Creativity is core value, key to Jensen's success

[20 April 2005 - Daily Nebraskan] It takes more than a college diploma to start a company and become an owner of a Major League Baseball team. According to Dale Jensen, it takes a little creativity as well. More

Beta-Test a Mind-Map Tool

[24 April 2005 - Topicscape] Roy Grubb is a beta-team member in a small group of developers who have been building a 3D mind-mapping tool for a couple of years. The tool is Topicscape and they are looking for people interested in trying out this tool. Topicscape uses a mind-mapping approach, which allows for freedom from linear thinking and provides a great way to tap creativity. Each mind-map node in Topicscape can have files, URLs, e-mails and parts of files dropped on it. You can have many files on a node if you want (or none). Topicscape has been designed in 3D because mind maps get too big if you use them on big projects. Plus, 3D itself can be stimulating and exciting. Using 3D on a computer screen can help users take in and understand much more and, as a result, help lateral thinking and creativity. This beta tools is available in personal editions (for installing on one PC). Check it out at www.topicscape.com, where you'll also find screen shots and stories from users showing how they use Topicscape in their work and personal lives.

Applied Imagination e-News - March 2005 - Links

[March 2005 - Applied Imagination e-News] CPSI 2005 to Explore Why "Creativity Matters"; Details and Registration Available Online ... Excitement is growing for CEF's 51st annual Creative Problem Solving Institute 2005 - to be held June 26 to July 1 in St. Paul, Minnesota. People from business, education, government and nonprofits will explore why "creativity matters." Ten featured presenters will stimulate insight and discussion through their CPSI keynote and spotlight sessions. Here's what some of these thought leaders have been doing lately:

• Register now for CPSI 2005



• CPSI 2005 Keynotes and Spotlights



• CPSI 2005 Keynote - Richard Florida's new book:
  The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent



• CPSI 2005 Spotlight - Richard Leider's new book:
  Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose



• CPSI 2005 In-Depth Immersion Program:
  "Creativity in the Third Age: Finding Purpose in Transition, Retirement and Aging"



• CPSI 2005 Keynote - Mary Catherine Bateson's new book and article:
  - Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery
  - Harvard Business Review Breakthrough Ideas for 2005:
  "#17 Getting Time on Your Side" by Mary Catherine Bateson



• CPSI 2005 Spotlight - Coleen Rowley on PBS's NOW Program:
  - About Coleen Rowley
  - Transcript of NOW interview



• Gallup Management Journal article on well-being and what it means to business:
  - "Are You Happy Now?", an interview with Princeton Psychology and Public Affairs Professor Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics

Cultures of Creativity: The Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize is on Display at The New York Hall of Science

[8 March 2005 - New York] What is creativity and how can creative activity be encouraged? Which is more important to the creative process: the individual or the environment? The Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize that will be on display in the Great Hall at the New York Hall of Science from March 12 to May 30, 2005. This exhibition examines these questions by presenting selected Laureates and atmospheres from the 100-year history of the Nobel Prize. This traveling exhibition doesn’t provide specific answers, but gives visitors the chance to think about the questions themselves. It encourages you to think in a new way, to question the world as it is and to strive for a better world, however an individual chooses to define that world. ... Among the Hands-on Discovery Tables is "Roger Sperry – left and right brain functionalization" where you can examine a realistic model of a brain, guess which animal each brain picture belongs to, and view various optical illusions. More

Experimental test focuses on creativity

[6 March 2005 - Lexington Herald-Leader] Critics of the SAT say there's more to intelligence than finding grammatical errors and solving geometry problems -- or even, this year, than showing you can write an essay. But how to measure those other abilities? Robert Sternberg, a Yale University psychologist, says he's developed a test that does just that. The test, dubbed "The Rainbow Project," evaluates creativity and problem-solving rather than analytical skills. Instead of multiple choice questions, it asks students to write captions for cartoons, outline how they would solve a problem or write stories with unusual titles like The Octopus's Sneakers or 35,381. More

HoustonChronicle.com - We can open mind to creativity, experts say

[9 March 2005 - Houston Chronicle] Creativity is all around us -- from the technology that makes it possible to carry our favorite tunes in something the size of a pack of gum to the vision that drew more than 4 million people to see saffron-colored gates across 23 miles of New York City's Central Park. Without creativity, Apple's iPod would be nothing more than a microprocessor with memory, not the digital device that has transformed the way we experience listening to music. And Christo and Jean-Claude's The Gates would be nothing more than fabric and steel. No wonder researchers are studying creativity, academics and business people are teaching courses on it and authors are writing books about it. ... "Much of the standard of living is the result of inventiveness, the act of creativity in developing new things, new devices, new ways to live," says Merton Flemings, an engineering professor at MIT in Boston, where he heads an annual contest for aspiring inventors that includes a single $500,000 prize. More

