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    Understanding Creativity
    Understanding Creativity
    Understanding Creativity
    Ebook175 pages2 hours

    Understanding Creativity

    By Daniel Collado-Ruiz Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi

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    About this ebook

    “Any ideas?” How often have you heard or said something like that? Most of the problems that we face force us to think about new ways of solving problems. Be it complicated design solutions, or simple riddles that we encounter in our free time, the world requires us to use our creativity. It is what has taken us so far.

    But creativity is very often not well understood. People often talk about it with an aura of mysticism; as if it were some sort of magical property; as if ideas “came from” somewhere; as if you would not be able to understand it, but that by applying some almost superstitious practices, you would gain access to it. Some say that magic is the explanation we use when we do not understand something.

    Instead of that, we want to make you understand creativity. By knowing a bit more about how your brain works, you will be able to enhance your creativity, and that of those around you. Not because you will be applying some trick, but because you will be understanding what is happening.

    We take pride in basing this book on scientific evidence. The authors have carried out research in this area, but have also read extensively the works of other authors. We will be sharing with you the most modern theories - and the older ones that have stood the test of time. In some books, you will find authors that shared what has worked for them, without understanding why. We will make sure you know what is behind the curtain all the time.

    In other words: we will not be talking about magic remedies, we will not give you any unexplained tricks, and we will not ask you to just take our word for it. We want to make sure you understand creativity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXinXii
    Release dateMar 18, 2017
    ISBN9783960288251
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      Book preview

      Understanding Creativity - Daniel Collado-Ruiz Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi

      Understanding Creativity

      How your mind creates new ideas

      By

      Dr. Daniel Collado-Ruiz and

      Dr. Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi

      I M P R I N T

      Understanding Creativity - How your mind creates new ideas

      by Daniel Collado-Ruiz, Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi

      © 2017, Daniel Collado-Ruiz and

      Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi.

      All rights reserved.

      Authors: Daniel Collado-Ruiz, Hesamedin Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi

      Contact: daniel@collado-ruiz.es, hesamedin@ostad.at

      Guest contributions: Jutta Jerlich, Claudia Umanzor

      Cover, illustrations: Daniel Collado-Ruiz

      ISBN: 978-3-96028-825-1

      Verlag GD Publishing Ltd. & Co KG, Berlin

      E-Book Distribution: XinXii

      www.xinxii.com

      This ebook, including all its parts, is protected by copyright and must not be copied, resold or shared without the permission of the author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 - Introduction

      Myths about creativity

      The contents of this book

      A bit about the authors

      Chapter 2 - What creativity is

      Definition of creativity

      The object of creativity: A creative what?

      Creative individuals

      Creative ideas

      Creative environments and creativity-fostering institutions

      The creative process: How are we creative?

      The spark of creativity: synapses

      The creative problem-solving process

      Chapter 3 - Intelligence and creativity

      Intelligence theories

      Relation of Intelligence and Creativity

      Creativity as part of intelligence

      Intelligence as part of creativity

      The creativity and intelligence overlap

      Other views

      Chapter 4 - Personality and creativity

      Personality theories

      Constitutional theories

      Trait theory

      Implicit personality theory

      The humanistic approach

      Personality traits in creativity

      Chapter 5 - Perception and creativity

      Capturing the outer world

      Interpreting the outer world — Gestalt theory

      The inner world: unconsciousness

      Distortions of perception

      How to perceive better — knowing yourself

      Chapter 6 - Avoiding creativity blocks

      What are creativity blocks

      Causes of creativity blocks

      Problem definition cues

      Context cues

      Other mental processes

      Creativity strategies

      Analogies

      Sketches

      Inverse thinking

      Remove the optimal solution

      Add odd condition

      Random cues

      Change your context

      Reframe (train the creative muscle)

      Knowing yourself: create your own techniques!

      Chapter 7 - Human interaction

      Communication

      Conflicts

      Learning from failures

      Motivations

      Coordination

      Putting it all together: creating a creative atmosphere

      Leading and facilitating

      Chapter 8 - Creativity in groups

      Brainstorming

      Hall of fame

      Six thinking hats

      Knowing your team: creating your own techniques

      Chapter 9 - Way forward

      What to do with your idea?

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      Any ideas?

      How often have you heard or said something like that? Most of the problems that we face force us to think about new ways of solving problems. Be it complicated design solutions, or simple riddles that we encounter in our free time, the world requires us to use our creativity. It is what has taken us so far.

      But creativity is very often not well understood. People often talk about it with an aura of mysticism; as if it were some sort of magical property; as if ideas came from somewhere; as if you would not be able to understand it, but that by applying some almost superstitious practices, you would gain access to it. Some say that magic is the explanation we use when we do not understand something.

      Instead of that, we want to make you understand creativity. By knowing a bit more about how your brain works, you will be able to enhance your creativity, and that of those around you. Not because you will be applying some trick, but because you will be understanding what is happening.

