Creativity in workplace

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS
P.A. 202
DANES C. GANANCIAL
Reporter
MELBA B. SULLIVAN, Ph.D.
Professor

"Creativity is the ability to respond to all that goes on
around us, to choose from the hundreds of
possibilities of thought, feeling, action, and reaction
that arise within us, and to put these together in a
unique response, expression, or message that carries
moment, passion, and meaning.”
- Picture Colo- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Woman Who Run With
the Wolves

“We need a new frame of reference in which to
picture ourselves growing and recognizing how the
confluence of inner resources and life circumstances
can present us with opportunities to revive our lives
in meaningful, satisfying ways.”
- Gene D. Cohen (2000), The Creative Age, p. 77

CREATIVITY
 Although there are many approaches about
creativity, it is commonly defined as a mental process,
which involves the generation of new ideas or new
associations of the creative mind between existing
concepts. An alternative conception of creativity is
that it is simply the act of making something new.
 Even when creativity is popularly associated with
art and literature, it is also an essential part of
innovation and invention and is important in
professions such as business, economics, architecture,
industrial design, science and engineering.

Creativity n.
— creative ability; artistic or intellectual
inventiveness

— having the power to create; pertaining to
creation; inventive; productive (of) as in a
creative mind
Creative adj.

Create v.t.
— to originate; to bring into being from
nothing

Definition (process)
 “A creator [must] claim appreciators or
admirers to be legitimatized as a true
creator.” Simonton, 1990
 “The intersection of two ideas for the
first time” Keep, cited in Taylor, 1988
 “By this term, it means ability to think
outside the box, create something new
and find solutions to problems.”

Definition (originality)
 Creativity "is the skill of bringing about
something new and valuable." Young (1985,
p.85)
 “Creativity is the process of bringing
something new into birth.” (May, 1959)
 “The ability to relate and to connect,
sometimes in odd and striking fashion, lies at
the heart of any creative use of the mind, no
matter what field or discipline.” (Siedel,
1962)

THREE DOMAINS OF CREATIVITY
 Art (ah!) as in beauty
 Discovery (aha!) as in
enlightenment.
 Humor (haha!) as in joyful
pleasure.

Left Brain, Right Brain
 Nobel Prize-winning psychobiologist Roger Sperry
showed that:
Each hemisphere of the brain processed different types
of information.
• Broadly put, the left brain is the objective,
analytical, logical half of the brain, looking at
information sequentially and focusing on individual
parts rather than on the whole.
• The right brain, on the other hand, is the subjective,
intuitive, playful part of the brain; it looks at
information in a more random fashion, seeing the
whole rather than the parts.

CREATIVE THINKING
 is the process, which we use when we
come up with a new idea. It is divided
into divergent and convergent
reasoning.

CREATIVE THINKING STYLES
DIVERGENT THINKING
• Think around or away
from the problem
• Discontinuity / break
‘Dig another hole’
• Spontaneous, informal,
random
• Remove constraints
Unconscious processes
CONVERGENT THINKING
• Think through or into
the problem
• Continuity / evolution
• ‘Dig a deeper hole’
• Systematic, formal,
focused
• Work within
constraints
• Conscious processes

Creative thinking styles
Divergent thinking
is the intellectual ability to think of many original,
diverse, and elaborate ideas.
Convergent thinking
is the intellectual ability to logically evaluate, critique
and choose the best idea from a selection of ideas.

These are two mutually exclusive mental activities
Diverging and Converging

Joined up thinking
Capacity to move between thinking styles
 Tolerance for contradictions: ‘ego
strength’
 Putting together habitually disconnected
frames of references – ‘bisociation’
 Creative process is not chaotic, but finds
transition points between order and
chaos

Creativity and the Value Chain

Flow
 (Autotelic experience) occurs when
people experience a state of effortless
concentration and enjoyment

PHASES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Preparation (phase one)
• The individual learns about the problem.
• This includes understanding the elements of
the problem and how they relate to each
other.
• It may include looking at the problem from
different perspectives or asking other
people what they know or think about the
problem.

