Creativity Quotient: Currency of the Future

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Creativity QuotientCurrency of the Future

• Uma G. Gupta
• President
• Alfred State College
• State University of New York

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Individual Workplace Challenges

• Too busy at work!
• Lack of time!
• Information Overload!
• Stressed!
• Inability to keep pace with demands!
• Always playing catch-up!
• No end in sight!
• Desire for more balance in life!
• Technology pain.
• Email addiction.
• Benign neglect of friends and family.
• The more you do, the more you have to do!

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Creativity

• Old models and old solutions to new problems
  wont work! Dont work!
• Continue to reinvest in ourselves, our thinking,
  learning, and re-learning, and unlearning.
• At the heart of this approach, lies creativity
  and our commitment to creativity.

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Changing Face of Education

• Two inherent challenges to human thinking
• We think locally (human nature)
• We are all darned specialists (arent you?)
• Education is no longer the privilege of elite
  nations.
• Significant Implications
• A common world language - English
• Well-informed by historic standards
• Access to knowledge
• Instant, global communications
• Concerned locally Driven by global events
• What does all of this mean for problem-solvers
  and decision-makers?

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Currency for Progress

• Education
• Training
• Technology
• Systems
• Capitalize Human Potential
• Expand Monetary Resources
• Health Care
• Transportation
• Narrow the Divide
• Attack hunger and poverty
• Control Terrorism
• CREATIVITY

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Creativity

• Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing,
  taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes,
  and having fun." Mary Lou Cook
• "There are two ways of being creative. One can
  sing and dance. Or one can create an environment
  in which singers and dancers flourish."Warren G.
  Bennis
• All knowledge is already present, and the most we
  can do is create conditions in which intuition
  will occur. It's like rain pouring down from the
  heavens--to have more of it, we need only to
  remove our umbrellas - Jagdish Parikh.

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Creativity Quotient

• Creativity is the real currency of progress.
• There is nothing you can build, invent, or
  license that cannot be reproduced.
• Focus not just on how we work together, but how
  we think together.

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Fundamental Questions

• What is creativity? (Producing, not reproducing)
• Where in your organization is creativity most
  needed?
• Why?
• What attributes would you look for in a creative
  person?
• What spurs creativity (not what you think!)

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The Curse of Knowledge

• The well-trodden path kills creativity.
• Peter Watsons exercise (2,4,6).
• Most people dont search for alternatives and
  dont ask questions even when there is no
  penalty.
• Einstein and the needle in the haystack.
• Looking for alternatives even when the solution
  is found.
• Producing, not reproducing solutions.

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What if?

• What if every customer was greeted at the door?
• What if everyone donated a dollar to cancer?
• What if I can shop on-line?
• What if I can heat my car from my house?
• What if I can .what?
• Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, "The
  World's Foremost Expert on Nametags"

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Obstacles to Creativity

• Bureaucrats
• Leaders (or, our ideas about leadership)
• Purpose, power, and wealth.
• Control, consistency, and predictability.
• Patriarchy the belief those at the top are
  responsible for the success of the organization.
• Partnership distributes power to where the
  action is. Accountability is derived from
  stewardship, not control.

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Answer this!

• Here's a riddle. What is the only business book
  ever to spend more than 19 weeks on the New York
  Times best-seller list, sell more than a million
  copies, and be nominated for the prestigious
  National Book Award?
• Fast Company

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Take away

• What is your take away?
• What is the one problem to which you look to
  produce a solution, rather than to reproduce a
  solution?
• Good Night!

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So, what is your business?

• If you answered, teach engineering, you are
  still in the 70s.
• If you answered, teach engineering and career
  skills, you are in the 80s.
• If you answered, teach engineering, business,
  e-commerce, and career skills, you are in the
  90s.
• If you answered, teach them not to invest in a
  dot com company, you are in 2002.
• If you answered, teach them to teach themselves
  you are in 2004.
• If you answered, I am continuously learning and
  relearning what I need to teach you are
  qualified to teach the student of tomorrow!