James,

In antiquity, it was recommended for philosophers to do physical work. When walking or doing not too intense and boring tasks such as cleaning, thinking become a form of entertainment and when it is done playfully for fun it tends to be more creative.

Just two words: COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE.

The best way to increase creativity is to provide an inspirational, conducive and participatory environment.

One thing we do is put together professors who would have never worked together to spark new ideas. We are actively working a research page which will help map the research interests of all professors and graduate students.

During difficult financial times, my company created an internal wiki that was open to all 500 employees, asking us to contribute any and all ideas about how to save money. They garnered some good answers that would not have possible otherwise. So getting more input usually helps spark creative ideas, or at least, increases the chances of getting creative ideas.

One should

1. attentively listen to his/her colleagues.

2. join into the chain of his/her ideas.

3. acknowledge his/her good ideas.

All this works if there are a creative atmosphere and talented colleagues.

I intentionally make myself think the problem out of the box way. I think first the problem. Then i let it be and act in another context. Often dancing, walking, listening music. Then out of the box solutions emerge into my mind. In science, it helps to read articles from another field. My institute has an innovation room, nice colourful area with gymnastic balls and soft chairs. We use it for morning coffees to make research and services meet each other and ideate together.

Dear Eveliina,

And what does help you better? Your own unintentional ideas or the imaginative environment?

The best way to increase creativity is to apply synectics. As Maurice Dawson suggested to bring together the different professionals together.

Creativity and the ability to innovate , involve all dimensions of the human being ( cognitive , emotional, behavioral , physical , instinctive , transcendental, ethical , relational, social , cultural ... ) . Something that goes beyond the " creative thinking " or " creative problem solving " . It is not only the generation or production of ideas but also the evaluation and development of what we generate. The result of the creative act must be , to a greater or lesser extent , original , unknown, different or unusual, and also satisfying , useful , adapted , we solve a problem or offers a benefit. That is, to combine novelty and value , not just " birds in the air " but also " castles in the land " , is what makes fantasy reality .

Of course , in the creative act is usually give all these items so difficult to dissect , coiled, with back and forth from one to another and often blends between them. However we recall the importance of consciously separate (at least in the moments that you use) , when we are generating ideas when we are evaluating . Otherwise , we do not allow sufficient disinhibition is given , the " flight " necessary to establish connections , analogies , allowing us to unusual bright idea .

For example , if we brainstorm as a group, do not allow for the production phase expressions like " that's impossible " , " this is absurd " , " serious work " , " what nonsense " or giggles ironic that what they get is block group atmosphere , discourage the effort to escape the obvious and that the group remains clinging to the " feasible " , aborting the trip to the absurd need to come up with nuggets. Let us note all ideas that seem outlandish . And will later caution in evaluating them. Paradoxically , knowing that there will be a good evaluation of the ideas we generate , we are free to fly more imaginatively .

There are many creativity techniques, developed since 1960's when USA released quite a good amount of funds for creativity. Brainstorming is one of them. Synectics is also developed at that time. Triz is another creativity and invention method developed by Altschuller, a Russian scientist. One can easily find thousands of creativity techniques and methods in the Internet now..

Thanks for this discussion. I have up-voted several answers. I agree that brainstorming that incorporates divergent thinking leads to increase in creativity.

Personally, I have also found among my students that the ones who come from a relatively poor background are more creative, as compared to students who have many material blessings. That seems to give evidence concerning the 'honing' hypothesis.

Dear Miranda,

How have you assessed and evaluated the creativity difference between or among family backgrounds of students? I do not think family backgrounds may have an impact. However, how have you determined ther creativity ablities and the manifestation of this creativity? For being uninhibited does not mean being creative.

Creativity is the sum of knowledge and imagination. The first is the seed of creativity. To develop creativity is necessary to take time to think, in this process the hatch and mature ideas. On the other hand, creativity is important to focus on strategic objectives that address the problem. In that same logic is necessary to question the assumptions and beliefs.

Dear Amir Mosavi, One can manage to increase creativity by following actions.

Inserting courage to be looked different

Maximizing awareness and acceptance of the receiver.

Getting change of environment

Taking healthy diet and drinking sufficient water

Relaxing and getting enough sleep and rest.

Listening to others, their problems as well as their solutions, not only in my field, but in also completely different areas. I found it always intriguing to learn about new things, no matter what, and draw conclusions from this for my own work. It also works the other way around. Tell people how don't have any clue of your work and find new insides you haven't thought of.

Among of the main forces that guide creativity are honesty and sincerity.

1) What do you really want or need?

2) How do you really like things?

3) What would make you really happy about the kind of thing you want to create?

This is not magic, but if you follow this way of thinking you will get soon the rewards.

