Creative Leading in the 21st Century

Here is a short speech I did about leading creatively or becoming a creative leader.

Think different

Do you think DIFFERENT?
Do you lively DIFFERENTLY?
Do you choose to be DIFFERENT?

Then you will enjoy this video.

Alan

NEVER GIVE UP, Nick Vujicic in a School

Alan Creativity TWEETS



share useful thoughts in less the 140 characters and spaces.

creative thinking involves using many skills it is not a single skill...problem sensitivity, problem recognition, idea generation/selection

RT @ItsKatie98: i used creative thinking to solve an algebraic equasion...that counts as failing. WHY? math uses a lot of creativity

RT @interbiz: Creative thinking helps advertising - everything human beings do and will do

RT @PghPalmFan: There isn't a problem so big that it can't be fixed. war, drugs, teenage pregnancy, abuse, murder, crime, where is resolve

RT @gublers: Creative thinking lecture now. So exciting. Except not really. At 9am. why isn't it exciting? what would make it more exciting

Had Art frei been organized enough to write down his list of hymn numbers he would never have invented Post-It notes

How many products exist that easily could be replace in much simpler ways if people would examine their problems more first?

PO...every culture can SUPPORT, PROMOTE, RECOGNIZE/REWARD, ENCOURAGE/EDUATE, APPLY, DEVELOP creativity in all of its citizens

take one crazy, off-the-wall, out-of-your-tree, out-of-any-box-or-container idea and tame it down today

take one dull, boring, plain idea and make it exciting today

take one idea and make it more creative today

choose to do 6 things creatively this week: at work, in school, at home, with friends, with old friends, with family, with neighbors

if there are no trees where you live....do you hug cactuses? shrubs, telephone poles (the concrete ones)?

EVERYONE CAN DRAW! If you can hold a pencil, pen, crayon, stick, have eyes, a mind and time you can draw...the key is learning to look & see

learning to draw, paint, dance, sing, sculpt, write poetry takes time, practice, guidance and a teacher or friends who already do

if U think U R not creative because U can not draw, sing, paint, dance, etc. ask Urself "Do I solve daily problems with new ideas?"

choose to see things / problems from 8 or more points of view, perspectives before choosing to select one.....combine some to get even more

fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration...four easily developable skills that will improve your creative thinking

to improve your creative output begin generating a minimum of 6 to 12 possible ideas until it becomes a habit. the 12 to 24 then 24 to 36

like with sports you can train creative thinking but still there is the need for FLOW or that MAGIC that happens. It is called inspiration

most people in creative fields can not sit around waiting for a muse, flow or magic..they need to use tools and techniques to produce ideas

with baseball, golf, basketball, bowling...you can improve with practice and training the same is true with creative thinking...

if only the STATE OF FLOW could be turned out mentally, physically, chemically or emotionally at will ... then no more CREATIVE BLOCKS

live by the two philosophies of IMPROV...the answer is always "YES!" or "YES AND!" and you will live more creatively

Companies honored for innovative ideas at 2010 Utah Innovation Awards


Companies honored for innovative ideas at 2010 Utah Innovation Awards
By Jasen Lee
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010 5:25 p.m. MDT
0 comments | E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + -
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SALT LAKE CITY — Innovation can come in many forms. Sometimes it's a product that can help doctors diagnose speech impediments. Sometimes it's a product that dispenses windshield washer fluid.

Be it a cool new idea or product or developments in existing technologies, competitors at the 2010 Utah Innovation Awards event Thursday often prompted the question, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Consider the Smile Reminder Patient Communication Software Suite, winner of the Innovation Award in the Enterprise Business to Business Software category.

to read further go to...

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700028470/Companies-honored-for-innovative-ideas-at-2010-Utah-Innovation-Awards.html

Learning to think out of the box

Learning to think out of the box
American educationist lauds Malaysia's creative teaching of soft skills to boost innovation
Friday, April 30th, 2010 12:24:00
DURING a recent visit to Malaysia, I had the opportunity to go to Universiti Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur.

UM is the highest ranking and oldest university in Malaysia. It is the 180th top university in the world, according to the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009.

I met Dr Mahzan Arshad, associate professor of education, and Dr Moses Samuel, professor of education, to discuss innovations taking place in Malaysia.

Dr Samuel explained why the Malaysian education system is focused on innovation: “As societies begin to move from an agricultural base to an industrial base to a knowledge economy, which Malaysia is moving toward, then innovation becomes critical.”

