativity) or we can use it to reaffirm our attachment to a certain level of survival.

What often occurs is that we measure success or failure by the amount of money earned, possessions garnered, and lifestyle achieved. When we speak of someone as “successful”, we usually mean “wealthy. Somehow, this has come to mean that only the “successful”, the “creative”, have earned the right to play.

In this pass/fail world, survival can become a hook synonymous with drudgery, boredom and bitterness. Notice how “successful” people are often touted for their creativity. Ironically, you have to be really creative to survive. It’s just that when the majority of your focus/energy is on a picture of survival alone, you don’t always acknowledge the creative part of the endeavor. Unfortunately, that brand of creativity rarely gets translated into the quantum-leap realm of “success”. We tend to stop at survival instead of peeking around the corner or taking those few extra steps toward a new picture. I must say that one of the major things remote viewing teaches you to do is not to stop at the first picture you think you see. Once again, it’s integrated, perceptual training that makes the difference.

Work and Play Go Hand in Hand

When exactly did ‘work’ and ‘play’ become the Cain and Abel of sound economic theory? In many cultures they used to go together. In some, they still do.

How ironic is it that the biggest innovation in the world of corporate training today involves improv theater techniques and game design technology? No doubt about it…play is a primal imperative. Look around in nature. Play sets the stage for life.

Stress management in the workplace is really about people learning to work and play together for the creative good. Team building skills are all about that very concept. When the company prospers, then everyone benefits. All work and no play makes Jack… a survivor in my book and that’s really only half the story. Life needs creativity to thrive and the creative process needs acknowledged space to happen.

I once attended a week-long meeting of advanced remote viewers from all over the world. Approximately twenty-two nations were represented in a group of about 75 people. We came from all walks of life from teachers and ministers to doctors and lawyers. For three days we struggled to agree upon a list of prime imperatives for human survival. The question was “What drives the human race?”

Some were easy, like ‘love’ and ‘fear’. Others did not flow so glibly off the tongue, like ‘greed’ and ‘competition’. I was a member of a contingent who tried in vain to introduce the word ‘play’ into the mix. In the end, ‘play’ was nixed from the top ten because it was not deemed a powerful enough imperative. What amused me the most was that the group could not sit there for a whole day deliberating on this list without someone starting to play. People either began to joke about other people’s words or just act out and laugh. Some of the group began to devise their own game for picking words. But ‘play’, as visible a driving force as it was, never made the cut.

How does our quest for survival sometimes end up being the death of us? It’s when our biological history keeps insisting that we’re fighting for our life when, in reality, the actual threat in linear time has passed. Our brains have a habit of holding onto strategies that have proved themselves stalwart weapons in the moment only to turn into shackles impeding the march of progress the next day. Humans do it; corporations do it; nations do it.

Taking the Leap

How do we make the move from survival to creativity? Well, first we have to recognize that we’re stuck on survival level. That’s usually the hardest. That’s when we want to look around for someone or something to blame – past or present Many of us are reluctant to move off the “…but you were supposed to take care of me” piece of the healing process. Becoming aware of the fact that “where you are” is more likely “where you’ve been” is an essential first step to witnessing objective truth in the moment.

Remote Viewing calls these scenarios analytical overlays or AOL’s. It’s easier to understand the concept of what needs to be done than it is to actually train your brain not to close off the creative process of inquiry. That’s what we do when we insist on naming or labeling something or someone too quickly. I’ve found that Remote Viewing actually trains your informational processing system to behave differently. We really don’t realize how quickly that conscious part of us wants to draw conclusions. Not every embedded strategy is bad, of course. It’s the ones that don’t work any more but keep on going like the Energizer Bunny of survival mechanisms that we want to address and resource.

On a recent remote viewing journey, I was taken into a part of the matrix that is an energy stream. I saw myself lying there on the mat. The object was to surrender to the energy and have the experience. I suddenly realized that the creative force wanted to “play”. I “returned” with a feeling that creation demands a rebate. The message seemed painfully obvious and terribly simple but it was the experience of it, the embodiment of it that drove the point home: It’s not enough to be someone’s creation. At some point, you have to realize that you’re alive – you’ve made it – and you must give back in order for that creative source to survive. Making a conscious decision to move your perspective from survival to creativity is a spiritual experience that grounds your creative power in the three dimensional world.

Talia Shafir, MA, C.C. Ht. is a regression therapist and co-founder of the Center for Integrated Therapy in Sebastopol. She divides her time among a practice on both coasts which specializes in trauma and long term PTSD, teaching Remote Viewing throughout the country and running a corporate training consultancy using Improv and a variety of experiential techniques called Bizprov International.