There is no possible creativity without involving your most deep self.

András Bozsik mentioned a very good point and very thoughtful.

Dear A. Vaezipour,

Thanks. Without women men would be rough fellows at the level of a caveman.

Dear Amir & Friends,

If creativity, both personal and institutional, can be increased with specific techniques, it means that looks rather to a form of exercise, using training tools specifically dedicated, rather than being a complex form of learning and realization of personal identity.

Then, to answer in terms of techniques, I should make a choice in terms of conceptual paradigm.

Personally, I am inclined to consider the possibility of increasing creative attitudes as a form of change involving the entire personality and not just specific areas and individual abilities.

However, I must admit that I am equally aware that is possible "train" different competences and creative areas, without involving additional cognitive domains.

Anyway rather than to techniques I prefer to think in terms of educational strategies or tactics.

Among other formative tools often I find useful the adoption of synesthesia, within narrative and imaginative inductions, in connection with proposals of problem solving.

Dear Mauro,

Your thoughts are explicitly complex. But one of your phrases seems to me dangerous: “change involving the entire personality”. I think many people do not want to risk the total change of the personality for a training opportunity which cannot be entirely successful. Thus, I am afraid it would be better to find a more gentle technique. Could you write some details about this technique?

I can relate to what Eveliina said - reading articles from new fields and being engaged in artistic activities is definitely beneficial for one's well-being and creative thinking.

Overall, I could say the key verbs are 'deepen' and 'extend' - work more on what you have already achieved in areas you know you are good at, and become involved in new activities - the links in between will help you see interesting ideas.

Daydreaming, taking sudden breaks/ enjoying moments of serenity and being able to surprise yourself are small techniques that help in your every-day efforts in becoming more conscious, self-fulfilled and closer to the child mentality which I find truly inspirational and creative.

Here is an article on the benefits of daydreaming

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/06/why-daydreaming-isnt-a-waste-of-time/

and more on creativity in general

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/?s=creativity

- they focus on children's creativity and learning processes but I think they can be equally helpful to adults.

On a (very) practical perspective: jogging and thinking, traveling and writing about my problem while traveling helps, for me. Sharing a bottle of good wine too, but in this case I risk loosing focus (...or being "too creative").

This question makes me think that I just don't know what to say about how increase creativity in general, a recurrent quest of our postgrads. So thx for your posts.

Visualization. I start with basic pre-meditative technique (close eyes, become aware of breathing) and begin some suggestion of random image thoughts. After a few minutes, I open a log and begin writing. A favorite image is a waterfall, the water being the stream of sensations and thoughts -- reach out and collect some. Also, a randomized slideshow or picture book of images viewed long enough to write a response of a few words -- this is "plastic imagery" as defined by the film maker Sergei Eisenstein. Music, sometimes with words, sometimes without. To be very creatively productive, I need to get up and move about every 15 minutes. I like to be surrounded by chaos -- it serves to isolate me in abstractions and, at the same time, stimulate me to find organization and patterns, as if driving my thinking inward, and then out again. I am very stimulated by blankness and randomness.

Play. Alone or with a colleague who can be playful.

Creativity is our natural state which living in society with all its contraints decreases since our childwood. So to increase creativity is removing which block it. The spirit of competition is a big obstacle while the spirit of cooperation allows it. If someone real interest in increasing its creativity is ambitions then it will not work because ambition block it. Creativity comes naturally in playfull situations. Collaborative playfull situations among multiple participants are intrinsically creative. The art of dialogue allows it while argumentation and debate discourage it. Dialogue is a form of playfull thinking together. It is what this RG forum is: a thinking together, a very creative and powerfull form of thinking. This is a form of living in society that encourages creativity.

Dear András,

My thoughts are not so complex, is rather my English to be lousy!

Don't worry, in fact I talk about a change that "involves" the whole personality and not that "transforms" necessarily the sense of personal identity.

This is not a inductive technique that works as manipulative tool in behavioral sense.

Rather I'm referring to "conduction in formative approaches" where there is no form of coercion.

Simple suggestions based on a common experience of synesthesia (in practice an internal connection between different channels of sensory processing and imagination) that can encourage the creative and/or divergent thinking and facilitate collaborative and cooperative dimension.

Mauro,

Could you explain what you mean by ''common experience of synesthesia''? My four children are synesthetes but no other persons in our family are. How can it be experienced by someone who is not a synesthetes?

Dear Louis,

I myself am a highly synesthesic person.

Synesthesia in our common experience covers all sensory connections when you create some kind of short circuit with a particular significance.

A smell that reminds us of a particular situation, a sound that takes us back in time, an image that reveals a chain of memories and mementos.

I not refer of course to the pathological synesthesia (see also Ramachandran).

