Hi All,
"The ability to create something new or bring into existence something original is called Creativity".Creativity helps us to be sensitive and flexible to changes in the environment.Creative ability is the extent to which an individual uses novel or unconventional approaches to solve a problem.
People consider innovation and creativity as similar things.But there is a difference b/w the two.Creativity means bringing a new idea into existence while innovation means putting the new idea into practice.
Creative people have the ability to view situations from diverse angles.They are sensitive and curious.They are adventurous and willing to take risks.Creative people tend to be independent in making decisions and patient in their creative efforts.They are good at visualizing situationsand that helps them to clearly understand the situation.Creative people are unpredictable both in their action and their thought.
Stages of Creativity:
In order to be creative,we should view things from a new perspective and look for opportunities.They have to be open to taking risks and utilize the opportunities that they encounter.
1)Exploring:This involves identifying the various possible courses of action to a given problem or situation.We should analyze our resourses and identify the objectives.We should collect information from various possible sourses including contradictory information.This information can be collected by asking unusual questions and thinking in diverse directions.
2)Inventing:This stage involves searching for a variety of tools and techniques that help to generate diverse ideas.Some of the techniques used to generate creative ideas are brainstorming etc.
3)Selecting:This involves analysis of the collected ideas,information and facts.We can screen all the ideas and analyse them without any notions or prejudices to arrive at a creative solution.We should bring the ideas into existence by our knowledge of the subject,curiosity and confidence.
4)Implementing:This involves putting the idea into practice.After implementing the idea,we should obtain feedback on the utility of the idea.Based on the feedback,the idea can be modified to meet the requirements.
Importance of being Creative:
Creativity is an important resource for achieving competitive advantage.Organization can be left out of the competition if they are not creative.A creative approach helps organization to survive in an immensely competitive environment and to deal with rapidly changing market conditions and customer requirements.Therefore,more and more organizations are encouraging their employees to be creative.Organizations are also giving importance to putting the creative ideas into practice.
A creative work culture benefits both the employee and the organization.It identifies new opportunities and enhances the growth and performance of the organization.A creative work culture helps an organization to optimally utilize its resources and strengthen its strategic position.A creative work environment helps an organization to reduce both absenteeism and boredom at the workplace.Therefore,organizations must train their employees in generating vcreative ideas,selecting ideas for implementation etc.
Barriers for creative thinking:
Creativity does not come easily to everyone.There are certain barriers to creativity and people should identify and overcome these barriers.Some of the common barriers to creativity are:
1)Fear of a creative idea being rejected or criticized.Fear hampers creativity and so it should be identified and overcome.
2)Anxiety:Some like to have things organized and secure.Even a small amount of uncertainity or risk makes them anxious.
3)Pessimism:People who think that they are not creative can never be creative.Our inherent perception of ourselves plays a vital role in our creative thinking.
4)Stress:A person under stress cannot generate creative ideas.A tired mind seldom(rarely) produces creative solutions.Therefore,people should take regular breaks and time-offs to destress.
5)The environment in which we live also affects our creativity.Environment includes physical,social,economic and work environments.A noisy work environment can act as a barrier to creativity.
Developing Creativity:
Most people believe that creativity is inborn and cannot be developed.Though creativity is inborn for some people,it can be developed through appropriate training and by a supportive environment.Creativity can be developed by creating a need in people to innovate.People should also be encouraged to view a problem from different angles.
A stimulating and rewarding environment encourages creativity.It encourages new ideas ,experiences and new challenges and develops the creative thinking of the employee in an organization.Such organizations generally have highly creative employees.
The popular techniques to enhance creativity are as follows:
1)Brainstorming:This involves a group of people generating ideas.A brainstorming session starts with each participant giving one idea at a time.All the collected ideas are then evaluated and classified and the best ideas are selected by a consensus method.
2)Checklist Technique:It involves asking questions to get creative solutions.It is based on asking a number of questions to make modifications to the preliminary solutions that one has found for certain problems.
3)Morphological Analysis:It involves tabulation of all possible alternatives with respect to each of the selected attributes.This technique produces the maximum possible alternatives for a specific attribute within a short span of time.
4)Delphi Technique:In this group technique,a team of experts deal with a specific issue.This technique helps the individual with menta lblocks like fear,which are common in face-to-face discussions,to present their ideas without any hesitation.
5)Mind-Mapping:It involves a graphical display of ideas and thoughts.The idea behind this technique is to generate creative ideas by using images and learning to think in new ways.
6)Lateral Thinking:This technique is about thinking from diverse angles and finding unusual solutions.This technique is generally used where there is time on hand for dealing with a situation.
Hence,to succeed in todays intensely competitive business environment,it has therefore become extremely necessary for organizations to be creative.Organizations lose many opportunities because of their inability to take risks or accept novel solutions.A creative organization is better at handling crisis than other organizations.
Regards,
Kavita
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