For information about Remote Viewing lectures and trainings or therapy inquiries, call 707 829-7904 or visit the web at http://www.soulview.com

For Bizprov International inquiries: 707 829-3757 or Gobizprov@aol.com.

Codifying Creativity (By Kal Bishop)

Can we codify creativity? Within these few words are a number of principles that must be identified and resolved before we can really answer the question.

The first question is, what is creativity? What are we trying to codify?

One useful definition of creativity is that it is problem identification and idea generation. Another is the production of a number of diverse and novel ideas. Yet another is the engagement in a number of diverse and novel behaviours.

The second question is, can we measure creativity?

This is necessary, as any codifying must result in measurable change. From the above, we can see that creativity can be measured on a number of levels such as: a) we can measure the number of ideas produced and their diversity and novelty, b) the frequency of idea production over periods, c) the frequency of divergent and novel behaviours engaged in over periods or d) we can ask people to rate themselves as being creative before and after training.

The third question is, what do we mean by codify?

It means to code or organise into a systematic process. From the above, it becomes clear that codifying creativity is possible if we produce systematic processes that produce measurable change in the ways mentioned above.

Now onto the real question then. Can we codify creativity?

Well, yes. If we just set out a number of processes that produce measurable improvement in the ways described above.

What processes?

There are an infinite number and each produces it’s own set of results. By combining, mixing and rearranging, different results occur.

Simple psychological games, such as role-play, can be used. In the Journal of Psychology, businessmen were asked to rate themselves on creativity and they ranked themselves very low. Then, after asking them to pretend they were happy-go-lucky hippies, they re-rated themselves much higher.

Lateral thinking techniques can be used, where the point is to generate ideas without purpose, for the sake of generating ideas, follow seemingly nonsensical pathways and so forth. This simply maximises the quality and quantity of the idea pool.

Linking techniques can be used. Where everyday, novel and diverse objects are used to create connections with the endeavour.

What I have just done is codify creativity. Ask any group to come up with ideas related to a particular problem and they will produce a set quantity. Use the above three (each contains an infinite number of possibilities) and the group will produce more creative output.

Using and extrapolating the above principles (and using more precise techniques), I can, for example, codify processes and structures that make it possible to complete a screenplay very quickly.

The above is an incredibly general example, but you get the idea. And this small case begins to demonstrate how creativity can be made measurable, useable and tangible.

This topic is covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com. You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Should You Quit Your Job for Your Dream? (By Suzanne Falter-Barns)

The next time you’re moodily sitting in your office, wishing you were living your dream instead, answer the following questions… or answer them now! They’ll give you a sense of whether or not now’s the time to make the break.

  1. My job is making me crazy; so crazy I’d do anything to quit.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  2. If I left my job for my dream, I’m not sure what I’d do first, or even how I’d begin it.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  3. My boss runs my life … or ruins it. I feel completely misunderstood and trapped by this job. I don’t even know if I could quit – how would I survive? Who would even hire me?
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  4. I hate this job but I really need the money. I don’t see any other viable alternative.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  5. If I stay at my work just a little longer, I stand a good chance of getting a promotion and a raise. Then I could find my way clear to saving a little money for my dream.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree

    5. Yeah, I could quit my job for my dream, but I could run off to Tahiti, too. That’s way too much risk for my taste.

    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  6. My spouse/partner is okay with the thought of me quitting my job for my dream. We’ve talked it through and he/she sees it as the next thing I need to do.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  7. My spouse/partner fully understands what life will be like when I make the leap to begin my dream. He/she will be there for me, emotionally and even financially if necessary.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  8. I have a business plan for my dream all organized and ready to go. I’ve even scoped out sources for capital, and necessary space and materials to get to work.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree
  9. I have a savings account for my dream with enough to get started, plus an emergency savings account worth 6 months of my general living expenses. I’ve also scoped out alternatives to my current health care and insurance.
    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree

    10. I’ve been developing a systematic plan for leaving my job for a while now… I feel I’m almost ready to go.

    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree

    11. I have an adequate support system in place to really help me move ahead with my dream. It includes good friends and advisors, adequate child or elder care, a supportive spouse, and even a coach or mentor.

    1. Highly agree
    2. Mildly agree
    3. Don’t really agree
    4. Strongly disagree

If you answered mostly a) and b) to questions 1-4, you’re stuck. Your job has forced you to forget about essential pieces of yourself – it’s time to get some career coaching now.