Dear Mauro,

Thanks for your answer. I might be who could not understand you because of my shortcomings. I am sorry. Louis had a good question. Synaesthesia was known for me as a poetic possibility of literature. However, I myself may have some synaesthetic traits. Interestingly, remembrance with smelling memory-traces can be more accurate than with visual memory fragments. It might be a prehistoric or atavistic ability. Nevertheless, I do not think synaesthesia as a technical tool could help increasing creativity without some personal abilities. Now, you could explain more methodically your synaesthetic technique.

You may find the attached of interest.

Dear András,

I have to repeat myself.

Writing about Synaesthesia in terms of "formative suggestions",

I don't speak for anything of single techniques, or to specific approaches designed to achieve certain purposes.

Just to be clear, I do not speak of "inductive influences" similarly to Milton Erickson approaches.

Actually I talk about something extremely simple and present in our daily lives.

You wrote correctly:

"Synaesthesia was known for me as a poetic possibility of literature."

I would add that is at once a wealth of our linguistic communication, but not only (of course).

And in fact I'm referring to a form of communication where some metaphorical images (or also metonymy) sometime have source into experiences where comes into play synesthesia.

Are adequate stimuli to increase creativity?

I couldn't say for sure.

For me are not "stimuli" but communicative aspects which may be in, or not, part of the formative contexts.

Also:-

Dear Amir Mosavi, Creativity needs intellectual engagement. A creative person work for the love of challenge may be of any nature like technological, artistic, social, or logistical.

There is a creativity-boosting habit known to the Greeks during the golden era in Greek philosophy that has perhaps been forgotten. That habit is walking about, something the peripatics did in the school founded by Aristotle. To be peripatetic is be itinerant, wandering, meandering or walking about while talking to others and while communing with nature. The Parpatetic school goes back to about 335 BC, when Aristotle began teaching in the Lyceum.

The simple act of walking about (the motion of walking about) is stimulating and is almost guaranteed to increase creativity. The simplest model for this is taking your dog for a walk. What you do not see, your dog will see.

For an imaginative painting by Adolph Spanenberg (1880) showing Aristotle's peripatetics, see the attached image.

Dear Louis

I totally agree with your first post, which you posted in this topic (about two days ago). Creativity - even if we look at it only as an attribute of the human intellect - is deeply conditioned by social conditions.

Social factors in this case are not to be underestimated. I even risked the idea, that the greatest positive change in creativity can be achieved by measures leading to an increase in living standards.

Creativity is a result of an observant and intelligent mind ! I loved the concept of "walking about" which, I believe, best increases creativity! Peace, tranquility, serenity, calm and quiet surroundings too Re conducive ! I am in a teaching profession, continuously surrounded by the younger generation which is very creative. What I have observed is, they can be induced to be creative. At our work place chances for developing creativity lie in motivating students to get involved in all sorts of competitions like preparing informative and interesting charts, models, writing scripts, projects, poems etc.

Daydreaming is a short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings, during which a person's contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake.

In a study, volunteers were given a deliberately boring task to complete. They were then given another task to measure their creativity – and fared better than those who had not performed the boring task beforehand.

This suggest that engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander may facilitate creative problem solving.

Another study showed that whose minds wandered during a simple task where also the ones with greater working memory.

When our minds are at ease, we are more likely to direct the spotlight of attention inward, toward that stream of remote associations emanating from the right hemisphere. In contrast, when we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be directed outward, toward the details of the problems we’re trying to solve. While this pattern of attention is necessary when solving problems analytically, it actually prevents us from detecting the connections that lead to insights.

"Freud asserted that daydreaming is essential to creative writing — something a number of famous creators and theorists intuited in asserting that unconscious processing is essential to how creativity works, from T. S. Eliot’s notion of “idea incubation” to Alexander Graham Bell’s “unconscious cerebration” to Lewis Carroll’s “mental mastication.”

Mozart, In a letter to his father, once wrote, “When I am completely myself, entirely alone or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on these occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how these come I know not and nor can I force them.”

In his recent book, How to Be Idle, Hodgkinson points out the creative benefits of simply going for a walk.

“Caught up in this sort of walking, we find it hard to abandon ourselves to the moment,” he writes. “However, with a little effort of will it is not so hard to get into a reflective walking-mindset even amid the bustle and turmoil of the working day.” Slow walking may seem like a waste of time, he says, but “to the creative spirit it is a fertile activity.” We generate ideas when walking. Beethoven claims he wrote music in his head while walking around Vienna, which he did every day without fail, regardless of the weather.

Im myself not so sure how to nurturing creativity but its depend to your emotion level and cognitive strength. I also believe that imagination can help people to start become creative.