Incubation (phase two)
• In this stage, the prepared decision maker
explores a multitude of different paths
toward new alternatives.
o Production or generation of new
alternatives

Illumination (phase three)
 This is the instant of becoming aware of
a new candidate solution to a problem,
that flash of insight when all the pieces
come together, either spontaneously or as
the result of careful study and work.

Verification (phase four)
 In the final step the decision maker must
verify that the candidate solution does in fact
have merit.

Three definitions of creativity
Process
Tolerating contradictions + Bisociative thinking
Content
Innovation + Value
Outcomes
Transformation + Rethinking
(From Bilton and Cummings, Creative Strategy
(forthcoming)

Types of Creativity
The 4 P’s
 Person
 Process
 Product
 Place (or environment)

Place (or environment)
Workplace

 Aware of Creativeness
 Original
 Independent
 Risk Taking
 Energetic
 Curious
 Humorous
 Attracted to Complexity
 Artistic
 Open-Minded
 Needs Alone Time
 Perceptive
Creative People:
Creative
Characteristics

BEING CREATIVE
"Being creative is seeing the same
thing as everybody else but thinking of
something different”.

Only if you are able to view things in new ways or
from a different perspective and to generate new
possibilities or new alternatives you can be a creative
person. The characteristics of the creative
personality are:

The characteristics of the
creative personality are
 Creative individuals not only have a great deal of
energy, but they are also quiet.
 Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also
naive at the same time.
 Creative individuals alternate between
imagination and reality.
 Even if creative individuals are remarkable
humble, they are proud at the same time.
 Most creative people are very passionate about
their work, yet they can be extremely objective
about it as well.
 Creative individuals have a combination of or
responsibility and irresponsibility.

PRODUCT
What makes a product, service, process or
procedure innovative? It is useful to think of
product/service as a collection of consumer
benefits – technical, non-technical and
attitudinal

Creative Product
 Convergent Thinking (left brain)
 Divergent Thinking (right brain)
• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration

Creative Product
• Convergent Thinking (left brain)
• Divergent Thinking (right brain)
• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration

Fluency
 refers to the production of a great number of ideas or
alternate solutions to a problem. Fluency implies
understanding, not just remembering information
that is learned.
Keywords: Compare, convert, count, define, describe,
explain, identify, label, list, match, name, outline,
paraphrase, predict, summarize.

Flexibility
 refers to the production of ideas that show a variety
of possibilities or realms of thought. It involves the
ability to see things from different points of view, to
use many different approaches or strategies.
Keywords: Change, demonstrate, distinguish, employ,
extrapolate, interpolate, interpret, predict.

Originality
 involves the production of ideas that are unique or
unusual. It involves synthesis or putting information
about a topic back together in a new way.
Keywords: Compose, create, design, generate, integrate,
modify, rearrange, reconstruct, reorganize, and revise.

Elaboration
 is the process of enhancing ideas by providing more
detail. Additional detail and clarity improves interest
in, and understanding of, the topic.
Keywords: Appraise, critique, determine, evaluate,
grade, judge, measure, select, and test.

Creative Process
 Combinations of two ideas that
are unrelated
 Torrance’s Definition
 Creative Problem Solving (CPS)
 Brainstorming

Torrance’s Definition
“I have tried to describe creative thinking as
taking place in the process of
(1) sensing difficulties…(2) making
guesses/formulating hypotheses…(3) testing
these guesses and possibly revising (4)
communicating the results. I like this definition
because it describes a natural process” (1995)

Creative Problem Solving (CPS)
CPS MODEL (sometimes without first step)
• Mess finding (locating a problem)
• Fact finding (examine what you know)
• Problem finding (select a definition)
• Idea finding (brainstorming)
• Solution finding (evaluating ideas)
• Acceptance finding (implementing ideas)

Brainstorming
• As much as you can as fast as you can
• Piggyback on the ideas of others
• Don’t judge yourself or others
• Wild, wacky, zany is desired

Brainstorming Rules
Expressiveness - Say whatever ideas come
to mind without focusing on constraints
Non-evaluation - No criticism allowed; all
are valuable
Quantity - Produce as many ideas as
possible
Building - Expand on other people’s ideas

Brain Writing
• Hybrid of both individual and
group brainstorming
• Produces more ideas than
• brainstorming

