Creativity and methods to improve it

During my time on Enterprise and Entrepreneurship BA and especially in the creativity and innovation module I have both demonstrated and improved upon my creativity and overcome creativity barriers using things like creative tools, spaces to help. This can be proven by the results of a creativity test I took both at the start of the course and today (Aulive, N.D.). My original score was low at 51.0 but after six weeks on this course it has increased to 61.84 and I intend to both explain what a score of 61.84 means and the possible reasons behind it.

The test examined me on eight different parts of creativity with the first being my ability to abstract concepts from ideas, the second being my desire to change things that everyone else accepts as being normal, the next was my ability to work with and accept statements that could be somewhat contradictory the fourth was my ability to carry and manipulate large quantities of Information. For all of these (even after six weeks on this course) I scored below average which is a clear indication that I either am not a very creative person or I still need to keep trying harder to improve. The next four sections it tested me on I scored either the average or above average and they included my ability to make a connection between things that don’t have an obvious connection initially, my ability to change my perspective in a situation, my ability to push accepted conventional boundaries and eliminate my fear of what others think of me, and finally my ability to persevere and keep trying. This is an indicator that I still have hope to be creative one day and I can use my strength in perseverance to keep learning and trying to become creative.

To improve I will use creativity tools for example SCAMPER and Brainstorming which I have found very useful e.g. when coming up with my gym equipment I Brainstormed ideas and not only found one good one but multiple that I can create. These have helped me overcome barriers blocking my creativity which are normally self-management, motivation, mood and especially in my case current knowledge (Blomberg, Kallio, Pohjanpaa, 2017). When I first thought of my gym equipment idea I struggled with the feasibility of it as I didn’t know how I could make the frames stable, collapsible and somewhat lightweight, but through brainstorming I came up with so many ideas that I now not only have one main idea, but a handful of others that that can be either back-up designs or can be a new range if the first designs work.

References:

Blomberg, Kallio, Pohjanpaa (2017) ‘Antecedents of organizational creativity: drivers, barriers or both?’. Journal of Innovation Management 5, 78–104.

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