Creativity urged at business conference

[28 January 2005 - The Californian] With a picture of a dinosaur projected behind him, Monterey Institute of International Studies associate professor Frederic Kropp said Friday business owners can learn a valuable lesson from the prehistoric animals. “You have to adapt or die,” Kropp said. “The moral of this is that innovation is really important.” Kropp and other speakers addressed listeners at the 11th Annual Tri-County Economic Conference, held at the Embassy Suites Hotel. This year’s event, “Catching the Next Wave of Entrepreneurship in the Monterey Bay Region,” targeted business owners looking for innovative ways to attract consumers. Fostering a creative environment can help businesses earn a competitive advantage, Kropp told the audience of about 100 business owners and city leaders from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. More

Lessons taught by Muskie desperately needed today

[30 January 2005 - Portland Press Herald]
Today, as a conference of experts at Princeton University concluded in December, a decline in comity, bipartisanship and cooperation is hurting the nation's ability to address the nation's needs and create solutions that serve the public well. What can we learn from Muskie's leadership model for accord and bipartisanship? Gov. Muskie believed in reaching public policy decisions by a process based on facts, broad participation by those with different opinions and vigorous but civil debate. The object was not to beat the representatives of the other party, but to reach agreement on policies and actions that would benefit the people of Maine. ... For Muskie, creating policy was like weaving a rug with a complex pattern, rather than patching together a quilt. It took time, creative thought, strong collaboration with Republican leaders, and help from everyone willing to do their homework and contribute. Some legislators do not have the patience for this. More

Studies find arts have ripple effect: Art education develops many cognitive skills

[23 January 2005 - Democrat & Chronicle] When school budgets are trimmed, arts courses often wind up as expendable frills. But a decade ago, arts teachers around the nation found an unexpected ally. Researchers at the University of California-Irvine discovered that students aced spatial-reasoning tests after listening to Mozart's music. Some scientists even predicted that the so-called "Mozart Effect" could spur brain development in children younger than 3. Tens of thousands of Mozart albums were sold to schools, hospitals and hopeful parents. Then, six years ago, the study was debunked by the journal Psychological Science and several independent scientists who found no lasting cognitive benefit in listening to music. More

"Creative class" Guru Richard Florida and Writer Mary Catherine Bateson Among Keynotes at 51st Annual CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING INSTITUTE (CPSI) 2005

[18 January 2005 - Creative Education Foundation] "Creative class" guru Richard Florida and anthropologist and educator Mary Catherine Bateson to keynote the world's longest-running creativity event - the Creative Education Foundation's 51st Annual CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING INSTITUTE (CPSI) 2005.

Mark your calendar for CPSI 2005 - to be held June 26-July 1, 2005, at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Registration will be available in the next several weeks, with an early-bird deadline of April 30!

Plan now to be at the event where "applied imagination" is just the beginning. Learn why creativity matters ... in business, in education, in communities, in aging and retirement, in arts, and in society.

For 51 years, CPSI has helped you learn to intentionally apply creativity to get results. At CPSI 2005, you'll find abundant opportunities for further professional and personal development:

Don't miss the keynote and spotlight sessions that showcase some of the best thinking about "why creativity matters" in the world right now. Confirmed featured presenters (with more to be added) include:
* Richard Florida, Hirst Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University; and author, "The Rise of the Creative Class" - with Don Samuels, Minneapolis City Council Member
* Mary Catherine Bateson, anthropologist and author, "Willing to Learn"; "Composing a Life"; and "With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson"
* Mike Morrison, dean, University of Toyota
* Coleen Rowley, agent (retired), FBI; and Time magazine's "Person of the Year 2002"
* Efiong Etuk, author, "Great Insights on Human Creativity"

More

The New Science of Happiness

[17 January 2005 - Time Magazine] What makes the human heart sing? Researchers are taking a close look. What they've found may surprise you. Explore this Special Mind & Body Issue in which Time magazine presents an important series of articles that anyone interested in creativity should not miss. The nearly 70 pages of articles introduce the lay reader to "positive psychology (PP)," an emerging field that focuses on strengths and well-being and how to maintain these positive states, as opposed to psychology's tendency to focus on treating unhealthy or pathological problems. Creativity, as a strengths-based approach to development and engagement, is an important strand within PP. PP topics with relevance for creativity research and application include: happiness, optimism, joy, laughter, biology, thriving, spirituality, resiliency, trust, satisfaction, and positive emotions. More

How KLA-Tencor yields innovation

[1 January 2005 - Electronic Business] A culture of innovation: The products, including a services unit and the expert systems, and the need to stay two steps ahead of the chip industry's march toward smaller geometries (KLA-Tencor currently is developing products for 65 nanometers, generating ideas for 45 nm and researching 32 nm) are the innovative hallmarks of the company. But the culture that produces this innovation is where the management lessons are found. More

