MANAGING FOR PERFORMANCE:
INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL
CREATIVITY
Associate Professor Dr. Raja Roslan
Bin Raja Abd. Rahman
LEARNING
Learning OUTCOMES
Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, students are able to;
• identify the basic principles of creative thinking skills to solve daily problems ( A2 , CS3 ) .
• to give feedback on issues related to the development of creative thinking skills ( P3 , TS4 ) .
•
• Examine the manner in which we perceive, query and explore
• Provide tools to generate, manage and apply creative ideas
• Develop a strong link between work performance and creative activity
• Explore the factors which support and/or inhibit creative performance in the
workplace
• Provide the means to examine, question, assimilate and connect participant
knowledge and experiences
Ideas are the currency of success. They separate
you from your competition.
- Edward de Bono
Pam Fuhrmann
P600 Final Project
Outline
•Awakening to Creativity
•Exploring Creative Thinking Techniques
• Removing Mental Locks
•Examining Creativity in the Workplace
•Understanding Managerial/Organizational Impact
on Creativity
•Developing Creative Organizations
•Increasing Your Creativity
Definition of Creativity
"Creativity is the ability to respond to all that goes on around
us, to choose from the hundreds of possibilities of thought,
feeling, action, and reaction that arise within us, and to put
these together in a unique response, expression, or message
that carries moment, passion, and meaning."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Woman Who Run With the Wolves
Opening Our Minds: Perception, Curiosity
and Exploration
•Imagine the familiar in a new light
•Find links among unrelated phenomena
•Realize the impact of change
•Accept new perspectives
•Follow a broad and moving path
Exploring Creative Thinking Techniques
Soft Thinking: metaphor, dream, play, intuition,
ambiguous, fantasy, approximate humor
Hard Thinking: logic reason, work adult,
analysis, consistency, reality exact precision
von Oech R. (1998). A Whack on the Side of the Head
Exploring Creative Thinking Techniques
Visual Thinking Activities:
Perceptual, imagery, daydreaming, metaphoric, synectics, patterns
Idea Listing Activities:
Attribute listing, morphological synthesis, second best answer,
checklist, just suppose
Writing Activities:
Webbing, mapping, wet inking, reflection writing, story starters
Group Interaction Activities:
Simulation, role play, creative dramatics, six hats, fish bowl,
brainstorming, reverse brainstorming
Process-Product Activities:
Problem finding, problem defining, problem-based learning
Removing Mental Locks
Idea Squelchers - Von Oech’s Ten Blocks
•The Right Answer •That’s Not My Area
•That’s Not Logical •Don’t Be Foolish
•Follow The Rules •Avoid Ambiguity
•Be Practical •To Err Is Wrong
•Play Is Frivolous •I’m Not Creative
von Oech R. (1998). A Whack on the Side of the Head
Examining Creativity in the Workplace
•Supervisors that held higher creativity expectations were
viewed as rewarding creativity, recognizing creative efforts,
allocating more resources, encouraging collaboration and
sharing, applying creative goal setting and modeling creative
behavior in their own work
•Employees interpret meaning through environmental cues
and supervisors must communicate through behavior.
•Self-efficacy levels influence the extent to which employees
entertain creative activities, initiate creative acts, and sustain
creative levels in their work.
Examining Creativity in the Workplace
•Supervisors must be aware of the impact and clearly
state expectations to shape creative effort and manage
the supervisor/employee relationship.
•Individuals often generalize their relationships with
direct reports to the entire organization, this perceived
support of creativity has even greater impact on the
individual’s relationship to the organization as a whole.
Case Discussion
Managing for Creativity - HBR
Best Buy, Co., Inc. (A):
An Innovator’s Journey - HBR
Measuring Creativity
Divergent Thinking Tests – open ended questions
•Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
•Guilford Tests
Personality & Biographical Inventories –
perceptions, attitudes, values, interests, motivations
•Hocevar
Personality Traits of the Creative Person
Self Actualized Creativity (Maslow)
•Perceive reality more accurately and objectively; tolerate and even like
ambiguity; are not threatened by the unknown.
•Accept themselves, others, and human nature.
•Are spontaneous, natural, genuine.
•Are problem-centered, non-egotistical; have a philosophy of life and
probably a mission in life
•Need some privacy and solitude more than others do; are able to
concentrate intensely.
•Are independent, self-sufficient and autonomous; have less need for
praise or popularity.
•Have capacity to appreciate again and again simple and commonplace
experiences; have zest in living, ability to handle stress, high humor.
•Have (and are aware of) their rich, alive, fulfilling peak experiences.
•Have deep feelings of brotherhood with all mankind; are benevolent,
altruistic.
Personality Traits of the Creative Person
Self Actualized Creativity (Maslow)
•Form strong friendship ties with relatively few people; are capable of
greater love.
•Are democratic, unprejudiced in the deepest possible sense.
•Are strongly ethical and moral individual (not necessarily conventional)
ways; enjoy work in achieving a goal as much as the goal itself; are patient,
for the most part.
•Have a more thoughtful, philosophical sense of humor that is constructive,
not destructive.
•Are creative, original inventive with a fresh, naïve, simple and direct way
of looking at life; tend to do most things creatively – but do not necessarily
possess great talent.
•Are capable of detachment from their culture; can objectively compare
cultures; can take or leave conventions.
Davis (1998) Creativity is Forever
Your character is your destiny
On a circle, an end point can
also be a beginning point
A thing rests by changing
You can’t step in the same river twice
The sun is new each day
When there is no sun,
we can see the evening stars
The Creative Insights of Heraclitus
von Oech R. (1998). A Whack on the Side of the Head
References:
• Aziz Yahya, Aida Nasirah Abdullah, Hazmilah Hasan and Raja
Roslan Raja Abd Rahman. (2011). Critical and Creative
Thinking Module 2. Melaka. Penerbit UTeM.
• Buzan, T. (2009). Mind maps for business : revolutionise your
business thinking and practice. New York : Pearson BBC
Active.
• Cotrell, Stella. (2011) Critical thinking skills: developing
effective analysis and argument. Hampshire: Palgrave Mc
Millan.
• Fisher, A. (2011). Critical Thinking: An Introduction.
London: Cambridge University Press.
• Lau, Joe Y. F. (2011). An introduction to critical thinking
and creativity: think more, think better. Hoboken, N. J.:
Wiley
• Moore, Brooke Noel and Parker, Richard. (2012). Critical
thinking. New York, NY: Mc Graw Hill, 2012.
THE END
