The Process of Developing Individual and Team Creativity - Essay Example

Developing individual and team creativity Name: Institution: Developing individual and team creativity Part 1 – Reflective diary Right brain, left brain, whole brain thinking This session was all about explaining about creativity and how it is affected by the right brain and the left brain theory. It started with explaining the meaning of creativity, creativity killers, the left and the right brain, the whole brain, and the implications for practice. Basically, creativity is the way through which an individual can turn new and imaginative ideas into becoming a reality. The first process becoming creative is thinking and then the second process is producing. Creative thinking is affected by how the brain works. There are two parts of the brain; the right and the left brain. Left brain-right brain theory explains that each side controls different kinds of thinking. The right brain controls objectives, logic, and analysis while the left brain is subjective, thoughtful and intuitive. Roger W. Sperry discovered that some of the skills found on the left brain included writing skills, language, and mathematics skills while on the right brain they included art, music, and insight. However, in order to be rightfully functional, we need to apply whole brain thinking, which develops innovation and creativity. This session was educative and one of its benefits is that it helped in opening up of many students minds. It is good not to depend only on one part of the brain because you will be misled. Out of this session, one can develop new levels of creativity and thinking and being able to produce certain things from one’s thoughts (Shneiderman 2005). Exploring me and creativity During this session we were to use business model you canvas and mind mapping in order to explore oneself and creativity. The aim of this is to acquire new creative techniques and develop the knowledge of creative self and one’s value in the world today. Mind mapping helps an individual to develop new ways of learning by opening the mind into new ways of thinking. Developing a mind maps shows a reflection of how the brain is function, and thus one can make several adjustments to the creativity demonstrated in the maps. One has to apply some basic principles of mind mapping in order to come out successfully. One of the main principles is to define the central idea, which gives the information on what the mind map is all about. To improve on understanding, there is need to include images to the mind maps. These images must be related to the information one is conveying in the mind map. The other way of exploring an individual’s creativity is through the business model you. Before a person can start selling his or her ideas, he or she must fully understand who they are. In the personal business model, the main asset is you and by developing this model, it will help in defining oneself as the key resource to the model. By using the above two techniques, mind maps and business model you, a person is able to define his or her own strengths on the roles aimed. The challenge comes when an individual is not able to define who they truly are and their creative abilities (Shneiderman 2005). The buzz behind the business Throughout this session, the main aim was to increase the knowledge of students by providing new skills that increase one’s employability. The secrete behind the success of any business is the creativity of an individual and of the team as a whole. The uncertainty and volatility of today’s business environment pushes for both individual and team abilities in order to come up with something novel. The whole session covered game-storming, how to challenge our perceptions, divergent thinking, and connections and creativity in relation to the right brain, left brain and the whole brain thinking. To be creative, you have to break away from the established patterns so that you will be able to look at things in a different perspective. In addition, utilizing the knowledge of how the brain works, a person can improve on their creativity. For instance, the left part of the brain deals with rational thinking, while the right side deals only with emotions. The session was very helpful in helping a person realize how he or she can make use of how the brain works in order to be innovative and creative. Working as a team is also a key aspect in business since it brings different ideas together for a common goal. One of the constraints in this session was the difficult in determining how one could focus more on one part of the brain in order to improve on creativity and innovation in business. However, as a successful businessman, there is a great need to apply such aspects in order to gain new skills. Introductory workshops exploring creativity Creativity has been the main reason behind so many innovations and developments that have taken place over the past decades. The most successful and famous people in history rose to their positions because of their creativity. The session’s main aim was to work in groups in order to enhance creativity. Group communications, formation, and contract were formed and activated. Ladder and location analyses were then used to analyse the level of creativity of each groups formed. Doing this was of great help because each group was able to determine their weaknesses and strengths in terms of creativity. Some of the basic rules one need to apply to be creative includes doing more than what is specified for you, trying to do new things, teaching others about what you already know, and loving what you do. The session was helpful both at an individual and the group level since we were able to explore on creativity. It is out of creativity that international businessmen are able to maintain their position as they develop more creative ways of conducting business. When an individual develops skills on creativity, he or she becomes very competitive in the market. Both ladder and location analyses can also be used for individual businesses on order to determine their levels of creativity. However, it is good to consider the how one can explore individual creativity from the above group creativity analysis. Challenging our perceptions systems thinking The basis of this session was to look at system thinking and how it works towards successful creative thinking. Once Robert Einstein stated that ‘the problems we have created in the world today will not be solved by the level of thinking that created them.’ System thinking is important since it helps an individual to deeply explore the situation at hand including your own perceptions and those of others. A system thinker sees the whole picture instead of the part of the picture, he or she is able to see the main causes and effects of relationships, and is ready to tackle the consequences. System thinking is one aspect that an individual who want to outdo the rest should not lack. System thinking helps one to see at the future and to determine the factors that can affect the business. Rich pictures and mind maps are perfect tools for stimulating creativity in thinking. They help in generating more ideas, improving one’s memory, making new connections and using the whole brain. The main challenge is, however, being able to come up with good rich pictures and mind maps. The benefits of the two methods surpass the disadvantages since at the end one is able to look at the bigger picture. Part 2 – Creative portfolio Business achievement in the 21st century lives in the capacity to lead innovatively and creatively. Opening imaginative potential is key to monetary development, yet not very many CEOs say their organization is great at innovativeness. The vast majority in business think creativity is a baffling ability saved for the chosen few (Adair 2007). Inventiveness workshops for business will help you split the innovativeness code and succeed at development. Creativity is an expertise you can create with practice, and a methodology you can oversee. Some of the ways in which one can enhance creativity and innovation is through development of the mind-set, toolsets, and skill-sets of the successful people in the business industry. Additionally, exploring some thinking strategies of innovators in business and applying them in the everyday work has proved to be a reliable method. Another aspect is to experiment the ideas in an inspiring and action filled environment. Activities that involve painting, storytelling, drawing, and improvisation create a friendly and lively atmosphere that trigger senses and encourages taking creative risks. Other skills such as generation of ideas, collaboration, creativity and idea generation are helpful enhancing innovation. Creative workshops can give precious bits of knowledge into individuals' points of view on specific issues. What's more they offer a setting where this information is imparted when it is accumulated. Organizing sessions that include distinctive individuals from a few diverse foundations, however, is something that needs watchful planning. This instrument gives an agenda to planning your session adequately, helping you to capitalize on the gathering motion (Creativity at Work. 2014). While creating the mind maps rich pictures, and personal business model canvas, there are several fundamental steps that I followed. For the mind map, it was important to first start with my main subject of the map, which was represented by a diagram. After setting up the main subject, I used both pictures and words throughout the map describing more about my main idea or subject. The main subject in the mind map was creativity in business that enhances innovation. Therefore, all the pictures and the words I used were related to my main theme or subject of creativity and innovation in business. The lines in the mind maps show the relationship between ideas and the main subject of the map. Ideas in a mind map radiate from the main theme and the main branches. I made sure the mind map was big enough in order to fit the wide range of ideas and opinions concerning the central ideas. Personal business model, on the other hand, had sections like the mind map but the content was different. The main components of the model include the key partners, main activities, value propositions, resources channels, customer relationships, customer segments, revenue structures, and cost structure. All these components will give a complete personal model of the business. The most important segment in the model is section of the key partners of the business. Without partners the business cannot exist. However, the other components play an important role in the model as well. About the partners, the model describes the parties that help the business provide value, whether the partners supply key resources to the business, and how they support the business in other means. The use of rich pictures is a way of improving the understanding of the reader about a certain concept. The mind of the human being prefers pictures to writings. They appear appealing to the eyes. Therefore, creating rich pictures that communicate the main ideas about creativity and innovation enhances the understanding of the reader. In addition, they improve a person’s ability to be able to think creatively and innovatively. The pictures used had to be related to the main theme, lest they would not bring out the intended message. Rich pictures also makes reading fun and one cannot be put off while reading a certain comprehension. They are, thus, very useful in putting across the intended message to the readers. The workshop on creativity was very inspiring and helpful in helping students engage in creative innovations. A good workshop on creativity, therefore, promotes rigorous research methods. Similarly, they increase the ambitiousness of the research programs. With good creative skills, innovation becomes easier, and in turn, the success of the business becomes more real. Competition in the market also increases, which opens doors for the success of the business. Business should encourage innovation, and the only way they can so this is through creativity among the employees. The workshop on creativity, thus, explains how creativity can be enhanced, and that is through the use of mind maps, rich pictures and personal business models. All these help an individual to be able to evaluate themselves and reveal their potentials in carrying out different tasks (Paulus & Nijstad 2003). The three approaches to creativity and innovation are the some of the best ways of encouraging innovation in any business. When using mind maps, rich pictures, or personal business models, helps individual to have a good plan on how to attain the main objectives. Rich pictures and mind maps enhance one’s ability to understand certain concepts and, thus, provide solutions to the problems that arise. Providing solutions is creativity while coming up with more efficient methods is innovation. Nevertheless, business individuals should become aware of the creativity killers who instead of being optimistic, they are extremely pessimistic. Creativity killers are there to discourage one from making the innovations real. Developing individual and team creativity is, therefore, not a simple task. A person has to endure the entire hurdles that come to kill the innovative and creative ideas. Cultivating those ideas will depend on one’s ability and aggressiveness towards achieving them. The human brain is critical in making enhancing creativity and innovation. Therefore, people should seek to know how the human brain works in terms of the right, left and the use of the whole brain. System thinking should also be incorporated in this aspect. Rene Descartes puts it that ‘we do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.’ (Lau, 2013). Therefore, the way we think about things in life determines the outcomes of those things. Business people have to be optimistic and apply system thinking in order to attain major business objectives. References ADAIR, J. E. (2007). The art of creative thinking: how to be innovative and develop great ideas. London, Kogan Page. Creativity at Work. (2014). Creativity workshops for business. Retrieved on 19th November 2014 from http://www.creativityatwork.com/creativity-workshops-for-business/ LAU, J. Y. F. (2013). An introduction to critical thinking and creativity think more, think better. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://rbdigital.oneclickdigital.com. PAULUS, P. B., & NIJSTAD, B. A. (2003). Group creativity innovation through collaboration. New York, Oxford University Press. http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=13726. SHNEIDERMAN, B. (2005). Workshop on creativity support tools. Retrieved on 19th November 2014 from http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/CST/ Read More