The Higher Education Ministry certainly thinks it is critical. The ministry has specified seven soft or interpersonal skills that all graduates of institutions of higher learning in Malaysia must master.

Two of them are related to innovation, involving critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and entrepreneurial skills.

To read the entire article go to

http://www.mmail.com.my/content/35108-learning-think-out-box

Are you reading about leading?

To further develop your skills as a leader you can be reading articles, blogs, books, attending workshops, listening to cds and/or dvds.

Here is a great source for the top 150 blogs on leading from around the world only one click away.

http://www.noop.nl/2010/04/top-150-management-leadership-blogs.html

Work 15 to 30 minutes into your Sunday evening or Monday morning schedule and visit one of these blogs and read 2 or 3 of their most recent messages.

Then attempt to apply what you learn during the week.

Then on the next Sunday evening or Monday morning do the same.

Within a few weeks you will begin to see a difference in your skill levels as a leader.

Best wishes to you.



Alan

Here are my responses to a few questions in honor of CREATIVITY DAY AND INNOVATION WEEK, April 15 to 21

What will do this year to honor Creativity and Innovation at work, in school, in your life?
http://www.creativityday.org/Welcome.html

1. What is a creative environment? How do you define it? What do you need to be at your creative best? How do you/can we develop a creative environment to promote day-to-day creative-thinking and solutions at home, school and in business? (You can refer to physical space, attitudes, systems, beliefs, etc.)

The total environment (physical, visual, audible, social, psychological, attitudinal, systems, beliefs, etc impact people in varying ways.

Some people just having a space to work and problems to work on is enough.

Some need highly stimulus filled spaces and environments.

Some need only to feel part of a group/team/family they trust to be creative

Some need systems to follow, guidelines and realistic parameters to be creative


2. What are the common obstacles and fears people commonly face when called to use their creativity? What solutions do you have?

Fear of failure
Team leaders or department heads that have learned to create a supportive environment where failure is not a threat.

Fear of not having their ideas accepted
A team, department or an entire organization that focuses on developing true connection and support throughout.

Fear of being ridiculed
On-going work to eliminate jealousness, immaturity, shallowness, and other factors that cause people to degrade, put down and negate ideas that are not their own.

Fear of be pushed out as strange, weird, undependable, etc.
An environment that grows to accept all its members

Unfortunately most of these are unrealistic in typical human organizations and cultures. A strong manager/leader/coordinator can work on helping individual highly creative individuals learn to deal with or protect them from these “PEOPLE PROBLEMS”.


3. What strategies are available for people to access their creativity?

Infinite intellectual, emotional, psychological, social strategies that are individually internal to those that are externally used by people.

Learning what type of environment works primarily best for them, for their teams, their departments, their organizations.

Hundreds of mental, visual, audible, gustatory, tactile devices and tools that can open up moods and mindsets to allow creativity to flow.

Tools and processes that people can learn that help them break mindsets, moods, perspectives allowing them to see things more creatively.

4. In what ways are you creative? In what ways do you contribute to the creative process/outcomes for others?

“Let me count the ways.”

Since first becoming aware of the first creative tool I experienced, S.C.A.M.P.E.R. created by Bob Eberle, and then attending my first CPSI and experiencing many creative thinking tools throughout the conference I have been collecting, discovering, creating, teaching/training varieties of SYSTEMS, TOOLS/TECHNIQUES, ATTITUDES/APPROACHES, METHODS, PROCESSES and STRATEGIES that can help people when they need to recharge, respark, regenerate or simply turn on their creativity.

By using a system of methods I continue to discover

S-SUPPORTING
P-PROMOTING
R-RECOGNIZING/REWARDING
E-EDUCATING/ENCOURAGING
A-APPLYING
D-DEVELOPING

Being creative is a choice that each of us can make any time any day. High, breakthrough creativity happens. Yet we can otherwise always choose to be more creative than the conditions and situations at any given moment appear to generate.

Creating Teams Takes More Than Mixing Skills and Knowledge

I my leadership and team building programs I have been stressing the value of knowing the people you work with in as many ways as you can...

background
education
skills
experiences
thinking styles
communication styles
confict resolution styles
value systems
goals
dreams

Read more about BEHAVIORIAL FACTORS from Tony Alessandra's article in SUCCESS magazine.



http://www.successmagazine.com/Using-Behavioral-Differences-to-Build-Teams-ThatWork/PARAMS/article/257/channel/15

The more you know the people in your group(s) the more then will become teams.
Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP

MIND Design Communication Styles, a tool for leading in today's workplaces



We all begin with an initial style of thinking that impacts all other things we do to form our over all styles or what I call MIND Designs.

