Creativity

 Creativity is about making connections

 It’s about relating two things that were
previously totally unrelated
 It’s a step beyond association
 It’s what Arthur Koestler calls “bisociation”
in his book The Act of Creation

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Creativity
 Creativity is about making connections
 It’s about relating two things that were
previously totally unrelated
 It’s a step beyond association
 It’s what Arthur Koestler calls “bisociation”
in his book The Act of Creation

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
ENTREPRENEURIAL
CREATIVITY
IMPLEMENTATION OF NOVEL IDEA FOR A NEW BUSINESS
OR NEW PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
PRODUCT

MARKET
NOVELTY RELATED TO
MANUFACTURING
FUNDING

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
COMPONENTS OF
CREATIVITY
TECHNICAL CREATIVE
EXPERTISE SKILLS

CREATIVITY

TASK MOTIVATION

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
 ORGANIZATIONAL
ENVIRONMENT
RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES

INNOVATION

ORGANIZATIONAL
MOTIVATION
EXPERTISE CREATIVE
SKILLS
CREATIVITY

MOTIVATION

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
MOTIVATION

INTRINSIC: ENJOYMENT, INTEREST, SATISFACTION

OF CURIOSITY, SELF EXPRESSION,
PERSONAL CHALLENGE

EXTRINSIC: SEEKING THE GOAL APART FROM

THE WORK ITSELF

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
WHAT KILLS CREATIVITY
EVALUATION

REWARD: Contracted Reward has negative impact

Bonus has positive impact

COMPETITION

RESTRICTED CHOICE

EXTRINSIC ORIENTATION

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION
RATIONAL RISK TAKING
PARTICIPATIVE & COLLABORATIVE
MANAGEMENT
OPEN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK
RECOGNITION OF CREATIVE WORK

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
 STIMULANTS FOR CREATIVITY
FREEDOM

SUFFICIENT RESOURCES

GOOD PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ENCOURAGEMENT BY MANAGEMENT

ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
PROMOTING NEW IDEAS

RECOGNITION
Prof. Alok Chakrabarti
Chakrabarti@njit.edu
STIMULANTS FOR
CREATIVITY(2)

SUFFICIENT TIME TO PURSUE AN IDEA

CHALLENGE (INTERNALIZED PERSONAL

SENSE OF CHALLENGE)

PRESSURE: A SENSE OF URGENCY

DESIRE TO ACCOMPLISH

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Some Creativity Techniques
 Brainstorming
 Define the problem.
 Open the floor for people to mention all ideas that may come to
their mind.
 Delay judging, criticizing, or justifying ideas. Just record ideas
as they are mentioned.
 Keep the list of ideas visible by writing on a whiteboard or
flipchart.
 Stimulate people’s imagination by asking them to explore the
problem in different angles. Keep writing down ideas.
 A good brainstorming session should run for about 20 to 30
minutes.

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Some Creativity Techniques
 Metaphorical Thinking
 Define the problem.
 Use a metaphor or an analogy to explore this problem in
an unusual way
 Try to establish correspondence between elements of the
problem and elements of the metaphor
 Questions to ask:
 What new perspectives on the problem does this metaphor
invites to think about?
 How has this problem been solved in the metaphor? How
can we apply a similar solution to our problem?

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Some Creativity Techniques
 Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats
 Each “Hat” represents a particular thinking perspective
 White Hat = Data and Facts
 Red Hat = Feelings and Emotions
 Yellow Hat = Benefits, Positive Thinking, and Optimism
 Black Hat = Weaknesses, Negative Thinking, and Pessimism
 Green Hat = Curiosity and Creativity
 Blue Hat = Manage the Thinking Process, Hat worn when one
suggests how to approach a problem or when to use each thinking
hat

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Some Creativity Techniques
 Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats
 Once participants understand the meaning of each hat,
hats can be used in two ways:
 Descriptive Method: Participants mention which hat they
have on before making a statement. This helps improve
communication since people start to understand where each
person is “coming from”
 Prescriptive Method: A facilitator guides the group in using
specific hats in specific moments of the meeting. For
example, he or she may state “let’s all put on our yellow hat
first and then we’ll put on our black hats on.”

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu
Some Creativity Techniques
 Lateral Thinking
 Define the problem
 Randomly create a seed. A seed can be any random image, object or
idea you can come up with. It can be a random word from a dictionary,
a random image from a magazine, a random business from the yellow
pages, etc.
 Place this seed in juxtaposition with your problem and ask yourself,
what new ideas does this seed invite you to explore
 Build upon these ideas until you have a potential avenue to solve the
problem
 Be receptive to new insights as you explore the problem from new
angles.

Prof. Alok Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti@njit.edu