CAN YOU TEACH CREATIVITY??
(It depends on your definition)
1990’s change to Bloom’s Taxonomy
(Reflects the relevance to 21st century skills)

Everyday Creativity
Nine Key Concepts:
 Creativity is the ability to look at the
ordinary and see the … extraordinary.
 Every act can be a creative one.
 Creativity is a matter of perspective.
 There’s always more than one right
answer.
 Reframe problems into opportunities.
 Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
 Break the pattern.
 Train your technique.
 You’ve got to really care.
- (Dewitt Jones)

- Ruth Richards
"Everyday creativity is about everyone,
throughout our lives, and fundamental to our
very survival...With our everyday creativity, we
adapt flexibly, we improvise, we try different
options.”

- Davis, 2004
“Creativeness is not identical to mentally-
healthy self-actualization; however, it is an
important component. Further, the more you
come to define creativity as a lifestyle — a way
of living and perceiving—the greater is the
overlap.”
“We know this—everyone can increase his or
her creative capability.”

Final thoughts…
 Many definitions of creativity add to
the richness and confusion
surrounding the topic
 Creativity can be encouraged and
aspects can be taught
 Creative people go through a creative
process to produce creative products
in a creative press
 Cultivate the creative ideas of others
- (Bleadow, 2002)

“Above all, watch with glittering
eyes the whole world around you,
because the greatest secrets are
always hidden in the most unlikely
place. Those who don’t believe in
magic will never find it.”

What is Creativity?
• It is the reorganization of experience into new
configurations.
• A function of knowledge, imagination, and evaluation

Creativity in Management:
Paradoxical thinking

What is creativity?
The ‘industrial’ definition
(DCMS):
• Individual creativity, skill and talent.
• Potential for wealth and job creation
• Generation and exploitation of intellectual
property
• Implications (‘the myth of genius’)
• Emphasis on individual talent (myth of
genius)
• Wealth and jobs (economic rationality)
• Value chain – content is king, task
specialization

Beyond Innovation
o Innovation + Value / fitness for
purpose
o Ideas are not enough
o Multiplicity
o Stages in the process
o Members of the team
o From ideas to intellectual property
o Beyond the myth of genius
Management / strategy as a creative process
Creativity as a managed / strategic process

Uncreative management
Career specialization
o Education
o Career paths
Organisational specialization
o Task specialization, especially as
organisations grow
–‘creatives vs. suits’
o ‘Buffering’ the creative process: ‘talent
silos’
o Separation of ‘strategic’ and ‘operational’
roles
o Value chain specialization…

Rethinking ‘creatives vs. suits’
 Kirton’s ‘Adapters and
Innovators’
 Mixing not matching
 De Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’
 Thinking outside the role
 Bilton & Leary
 Management as talent
broker

Rethinking ‘creative individuals’
The comfort zone: unmanageable creative
and uncreative managers
Mutual stereotyping which supports task
specialization and allows us to feel
superior
The Dorian Gray Effect: avoiding our own
reflections

Creative management
Process: paradoxical thinking, tolerating
contradictions
- Honda
Content: innovation + valuable (valuable
innovation)
- Marks & Spencer
Outcome: transformation and rethinking
- Cirque du Soleil

Creativity and Innovation
 Innovation vs. creativity
• Creativity = the idea
• Innovation = putting into place
• Innovation essential to establish and
maintain competitive advantage
• New approaches
• Options for adaptation

Creative Personality
• An ability to generate large
number of ideas
• To give different perspective
• Unusual Novel answer
• Ability to handle ambiguity
• Intellectual abilities
• Adequate knowledge
• Confidence

Learning to Be More Creative
Mental Locks That Block Creativity - Von Oech’s Ten Block
 The Right Answer - Looking for the “right” answer.
 That’s Not Logical - Always trying to be logical.
 Follow The Rules - Strictly following the rules.
 Be Practical - Insist on being practical.
 Play Is Frivolous - Not having serious purpose or value.
 That’s Not My Area - Becoming too specialized.
 Don’t Be Foolish - Not wanting to look foolish.
 Avoid Ambiguity - Avoiding ambiguity or lack of
commitment.
 To Err Is Wrong
 I’m Not Creative - Saying, “I’m not creative.

