Building a Personal Creativity Toolbox

2012 Library Professional Development Week

Donna Ziegenfuss
(donna.ziegenfuss@utah.edu)
Visiting Associate Librarian
J. Willard Marriott Library

In this session you will

Reflect and reframe in a warm-up exercise to introduce the concept of creativity
Participate in a group to define creativity through word association exercise
Unpack creativity, creativity myths, and types of creativity through the concepts of:

Thinking (by taking a thinking quiz) | Handout
Ideas (by watching a video clip on how ideas develop)

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson

Connections (synectics) | Handout

Discuss the Creativity Processand go through the process in a simulated scenario | Handout

Gathering Information
Divergent thinking
Convergent thinking
Evaluation
Implementation

Brainstorm strategies, techniques and tips for developing your creativity

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Warm Up Creativity Exercise: Watch this slide show and reflect on how the toolboxes are the same, different, which one speaks to you, which one triggers prior knowledge or experience?

Some Other Creativity Definitions:

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way."
Edward de Bono (expert on lateral thinking)

"To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted."
George Kneller

"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% percent perspiration." Thomas Edison

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all." Michelangelo

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Part 1: Unpacking Creativity

Part 2: The Creative Process

Part 3: Helping Creativity Along

Links to Additional Resources

Alfred and Lorelei's Library Guide on Library Creativity Resources

Link to CMAP software

General Websites

The Mycoted A-Z guide of innovation and creativity techniques

Creativity Articles on Lifehack.org

Creativity Articles on the Web

Inc. Magazine article (Feb 6, 2012) by Geil Browning: Spur Your Brain to Innovate http://www.inc.com/geil-browning/tips-to-fuel-innovation-and-creativity-geared-to-your-brain-type.html . This article looks at 5 tips to 'stoke' your creativity by asking yourself questions based on your style such as:

"How could I design a system for this?" (analytical approach)
"How could I organize this?" (structural approach)
"How can I affect people? (social approach)
"How can I make this beautiful?" (conceptual approach)
"Take a look at your behavioral tendencies"

The me2 model of creativity developed by Dr. Mark Batey that contains 12 factors of creativity.
Psychology Today article - 12 things they never taught in school about creativity by Michael Michalko (12/2/11)

Imagination & Innovation Resources

J. K. Rowling commencement speech at Harvard; The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
The Strategic Innovation Blog
7 habits of highly innovative people from the Think Simple Now Blog

Flow Information

Finding Flow - Article by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This course content is offered under a CC Attribution Share AlikeLinks to an external site. license. Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.