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Creativity is an important part of most of what we do.
Creativity Unleashed is particularly concerned with business creativity. Not advertising
or marketing, but being more creative in every aspect of business. It's a no-brain choice
these days. As the business environment changes faster, as yesterday's customers become
tomorrow's competitors, you need a dose of innovation just to stand still, let alone to
get ahead.
So what do you need to do? Rush out and hire a bunch of
creative people? Very probably. But you are already surrounded by them. We can all enhance
our creativity with simple techniques that work again and again. To find out more about
the whys and wherefores of business creativity, check out these articles:
- ?Why Science?
- we regularly get asked why our
site features popular science (and science fiction) as well as pure
creativity. Here's the answer.
- A Fast Way to Find
Clients -
if you have a business that involves gaining clients, Suzanne Falter-Barns
suggests that there is no better way that through a tailored workshop
-
Capturing Customers' Hearts - customer service needs more creativity, argues Brian Clegg
- Coaching Creativity. -
Discover the creativity inside yourself in this specially written article
by US expert Suzanne Falter-Barns
- Creative Post-it
Notes - some
quick thoughts on using sticky notes in the creative process by Brian
Clegg
- Creative Rewards
- make
sure your staff feel really rewarded for their creativity by giving them
something more than a few extra pounds or dollars in their pocket.
- Creative Role
Models -
can we learn how to get it right from the most creative companies?
- Creativity versus
Profit - according to Mark Adams, it's possible to pull together the creative
aspect of advertising and the bean counters - but it's not easy.
-
De Bono's Why So Stupid? -
is the amazing price of Edward de Bono's new book wonderful creativity or
a rip off?
-
DisOrganization - read the first chapter
of our book on organizational change the creative way
-
Douglas Adams and Creativity - lessons from a remarkable writer, provided by Adams' biographer MJ Simpson
-
Generating Curiosity in your Company - consultant David Firth argues that curiosity is even more essential than
creativity.
-
Have You Got Street Theatre Creativity
- inspired by an act on London's Embankment, Brian Clegg wonders if there
should be more corporate creativity at the individual, low budget level.
-
Horse Whispering and Innovation - a fascinating
insight into creative leadership by Professor Tudor Rickards of the
Manchester Business School.
- How Creative are You?
- in a hard hitting article, Dennis Sherwood of the Silver Bullet Machine
Manufacturing Company demonstrates how ludicrous it is to separate the
world into 'creatives' and the ordinary masses, and describes an effective
idea generation method.
- How to Find Your
Purpose in Life -
Suzanne Falter-Barns suggest a way to look beneath your creativity to what
it's all for
- I heard it
through the grapevine - management consultant Peter Cook argues that finding mechanisms to share
knowledge, skills and experience is essential if an organization is to
gain leverage from its collective intelligence.
- Imagination
Engineering - the basics of creativity, originally published in the BT online magazine
Business Connections.
- Innovation Agenda
- find out how to develop an agenda for creativity in your organization
-
Liberating the
Creative Streak in your Organization -
consultant Brian Lincoln identifies the ways that every organization can
make more use of the creativity of all its members
-
Mind Mapping from the
Horse's Mouth - Tony Buzan talks about how to mind map.
-
The Outsourcing
Courtesan versus the Nurturing Mother - Dr Paul
Henrickson explores the nature of creativity consultancy and training
-
The
Pinker Opinion - Brian Clegg explores Steven Pinker's outspoken views
on creativity consultancy
-
Reasons to be Cheerful
- according to Paul Birch, fun is a major factor in an effective and
creative workplace
- Seasoning your
creativity - a brand new creativity technique
for Creativity Unleashed readers
-
Structuring the Fuzz - a fascinating in-depth paper
on the design of the idea generation process by Professor Arthur VanGundy
of the University of Oklahoma.
- Think 25 - author,
consultant and coach René Da Costa argues that we often ask the wrong
question for innovation in business.
- TRIZ made simple
- the
sometimes overwhelming-seeming engineering originated innovation process
is untangled by Graham Rawlinson
-
Troubleshooter column - take a creative break with our
series of humorous columns originally published in PC Week
- World Expert
-
One of the best pieces of advice you can give anyone who wants to be more
creative is ‘Do something completely different. Here's one approach to
this.