The first question was too general. Development of civilizations depend on creativity. Each field of interest needs different approaches, techniques, methods of creativity developed through the centuries. A computer scientist, a mathematician or an artist etc. cannot improve their creativity with same approaches, techniques, methods etc. There is no single answer to be creative in a field of interest.

Dear Louis,

Daydreaming is a simulation or simulative technique for finding ideas thus this must be an important stadium of the invention, discovery or a new oevre. However, the examples with geniuses cannot be too helpful for us ordinary people. Look at Mozart’s example: “Whence and how these come I know not and nor can I force them.” Unfortunately, we cannot investigate the source of his creativity. As to the walking method of Beethoven, this is the good old Greek method also Pythagoras used it when teaching his disciples.

András,

I mentioned the case of mozart because I also find evenings as more productive daydreaming period. Our imagination is less vivid as our perceptual experience and when the light is dim and does not allow a clear vision, when vision become ambiguous it seems to help the imagination and daydreaming is more productive. The best for me is a rainy everyning. The rythm of the rain has a calming effect that favor daydreaming. Park or forest area are also much better than too urban areas. Too noisy streets are not as good as quite streets.

Choose different spaces to work or think in. Sometimes deliberately placing yourself in novel and creative environments sparks that needed creative genius.

Breathe and become mindful. Stop racking your brain trying to come up with creative ideas or solutions. Sit quietly and become aware of your surroundings and inner experiences. Take it in and be non-judgmentally conscious of your outer and inner experiences. Very often it is during these moments that new insights will yield themselves.

Ask a friend. Talking about it may precipitate further thought and lead to at least alternative perspectives and possibly new ideas.

Dear Louis,

Thanks for your interesting experience. Frankly spoken, I have not thought too deeply about how to increase creativity. Unfortunately, I have no time enough even to implement little and simple ideas. When finding a really great one I would be confused. However, the environment (I mean the human environment which somehow evaluates ideas and performances) has really a great impact on creative thoughts or sparkles. Ergo, in an unintellectual environment ideas will be lost and one becomes indifferent. I am afraid the RG discussions may represent sometimes a kind of compensation activity in order to revitalise creativity ability (to be in search of lost ability).

@Tobias Van den Bergh: Choose different spaces to work or think in. Sometimes deliberately placing yourself in novel and creative environments sparks that needed creative genius.

Yes, definitely. Your idea can be traced back to the Greek myth about the blind giant Orio, who carried Cedalion on his shoulders (to better see the world). In other words, it helps to broaden, deepen and sharpen our vision of the what is possible, by spending time with giants in your discipline. And more in keeping with Tobias's insight about choosing different places to work and think in, it helps to

--do a postdoc with a scholar, who walks along with you along a new path for a while, showing you the twists and turns and novelties of a subject you want to explore.

--do a sabbatical (or take a leave-of-absence) to recharge your batteries in a place you have wanted to visit and spend some time learning new vistas, apart from what you ordinarily do every day.

--take a walk (every day) either down a familiar path (checking on changes that have taken place) or down a new path (just a short walk in a direction you have not explored before or have not visited for a long time).

Creativity is crucial in teaching for influence and improve the construction of the lessons and to motivate the student in his study. I am a teacher of nursing and my concern is to make the theoretical classes, mainly, more attractive and interesting. That's why I resort to creativity, but are also the results and evaluation of students that feed creativity. To foster creativity mobilize the following estratétias: investing in research on the themes that I teach; write articles that result from issues presented and discussed with students and mobilize these articles on lessons; writing articles with the students in the last year and Masters; invite practice nurses to participate in lessons and which dominate the themes. Seeking to ensure the articulation between research, theoretical conceptions and practical examples, because this link works as a stimulus to creativity in the pursuit of a variety of methodologies. As I have opportunity to teach on the subject of the PhD, the domain of this knowledge facilitates and promotes the search of diverse methodologies. I always keep in mind the development of nursing practice discipline, and that alone feeds my creativity.

@Paula Diogo:….Seeking to ensure the articulation between research, theoretical conceptions and practical examples, because this link works as a stimulus to creativity in the pursuit of a variety of methodologies. …

Yes, definitely. Fostering (nurturing) the link between research, theoretical conceptions and practical examples definitely stimulates creativity. Essentially, strengthening the relations between theory and practice fosters creative thinking--just finding ways to strengthen the links between theory and practice is a challenge. So it looks like creativity is a side-effection of bridge-thinking about theory and practice.