Lessons on Innovation From Microsoft

[December 2004 - Fast Company] There are plenty of internal reasons why Microsoft's record of innovation is so lackluster. Not to mince words, Bill Gates's researchers have placed a bunch of expensive bets on technologies that haven't panned out. But the company's failure also points to three much bigger lessons about innovation. More

Brattleboro Reformer - Headlines

[10 December 2004 - Brattleboro Reformer] The key to understanding how Vermont can compete and grow in a global marketplace might be found in the storefronts, galleries and people of downtown. And more than 75 people from around the state came to Bellows Falls on Thursday to get a first-hand look. More

First Creative Economy Conference Reaches Out to Regional Creative Community

[8 December 2004 - Innovation Philadelphia] "The creative economy is based on ideas that are generated by human capital," said Richard A. Bendis, president and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia before a room of 300 attendees at its first Creative Economy Conference in December. "The creative economy generates $44 billion in revenue a year .... This is an important sector of the Greater Philadelphia Region that needs to be cultivated." ... Carol Coletta, president of Coletta and Company, gave a comprehensive overview of the findings of the Innovation Philadelphia-commissioned report, "Young and the Restless: How Philadelphia Competes for Talent." She described how the young and the restless - those in the 25 to 34 age category with four-year degrees - are an HR director’s dream. "They are adaptable, flexible, productive and reasonably paid." But she tempered this with the warning, "they are also the most mobile - and tend to move the furthest." More

Creativity After the Election

[December 2004 - Applied Imagination E-news - Creative Education Foundation] The United States campaign season and election that ended last month did not end the division of thought and ideas that exists in this country. There are roughly 60 million people on each side -- many of whom say about the other 60 million people -- "I don't understand how 'those people' think, feel, vote, act and believe how they do." Many of you in the creativity world have expressed a desire to see more of a direct impact from applied imagination effecting a new kind of politics, community and policy. There are several ways to begin translating your hopes for creativity to transform the world:

1. Plan now to participate in CPSI 2005 where you will find a featured, in-depth Immersion program on creative communities and cities, as well as a keynote and Extending breakout sessions. This theme will include topics such as creative class, creative communities, creative peace, imagination and politics, etc.


2. Tell us what you are doing with creativity to transform your community. Share how you promote creative communities where you live. Respond to this story in our Applied Imagination blog by clicking "Post a Comment" below.


3. Read the Memphis Manifesto and then work locally to get it adopted in your own city.


4. Check out the Creative America initiative -- whose goal is to inspire and train creative professionals to run for local office in 2006 and beyond. "We want creative professionals to stand up for creativity as a national value and priority."


5. Create a CEF Affiliate in your community to build a local network of people to help you accomplish these mutual goals of promoting the value of creativity and applied imagination.

What are you doing with creativity to transform your community? Click "Post a Comment" below and tell us about!

The 6 Myths Of Creativity

[December 2004 - Fast Company] Where do breakthrough ideas come from? What kind of work environment allows them to flourish? What can leaders do to sustain the stimulants to creativity -- and break through the barriers? Teresa Amabile has been grappling with those questions for nearly 30 years. Amabile, who heads the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and is the only tenured professor at a top B-school to devote her entire research program to the study of creativity, is one of the country's foremost explorers of business innovation. [Editor's Note: Amabile is a also a member of the Creative Education Foundation's Journal of Creative Behavior editorial board.] Eight years ago, Amabile took her research to a daring new level. Working with a team of PhDs, graduate students, and managers from various companies, she collected nearly 12,000 daily journal entries from 238 people working on creative projects in seven companies in the consumer products, high-tech, and chemical industries. She didn't tell the study participants that she was focusing on creativity. She simply asked them, in a daily email, about their work and their work environment as they experienced it that day. She then coded the emails for creativity by looking for moments when people struggled with a problem or came up with a new idea. "The diary study was designed to look at creativity in the wild," she says. "We wanted to crawl inside people's heads and understand the features of their work environment as well as the experiences and thought processes that lead to creative breakthroughs." Amabile and her team are still combing through the results. But this groundbreaking study is already overturning some long-held beliefs about innovation in the workplace. In an interview with Fast Company , she busted six cherished myths about creativity. (If you want to quash creativity in your organization, just continue to embrace them.) Here they are, in her own words. More

Scientists track footprints of thoughts

[29 November 2004 - ABC News Online] Australian scientists have discovered a way to track the electronic footpath of a single thought travelling through the human brain. The discovery has implications for everything from education to planning the safest way to undertake brain surgery. The latest developments in scanning techniques allow brain experts to track responses in the brain from particular movements and thoughts, in real time. "If we ask them to read a sentence we can actually look at them processing a single sentence. In other words we can look at the footprint of a single thought," Professor Keith Thulborn, from Chicago's Centre for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, said. More