For Discussion: Which of these
mental locks typically stifle your
own creativity? What can you
do to avoid them?

Creativity: why promote it?
 Leads to more rigorous and critical thinking
 Objectives are achieved more readily
 Increases motivation, deep concentration
and engagement
 Improves relationships
 Develops the talent of the individual
 Develops skills for adult life – adaptability,
coping with uncertainty and change

Stages Of Creativity
Exploring: Questioning and challenging
Inventing: Making significant
connections
Selecting: Playing with ideas, keeping
options open
Implementation: Applying learning in
new ways and contexts
Evaluation: Evaluating ideas and actions

Enhancing Creativity
• How to develop your Creativity
Tools for Developing Creativity
o The Global Brain: Internet, Blog, and
Wikipedia
• The Local Brain: Brain storming
• The Individual Brain: Eating,
Drinking, Playing, Exercising,
Sleeping

Tips on Enhancing Creativity
• Always keep a notepad around to write
down your thoughts.
Even at night, write down what one
can remember from my dreams.
• Always keep the computer handy so that
you can enter well developed thoughts
from your notepad.
• Whenever feasible, get on the Internet to
do a search to find related ideas.

-Newspapers and magazines offer
important clues.
-To invent, you need a good
imagination and a pile of junk.

Creativity Techniques
 Fluent and flexible thinking
 Idea checklists (Alex F Osborn)
(Add, Subtract, Alter, Rearrange,
Adapt, Magnify, Opposite, Minify)

Other, Alternative
• Brainstorming (Alex F Osborn)
• Synectics (W J J Gordan)
• Delphi Method
• Six thinking Hats (Dr. Edward De Bono)
White- Information; Green-Alternatives; Yellow –
benefits; Black- Judgment; Red – Emotions; Blue-
Control
• Morphological (Fritz Zwicky) – 3 to the power 3
• Mind Mapping (Tony Buzan)
• Lateral thinking (Edward De Bono)
• Guided Visualization
(Chris Musselwhite and Cheryl De Ciantis)

Brainstorming
 is a lateral thinking process. It asks
that people come up with ideas
and thoughts even if it seem at
first to be a bit shocking or crazy.
You can then change and improve
them into ideas that are useful,
and often stunningly original.

Synectics
 is a problem solving methodology that
stimulates thought processes of which
the subject may be unaware.
 The name Synectics comes from the
Greek and means, "the joining
together of different and apparently
irrelevant elements.

Synectics
 The process was derived from tape-
recording (initially audio, later video)
meetings, analysis of the results and
experiments with alternative ways of
dealing with the obstacles to success
in the meeting. "Success" was defined
as getting a creative solution that the
group was committed to implement.

Synectics research has three
main assumptions:
• The creative process can be described
and taught;
• Invention processes in arts and
sciences are analogous and are driven
by the same "psychic" processes;
• Individual and group creativity are
analogous.

Delphi Method
 is a structured communication
technique, originally developed as a
systematic, interactive forecasting
method which relies on a panel of
experts. The experts answer
questionnaires in two or more rounds.
After each round, a facilitator provides
an anonymous summary of the experts’
forecasts from the previous round as
well as the reasons they provided for
their judgments.

Delphi Method
 Thus, experts are encouraged to
revise their earlier answers in light of
the replies of other members of their
panel. It is believed that during this
process the range of the answers will
decrease and the group will converge
towards the "correct" answer.

The six thinking hats
 While using this technique, you can
see different alternatives to get the
best solution to solve a problem. Your
decisions and plans will mix ambition,
skill in execution, sensitivity, creativity
and good contingency planning.

Morphological
 is actually a group of methods that share the same
structure. This method breaks down a system,
product or process into its essential sub-concepts,
each concept representing a dimension in a multi-
dimensional matrix. Thus, every product is
considered as a bundle of attributes. New ideas
are found by searching the matrix for new
combination of attributes that do not yet exist. It
doesn’t provide any specific guidelines for
combining the parameters. It tends to provide a
large number of ideas.

