This month, I’m personally inspired by all the hype about “back to school”. I have fond memories of shopping for school supplies to start a brand new school year. My favorite memory about “back to school” was purchasing that 64-‐count, built-‐in-‐sharpener Crayola crayons box. Just the thought of it makes me want to create something brand new.
How would you rate your own level of creativity in your current role . . . or even in life, overall? It’s easy to fall victim to the old “that’s not the way we do things around here” syndrome.
Test yourself on the following creativity quizzes:
- Plant 10 trees in 5 rows with 4 trees per row. (Answer on next page)
- Use a dot to represent one tree
- The rows must be straight
- Brainstorm for one minute:
- Make a list of as many uses for a brick as you can think of.
STOP: Do the exercise before looking at answers below!
Answer to quiz #1:
A 5-‐pointed star with dots at every point and every intersection.
Answer to quiz #2:
- How many did you get?
- Now go back and see if you had not only a large quantity of ideas but also a lot of different uses for the brick such as:
- Building a wall
- Art decoration
- A weapon
- Place in the tank of toilet to conserve water
- Weight-‐lifting
- Paper weight
- Door stop
- Crushed, use it for art supplies
- Etc., etc.
You’re close to a genius (slight hyperbole) if you listed a large number of ideas PLUS a variety of different uses (not all building, for example).
In the next week, challenge yourself to see things differently. A great book to learn more about thinking creatively is Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. Have fun with it!
For information on creativity workshops or coaching:
kathy@kathycooperman.com
720-542-3324
{ 1 comment… add one }
Okay, I’m gonna try this. I won’t cheat. Honestly, I didn’t read the latter part of this test.
I am also curious about my creativity level. So, I will give it a try.