Assignment: Your Creativity Toolkit: Tools to Map Problems and Ideas
Often, when we have difficulties completing a project, these difficulties arise from having the wrong tools for the job. It is difficult to hang a picture frame on your wall if you do not have a hammer and a nail, just as you would struggle to complete a project at work without adequate resources. In your past, when you have faced challenges at work that require creative solutions, did you have the correct tools to address the challenge and generate creative solutions?
This week, you start assembling a set of tools, techniques, and practices to enhance your creativity. In the future, whenever you face challenges that require creative solutions, you can rely on these tools to clarify your problem and imagine a solution to it. For this Assignment, you will practice using a clarifying tool to jumpstart your creativity.
There are three parts to this Assignment that you will combine into one Word document submission:
Part 1: Identify two professional challenges
- Briefly describe five professional challenges that you currently face or anticipate facing soon. Then, rephrase each of those challenges as questions.
- Choose the two questions from your list that you feel are the most robust and challenging for you. Provide rationale for your choice of questions.
Part 2: Create your mind maps for each question
- Use a mind map to create a separate map for each question. You may refer to your MindTool mind map resource for an example. Your mind maps should be as expansive as you can make them. Each of your questions should branch into at least four related components and/or issues. Expand on each of these branches using as many sub-branches as needed to explore the complexity and connective possibilities available to each question. To create your mind maps, you may use Microsoft Word or another format of your choice. However, if you are planning to use a non-standard piece of software, be sure you can save the file in a format that you can insert into a Word document. You should also check with your instructor to make sure that you will be able to submit the file in the online classroom and that your instructor will be able to open the file.
- Insert your mind maps into your Word document as an appendix.
Part 3: Analyze your results
After reflecting on the mind-mapping exercise and examining your mind maps:
- Provide your analysis of the clarifying process and role mind maps play in helping you clarify your professional challenges. Evaluate your experience using the mind-mapping tool to identify, organize, and clarify factors that need to be addressed to meet your professional challenge. Explain whether you think you would have learned as much about your professional challenges if you had not used this tool.
- Explain how you might use this process for other professional or workplace applications.
Guidance on Assignment Length: Your Week 3 Assignment should be 3–4 pages (1.5–2 pages if single spaced),
Required Readings
Document: Week 3 Weekly Briefing (PDF)
The Week 3 Weekly Briefing provides an essential introduction to the content and concepts that you will be studying during the week. After viewing the Weekly Introduction, the Week 3 Weekly Briefing should be your initial reading this week.
Grivas, C., & Puccio, G. J. (2012). The innovative team: Unleashing creative potential for breakthrough results.
- Epilogue, “Where Are They Now?” (pp. 187–189)
- Chapter 17, “Applying the Framework” (pp.193–194)
- Chapter 18, “Clarifying the Situation” (pp. 195–204)
- Chapter 19, “Generating Ideas” (pp. 205–214)
The assigned sections this week will begin to help you contextualize some of the creative-thinking styles and apply strategies in the workplace to bring diverse thinking styles together toward a common goal.
Björk, J. (2012). Knowledge domain spanners in ideation. Creativity & Innovation Management, 21(1), 17-27.
Björk, J., Boccardelli, P., & Magnusson, M. (2010). Ideation capabilities for continuous innovation. Creativity & Innovation Management, 19(4), 385-396.
The authors of this article develop an analysis of the ideation process by studying four Swedish companies. Some paradoxes emerge for management as a result, and the authors suggest a more deliberate approach to ideation for it to be successful.
Jing, Z., & Yanjie, S. (2010). A missing piece of the puzzle: The organizational context in cultural patterns of creativity J. Zhou and Y. Su organization context in cross-cultural creativity research. Management & Organization Review, 6(3), 391-413.
In this article, the authors review similarities and differences between East Asian and Western cultures on creativity. On the basis of this review, the authors conclude the need to theorize why cultural differences influence creativity.
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., Switalski, L. B., & Reali, P. D. (2012). Principles for divergent and convergent thinking: Becoming a better creative thinker. In Creativity Rising: Creative thinking and creative problem solving in the 21st century (pp. 51–70). Buffalo, NY: ICSC Press. Have you ever tried the process known as ‘brainstormingâ€
when you needed to generate ideas? This is one deliberate and systematic method to stimulate your creativity and it is based on the theory of divergent and convergent thinking. This chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of how you can utilize these two thinking processes to generate breakthrough ideas.
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., Switalski, L. B., & Reali, P. D. (2012). Principles for divergent and convergent thinking: Becoming a better creative thinker. In Puccio, G.J., Mance, M., Switalski, L.B. et al. (Eds.), Creativity Rising: Creative thinking and creative problem solving in the 21st century (1st Ed.), (pp. 51–70). Buffalo, NY: ICSC Press. Copyright 2012 by ICSC Press. Reprinted by permission of Omniskills, LLC/ICSC Press.
Khanna , T., Song, J., & Lee, K. (2011). The paradox of Samsungâ€
Samsung is a worldwide leader in the electronics industry, relying on continual innovation efforts to support their leadership of their industry. But how did this organization become a global leader in the first place? This article explores how Samsungâ€
Mind Tools. (n.d.) Mind maps. Retrieved October 5, 2013, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm
When faced with an opportunity to apply creative thinking, you don’t need to passively wait for inspiration. You can apply a methodical set of thinking tools in order to generate new ideas. This tool can be used to organize your ideas when dealing with many of the challenges that you will face in the workplace.
You need to follow the headings in the example assignment that I have attached.
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