Mind Mapping
 graphical technique for visualizing
connections between several ideas or
pieces of information. Each idea or fact
is written down and then linked by
lines or curves to its major or minor
(or following or previous) idea or fact,
thus creating a web of relationships.

Mind Mapping
 Mind mapping is used in note taking,
brainstorming, problem solving, and
project planning. Like other mapping
techniques its purpose is to focus
attention, and to capture and frame
knowledge to facilitate sharing of ideas
and concepts.

Guided imagery or
visualization:
 Imagery is the most fundamental
language we have. Everything you do,
the mind processes through images.
When we recall events from our past
or childhood, we think of pictures,
images, sounds, pain, etc. It is hardly
ever be through words.

Guided imagery or
visualization:
 Unfortunately, many of the images
popping into our heads do more harm
than good. In fact, the most common
type of imagery is worry. Being
worrying, what we worry about exists
only in our imaginations.

Guided imagery or
visualization:
 One of the main things his research
showed was that almost all of the
world-class athletes and other peak
performers are visualizers. They see it;
they feel it; they experience it before
they actually do it. They begin with the
end in mind.

Guided imagery or
visualization:
 You can do it in every area of your life.
Before a performance, a sales
presentation, a difficult confrontation,
or the daily challenge of meeting a
goal, see it clearly, vividly, relentlessly,
over and over again. Create an internal
"comfort zone." Then, when you get
into the situation, it isn't foreign. It
doesn't scare you.

Lateral thinking
 Recognizes that our brains are
pattern recognition systems, and
that they do not function like
computers. It takes years of
training before we learn to do
simple arithmetic – something
that computers do very easily

Lateral thinking
 On the other hand, we can instantly
recognize patterns such as faces,
language, and handwriting. The only
computers that begin to be able to do
these things do it by modeling the way
that human brain cells work. Even then,
computers will need to become more
powerful before they approach our
ability to handle patterns.

Lateral thinking
 The benefit of good pattern recognition is
that we can recognize objects and situations
very quickly. Imagine how much time would
be wasted if you had to do a full analysis
every time you came across a cylindrical
canister of effervescent fluid. Most people
would just open their can of fizzy drink.
Without pattern recognition we would
starve or be eaten. We could not cross the
road safely.

Lateral thinking
 Unfortunately, we get stuck in our
patterns. We tend to think within
them. Solutions we develop are
based on previous solutions to
similar problems. Normally it does
not occur to us to use solutions
belonging to other patterns.

Lateral thinking
 We use lateral thinking techniques
to break out of this patterned way
of thinking.
 Lateral thinking techniques help us
to come up with startling, brilliant
and original solutions to problems
and opportunities.

Lateral thinking
 It is important to point out that each
type of approach has its strength.
Logical, disciplined thinking is
enormously effective in making
products and services better. It can,
however, only go so far before all
practical improvements have been
carried out.

Lateral thinking
 Lateral thinking can generate
completely new concepts and ideas,
and brilliant improvements to
existing systems. In the wrong
place, however, it can be sterile or
unnecessarily disruptive.

Creativity Stimulation
Techniques
 Reverse Brain storming
 Creative Overloading
 Creative benchmarking
 Creative thinking network
 Stakeholder Council
 Creative Scenario building
 Exnovation
 Creativity Training

Determinants of
Organizational Creativity
Five major organizational factors that enhance
creativity in a work environment:
 Organizational climate
Leadership style
Organizational culture
Resources and skills
The structure and systems of
an organization

MANAGING CREATIVITY
AND INNOVATION

Innovation
– is the implementation of new ideas at
the individual, group or organizational
level

Creativity
– is the development of ideas about
products, practices, services, or
procedures that are novel and
potentially useful to the organization

Eureka!
(A cry of joy or satisfaction when one
finds or discovers something)

What Does It Take to Be
Creative?
 Time
 Hard work
 Mental energy

Characteristics of Creative People

Personality Traits of Creative People
• Persistence
• Self-confidence
• Independence
• Attraction to complexity
• Tolerance of ambiguity
• Intuitiveness
• Have broad interests
• Are energetic
• Drive to achieve
• Love their work
• Take risks

Cognitive Creativity Skills
• Think creatively
• Generate alternatives
• Engage in divergent thinking
• Suspend judgment