Suits can profit from a spell in the sandpit

[17 November 2004 - The Australian] CREATIVITY and innovation in business are no longer the sole domain of the pony-tailed staff in the ideas tank. Corporate executives playing in sandpits, acting in theatre pieces and brainstorming radical ideas are moving in as businesses see the benefits of bending rigid rules to let in inventive thinking. Open-plan offices and the suit-free Friday are just two of many relaxations taken on by the corporate world under the weight of the popularity of masters programs promoting creativity and innovation, according to one management academic. Director of the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology, Adolph Hanich, says he encourages his charges to avoid the stifling nature of the corporate credos of productivity and efficiency. More

Creativity Central cNews Mention of Creative Education Foundation

Thanks to fellow e-newsletter, Creativity Central cNews, for the mention this month ...

[November 2004 - Creativity Central cNews] From Steve Dahlberg, General Manager, Creative Education Foundation "Imagination and ideas are the social capital that grows economies, integrates differences and changes individuals ... ideas can transform the world. There is a global urgency for deliberate creativity -- whether it's the 9/11 Commission citing the intelligence community's 'faliure of imagination,' the head of GE calling for innovation to enable continual corporate growth, a political pundit pointing out the 'war of ideas' between differing groups or an urban planner advocating for creative communities." More

Creating a Global Society: Separation Without Separateness

[November 2004 - Center for Creative Leadership e-Newsletter] In an increasingly interdependent world, hierarchical authority is proving fundamentally inadequate for getting things done – and that has major implications for our understanding of leadership, according to Peter Senge, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and renowned expert on organizational change. More

Nominations Wanted for the Center for Creative Leadership 2004 Walt Ulmer Applied Research Award

[Center for Creative Leadership] Established in honor of Walter F. Ulmer, Jr., retired CCL President and Chief Executive Officer, this award recognizes outstanding, career-long contributions to applied leadership research. The Center for Creative Leadership is currently looking for external candidates for the 2004 award. All submissions are due by Dec. 1, 2004. More

Full-time kindergartens see less play, more work

[31 October 2004 - Detroit News] The school's curriculum - called "integrated" because it allows children to explore knowledge in various subjects in connection to their environments - stresses early reading and math skills to prepare them for the rigors of first grade. A key goal is for as many children as possible to leave kindergarten with basic reading skills. "It's no longer playing and just socialization," Benezra said. "Everything has an academic bent. The tooth chart isn't really to track lost teeth - it's to help them count." Kindergarten, which is German for "children's garden," is serious stuff these days. With half-day programs giving way to full days in state after state, the curriculum once saved for first grade has been pushed down to 5- and 6-year-olds. Nearly 98 percent of youngsters in the United States attend kindergarten, 60 percent of them in full-day programs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More

The Innovation Economy

[11 October 2004 - BusinessWeek] We've walked on the moon, built the Net, and decoded the genome. Have we run out of worlds to conquer? No. As a matter of fact, we're on the cusp of a fresh innovation boom. More

A Milestone for BusinessWeek
Since 1929, we've been chronicling innovations and the people who make them. Here are some of the best from the past 75 years. More

The business of creativity

[31 October 2004 - Boston Globe] What thriving industry employs more workers than the computer software sector or communication services, and twice as many as the health care technology cluster? The answer: the "creative economy." In hopes of promoting the North Shore as an enclave for arts and culture businesses, the Enterprise Center at Salem State College this month launched a creative economy incubator. Today, half of the 28 businesses housed at the center are members of the creative industry. The start-ups range from a marketing and advertising company to a drama coach and a handbag designer. More

Artists reach troubled kids via creativity

[31 October 2004 - Grand Rapids Press] Last May, when Marty Arnold asked local artists to conduct classes for residents of St. John's Home in Grand Rapids, she didn't expect the response she got. Arnold, a development associate at this residential treatment center for abused and neglected kids, knew there would be some interest, but the level of enthusiasm surprised her. By the end of summer, 11 artists in St. John's Home's Visiting Artists Program had led regular 90-minute sessions with 30 children ages 7-17, often donating the supplies as well as their time to the cause. More

Don't Let 'Creativity Crisis' Drain U.S. Work Force

[20 October 2004 - eWeek] Outsourcing and immigration are two hot-button political issues that divide the tech community, making it difficult for the industry as a whole to find common approaches to the economic changes that everyone, more or less, agrees are inevitable. It's not just tech folks who are at a loss over what to do, however. Taking their cues from the traditional divide between labor and management, politicians have come up with ham-handed solutions. ... A clearer path between these issues—one that treats them as symptoms of a larger problem, not as isolated trends—is starting to emerge. Anyone who is interested in the intersection between economic growth, politics and policy in the coming century should read "America's Looming Creativity Crisis" by Richard Florida in this month's Harvard Business Review. More

Notes from Bushnell 2004 Education-Creativity Conference: Elliot Eisner and Robert Sternberg

[11 October 2004 - 2004 Education-Creativity Conference - The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts - Hartford, Connecticut]
Steve Dahlberg, Creative Education Foundation

"The Nature of Creativity"
featuring presentations by:
Dr. Elliot Eisner, Stanford University: "Creativity and the Culture of Education"
Dr. Robert Sternberg, Yale University: "Creativity is a Decision"
discussions facilitated by
Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli, University of Connecticut

===

Renzulli: It's a "very important time in our nation's history as it comes to promoting creativity and the arts."

