Many of us do not truly understand creativity. We think that
we are not right-brained visionaries who are able to think more creatively than
everyone else. In his book, Creative Intelligence; Harnessing the Power to
Create, Connect, and Inspire, Bruce Nussbaum asserts that creativity is an
essential aspect of our society, that everyone has the ability to develop and
foster creativity and that if we want to remain competitive in a global economy
we must encourage creativity in our companies and businesses.
Nussbaum divides his book into three parts. In part I “Reclaiming
our Creativity” he asserts the idea that creativity is not individual and that ‘social
forces’ play an important role in its development. He also discusses how misunderstood
creativity is and that it’s important for us to start thinking of it through a
new lens, mainly that we as people can all be creative.
In Part II “The Five
Competencies of Creative Intelligence”, He divides creativity into five core
competencies; knowledge mining, framing, playing, making and pivoting. This section
makes up the bulk of the book and in it he gets across some of his most
valuable ideas and concepts. Here he explains in more practical terms first,
what these competencies are and second, how there important to us as individuals.
He offers very relevant and illustrative examples that give the reader an
excellent understanding of the role each of the competencies play in the real
world.
In the final part of his book “The Economic Value of
Creativity” Nussbaum answers the ‘so what?’ question. Here he looks at creativity
on a larger scale and explains how our economy has been negatively impacted by
the lack of creativity and innovation in our businesses. He outlines how ‘indie
capitalism’ can help to reverse some of these negative impacts and that if we
want to remain an economic leader in the world we need to start adopting
practices that encourage creativity and innovation in our companies once again.
Nussbaum offers a unique and generally new perspective on
creativity and how it can apply to our daily lives. The book does an excellent
job of making his examples and advice relevant to readers. Beyond just
outlining a problem he offers actionable steps that the reader might take to
become more creative. His book is relevant to a wide audience, its broad scope can
apply to a lot of different readers and situations and offers sound examples of
what creative intelligence is and how we might consider this in our own lives.
Wow! This book and author sound intriguing for both personal and professional growth. I enjoy books that challenge my thinking and offer actionable steps to attain a goal. I'm looking forward to reading more of your blogs to decide if I should order it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that the author gives a path for all readers to discover their creative side. Too many times, people stop themselves short and say they are not creative! It can really be a game changer to have that self confidence and I think that all students could benefit from that.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I feel like more than half my job is just building up student's confidence so they feel like they have the ability to do the tasks I ask of them without my direct instruction. Especially when it comes to 'creative' work, students are reluctant to really put themselves out there and give some of the work a try.
DeleteI'm definitely going to consider having my classes read excerpts from this book next year to help them see this perspective and hopefully to help them realize how creative they can be.
I enjoyed this read and have been looking forward to your thoughts about it. On another note, my daughter and I have engaged in a very serious and conversation about cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation. Our discussion made me think of Nussbaum's concept of Knowledge Mining. In the book, he uses the example of how coffee culture was created in the US based on someone's observations in another country. I thought this example was pretty innocuous. However, since the book is about creating successful business endeavors it made me realize how careful we all have to be how aware we need to be - those subtleties and nuances of culture - when delving into another culture and then applying part of it to something else.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up some interesting points about our need to be aware of other cultures as we take the parts we've 'knowledge mined' and apply them to other situations. I think that you are absolutely right and we need to be careful of the harm we can do any time we appropriate parts of a culture other than our own.
DeleteI need to read this book! I do not think of myself as a creative person, but more of an analytical thinker. I definitely need to see some of the "action" steps that may help me feel more comfortable putting my ideas into practice.
ReplyDelete