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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Karaoke Thinking


Singing Karaoke in a bar or in a friend's basement or rec room can be fun. But are you only using Karaoke Thinking at work or in your life or classroom?



Today while listening to NPR I heard two interviews with authors of the following books:

Karaoke Captialism
Karaoke Faczism

Listening to the two authors sparked the term:


KARAOKE THINKING


For me this is a term for the type of thinking I have seen so much during the almost 50 years I have been working since I began doing freelance work when I was almost 16.

To me it means

Using someone else's thinking
using someone else's script, word for word
using someone else's lyrics even if you can't speak their language

copying
immitating
using formulas with no knowledge of why they really work
using someone else's benchmarks
using someone else's BEST PRACTICES
using someone else's answers to their problems to solve your problems

not thinking new
not thinking for yourself
simply NOT THINKING AT ALL

just doing
repeating
copying
playing
pretending to be someone you are not
without practice, talent, developed skills or experience.

Today around the world individuals, teams, families departments, entire corporations and entire populations need to be thinking.

They need to be challenging why things are working as they thought or assumed that they were 6 months, 12 months, a couple years ago.

We need to be creatively thinking more so now than we have been in years.

300,000,000 plus people in the US. That is a tremendous amount of thinking power.

Are you creatively thinking today?

Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

Friday, May 22, 2009




Develop Your Creativity and the Creativity of Everyone Who Works with You



Read books and share what you are learning from the.

1 a week
1 a month
1 a quarter

Here is a list to choose from as a start in your Creativity Skill Development Plan

Arden, Paul WHATEVER YOU THINK KNIHT EHT .ETISOPPO
Barez-Brown, Chris HOW TO HAVE KICK-ASS IDEAS
Byttebier, Igor & Vullings, Ramon CREATIVITY TODAY
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly & Richards, Ruth Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Perspectives by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Ruth Richards (Hardcover - Jun 15, 2007)
DuPont Employees ARE WE CREATIVE YET?
Eastaway OUT OF THE BOX 101 Ideas fro Thinking Creatively
Gelb, Michael INNOVATED LIKE EDISON
Gelb, Michael THINK LIKE DA VINCI
Girsch, Maria & Girsch, Charlie FANNING THE CREATIVE SPIRIT-Two Toy Inventors Simplify Creativity
Harrison, Sam ZING!
Harrison, Sam IDEASPOTTING
Hurson, Tim THINK BETTER
Krause, Jim IDEA INDEX
Krause, Jim CREATIVE SPARKS
Littman & Kelley The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Jonathan Littman and Tom Kelley
MacKensie, Gordon ORBITING THE GIANT HAIRBALL
Maisel, Eric Creativity for Life: Practical Advice on the Artist's Personality, and Career from America's Foremost Creativity Coach by Eric Maisel (Paperback - Mar 8, 2007)
Mallon, Brenda A YEAR OF CREATIVITY
Michaelides, Dimis THE ART OF INNOVATION Integrating Creativity in Organizations By Dimis Michaelides
Mumaw & Oldfield Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield (Paperback - Oct 2, 2006)
Naisbitt, John MIND SET!
Pek & McGlade STIMULATED 2008 Greenleaf Book Group Press
Ray, Michael & Myers, Rochelle Creativity in Business by Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers (Paperback - Dec 24, 1988)
Renzel, Rick Inspiring Creativity: An Anthology of Powerful Insights and Practical Ideas to Guide You to Successful Creating by Rick Benzel (Paperback - April 15, 2005)
Robinson, Ken OUT OF OUR MINDS
Tharp, Twyla The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp (Paperback - Dec 27, 2005)
Wood, Monica THE POCKET MUSE

Thursday, May 21, 2009


ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES KEEP CREATIVITY ALIVE

Lists of traits of highly creative people mostly all contain

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

school systems, cultures, families, religions, groups, perhaps systems in general tend to reduce the need for being

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

so when we are born we are born with many capacities that support and cause us to be creative by nature

yet then we grow up and are educated not to be

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

for those of us whose lives involved much change, variety, moving from place to place, town to town, state/province to state/province or country to country

we were exposed to high degrees of difference
we observed people being

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

for me it was my parents' annual FAMILY VACATION,
only once did my two older brothers go
I went every year for 13 or 14 years and experienced all 48 mainland US states, 4 provinces and one Mexican state.

during the first 6 years after graduating from architectural school I worked in 9 different architectural firms and my own (10th)....and had to learn almost 9 completely systems and sets of working happens and approaches to doing the same work.

In total since I started working part-time as a freelance artist at 16 I have had 47 jobs in 8 professions.......a source of learning many different ways of doing things.

what about for you?

has there been much change in your environments: personal, professional, family?

physical, psychological, visual, social, emotional?

Alan