===

Elliot Eisner:

* author of "The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs"
* development of creative thinking skills has not been high on our agenda
* conditions for development of creativity
- schools --> 53 million students in the U.S.
- creativity has been side-lined in our pursuit of higher test scores
* creative thinking comes in different forms
- boundary pushing; expanding the limits
- inventing
- boundary-breaking; problemitizing -- the given is made problematic
- aesthetic organizing -- putting things together that work -- somatic knowledge
* "inquiry trumps achievement ... in our schools, typically, achievement trumps inquiry"
* skills provide power; but need to also lose control
- losing control opens up yourself to possibility
- allows yourself to be in dialogue with what you are working on
- "flexible purposing" - John Dewey
* surprise is interesting and important
- "there is no educational policy that I'm aware of that is interested in promoting surprise"
* too many classrooms that look more like an assembly line than a studio
* creativity as exploring other ways of seeing
- "the world is what we make of it"
- move away from "one right answer"
- the whole enterprise is geared toward isomorphic relationship ...
* state standards are about production of uniform outcomes (often out of any context)
* creativity is a process without moral valence
- people can be creative in doing evil
- the direction in which creativity moves is not a trivial issue
* working creativity requires courage
- risk-taking
- moving toward "A" precludes inquiry, risk-taking
* the importance of pursuing surprise
- create the conditions under which surprise is possible
- open-ended outcomes
* the well-posed question is important for intellectual development -- "telling questions"
* "what we need to be doing is not 'covering the material,' but 'uncovering the material'"
- the importance of questions
* creating a culture of education that creates conditions for imagination
- culture: in biology, culture as medium for growing things; in education, culture for growing minds; in anthropology, culture as means for creating connections between people and creating meaning
* creativity in a deep sense is part of an artistic activity -- making something -- has aesthetic properties
- therefore, long-term function of education is the production of artists = people who make anything (not just painters, etc)
- the artistry is in the application of imagination
* creativity is part of the artistry of human existence
- this ideal as a regulative ideal in schools and education is not a bad ideal to embrace
* will Americans accept a culture where improv, creativity and imagination are embraced?
* you can't fatten cattle by putting them on a scale ... you fatten them by feeding them.

===

Robert Sternberg:

* "creativity is a decision" versus an ability that you are born with
* what are the component decisions that you make?
- why doesn't everyone make the decision to be creative?
* investment theory of creativity
* creative people defy the crowd
- external pressure to do what everyone else is doing
- internal pressure
- both work toward conformity and against being creative
* assessing creativity
- when you add creativity measures to conventional measures --> more predictive
- gives ALL students opportunity to demonstrate what they know
- creativity matters for success for school: achievement goes up if you teach in ways that enable them to display their creativity
* "creativity can be developed"
- therefore, teach kids to make certain decisions
- creativity is an attitude toward life
* Csikszentmihalyi: really good artists are better problem finders
* an attitude that there may be another way to define a problem
* analyze the problem: explore best possible outcomes? worst possible outcomes? most likely outcomes?
* sell creative solutions: creative ideas rarely sell themselves
- this is a decision, too
* realizing limitations of knowledge
- need knowledge to be creative
- knowledge also has its limitations to seeing newness
- we all get stuck
- if we want to be good role models, we should learn from the people we teach
* if you defy the crowd, you have to surmount obstacles
- there is a cost
* see Pushcart's Complete Rotten Reviews & Rejections book
* need to be willing to take sensible risks
- safe stuff doesn't tend to be creative; it tends to get you A's
* find something you really love to do
- it's really hard to find what you -- or your kids -- love to do
- don't quit trying to find what they -- and you -- love to do
- this is where they can make a contribution
* have more than one major creative idea
- an attitude to constantly come up with creative ideas
- people pigeon-hole you then you pigeon-hole yourself
* creativity as a way of life
* having the courage to be creative; creativity is an act of courage
- it's really hard work; it's a decision; it's an attitude

===

Sternberg:
* technology is good when it's in the service of ideas
- can be amplifier or suppressor of ideas
* wisdom - intelligence - creativity - synthesized

===

Eisner:
* function of education is to create minds
* effective education increases differences
* effective education creates a culture that is intellectually evocative