Paula,

I just now found the following quote, which you may find interesting:

E.C. Zeeman writes in the Psychiatry Quarterly in 1966:

The difference between mathematics and science is pinpointed by the question, "What criterion determines the subject matter?" In the case of science

the answer is "What is there?": The whole idea is to study the

world we live in. On the other hand, in mathematics the criterion

is "taste." Mathematics has gradually been shaking itself free

from the rest of science, and the revolution of the last two decades

has witnessed the final escape. It is now recognized that

we choose what mathematics to do, not for its usefulness or

applicability, but for its "elegance, intrinsic beauty, profundity,

generality, simplicity, depth, sublety and economy. ''

For more about this, see the attached pdf file.

I've been to consult the article submitted, which is very interesting, and I agree with the comparison ends.

But what I wanted to share is that creativity is not only fuelled by factors and external resources as well as by internal resources of the subject (for me are the most important) and rely on cognitive and emotional processes. Affective-emotional aspects have a major influence on creativity. I am referring to my personal experience and reflections that have been making observations and a study on the development of competence of the student, and the people who are closest to me.

I argue that creativity feeds the motivation and leads to performance, and it is this realisation that induces in part to creativity. It's just a perspective!

I appreciate the comments and the article.

Paula,

Good post! It is great that you have shared your experience and insights about creativity. I bring to the table my experience of creativity in doing mathematics. Unlike E.C. Zeeman, I like to see my mathematics used in useful applications, especially in discovering visual patterns in digital images.

I have my parents to thank for my own sensitivity about creativity. My father was a portrait and landscape painter. He was very creative. He also instilled in me an appreciation for the symmetric and asymmetric as well as beautiful structures that can be found in nature and in art. I have translated some of that sensitivity about structure to the study of topology and descriptively near sets.

Creativity is an innate "seed" of marvelous consequences. According to the posted points of view, if that seed is taken care of very well at home (parents, culture, peers, etc...) and taken care of outside home (teachers, extracurricular activities) and at work (positive work environment, culture of knowledge creation and sharing, and positive incentive system) plus the personal love for attending personal curiosity, all these factors together will lead to tons of innovation. In any field that the individual is interested in.

Hussein,

Exellent post!

From your insights, it definitely seems that creativity is nurtured by maintaining a harmony in our activites. This harmony appears to be grow out of our persistent linking together of the objects (insights) that naturally arise from our activities. Personally, I think this linking process that we routinely engage in during our research leads to extensions of either well-known relations between perceived structures or the discovery of new relations (perhaps mentioned by others as far back as Euclid and Aristotle) but somehow not pursued by others.

A good example of this perception of relations between objects can be found in Euclid's postulates, especially the 5h postulate about parallel lines. And Bolyai provides an example of someone who looked more deeply into the relation between parallel lines that Euclid did not pursue.

See the attached image for an interesting example of parallel lines.

It is important to keep in mind that while creativity is beneficial to our health and well-being, being in good health is critical to our creativity and quality of life.

Nothing can replace a good night's sleep or an adequate intake of water and balanced food diet. Maybe you can't sleep at work (although siesta is still a traditional work habit) but it should not be complicated to procure yourself water/ other non-alcoholic liquids and healthy food.

In case you feel tiredness, tension, chronic fatigue, mild headaches, sickness symptoms, pain throughout your body, want to reduce stress & restore your balance, a simple technique I can think of is Dr. Corvo's Zone Therapy (facial reflexology) -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joseph-Corvos-Zone-Therapy-Minutes/dp/0712638687

All you need is some privacy and 5 to 30 minutes daily depending on how long/ how many times you will want to repeat the massage/ focus on a zone.

Here are some links to reflexology association websites where you can find more information:

http://www.icr-reflexology.org/links.htm

http://www.aor.org.uk/join-the-aor/other-reflexology-associations

There is a saying in our region: "Al-Aql Al-Saleem fi El-Jism El Saleem" meaning "Healthy minds in healthy bodies".

So, Hristina, your point is supported by a cultural wisdom from the Middle East.

In portugal, and in the practice of nursing, is also very relevant; holistic perspective of well-being. The main theoretical and conceptual orientation lies in the theory of Jean Watson human care: balance between body and mind to achieve well-being and overall health.

This theoretical conception of nursing is very inspirational and increments the creativity in training and research about nursing phenomena. It is also essential in creativity implied and required to take care of the person throughout the life cycle.

It is comforting to read several posts relating creativity to well-being. This may not be the most favored and common way that contemporary culture looks at creativity, as creativity seems to be too often associated with that kind of self realization and happiness of which advertising is perhaps the best expression, in that characteristically modern and dramatic transmutation of monastic asceticism pointed out by Weber.

Well-being, peace of mind, forms of self realization and enjoyment beyond 'baudrillardian' happiness may also be sufficient conditions for creativity, mightn't they not?