We can expand them, enrich them, add to them. I strongly recommend that we do not try to change ours or other people's styles.

One of my main points in my speeches, workshops and university courses is that we will all benefit by

accepting rather than rejecting other styles

striving to understand instead of mis-understanding other styles

work at benefitting from rather than avoiding other styles

strengthen and expanding our styles into the missing ones instead of challenging what we do not prefer or feel comfortable with

maximize our strengths rather than change ours

add skills from the others

team up with people who have other styles instead of objecting to them

Hope this is helpful too as you improve your skills of leading, communicating, teaming and cre8ng.

What do you think are the differences in the roles of leaders and managers?

I have been leading retreats, giving workshops and teaching university courses for 30 years and have accepted the position that ALL PEOPLE who end up responsible for getting work done through small to large to corporation size groups of people all have to be able to be leaders, managers and bosses when necessary from the front line to the top floor.

Here is the conventional wisdom, standard thinking.

What do you think?

Difference Bet Manager & Leader?


What's the Difference Between a Manager and a Leader?
February 16, 2010

Managers and leaders aren't always distinct from one another given how much managers often are asked to take on, and the notoriously weak decisions made by top corporate leaders over the last few years. But a new AchieveGlobal study, "Developing the 21st Century Leader," reports there are, indeed, behaviors that set "leaders" apart. According to the study, real leaders:

• Apply principles such as fairness, respect, and "the greater good" to balance individual and group well-being. They act ethically to serve the larger good, not just to obey the law; encourage others to take socially responsible action; openly challenge what they consider unethical decisions and actions; take action to benefit others, not just themselves; recognize and reward others based on merit, not on politics; make fair decisions, even if they have a negative impact on themselves; and take steps to reduce environmental harm.

• Respect and leverage such basic differences as gender, ethnicity, age, nationality, and beliefs. They strive to meet the needs of customers representing other cultures; encourage collaboration among people from different groups; display sensitivity in managing across cultural boundaries; collaborate well with people different from themselves; effectively lead groups composed of diverse people; learn about the business practices of other cultures; and manage virtual teams with explicit customer-centric goals and practices.

• Assess their motives, beliefs, attitudes, and actions, asking, "How can I make sure my limitations don't lead me to make poor decisions?" They take responsibility for their own mistakes; seek the knowledge required to make sense of the big picture; examine what role they play in the challenges they face; and treat failure as a chance to learn and grow.

• Offer and execute practical ideas—and help others do the same—to create a climate in which innovation can thrive. They help other people adapt quickly to changes; help groups develop a shared picture of a positive future; develop themselves with the goal of improving overall group capabilities; solve real-world problems by thinking clearly and engaging others; tell stories to motivate others toward strategic goals; and find ways to promote speed, flexibility, and creativity.

• Connect with others on a human level to earn commitment, inspire effort, and improve communication. They read emotions in others and respond appropriately; adapt to the leadership needs of different groups; help others resolve issues of work-life balance; make a daily effort to inspire the trust of customers and colleagues; minimize the negative human impact of their decisions and actions; build and maintain a cross-functional task network; and communicate well with customers and colleagues at all levels.

How good are your company's leaders at saying "yes" and "no?"

WHAT MAY/MIGHT BE or IS CREATIVE THINKING?

For me it is simply creating, generating, discovering, using ideas that are from new just to me or perhaps new to my occupation or profession, new to my town, city, state, country or even the world.

or it is the combining of existing to ancient ideas in new ways or combinations to solve problems in new ways.

If you ask this question of 1,000 people on twitter you may receive 1,000 slightly to vastly different answers.

That is still okay.

Each is their answer, their creative answer.

Creative thinking can create problems
Creative thinking can create chaos
usually
Creative thinking produces new ideas that will lead to new solutions.

Yet too many people resist to protest creative thinking.

Do you?

Why?

as Dr. Phil says: "What's that doing for you?" or "How's that working for you?"


Choose to think more creatively today.

Choose to think creatively more today.

Best wishes,

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

WHO CAN THINK MORE CREATIVELY?

Everyone

you
your spouse
your children
your neighbors
your friends
your relatives
your fellow employees
your supervisors, managers, bosses
your fellow students

strangers you meet

everyone of the 6+ billion people on the earth.

Why aren't you?

Why aren't we?

Why aren't they?

My hope for you that these annoying, in-your-face, questions spark you to deliberately choose to think creatively each day, more each day.

