Creativity Resources for the New Year

Ah, another new year and with it renewed opportunities to embrace our creative selves, personally and professionally. I wanted to share some resources that have crossed my eyes the past few months.

If you're scientifically-minded, you can boost your creativity IQ with just one magazine purchase (in bookstores now; why there is no link online baffles me), with a Scientific American Mind special edition dedicated to "The Mad Science of Creativity." Multi-disciplinary researchers and science writers weigh in on creativity, innovation and genius through 18 compelling articles that range from origins of creativity to dream states to ways of freeing the genius within. 

The many articles explore how nature and nurture play a role in creative development, with creative people tending to be less cognitively inhibited, allowing their mind to venture far and wide, not getting as stuck in limiting mindsets. As long-time creativity researcher Dean Keith Simonton notes, creative achievement is strongly associated with "openness to experience...cognitive and behavioral flexibility, along with a tolerance of ambiguity and change." While this can sometime lead to eccentricity, lying and even mental illness, as the magazine details, the key to creativity and even to business innovation is our ability to know when (and how) to let go of cognitive control--to diverge--in order to explore new possibilities before we evaluate them. So here is to the eccentric in all of us!

You should also check out David Burkus' The Myths about Creativity from ChangeThis, which tackles the misconceptions we often have about creativity so that we can embrace our creative selves more fully. Here are a few examples:

-The Originality Myth:  "The truth is that all new ideas are built from combing older ideas. The novelty comes from the combination or application, not the idea itself."

-The Expert Myth: "The truth is that some level of expertise matters, but the most creative

solutions come from those on the fringes of the subject area, who know enough to understand but not enough to block their creative thinking."

-The Constraints Myth: "The truth is that creativity is highest in a constrained

environment. Researchers found that individuals are more creative after engaging in tasks laden with obstacles and roadblocks."

And here are some additional professional resources from the end of last year to contemplate creativity and innovation:

Nautilus Article: Wasting Time can boost productivity

Entrepreneur Article: Overcoming Creativity Block

Fast Company/Edelman Innovation Forum: Showing Up Differently

Video Interview on U.S. Innovation: We Still Got it

Big Companies Need to Hire Small Companies to Innovate

Finally, as I've done previously, I'd like to share a few highlights from my consulting practice during the past few months:

Strategizing with Columbia College National Alumni Board

Gave keynote to 200+ UIC student workers:
"Self-Leadership: Making this Year Count"

Leading the Poetry Pals Rap as part of the interfaith creativity program I run for kids.
See the latest on Poetry Pals at our website or Facebook page.