Adobe has a great study on the effect of creativity in education and you can also apply the same line of thinking for any institution:

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/06/study-reveals-education-system-is-stifling-creativity-education.html

Well, wisdom and authentic, integrative medicine that is, have always been in the East. India's holistic medicine is the mainstream one, not the other way around. In the so called ''West'' we are paying by the hour and piece. And we don't get much.

Not to mention people's superficial attitudes to their lifestyles, health and physicians, as if the latter are supposed to know what patients are poisoning themselves with on a daily basis. They are willing to tip a waiter and eat hundreds of times in a stupid restaurant they don't like but blame physicians because they could not find the reason/medicine for their illness; buy products because they've seen the ad on TV and anti-allergenic stuff thinking ''anti'' means anti anything they are having (hilarious, isn't it?)

Creativity starts with our ability to recognize where we might be wrong, and how to correct that, how to be better. And it all happens in the course of our lifestyles - where health and well-being are central - a circle.

Cheers to that Hristina (: - ). I agree.

To increase creativity I recommend altering ones mind. Chemically, that is. The use of cannibis and psychoactive mushrooms is sure to get those creative juices flowing.

I especially recommend this for researchers!

Creola,

I would rather recommend natural methods and natural endorphins produces by exercises. One first respect his/her own body.

I agree with the Louis. Healthy methods!

Dear All,

I am afraid there must be some (psychological) trouble when somebody - say a scientist - needs medication for having inspiration.

I would recommend instead to have a walk, look at a painting or listen to music.

When asking my students on any subject nobody may say: I agree with XY. I need their own ideas and knowledge. Certainly, I may be wrong.

They just took the elevator to creativity ) Sadly, the whole world is on medications these days. Only when they stop, do we realize it

@ Louis, very true, the best medicine, for a healthy body, mind and soul are natural endorphins, which will also enhance creativity 👍

Dear Amir Mosavi, Creativity is not a specific skill but having this skill one may add competence not only in one but may be in many fields. How to manage an incremental prepossession of this skill depends on enhancing the capability of problem solving with notions of anticipating problem, researching the problem and giving new, useful, appropriate and correct answer with an approach of lateral and diverging thinking techniques beyond well known methodologies.

At some point I think nature is a right environment to boost creativity by watching insects in their active roles of survival. Many times, I am stuck in the middle of a problem, and going out for a while visiting nature brings lots of ideas to try. Many when exchanged with colleagues lead to reasonable win-win solutions.

Dear Amir Mosavi,

Managing to increase creativity need various actions.

1. To practice for good health and strong will.

2. Don't be a blind follower but analyze and follow.

3. Be at least a bit risk taker.

4. Be aware of things / happenings in surroundings.

Good advice Afaq. Touching on leadership indeed.

Some ideas for developing creativity :

1. Develop your powers of observation. We often see that technologies have had a great impact on our society have emerged from the observation of nature. This is the surprising case of velcro and the history of its discovery.

2.Hybrid knowledge. Today we tend to specialize in the professional field but we know conjugate with interest in other areas of knowledge . In the XXI century, remix culture is booming.

3. Research. In children there is a natural curiosity about everything around them. For the adult, that curiosity is what drives us to investigate, and therefore to deepen the knowledge of a particular subject. This research results in hours and hours of work .

4. Switch between method and chaos. To speed up the creative process need to follow some rules, some systematization. But keep in mind that excessive rules can inhibit and constrict the creative process so swing between the two extremes can be a healthy combination. Although it is difficult to assimilate , chaos order also arises .

5. Mixing moments of individual reflection with collective thought. Needless to enter and leave the group. Each of us resolve the cognitive conflict in a certain way . Some are more oriented to implement, others think or conceptualize, etc. . Playing with these individual times can help synchronize our rhythms and styles.

6. Size Matters . Small teams work best so I would say Julius Caesar "divide and conquer" . Some studies suggest that the more information is shared and more people are involved , the lower the quality of the knowledge generated

 7. Get out of your frame of reference. Education , society and our own life experiences have shaped our minds to see and understand the world in a certain way. Our mental model is not only nor the best. Assuming this is the first step to re-educate our minds and to focus the world through different eyes .

8. Beat the fear of failure. Creativity has a lot to do with experimentation and experience needed to overcome our fears . Creativity feeds on our ability to surprise , excite us like children and delve into the world of the unknown.

good suggestions Gonzalo. Thanks for that.

Dear Amir Mosavi,

One more point that I want to add is that the bounded freedom is an essential parameter in enhancing the creativity.

Thanks Tavia. Other considerations that we take into account in the process of promoting or enhancing creativity can be targeted to treat life as an experiment, this means we need to eliminate the fear of failure. When we see the challenges we face as experiments, tend to be more willing to take the risk. Thomas Edison put it, I did not fail, I just found 10,000 ways that will not work . The key is that every experiment , regardless of whether it succeeds or not, you need to leave an apprenticeship. Do not be afraid to fail , not only to fail twice in the same.