      We take pride in basing this book on scientific evidence. The authors have carried out research in this area, but have also read extensively the works of other authors. We will be sharing with you the most modern theories — and the older ones that have stood the test of time. In some books, you will find authors that shared what has worked for them, without understanding why. We will make sure you know what is behind the curtain all the time.

      In other words: we will not be talking about magic remedies, we will not give you any unexplained tricks, and we will not ask you to just take our word for it. We want to make sure you understand creativity.

      Before we jump into it, in this chapter we will address some common myths that people have about creativity. After that, this chapter will introduce to you the different sections of the book. Finally, we will dive a bit into why the authors of this book are the right people to be writing about it.

      Myths about creativity

      The word creativity is very popularly used. So much, that it is also often abused. We talk so much about creativity that we often attribute to the word so much more or so much less of what it really means.

      After years of trainings and workshops on creativity, we have seen that it is common for participants — and readers — to have a number of assumptions that are not only inaccurate, but sometimes false. In this section, we will address some of those misconceptions, and try to lay down some foundations that will guide you throughout the book. Most of these concepts will be revisited in the next chapters in further depth.

      Myth: Creativity is reserved for creative people. Some people think that you need to be born with some special talent or skill to be creative. Some people even talk about creative individuals, as if the rest of the population were some sort of dull brainless machines. That is a ridiculous concept, and one that you should get out of your head quickly. Everybody can be creative. Creativity is a capacity, it is a skill that you can train just like any other — once you understand it a bit better. You are already creative. I bet you can have a conversation, right? You are creating the sentences as you go. More talent might give you a head start in generating creative ideas, but training, and understanding how to improve, will get you much further. People who stand out for their creative output have worked on their creativity for a long time. This book will help you understand, train and develop creativity in yourself and others.

      Myth: Crazy ideas are creative ideas. Some people think that being creative is the same as being able to come up with silly ideas — and hopefully some of the things you say might be valuable. Being fluent — generating many ideas — is a part of being creative, but this myth misses the complete big picture. If something does not take you anywhere, if what you come up with is not useful, it is not creative. It is new, novel, surprising… but it is not creative. That said, what you come up with can be useful for you in many ways. If what you come up with is funny, and that is what you were looking for, then it can be considered creative. But foolishness for its own sake is just that, nothing more.

      Myth: It is good to be creative all the time. Some people think that, if you are creative, it is almost a way of life; that once you develop the skills, you are constantly flowing with ideas. As with any skill, you choose when to use it. You will have moments when you are looking for ideas, but you will have many others in which it would be counter-productive to have ideas. They might get in the way, make the task take for longer, or take your focus away from more important things. We will see how to direct your creativity, and how to let it flourish when you need it, without obsessing with becoming a creative person. Being creative whenever you want to will make you a creative person.

      Myth: Ideas happen instantly (or the opposite: Ideas take a lifetime to have). Many people think that if you put your brains to it, there is one particular moment in which the idea happens. Suddenly, it comes to you. Other people think that it takes years and years of work to reach an idea, and that it was forming all along that process. And both are right in a way and wrong in a way. Ideas take time to grow. Creativity requires a lot of subconscious processes, and a few conscious ones. We are constantly incubating ideas, and as we will see in the next chapter, the process has several stages that we can control — which links to the next myth…

      Myth: Either you have an idea, or you do not. Somehow many people have the conception that you either have an idea, or you do not; that once you have an idea, you clearly understand it, and can clearly verbalize it — and that if you cannot verbalize it, it is more because of the words than because of the idea. We do indeed have moments of realization, but ideas take time to crystallize. Sometimes it might take months, sometimes days. Sometimes they crystallize as you talk about them. But rarely do they stay exactly the same from beginning to end, because the more you are thinking about your idea, the more you are polishing it.

      Myth: Creativity will solve all my problems. Some people believe that creativity is this superpower that will grant you the solution for everything, make you more successful, and solve all problems you encounter. Creativity plays an important part in problem-solving, but it needs to be paired with good knowledge and execution to get you anywhere. If you thought it would be this magic solution, we are sorry to be the ones breaking it to you, but there are no silver bullets or shortcuts. The good news is that with creativity you can overcome a great deal of problems, and make sure that the knowledge you gain, and the way you execute, are better suited for your problem. But it will take you creativity and hard work, not creativity alone.

      Those are the most common myths that we have found. We hope that we have cleared the air in any conceptions that you might have had about how creativity works. That said, we have only briefly presented you the ideas. In some of them, you might only be half-convinced; or you might be wondering why it is like that. Do not worry: for all those myths, and much more, we have several points in the book in which we will dig into the details.

      The contents of this book

      In this section, we will explain the approach and concepts in each one of the chapters.

      In chapter 2 we will make sure you understand better what creativity is, and how it happens in the brain. We will analyze the creative process, and start to see how it works in action. You will get to understand better where the myths on the previous section come from, and why understanding creativity will get you further in your problem-solving.

      Chapters 3 to 5 focus on how your brain handles creativity from a psychological point of view. We will see the relation between creativity and different psychological traits. Chapter 3 will explain the link between intelligence and creativity, how they are connected, and how the different

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