===

Sternberg:
* teaching for creativity improves both creative thinking and traditional measures of academic achievement
- leads to better test scores and being happier about what they are doing and learning

===

Renzulli:
* "enrichment clusters" as model
- role of just-in-time knowledge
- standards may come at the end of the learning endeavor

===

Research Effort Studies How Arts Affect Learning: Dana Arts and Cognition Consortium Founded; Dartmouth College Coordinates $1,850,000 Grant

[26 July 2004 - Dana Foundation] The Board of Directors of the Dana Foundation announced today a $1,850,000 grant over three years to Dartmouth College as part of the newly created Dana Arts and Cognition Consortium, to study the affect of the arts on learning. Michael Gazzaniga, the David T. McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, as well as a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, will serve as director of the Consortium and has brought together six institutions and nine principal investigators to shape the research. "This is an innovative line of research," said Gazzaniga. "It is the first extensive scientific attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of arts education in changing the brain. Up till now there have always been good correlations between children who take part in the arts and their academic performance. Now we hope to see if the relationship is causal. If it is, there will be a strong case for reintroducing the performing arts back into our schools. We shall see where these new studies take us." More

IdeaFisher Systems releases their eXpert Comedy Writer package

[13 October 2004 - PRWEB] IdeaFisher Systems today releases their eXpert Comedy Writer's package. Combining the patented 65,000 word IdeaFisher 6.1 Word Association and Creativity Engine with the Creative Writing, Story & Scriptwriting, General Problem Solving, Name Development and Speech and Presentation modules, the new eXpert Comedy Writer's program is becoming a boon to comics and presenters who need a smile in their entrance and exit. More

IdeaFlow: Who Will Be The 'Innovation President'?

[4 October 2004 - Corante] How you call this one depends a lot on what you think innovation is, and what you think nurtures it, nationally and globally. My take is that whoever will focus not on the jobs already lost to outsourcing, but on education, training and R&D, is probably the better choice, innovation-wise. Which candidate that is depends a lot on whether you believe Kerry's promises and whether you like what Bush has already done in this regard. It's very easy to promise these kinds of things and hard to deliver. Too bad there's not going to be a debate focused on innovation! More

When Small Ideas Add Up to Something Big

[15 September 2004 - HBS Strategy & Innovation] Managers in hot pursuit of innovative ideas -- ideas that have the potential to jump-start growth and increase profits -- often assume that bigger is always better. Not so, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder argue in Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations. In the authors' view, a single-minded focus on blockbuster insights blinds managers to the numerous contributions small ideas can afford. Robinson and Schroeder note that by ignoring or discounting small ideas, managers may be shutting the door to an assortment of benefits, such as improved in-house and external processes, increased competitive advantage, a variety of cost-saving devices, and the possibility of building on small ideas to foster larger ones. Learn how heeding minor suggestions could help you foster growth and gain a competitive edge. More

Want Better Results? Boost Your Problem-Solving Power

[October 2004 - Harvard Management Update] As more and more firms begin to recognize that problem-solving skills form the invisible structure that undergirds high performance, they also realize that there's no such thing as a quick fix-no intensive program that can give organizations rock-hard problem-solving muscles in six weeks. Improvement occurs one manager at a time. Today, firms across a broad range of industries are seeking to supply their managers with the tools and training to excel in problem solving. In doing so, they aim to embed problem-solving proficiency in the organizational fabric so that it becomes a competitive differentiator. Read about the three things organizations must do well if they wish to succeed in this endeavor. More

New Center for Creative Arts up and running

[25 September 2004 - The Japan Times Online] "We want the center to be vital to Tokyo's health and well-being as well as to provide innovative bilingual art and music education for all ages from 2 to 100. Many people think the arts are just time-filling hobbies, but they teach you about life, to look at things from all angles and dimensions. We know Japanese people are especially keen to explore new avenues of learning to inspire individuality and creative expression. Well, here we are." More

Book chronicles evolution and success of world renowned school development program

[5 October 2004 - Yale University] An education without a focus on test scores that promotes development of the whole child -- psychologically, socially and environmentally -- will prepare children for successful adult lives, James P. Comer, M.D., contends in his eighth book "Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World." "A focus on higher test scores alone cannot produce the outcomes we want and need for our children or our nation," Comer, the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center and associate dean at the Yale School of Medicine, writes in the new book. "But good child and youth rearing and development can do so, and can simultaneously produce good test scores." These principles are the basis of Comer's School Development Program (SDP), founded in 1968 in two underachieving public schools in New Haven. Thirty-five years later, the SDP has evolved into what many call the "Godfather" of school reform. SDP is based on the premise that all youngsters -- regardless of race, geography or cultural and economic background -- can learn at high levels. The programs and services that fall under the SDP umbrella help schools ensure that students achieve their highest academic potential. Throughout his book, Comer cites incidents, projects, programs and research that demonstrate support for good development can prevent the high social, emotional and financial costs of problem behaviors, even among students from very difficult circumstances. "We must do a better job of rearing all our children well in our formative institutions, in preparing them to meet adult responsibilities in this complex age," Comer writes. "Neither the farm nor the factory is available to save them as in past eras. Down the road we will pay the ultimate price -- loss of our open and democratic society -- unless we pay now to better prepare families, schools and other resources." In the book, Comer said America is a better democracy and superpower in large part because of polices and practices that enabled many people to benefit from access to economic and educational conditions that made personal, family and community well being possible. "Great civilizations begin to decline when they stop doing what got them there," he said.