Similarly we must nurture an attitude of wisdom, this means that no matter how skilled you are in a subject , you always have an attitude that you can learn something from anyone at any time. It is the union between hunger to learn more and humility of learning that can come from where you least expect it .

These processes are important to develop and release creativity.

Excellent points Gonzalo. Cognition and mind sets are important elements toward the enrichment of creativity.

Step away from the computer, pick up a blank piece of paper and open your mind, we tent to let technology dictate creativity we need to get back to the basics and remember were creativity comes from. If we would look at problems with the mind of a child and not see the limits but the possibilities we could achieve so much more.

Well said Joseph. Usually we tend to complicate things more than they deserve losing grounds in creativity. So, a child's mind set is spontaneous and looks at things from different simple perspectives.

Dear Amir Mosavi,

Time management and prioritizing the tasks are also governing parameters in enhancement of creativity.

The habit of READING is something which I feel is common in creative peoples, particularly in the field of science and literature. Prior exposure to ten different ideas (through reading or relevant interactions) improves your chances of coming up with a brilliant eleventh idea. New ideas are born out of your stock of old ideas and knowledge, which comes from your reading habit.

Good point Manoj. Currently, reading is becoming a rare habit, as far as I have observed, extending to many nations. The outcome will be people who depend heavily either on others to think for them or on technology thinking it will solve their problems.

I am currently conducting a survey on reading habits among Lebanese persons irrespective of their age, and results apparently are not encouraging!

I agree with you Dr. Hussin. Reading is really becoming a rare habit particularly among the youngsters- so obsessed with computer, internet and all that. Sometimes I feel bad for those not having this most rewarding habit of reading; they don't know what they are missing.

Manoj, things will become worst if schools go fully electronic. Even the fun of holding a book will disappear with time.

Another point, while reading you undergo twp operations that enrich one's creativity, beside the assimilation of the reading material, one's imagination brings vivid images to put together a virtual setup for the reading material. One may wonder, will that be possible while reading an electronic book?

Some ideas for the practice of creativity :

Take every opportunity to exercise your creativity is needed to develop the mind.

Feedstock Experience : The experience personally find to be the best raw material for the creative process , we must try to register it in memory.

Games : The games exercise creativity. Try to approach the games as a creative challenge and thinks new ways to achieve the objectives of the game.

Hobbies : There are approximately 400 different hobbies. Most related to creativity are those where the final product is a "creation" of the person. Find creative hobbies , use your imagination for those who are not or invents new hobbies.

Reading: Reading, like the experience , feeds our imagination. Mystery novels and science fiction are more apt to develop creativity .

Writing: We do not need to be writers to acquire the habit of writing . Try writing something daily or weekly.

Environmental Methods : The environment in which one finds oneself is an important factor effectiveness of creative thinking . A quiet place with appropriate colors and appropriate music can improve the concentration on the right side of the brain. Recreate your own environment so you can feel relaxed and focused.

It is known that the habit of reading is a great stimulus to creativity , imagination, intelligence and verbal ability and concentration of children. It is also known that the books should be present in the daily life of children, just like their toys.

Books enrich and bring all the kids to dive in adventures , stories and scrumptious information . It is the best way to instill values ​​all children and learn with fun reading, well , they are a form of entertainment.

The book is a great window into the formation in every way . The essential thing is to understand that books are important , but the act of reading , if possible every day, is what will take your child to this most exquisite adventure of learning, of knowing and discovering corner . Also, if above the fathers and mothers share the time reading a book with children, will be establishing a special bond between us.

Create a habit in the family spend some time reading strengthens family relationships

Yes, yes Gonzalo. The habit of reading is nurtured. However, this is cultural based. Overall, few parents will put a plan for the long term development of their kids including reading habits. Also, many parents are losing the battle versus electronic games, gadgets, and the bad habit of looking for the easiest means to look for information. Many students, for example, are far away from critical thinking because of their narrow scope of looking at things, many times its source goes back to their upbringing where free speech at home could have been prohibited!

Dear Dr. Hussin Jose Hejase,

Its a correct picture but the question is how to handle this dangerous reality. electronic market has its own benefit and business. At least for smoking items it is written there as normal and formal way that "Injurious to health".

True question Afaq. This is our vision and mission as educators. To work on students, coaching them, clarifying to them what the future insights could be, and using any educational mean to fortify creativity, open mindedness, optimism, assertiveness, and the beauty of an inquiring mind.

Evening walking in quiet areas is very good for day dreaming. The attenuated lighting seems to be better than daylight.