Domain-Specific Knowledge
Develops Via
 Education
 Training
 Experience
 Contextual Knowledge

Creativity Enhancers
Focus on intrinsic motivation
Creativity goals
Developmental feedback
Supportive supervision
Healthy competition
Participative decision making
Autonomy
Hire creative people
Enriched, complex jobs
Provide resources
Clear organizational goals
Instructions to be creative
Recognize and reward creativity

Creativity Enhancers
 Encourage risk taking
 No punishment for failure
 Workforce diversity
 Internal and external interaction
 Diverse teams skilled at working
together
 Supportive climate
 Organizational culture the promotes
innovation
 Flexible, flat structures
 Close interaction and relationships with
customers

How Can Organizations
Foster Creativity?

Management Style and
Creativity
 Encourage risk taking
 Provide autonomy
 Encourage productivity - “sweat
equity”
 Supportive supervision, climate,
and work group
 Participative leadership

Organization Design and
Creativity

Creativity Killers
 Excessive focus on extrinsic motivation
 Limits set by superiors
 Critical evaluation
 Close, controlling supervision
 Competition in a win-lose situation
 Control of decision makingControl of
information

Innovation has three distinct
determining characteristics:
 Novelty
 Resolution
 Elaboration or
Synthesis

Novelty
refers to the originality of
the product, service or
procedure: that is, will users
be attracted to it because of
its uniqueness?

Resolution
refers to whether the idea, product,
service or procedure will ‘fill the bill’ and
be relevant to the problem or
unanswered need at hand. In other
words, the innovative product or service
has to be perceived as ‘the answer’ to
the existing challenge, problem or
situation.

Elaboration or Synthesis
relates to style and how the product, service or
procedure is completed and presented. Is the
product, service or procedure:
Well-crafted and/or appealing to
users/consumers?
Well presented or packaged?
Simple to used or understand?
User friendly?
Easy to commercialize?
Will people buy it and/or use it?

Ideas Management
Ideas need to be:
Generated
Captured and Retrievable
Evaluated
Developed
Implemented
Rewarded
Measured

Innovation Leadership:
Attitudes
 Deliberate climate creation and cultural
influence
 Innovation vision
 Encourage challenge & risk taking
 Collaboration
 Resources for innovation
 Celebration

Innovation Leadership:
Innovation Competence
 Model and coach for innovation and
creativity
 Develop innovation teams and
leaders
 Generate breakthrough ideas
 Capitalize on entrepreneurship
 Customer Service
 Insight into drivers and opportunities

MANAGING FOR PERFORMANCE:
INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY

Opening Our Minds: Perception,
Curiosity and Exploration
 Imagine the familiar in a new light
 Find links among unrelated phenomena
 Realize the impact of change
 Accept new perspectives
 Follow a broad and moving path

Exploring Creative Thinking Techniques
 Soft Thinking
 Hard Thinking
 Visual Thinking
Activities
 Idea Listing
Activities
 Writing Activities
 Group Interaction
Activities
 Process-Product
Activities

Exploring Creative Thinking
Techniques

Examining Creativity in the
Workplace
 Supervisors that held higher creativity
expectations were viewed as rewarding
creativity, recognizing creative efforts,
allocating more resources, encouraging
collaboration and sharing, applying
creative goal setting and modeling
creative behavior in their own work

Workplace
 Employees interpret meaning through
environmental cues and supervisors
must communicate through behavior.

Workplace
 Self-efficacy levels influence the extent
to which employees entertain creative
activities, initiate creative acts, and
sustain creative levels in their work.

Workplace
 Supervisors must be aware of the
impact and clearly state expectations
to shape creative effort and manage
the supervisor/employee relationship.

Measuring Creativity
o Divergent Thinking Tests – Open-
ended questions
o Torrance Tests of Creative
Thinking
o Guilford Tests
o Personality & Biographical
Inventories – perceptions,
attitudes, values, interests,
motivations
o Hocevar

PERSONALITY TRAITS OF THE CREATIVE
PERSON

Self-Actualized Creativity
(Maslow)
• Perceive reality more accurately and
objectively; tolerate and even like
ambiguity; are not threatened by the
unknown.
• Accept themselves, others, and human
nature.
• Are spontaneous, natural, and genuine.
• Are problem-centered, non-egotistical;
have a philosophy of life and probably a
mission in life
• Need some privacy and solitude more
than others do; are able to concentrate
intensely.