If you answered mostly a) and b) to questions 5 & 6, you’re a borderline case. You haven’t yet decided whether your dream is all that important to the quality of your life. Just an experiment, you might want to sit with a blank piece of paper and really brainstorm what it would be like to live your dream.

If you answered mostly a) and b) to questions 7-11… what are you waiting for? You’ve got a plan, you’ve set up the necessary support and you’re good to go; you should be able to weather the inevitable ups and downs. Be sure to allow your company enough notice to make the transition smoothly, so you can leave with glowing reviews. Congratulations!

Copyright 2004 Suzanne Falter-Barns

About The Author

Suzanne Falter-Barns is an expert on creativity, and the author of two best sellers on creativity. Her website, howmuchjoy.com, and her ezine, The Joy Letter, have been featured in SELF, Fitness, i-village, cybergrrl, and on msn.com among others. To learn more about finding the time, money and energy to live your dream, check out our free ezine, The Joy Letter, at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/joyletter.html

Creativity Myths (By Kal Bishop)

Sustained myths about Creativity and Innovation lead to confusion, bad practice and bad decision making. Some of them include:

1. Creativity requires Creative Types

While some theorists assert that there are creativity traits such as tolerance for ambiguity and intolerance to conformity, these assertions are countered by the fact that traits are hard to identify and are not stable nor transferable across situations. Further, motivation is a critical factor. Additionally, creativity is a cognitive process and thus measurements like “she looks creative” are poor benchmarks. All the research shows that everyone can produce novel, useful, varied, diverse ideas and looking for certain types to come up with them reduces total valuable output.

2. Money is the best Motivator

Material reward is a synergistic extrinsic motivator. That means that it is a factor that enhances intrinsic motivation but may not in itself cause maximum creative effort and output – there are at least six other motivators that are as valuable. Additionally, the exact level of material reward very positively correlates to that received by peer groups.

3. Time Pressure drives Creativity

Yes and no. There are at least three conflicting forces:

a) Time pressure increases creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a “do your best” approach is taken. This action benefits from the positives of prolific production and other processes.

b) Time pressure may be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator. It reduces the level of engagement in the endeavour and inhibits intrinsic motivation.

c) Short-term time pressure does not allow the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation.

4. Competition outperforms Collaboration

Competition causes many people to shut down and introduces many negatives such as core and peripheral groups, politicking and restriction of information. Collaboration, on the other hand, allows the intellectual cross pollination that is the raw material for good idea generation.

5. Creativity and Innovation can be used interchangeably

The terms Creativity and Innovation are often used interchangeably but they are, in fact, separate and distinct. Creation can be described as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation is idea selection, development and commercialisation. The distinctions alone lead to numerous conclusions. Among them is the fact that:

a) Creativity and Innovation leaders require at least six different competencies (including one holistic) to even begin Managing Creativity and Innovation (actually, many more are needed).

b) Both Creativity and Innovation require different structures, processes and skill sets.

c) Workshop facilitators should split sessions into distinct parts and formulate frameworks and processes to maximise output at each level.

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These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased at http://www.managing-creativity.com

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as the author's name, web address and link to MBA dissertation is retained.

Kal Bishop MBA
Kal is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller.

Magic In Your Spice Rack (By Samantha Stevens)

Variety is the spice of life, but spices, historically are the stuff of magic! A spell, after all is really just a recipe and traditionally many of them involve plant life or herbs. Magic doesn't have to be complicated to work. In fact the simplest spells sometimes work best of all, because they most resemble an innocent wish and the doer is not attached to the outcome. Check out the magickal uses of some of these very common spices, which are found in almost everybody's spice rack or kitchen cupboard at home.

CINNAMON: Cinnamon is practically one of the most useful spices in practical magic and is used for purification, blessings, prosperity, protection and improved communication. Sprinkling a little cinnamon on your toast or your cafe latte in the morning may help to improve business. To protect yourself from gossip or the envy of others, place a tiny dot of cinnamon on your breast bone in the morning while dressing. Sprinkling a little cinnamon under the phone, may help you get that difficult person to call you back. Sucking on a cinnamon flavored candy before you need to make a presentation or a speech, can help you be more eloquent (as the spice is ruled by Mercury.) The next time you wash the floor, add a dash of cinnamon to the pail to increase business.