Best wishes,

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

WHERE TO THINK CREATIVELY?

At home
at school
at work
on the street

these are simple places where you THINK CREATIVELY.

The question is do you?

Does your teacher,
do your parents,
does your supervisor, manager, boss
do your friends

actually encourage you to THINK CREATIVELY?

Do you encourage your spouse, children,friends, employees, total strangers to be creative?

Each day consider WHERE ELSE MAY/MIGHT I THINK CREATIVELY or MORE CREATIVELY.

Perhaps carry a reminder card that simply says


THINK CREATIVELY MORE TODAY!

or


HOW MIGHT I THINK CREATIVELY RIGHT NOW?

Best wishes,


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

WHEN oughta/mighta/shoulda/coulda/woulda we think CREATIVELY?

How, Why.....now When?

In the morning
In the afternoon
In the evening
Late at night

at home
at work
at school
on the way to work or school

with family
with friends
with fellow workers
with clients
with strangers

The more often we take 10 to 15 minutes to think creatively before doing something the more creative we will become.

Every skill needs to be practiced, developed, enhanced.

Deliberately choose each day to think creatively.

At the end of each week spend 30 to 60 minutes reviewing when, how, where, when, why, with who/whom you were creative.

Then list how did you gain from being creative throughout the week.

Do not take your creativity, creativeness, creative traits, your creative thinking skills for granted.


Deliberately, purposely, consciously think creatively each day.

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

HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE THINK CREATIVELY?


Every day
for at least 10 to 20 minutes.

On every challenge, problem or project we work on.

With each person we work with, love, meet.

To improve your abilities to think creatively you can approach every aspect of your life with this question or statement:

How may/might I do "X" more creatively?

Then do it.

From when you wake up in the morning to when you lay down to sleep for the night.

Periodically ask yourself that simple question:

How may/might I do "X" more creatively?

Then use one of the ideas you think of or discover.


The famous 3M corporation is known for its 15% Rule that was started in the 1940s by their CEO Terry McNight. Any employee may spend up to 15% of their week's work time working on a new potential project / product or to improve an existing one. One requirement is that they complete their assignment work in the other 85% of their work week. Though not all employees uniformly do this many do. It has become part of their highly Innovative Company's culture over the past nearly 70 years.

Make it part of your culture, your life, your workplace, your family.

Simply ask yourself throughout the day HOW may / might I do "X" more creatively.

Then as NIKE says so strongly JUST DO IT!

WHY THINK CREATIVELY?

The first of the classic 6 questions I asked was How?


The second is WHY?

Why would any of us on this planet want to, need to, desire to think creatively?

We have problems.
We have challenges.
We have goals.
We have dreams.
We have needs.
We have desires.

Using only old, tried, conventional thinking rarely can get us out of the holes or problems we are in.

Einstein is given credit for saying

"We can not solve our problems using the thinking that created them."

In some cases using someone else's thinking, "Best Practices" or systems may temporarily solve or appear to eliminate or stop a current problem of ours.

Seldom are the results lasting.

Why is this true?

Generally because "OUR" problem was not exactly like the problem that they person/company/profession solved.

Our situations, the variables were different. We didn't have the same resources, same clients, same real challenges, they typically only looked the same.

We need ideas. Hundreds to thousands to perhaps millions to solve the many problems we need or have to solve in our lives let alone around the globe.

Set a goal each day to spend 10 minutes thinking creatively about each challenge you have. Give yourself the benefit of those 10 minutes before you do what you would normally do.

Make it a habit daily!

Soon you will see changes happen.

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

HOW TO THINK CREATIVELY?

News writers, thinkers, problem solvers all use the classic 6 questions:

WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
WHERE?
WHY?
HOW?

Do you?

Let's start with HOW? in this message.

HOW are you creatively thinking in your personal and work life?

How are you using creativity or your creativeness, your creative thinking traits in your life?

How are you supporting, promoting, recognizing/rewarding, encouraging/educating, applying, developing your creative thinking and your growing thinking skills and traits?

How are you supporting, promoting, recognizing/rewarding, encouraging/educating, applying, developing creative thinking and the growing thinking skills and traits in other people around you at work or at home?

My hope is that these annoying questions, perhaps personally affronting or challenging questions spark at least short lists of ways you are doing these things.

How will you today?

How will you tomorrow?

How will you next week, month, year?

Conscious efforts will increase, strengthen, broaden and enhance your existing creative thinking traits, skills and the tools you learn.

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

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

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