School development program celebrates 35th anniversary with symposium October 11-12

[5 October 2004 - Yale University] Linking brain research and child development is the theme of the Comer School Development Program (SDP) 35th anniversary celebration banquet and symposium October 11 at 4 p.m. and October 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, 155 Temple St. Keynote speakers include Arthur Levine, president of Columbia Teachers College, Kenneth Kosik, professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, and Mariale Hardiman, educator and author of "Connecting Brain Research with Effective Teaching." The School Development Program was founded in two underachieving New Haven public schools in 1968 by James P. Comer, M.D., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center and associate dean at the Yale School of Medicine. Thirty-five years later, the SDP has evolved into what many call the "Godfather" of school reform. SDP is based on the premise that all youngsters--regardless of race, geography or cultural and economic background--can learn at high levels. The programs and services that fall under the SDP umbrella help schools ensure that students achieve their highest academic potential. The symposium/celebration focuses on the implications of brain research for child development, schooling and teacher preparation. The symposium will also address the question of how students are prepared to protect and promote democratic institutions. "These are fundamental issues for high academic achievement and responsible student behavior that are being neglected in our national rush to raise test scores," said Comer. "This an unparalleled opportunity for educational practitioners, researchers and policy makers to explore what it will take to prepare students for success in school and in life," Comer added. After an awards dinner on the first evening, the keynote discussion will address the challenges facing the national teacher preparation system, especially the readiness of the system to integrate and transmit knowledge gained from brain and development studies to the present and future education work force. Three presentations on the second day will address aspects of what is now known about brain and mind functioning and how this knowledge can be used in school organization, management, and classroom teaching and assessment. The presentations will also explore brain function and its link with six developmental pathways: physical, social-emotional, psychological, ethical, linguistic and cognitive intellectual.

The Great Creative Class Debate: Revenge of the Squelchers

[Issue 5 - THE NEXT AMERICAN CITY] Along the Amtrak ride north of Baltimore, a 875,000 square foot Rite Aid distribution warehouse has sprouted from cornfields. Some might point to this as a sign of healthy market growth. But considering that $7.1 million in taxpayer money went to help build the warehouse -- and hundreds of millions more may come in the future in the form of new roads and subsidies to transport workers from distant Baltimore neighborhoods -- it sounds a lot more like state-sponsored socialism than the free market. Many of Richard Florida's critics try to marginalize his theory of the creative class as being just about a few kooky artists in Austin. They are wrong. Florida promotes a vision of economic development that returns government to its core functions-building the civic infrastructure necessary to attract and retain people and businesses. As governments take a serious look at his ideas, billions of dollars spent on subsidies of politically-connected industries hang in the balance. Readers of TNAC know that Florida's ideas have encountered serious criticism in these pages, too. But our writers engage in the debate with an understanding that the issues that Florida raises matter. Where those billions go make a big difference for the future of cities. This issue kicks off a three-issue series on "The Great Creative Class Debate." Here, we present a response by Richard Florida to his critics. In coming issues, we will feature Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Martin O'Malley discussing the role of arts institutions in cities and take a look at how cities throughout the country are reacting to the Creative Class Debate. More

Report urges that Vermont embrace production of ideas over things

[4 October 2004 - WCAX-TV 3 News] A new economic report recommends that Vermont move toward a "creative economy." That involves embracing the production of ideas over the manufacture of things. More

Stability Verses Creativity

[4 October 2004 - About.com] Bipolar disorder and creativity very much go hand-in-hand. Review any list of successful artists - be it poets, musicians, painters, writers, etc. – you will find countless examples of the juxtaposition of creative minds and bipolar disorder. Consider some of the greats – Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Francis Ford Coppola … Even our own community right here has many wonderful examples (see our About Bipolar Disorder Art Gallery). Unfortunately, many individuals feel that their creativity is lessened or even negated by medications and stability. However, this is not necessarily true. PaulaHOST, a long-time member and volunteer on this site, disagrees wholeheartedly with this view. She writes More

Mind Maps May Chart the Way

[4 October 2004 - The Malaysia Star] “Since a decade ago, the increasing focus on the works of the mind had resulted in an emphasis of 20% for physical training and 80% for conditioning the mind when preparing athletes for world events," says Tony Buzan. More

