creativity
Creativity
Vocabulary
| creativity | innovation | accelerate |
| obstacle | roadblocks | satisfaction |
| achieve | and so on | productivity |
| typewriter | combination | combination lock |
| spin | similar | fool around |
| enable | progress | regular basis |
| chapel | potential | estimation |
| expand | capability | Sistine Chapel |
| latent | recess | intelligence |
| destined | continuous | come up with |
| stream (2) | average | proportionate |
| stuck | decimated | rotary engine |
| profits | suggestion | breakthrough |
| reward | implement | find/found |
| major | payoff | astonishing |
| official (2) | turn around | maintaining |
| oppose | primary | encourage |
| reject | as opposed | What the heck |
| ignore | encourage | It’s not worth it |
| convenient | excellence | relationship (2) |
| dynamic | nature (2) | direct relationship |
| rapid | obsolete | competition |
| thrive | prosper | obsolescence |
| doomed | factor | determine |
From time immemorial, humans have advanced themselves from hunter gatherers to space travelers. This came about discoveries, innovations and inventions.
And the driving force behind this is the creative mind.
But what exactly is creativity? And how can we harness it?
So let’s talk about creativity, and let’s start off by talking in the simplest terms.
The first of the 21 keys which is a critical starting point is, number one, what is creativity? Well in my estimation creativity is not painting the Sistine Chapel, or great works of art of music, creativity is simply improvement.
Everything that you do that expands or improves the way things are done is a creative act. Let me say this at the beginning too, the more ways you look to improve activities on a day to day basis, the more creative you become.
Remember this though, creativity is a skill. It’s like typing with a typewriter or riding a bicycle, you can learn the skill if you learn the systematic methods of creativity that we’re going to talk about here.
That your creativity is a latent force, that lies deep down in the recesses of your intelligence, and you can become more creative as you place more demands on your creative capability.
Every single person has what is called a line of sight. In every organization, the line of sight is what you see when you look up. It’s the job you do and what is going on around you. And everybody can find ways to improve their line of sight.
Let me say this: success in business is directly proportionate to the quantity of new ideas that you come up with on a day to day week to week basis.
A person who comes up with a continuous stream of good ideas, or even a continuous stream of average ideas is a person who is destined to great success in business.
People who come up with no ideas or very few ideas are usually stuck where they are.
So look in your line of sight. What do you see around you that lead to improvements.
Now all the work that’s being done in excellence today, work that’s being done in the best corporations, shows that they’re a direct relationship between ideas and profitability.
Between ideas and profitability. This is because of the dynamic nature of our society, because of the competitiveness, because of the rapid obsolescence of products and services, that the more and better and faster the ideas that you can generate in your organization, the more likely it is that you are going to survive and thrive and prosper in the years ahead. And an organization what does not continually come up with new ideas is an organization that is doomed!
So when we talk about organizations, organizations are simply people. Organizations are simply you and the people around you. And it is the people that determines the fate of an organization.
Questions
1. Only certain, special people are born creative, according to the speaker. True or false?
2. What three analogies does he give regarding creativity?
3. Is creativity only about painting, sculpting, and composing music? Does creativity only involve art?
4. What is a “line of sight”?
5. In 1975, was Mazda Corporation doing good business?
6. What did the Mazda managers do?
7. The employees were motivated primarily by monetary rewards. True or false?
8. Did Mazda make a turn around? Did they make a comeback?
9. If a company has an implementation rate of 10%,
10. There’s a big difference between people who come up with new ideas all the time and people who don’t. Yes or no?
What happens when companies and organizations do not come up with new ideas? Can you give examples?
A. What is your line of sight at work, university, or school?
B. Do you make a lot of suggestions, improvements, or innovations in your line of sight?
C. I feel very proud when I make improvements or see my ideas implemented. Yes or no?
D. Who is the leader in your industry or profession?
E. How can you be more creative or innovative?