- Zap Out of the Blue
- US
creativity consultant Robert Alan Black PhD leads us through making the
most of our unsolicited moments of genius.
Creativity Gym
Here are some exercise machines to get the creativity flowing
(and that includes the experience days!):
- Business/creativity books -
curl up with a creativity book and turn on the creative energy.
- Creativity software -
use a computer to unlock your personal creativity. To try a creativity technique without
even downloading, see our Random Word page.
-
Puzzles - free software downloads and lateral thinking challenges to
give your brain an instant workout.
-
Illusion - check out the most remarkable optical illusion we've ever
seen.
- Creativity links - find
other places on the web of creative interest from the technical to the loony.
- Cool Quotes
- read a random quote and let it stimulate a new idea. Jot down anything and
everything the quote makes you think of, then use these jottings as starting
points for your ideas.
-
Yahoo Picks - let your mind
wander with today's collection of bizarre, fun and interesting sites
-
Guimp - want some inspiration to
think differently? Here's a very different website. You may need a
magnifying glass.
-
Snopes - need a couple of
minutes of distraction to clear your mind? Take a wander in the urban
legend site.
-
Invention
at Play - the 'invention playhouse' of the Lemelson Center for
the Study of Invention and Innovation
Something completely
different
If you are looking for a burst of stimulation, a new way of
thinking, you could try one of the links above. Or check out our current
recommendation in popular science, a great way to give your brain a creative
workout:
Being Me by Pete
Moore 
Doing something really different
with a popular science book is both difficult and risky. Pete Moore
has largely pulled this off in this unusual and personal
exploration of what it means to be human.
The book is divided into sections,
each addressing a different aspect of our human nature - embodied,
conscious, genetic, historic, related, material, spiritual and so
on. In each, Moore gives us a view of a different part of the
complex mix that is a human being. If the content had just been
Moore's thoughts, the book would not have been particularly
inspiring (not a criticism of the author's ability to think, just
the limitation of one person's view), but what makes it so
successful is that each of the sections is developed around one or
more interviews with people who Moore sees as embodying the
particular component (though, of course, like all of us, they have
the other components as well).
Mostly this works remarkably
effectively. Moore gives us a mix of scientific and philosophical
theory, the interviews, and his personal view, including enough
detail from his viewpoint of the interviews to make them more than
a sterile set of quotes. The section that works least well,
emphasizing the importance of the real people featured in the book,
is the one on "the conscious being" which piles in too many pages
of theory and isn't so strongly based around the interviews.
This is a very personal book. The
chances are you won't agree with everything. But that's not a bad
thing with a topic like this. The section that most raised my
eyebrows in this respect was the "social being" one, where a lot of
focus is put on how modern society is lacking the social thread
that is part of human nature, and that this isn't good for us.
Moore contrasts this with the African concept of ubuntu, which
describes an intertwining of a human being with his fellow men and
the environment, which Moore suggests leads to a much better
support mechanism. This may be true, but makes a doubtful example.
Moore does point out the paradox of the sometimes endemic violence
in the same communities, but brushes this aside. I'm not sure this
is wise. If part of the requirement for ubuntu is tribalism (which
seems highly likely - it's much easier to have strong social
loyalty when it's "us versus them"), then it comes at too high a
price, as Rwanda and many other strife-torn nations can testify.
This isn't an ideal contrast to the isolation of the Western
individual.
Inevitably - and Moore notes this
- the book can't be comprehensive. There are plenty of defining
characteristics (Moore mentions language; I would think of
creativity) that aren't covered. That doesn't really matter,
though. The fact is that Moore has managed to paint a superb
picture of the human being, using a scientific perspective, but
admitting that science alone isn't enough. If you thought you had
seen it all when it comes to popular science, think again.
Also in hardback:
Idea structuring
Some of the best idea sessions could cover
the walls of a big room with thoughts - but it's not enough to brainstorm.
Idea structuring software makes it possible to
manipulate, group and structure those ideas so that they can be used or
remembered more effectively. This is probably the most advanced type of
creativity software on the market - we compare the best products.
More >>
Software reviews
If you want to check out a
specific product, rather than read our comparisons, use this
quick guide to access a particular review.
More >>
Idea gym
Part of the creativity section, this page
of puzzles includes some free software-based puzzles to download for
your PC.
More >>
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