The Challenges of Paradigmatic Change

[4 October 2004 - HBS Working Knowledge] Paradigmatic change is very important in business. It has the potential to create major new value and to renew a company, but it is very difficult to accomplish in the absence of a business crisis. Managing paradigmatic change is fundamentally different from managing incremental improvements to the existing business. ... How then can a manager create paradigmatic change before crisis? Kuhn's observations, coupled with the experience of many businesses, suggest three key points of leverage. More

Xerox brings 'Innovate 2004' show to Dubai

[4 October 2004 - AME Info] Revolving around the theme of 'Innovation changes everything, both in Xerox and in the Olympics (Xerox was the an Official World-wide sponsor of the Athens Olympic Games), the event will show that medals are not just a reward for athletic achievement, but also a tribute to creative problem solving and the power of innovation. More

America's Looming Creativity Crisis

[October 2004 - Harvard Business Review - By Richard Florida] The strength of the American economy does not rest on its manufacturing prowess, its natural resources, or the size of its market. It turns on one factor--the country's openness to new ideas, which has allowed it to attract the brightest minds from around the world and harness their creative energies. But the United States is on the verge of losing that competitive edge. As the nation tightens its borders to students and scientists and subjects federal research funding to ideological and religious litmus tests, many other countries are stepping in to lure that creative capital away. Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and others are spending more on research and development and shoring up their universities in an effort to attract the world's best--including Americans. If even a few of these nations draw away just a small percentage of the creative workers from the United States, the effect on its economy will be enormous. In this article, the author introduces a quantitative measure of the migration of creative capital called the Global Creative-Class Index. It shows that, far from leading the world, the United States doesn't even rank in the Top 10 in the percentage of its workforce engaged in creative occupations. What's more, the baby boomers will soon retire. And data showing large drops in foreign-student applications to U.S. universities and in the number of visas issued to knowledge workers, along with concomitant increases in immigration in other countries, suggest that the erosion of talent from the United States will only intensify. To defend the U.S. economy, the business community must take the lead in ensuring that global talent can move efficiently across borders, that education and research are funded at radically higher levels, and that we tap into the creative potential of more and more workers. Because wherever creativity goes, economic growth is sure to follow. More

In New England, a city revival built on creativity

[28 September 2004 - Christian Science Monitor] "Cities are embracing arts and artists [because they see] a creative environment as a cutting edge in the 21st century," says Ann Galligan, a professor in the Department of Cooperative Education at Northeastern University in Boston. She says cities can no longer depend on a single factory or company for municipal success. "A city has to rethink how it attracts and maintains workers ... without alienating its traditional [working-class] base." From Portland to Pawtucket, R.I., cities have embraced this model. More

How to free your creativity

[20 September 2004 - The Hindu Business Line] "IDEAS are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen," said John Steinbeck. Most of us have the ability to come up with ideas and problem-solve fairly easily, but may not know how to go about it. Using certain techniques, you can learn to `free your creativity', making the whole process of generating ideas become quicker and a lot less painful. More

Artists and creativity in the globalisation process

[15 September 2004 - RADIO THE VOICE OF VIETNAM] Respecting cultural values means we solidify the aspects of its creativity and enjoyment. It does not run counter to the freedom to develop their creativity in artists, neither does it diminish the people’s desire for more cultural entertainment. More

The Highest Goal

[15 September 2004 - Stanford Knowledgebase - PDF file] The latest book by Professor Michael Ray discusses goals that give meaning to life, motivate and sustain us. It has nothing to do with success, he says. More

Sacks Lectures on Human Creativity

[3 September 2004 - The Cornell Daily Sun] Renowned neurologist and A.D. White Professor at Large Oliver Sacks attracted students, faculty and residents to Statler Auditorium last night for a lecture entitled "Creativity and the Brain." After a brief introduction by Prof. Roald Hoffman, chemistry and chemical biology, Sacks stepped up to the podium. He described himself briefly before embarking on a multidisciplinary commentary on perception and creativity as it involves living creatures. More

ADVOCACY FOR CREATIVITY - Creativity by Choice, Not by Chance: Developing Imagination In the Intelligence Community

[9 August 2004 - Creative Education Foundation] This piece responds to the 9/11 Commission Report that declared it is “crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination” and the House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence hearings that followed in August to discuss the intelligence community’s “failure of imagination” and the “requirement for imagination and creativity” going forward. More

Opting for Optimism

[September 2004 - Darwin Magazine] Optimism is a gift that many leaders possess. Optimism is often intertwined with hope, and rightly so, but there is a difference. Hope is the process of becoming, of seeing and striving for positive outcomes. Optimism is the emotional component that brightens the prospects, and makes it possible for hope to flourish. More