(Maslow)
• Are independent, self-sufficient and
autonomous; have less need for praise or
popularity.
• Have capacity to appreciate again and again
simple and commonplace experiences;
have zest in living, ability to handle stress,
high humor.
• Have (and are aware of) their rich, alive,
fulfilling peak experiences.
• Have deep feelings of brotherhood with all
mankind; are benevolent, altruistic.
• Form strong friendship ties with relatively
few people; are capable of greater love.

(Maslow)
• Are democratic, unprejudiced in the deepest
possible sense.
• Are strongly ethical and moral individual (not
necessarily conventional) ways; enjoy work in
achieving a goal as much as the goal itself; are
patient, for the most part.
• Have a more thoughtful, philosophical sense of
humor that is constructive, not destructive.
• Are creative, original inventive with a fresh,
naïve, simple and direct way of looking at life;
tend to do most things creatively – but do not
necessarily possess great talent.

(Maslow)
• Are capable of detachment from their
culture; can objectively compare cultures;
can take or leave conventions.- Davis (1998)
Creativity is Forever
• Your character is your destiny
• On a circle, an end point can also be a
beginning point
• A thing rests by changing
• You can’t step in the same river twice
• The sun is new each day
• When there is no sun, we can see the
evening stars

CREATIVITY IN WORKPLACE
DESIGN

STIMULATING CREATIVITY IN THE
WORKPLACE

“Creativity can be stimulated
in the workplace in a variety
of ways to enhance creative
thinking and productivity.”

1
Encourage
Unconventional Thinking

Traditional thinking that only certain people
are creative has to be thrown out the window
as all of us have a certain amount of creativity
within us. Everyone in the creative workplace
should be encouraged to think “Outside the
Box”, (the Box being conventional thinking).
Knowledge, technical skills, every day life
experiences and “thinking in new and
unconventional ways about things” are just
some of the things that contribute to
creativity in the workplace.

2
Challenge
The Rules of Thinking

Humans thought the world was flat and we
would fall off the edge until someone thought
the rules of thinking were wrong, challenged
and changed them and set about proving that
the world is in fact round. Thomas Edison said,
“If we did all things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astonish ourselves”. Let go of
the old traditional ways of thinking. There are
always new ways of doing things, challenge
traditional thinking, be innovative in your
thinking and encourage it in the workplace.
Remove the “It can only be done this way”
mind set.

3
Recognize and Encourage
Creative Talents

Creative talent comes in many forms
from cooking, writing, designing or
decorating the home or office.
Recognizing “Creative Talents” and
encouraging them whenever possible
will promote creativity and productivity
in the workplace.

4
Encourage and Share
New Ideas / Imagination

Open planning invites conversation and
encourages interaction and the sharing
of new and imaginative ideas. The
downside of Open planning can be
interruption from elsewhere in the
workplace. With careful balancing
between interaction and interruption,
fostering creative thinking in the
workplace is possible.

A tidy workplace stimulates creative
thinking. Remove all of the clutter
(boxes, unnecessary papers, rubbish
etc.) from the workplace. Have a “Quiet
Area” within the workplace to finalize
and consolidate ideas, or maybe, go to
the park for quite reflection and
consolidation of ideas.

Author Roger Von Oech wrote, “Necessity may
be the mother of invention, but play is certainly
the father.” A fun office environment is essential
to a creative and productive workplace.
Inspiration can come in many forms; ie: Music,
Art, Plants and Animals can enhance creativity.
Creativity is associated with Joy and Love and
negativity associated with Fear, Anxiety and
Anger. So whenever possible make sure the
workplace is a “Fun and Happy” environment.
Today’s happiness often predicts tomorrows
creativity.

7
Remove Competitive
Boundaries

Studies have shown creativity is
compromised when people in a workgroup
compete instead of collaborating. When
people compete for information they stop
sharing information and that doesn’t
stimulate creative thinking. No single
individual has got all the information
required to complete the creative process.
Encourage the sharing of ideas and the
ideas will benefit greatly.