The secret to increasing creativity is a quiet walk, ambling along, listening for the sounds of birds, the swishing of the wind in the trees.

G.K. Chesterton once observed:

I would rather sit in a field and watch the cars go by instead of sitting in a car and watching the fields go by.

Therefore, feeling the harmony of nature and mixing it with our own will surely boost our creativity.

I am IT specialist, thus creativity within project management methodologies is something natural. Of course agile methodologies are more flexible than PMI or PRINCE2, but it should be shaped by task and project manager. Its responibility is to provide useful tools, etc. to achieve enough creativity within the project team.

Bassam,

Interesting post. However, it is not so much What is creativity? but rather How do we increase creativity?

In terms of increasing creativity in economics, I have one suggestion. Step aside from the concerns of business and making a profit. Find a quiet place and spend an hour per day writing notes while reading a mathematics book. Since economics deals a lot with probability and statistics, try tackling a classical treatise (instead of a textbook) on probability theory. You probably know about this but I wonder if you have already looked in martingales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_%28probability_theory%29

It is well-known that the application of mathematics requires a good understanding of the basic theory. So here is a conjecture:

An increase in creativity in economics will result from an intensive study of related work in mathematics.

My answer is stop trying to suppress it constantly.

''In their book Breakpoint and Beyond, George Land and Beth Jarman describe a longitudinal study they conducted on 1,600 kindergarden children aged three to five. They gave them eight tests on divergent thinking and an astonishing 98 per cent of the children scored within the creative genius category.

Five years later, they re-tested the same children, now aged eight to 10 and only 32 per cent scored in the creative genius category. Five years later only 10 per cent of the children scored in this category. In tests of over 200,000 adults over 25, only two per cent scored enough to be classified as creative geniuses.

Divergent thinking tests measure an individual’s ability to generate multiple approaches to solving a problem. The tests typically use simple questions such as: what are the uses for a flower pot?

An average person would have 10 to 15 answers to this question. A genius of divergent thinking would come up with a hundred possible answers, and they do this by changing the concepts of already existing thinking – can the flower pot be 10 metres wide, or can it be made of rubber, and so forth.

So what really happens with the universal mental capability to think divergently? What happened to those 160,000 children during their school years?

The classic school model encourages students to adopt fixed mental models of how things work, discouraging creative thinking and problem solving. Mastering other people’s mental models seems to kill an individual’s ability to think divergently and wonder creatively.

We are all born with this capacity to think creatively but during the years of schooling, this capability deteriorates drastically.''

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120715/education/Divergent-thinking.428589#.Ure5OfTuLDY

Louis, you wrote: Mastering other people’s mental models seems to kill an individual’s ability to think divergently and wonder creatively.

What you have written will change dramatically, if you substitute "classic mathematics" for "mental model", then we can rewrite your conjecture:

Conjecture:

Mastering classic mathematics seems to stimulate an individual’s ability to think divergently and wonder creatively.

A step toward a proof of this conjecture can be found by considering the history of mathematics and an obvious increase in creativity resulting from a study of the classics, starting with

Euclid's 5th postulate (parallel lines): By dropping postulate 5, we obtain an absolute geometry. By changing postulate 5, we obtain non-Euclidean geometry (Bolyai).

Leibniz's infinitessimals: by replacing infinitessimals with limits, we obtain a rigorous foundation for mathematical analysis (Cauchy).

Intuitive view of infinity in, for example, Euclid, Aristotle, Leibniz: replace intuitive view of infinity with the cardinality of well-known sets such as the integers (Cantor).

Frechet's metric space (1906): replace the triangle inequality for the distance between pairs of points with an axiom about the distance between points and sets in an unbounded space to obtain an extended metric space (Lowen, 1989).

James,

My last post is a quotation except the first line. All knowledge, including math, format thinking and has a tendency to diminish our creativity. Remaining ignorant is obviously not the solution. Many posts above provide ways to keep our creativity alive.

I see my colleagues making their point creatively. So, what I bring forward is getting away from natural by nurturing agreed upon concepts will lessen creativity! Nurturing creativity by getting away from complexities of our daily life and going near to nature will even enrich our creativity!

I just use an ancient technique known as YTI VITA ERC. It goes back to the time of Adam and Eve and is considered as the most natural and simplest way of being more creative. The technique is free from language.

Louis,

Many thanks for straightening out where the quoted sentence comes from. I gave examples to substantiate what I observed. Please give examples to substantiate your observation: formal thinking has a tendency to diminish our creativity. Acatually, after reading your Ph.D. thesis, I really am quite surprised about the position you are taking about formal thinking. I would say that your Ph.D. thesis proves that opposite is true, namely, formal thinking increases our creativity.