Stirring the Creative Juices

[July 2005 - US Airways Attache magazine] Looking for fresh ideas? Inventive ways to solve problems? Read this. ... “Most of us will never be Einstein or Picasso,” acknowledges Steven Dahlberg, general manager of the Creative Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Hadley, Massachusetts. “But that’s not the issue. All of us have the ability to apply more of our creativity than we typically do. Creativity-oriented tools and techniques aren’t about pushing creativity into people, but allowing it to come out.” ... The Creative Education Foundation has encouraged use of this approach at the Creative Problem Solving Institute, a one-week total-immersion experience offered every year since 1954. Systematic applications of the process run through the courses offered by the ICSC, which since the graduate program’s start in 1975 has awarded master’s degrees in creativity to well over 200 graduates—teachers, corporate executives, and a diverse group of counselors, artists, and entrepreneurs. ICSC faculty members also apply these rules in consultation and training for Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. More