170 How to Coach People to Be More Creative

YES! AND… Collaborate. Innovate. Transform – Creative Gorilla #170  How to Coach People to Be More Creative  “The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.” Oscar Wilde Recently, someone asked me how I might coach someone to be more creative when they think they are not creative? The question provoked a lot of thinking on my part and I would like to share my response with you as leaders so that you can deal with such a situation. Everyone can be creative In my career as a business leader and as a tutor with the Open University, I met a few people who told me they were not creative and I observed quite a few who were not being creative. You probably have too.  However, that does not mean they are not creative, it means we have different ways of approaching it. Dr. M. J. Kirton, creator of the Kirton Adapter Innovator (KAI) style profile, says: “Those who are adaptive in style are characterised by precision, reliability, efficiency; seen as methodical, prudent, disciplined. Those more innovative in style are seen as thinking tangentially, approaching tasks from unsuspected angles; undisciplined, unpredictable.” From this description, do you agree that adaptive people are more likely to say they are uncreative? In my experience it is true, but as Kirton explains, “One must remember that adaptors and innovators can have equal capacity, insight and creativity.” So, if someone tells you they are not creative, reassure them that we can all be creative, though we have different ways of contributing to creative outcomes. Four issues that inhibit creativity Having reassured them they can be...

How to Create Novel Ideas in Five Minutes…[Yes! And. Blog # 136]

6 Tools to Create Novel Ideas…  “If I had one hour to save the world I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.” Albert Einstein 5 Minutes to Save the World? This week I attended a course to help me focus my business and get me on track to write a book in twelve weeks. We spent a day developing a pitch with Mike Harris (who I mentioned in the last blog). At the end he had us develop a twenty second pitch for use only when you have just a few seconds to tell someone what you do. This led me to think that it would be an idea to have some tools you can use in five minutes to help with creativity. Here are some: 5 Ws and H This really is the complete multi purpose tool, courtesy of Rudyard Kipling. Designed to elicit all facts about a situation using “Who?” “What?” “Why?” “Where?” “When?” and “How?” For creativity you can ask questions about a product or service e.g. “Who uses it?” “When do they use it?”etc. Compile a list of answers and then ask, “How might that be different?” SCAMPER You can use 5 Ws and H with another tool; SCAMPER. Eberle designed the mnemonic to aid the creative process: (Substitute; Combine; Adapt; Magnify / Minify; Put to other uses; Eliminate / Elaborate; Rearrange / Reverse). It helps to generate ideas by challenging various aspects of a situation but in a more structured way. To use it, take one of the categories e.g. Substitute. Use the 5Ws and H...