GINGER: Ginger is used to speed things up. Next time you do your floor, add a little ginger and cinnamon to the water in the pail to make your own "Fast Luck in a Hurry" floor-wash. A little sprinkled under the phone may cause that important call to come faster, but don't use too much ... it can also cause a heated exchange or an argument. A mixture of ginger, cinnamon, crushed dried rose petals and coffee, placed under your mattress is said to spice up your sex life.

SALT: Salt has been used for ages to purify spaces and prevent negative energies from entering your home. If you feel like you are under attack, try sprinkling a little in all four corners of the house for protection. Taking a bath in salt is said to purify the aura.

BASIL: Said to be ruled by Mars, Basil is said to have a protective and cleansing influence. If you have had contact with someone who you dislike and whose negative energy seems to be hanging around, a bit of basil, steeped in warm water and drunk like a tea or mixed with tobacco and burned on the tip of cigarette is said to drive the obnoxious influence away. Basil sprinkled near the front door is said to bring you money.

BAY LEAF: Aside from seasoning stew, the Bay leaf can also be used for granting wishes. Write your wish on a piece of paper and then fold it into thirds, after placing three bay leaves inside. Fold the paper again into thirds. Once the wish is granted, the paper and bay leaves should be burned as a thank you. Bathing in bay leaves (add nine of them) is said to bring you fame and glory.

MARJORAM: Marjoram can be used to clear negative thought forms from your home. Sprinkle it on the floor and let it sit awhile (like astral baking soda) to absorb the bad energy and then with a broom sweep the negative vibes out the front door.

MINT: If you need to sparkle in a crowd, charm, woo or sell something, trying nibbling on a little mint or drinking mint tea before you do your presentation. However, if that is too archaic for you, sucking on a spearmint-flavored Tic Tac will do the trick as well.

PARSLEY: Need some cold hard cash? Make a tea out of dried parsley by boiling a teaspoon of the dried herb and adding it to a cup of boiled water. Either add it to your bath or put it in an atomizer. The idea is to sprinkle or spray the parsley water in a clockwise direction in your house to raise your money drawing vibration.

ROSEMARY: Rosemary is a protective herb and the whole needles can be sprinkled around the perimeter of a house for protection. If you like antiques, but are worried about the vibe of the previous owner of what you bought, a wash made of one teaspoon of the dried herb to one cup of boiling water can be used to purify the object from the energies of its past owners.

SAGE: Sage is an herb of wisdom. A tea made from a teaspoon of sage and a cup of boiling water can be added to the bath-tub or sprinkled throughout the house to help destroy illusions and raise mental clarity. You can also buy it commercially, in tea bags, and drink it to help improve your memory while studying for tests.

Samantha Steven's articles have been published in many high-standing newspapers and she has published several books. If you wish to buy Samantha's books about metaphysics click herehttp://www.insomniacpress.com/author.php?id=110You can meet Samantha Stevens at http://www.psychicrealm.com where she works as a professional psychic. You can also read more of her articles at http://www.newagenotebook.com

Creative Thinking versus Critical Thinking (By Kal Bishop)

The process of creative thinking is often, mistakenly, intertwined with critical thinking. There is a tendency to write and edit simultaneously, couple hypothesis generation and evaluation, combine problem identification with solution.

To increase effectiveness, one should first apply creative thought, which is meant to be daring, uninhibited, free-spirited, imaginative, unpredictable, and revolutionary. The trick is to ignore content and maximise the size and richness of the idea pool.

Second, critical thinking is exercised to achieve applied creativity. This is reductive, logical, focused, conservative, practical and feasible. During this stage, the idea pool is reduced to achievable, appropriate ideas.

Now onto the Idea Pool itself:

Maximising the size and richness of the idea pool is a conscious process that has a lot in common with a) lateral thinking and b) the elicitation of tacit knowledge. It is the pre-critical thinking phase and some elements include:

a) Coming up with ideas for the sake of generating ideas.

b) Using a variety of stimuli and frameworks to open up as many pathways as possible.

c) Not having a conscious direction.

d) Not stopping when a goal seems fulfilled.

e) Consciously stimulating change in direction.

In short, the key principle is to produce first and scrutinize second – writing and rewriting are two separate processes. This applies across the board, from business problem solving to arts such as screenwriting. The more people try to understand meaning, the less they produce.

Kal Bishop, MBA,
http://www.managing-creativity.com

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK and founder of http://www.managing-creativity.com. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led improv workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. Kal regularly conducts workshops and presentations in London and can be reached via kalB@managing-creativity.com.