Alan Black and TED Talks

This from my friend and colleague Dr. Alan Black http://www.cre8ng.com/ This week rather than an article that I have written I am sharing a list of 12 TED Talks I am recommending that you take time each day to listen to. Other People's Ideas Impact Creativity Reading ideas, listening to ideas in speeches, discussing ideas with and by other people, whether from the ancient past, recent past, current times can influence and spark our own creativity. This week let the ideas of 12 TED Talks impact your thinking and your mind in order to spark or respark you thinking. MONDAY Amy Tan on creativity Video on TED.com Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/amy_tan_on_creativity.html Jeff Bezos: What matters more than your talents Video on TED.com In this Princeton University graduation address, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos makes the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we're endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make ov... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jeff_bezos_gifts_vs_choices.html TUESDAY Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off Video on TED.com Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time o... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html Milton Glaser on using design to make ideas new Video on TED.com From the TED archives: The legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser dives deep into a new painting inspired by Piero della Francesca. From here, he muses on what makes a convincing poster, by break... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/milton_glaser_on_using_design_to_make_ideas_new.html WEDNESDAY Scott McCloud on comics Video on TED.com In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagine... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html Moshe Safdie on building uniqueness Video on TED.com Looking back over his long career, architect Moshe Safdie delves into four of his design projects and explains how he labored to make each one truly unique for its site and its users. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/moshe_safdie_on_building_uniqueness.html THURSDAY The Creative Spark Video channel on TED.com How are we inspired? Where might our imaginations take us? What does creativity look like in its wildest form? These clever, invigorating speakers plumb the wellspring of inventio... http://www.ted.com/themes/the_creative_spark.html Tales of Invention Video channel on TED.com TED has always loved a good creation story. No matter the scale -- kitchen, continent, or solar system -- invention grants us access to the frontiers of our understanding. Legendary designer Phi... http://www.ted.com/themes/tales_of_invention.html FRIDAY Tom Wujec Profile on TED.com Tom Wujec studies how we share and absorb information. He's an innovative practitioner of business visualization -- using design and technology to help groups solve problems and understand ideas. H... http://www.ted.com/speakers/tom_wujec.html Derek Sivers Profile on TED.com Through his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people. http://www.ted.com/speakers/derek_sivers.html EXTRA Elizabeth Gilbert Profile on TED.com The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it. http://www.ted.com/speakers/elizabeth_gilbert.html Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity Video on TED.com Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It'... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Are you a maverick?

This from my friend and creativity colleague Dr Robert Alan Black with his permission. His contact details follow the article. His is the most comprehensive creativity web site that I know of. Check it out.

Be a Maverick.
But I Ain't No Maverick,
Don't Want to Be,
and Besides I Would Lose My Job If I Was.

Have you ever had this conversation with another employee or internally with yourself--the good faithful employee and the rebel self who wants to fly like an eagle?

I know I did several times in the earlier years of my working life in the early 60s and since occasionally.

When I was first inspired to be more creative, thanks to Edward de Bonos book, NEW THINK I began my Walter Mitty fantasy life of being or becoming the great creative person.

Within the next couple years I began to read other similar authors and discovered there were researchers, psychologists and teachers who believed people could be taught to be more creative.

The popular books then and now about how to become more creative all seem to focus on the reader becoming or being a maverick, a risk-taking, rule- challenging, dreamer, who sacrifices everything so they can create. Walt Disney, Tom Edison, Charles Goodyear, painters, sculptors, writers, designers were always used as role models for the mavericks-in-training.

Over the past few years I have begun to challenge this approach of trying to make everybody a maverick, a top or bottom 2 or 3%- er. Using the absolute tops, the most successful, the breakthrough thinker or idea finder as role models is I believe a major reason why the work of so many, many writers, researchers, teachers, trainers and consultants has produced little change in the acceptance of creative thinking or the willingness to develop and apply the creative thinking and creativeness of the typical person, the other 94%.

Scott Adams has made a fortune writing and drawing daily, example after example of how creativity and creativeness are killed or squelched in the typical workplace. Book after book has criticized managers, bosses even leaders or blaming institutions for being killers of creativity.

Simple fact, not everyone is a Micheal Jordan, Celine Dion, Bill Gates. Not everyone possesses their natural talents, skills, drive or desire or just plain good luck. While at the same time everyone of us can be and is far more creative then we are recognized for or allowed to be the 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 48 to 50 weeks a year, 30 to 50 years of our lives we give to our job or working. Yet watch us when we go home and see how creative we are in our hobbies, part- time jobs, volunteer work or with our families and friends.

Point 1
It is time for each of us to accept that we are more creative.

Point 2
It is time for each of us to apply our natural creativeness.

Point 3
It is time for each of us to spend some time regularly to further develop our creative thinking and problem solving skills.

Point 4
It is time for each of us to ask for more creative assignments or opportunities to be creative in our work

Point 5
It is time for each of us to ask for help and support from our fellow employees, supervisors, managers and bosses to use our creativity and further develop it at work.

For too long we have been blaming the management for not doing it for us or for doing it to us.

Do our fellow employees, supervisors, managers and bosses reject our ideas kill our ideas (deliberately or indirectly) refuse our ideas tell us to stick to the plan

Do the job you are paid for - stay in line

No doubt this happens.

You and I do it with our spouses, children, neighbors, friends and total strangers every day. It is natural for the greatest majority of people to prefer the status quo, the as we have always done it syndrome.

To be more creative we simply need to step out of line, get out of the box, draw outside of the lines. Yet when we do these we tend to expect things to change for the better instantaneously. We want everyone else to change. Yet we resist change. Actually we tend to resist being changed by other people, outside influences, systems, situations, bad or good luck.

That is another of the major problems with increasing the amount of creativity used in our daily lives. We expect others to change to our solutions and change instantly. Too often our ideas are simply that. Ideas. They aren't solutions. They are ideas, thoughts, suggestions, opinions. They are NOT worked out ready to be applied solutions.

Therefore others who don't see, feel, smell, taste, touch, sense the same way we do resist our ideas.

What can you and I begin to do? choose to work at being more creative
choose to accept that we can improve and expand our creative abilities.
work at taking our ideas to solution more and experiment with them before we expect others to immediately accept them.

work more at doing small things more creatively

stop trying to become a MAVERICK or a GIANT and focus on becoming a more creative YOU

ask in less threatening ways for help and support in being creative

ask in less threatening ways for opportunities to work on more creative work.

work on your current job more creatively

accept that you fantasize about being a giant, a maverick, a hero/heroine,
breakthrough thinker and work at becoming a stronger, better, more creative you.

Who knows!

By doing these for 1 days, a year, 5 years you will become the next MAVERICK that we write about for others to use as a role model.

To be more creative simply choose to be. Then be. Then support everyone else in being.

Very few of us will change the world. Yet we all can change ourselves.

The funny thing is when we do that the world somehow changes too.

©2008 Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. RAB, Inc. -
Cre8ng People, Places & Possibilities
P.O. Box 5805 Athens, Georgia 30604-5805
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com/
1-706-353-3387