Ergonomics are a consideration that
should be made as a person’s comfort is
a big part of their creativity, and the
workplace layout is a big part of the
creative process.

Have regular group meetings or “think
tanks” with the Creative Team to discuss
ideas for Ad Campaigns or general
workplace environment.

Flexibility is a key component of the
creative workplace. Be willing to try new
and different approaches to just about
anything and you will see the creative
juices flow.

“Value and recognize people’s
talent and creativity will
flourish, and remember
Creative Thinking turns great
ideas into reality.”

Blocking Creativity
In The Workplace

Creativity can be blocked in the
workplace in a variety of ways

1 Being To Practical
 Being practical is good business sense but can
restrict Creative Thinking. Complacency, lack of
innovation or not trying new things to inspire and
interest people can all block creativity in the
workplace.

2 Competition, Not
Collaboration
 If only one person’s opinion matters then you have
an unhealthy workplace. Keeping ideas to yourself
can block the growth of the idea, while sharing the
idea may enhance it. If there is no collaboration of
ideas and no sharing of ideas, the Creative Process is
stifled. Too much competition can block creativity
while Creative Teams sharing and debating ideas
enhances creativity.

3 Seeing Failure As
A Negative
 Seeing failure as a negative will discourage a
person and inhibit their Creative Ideas. Not seeing
failure as a stepping-stone to new ideas would
block creativity in the workplace.

4 Following The Rules
 Following the rules of Standard Business Practice
will keep your business moving forward, but too
many rules and boundaries or a lack of flexibility
can block creativity in the workplace.

5 Inhibiting
Creative
Talents
 Restricting people to one area of work and not
allowing interaction and sharing of ideas will block
creativity in the workplace, as will failure to look at
new and innovative ways of creative thinking.

6 Group Think Mindset
 Peer pressure can cause people to agree to something
they wouldn’t normally agree to. This “Group Think”
mindset stops people from being creative; people will
“agree to agree” because the Boss may think a certain
way and this blocks peoples creativity in the
workplace.

7 Failure to encourage
or recognize talent
 Failing to recognize talent in people will block their
creativity, so it is important to recognize and
encourage that talent.

8 Too Many Distractions
 Clutter (boxes, papers, note pads, etc.), lack of space,
wrong furnishings or the lack of flare can all
contribute to blocking creativity in the workplace.

9 Creative Boundaries
 If you restrict people in their creative thinking by
giving them boundaries then you block their
creativity. True creativity has no boundaries or
restrictions placed on it so remove as many
boundaries as possible in the creative thinking
process.

10 No Flexibility
 Being practical is good business sense but can
restrict Creative Thinking. Complacency, lack of
innovation or not trying new things to inspire and
interest people can all block creativity in the
workplace.

Three definitions of creativity
Process
Tolerating contradictions +
Bisociative thinking
Content
Innovation + Value
Outcomes
Transformation + Rethinking
(From Bilton and Cummings,
Creative Strategy (forthcoming)

We are moving from industrial
societies to knowledge societies
Reading
‘Riting
‘Rithmetic
- We must realize that it is time to move past the 3Rs :

1. Richness of curriculum
2. Recursion through reflective
interaction
3. Relations of new understandings
into the larger picture; and
4. Rigor of being a critical consumer
and understanding the transitory
nature of knowledge
(Doll,1993)
To the 4 Rs

Passive  Active
Consumer  Producer
Dependent Independent
5th R: Reverse the Role of
the Learner

Inventive
 addresses a worthwhile problem novel and appropriate
solution
Expressive
 Illustrates the creator’s emotions and aesthetics
original and valuable

Inventive Creativity
 Exhibited in mathematics,
science, and social arenas
 Recognizes and identifies
problems that may or may not
be apparent to others,
 When solved, result in an
improvement in the domain

 Saves and improves lives

 May produce an intangible product-
-such as a social movement
Mohandas Ghandi
Martin Luther King, Jr.

 Finds worthwhile problems
 Produces solutions of value
Watson, Crick, and Franklin (and Wilkins)

Creativity in workplace

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