How Steve Used His Creative Intelligence
When Chance Massaro came to me with his idea for a book on learning, I felt compelled to take it one step further. Rather than a book that contained hundreds of pages of boring text, I suggested one that used graphics and layout to help people learn. Chance agreed enthusiastically, and we developed a creative new layout that would make the reading and comprehension process easier for the reader.
Typically, Chance did the writing while I edited or rewrote material as needed. I learned an amazing amount of information by using one of my favorite intelligences - creativity. I learned by rewriting, essentially recreating all the information in a way that seemed to make sense to me.
In order to recreate the information successfully, I had to wrap my mind around it, discuss it with Chance, draw pictures, write it in my own words, and rewrite it until it looked right. I also had to relate this new information to things I already knew.
What Does Creative Intelligence Look Like?
There are really three types of creative intelligence (CI).
Although your preference may lean toward one specific CI, you will find that you switch back and forth between all three as you go through the creative process.
Self Analysis
How creative are you? Creativity is the rarest and most difficult to measure of the intelligences. We all have significant amounts of creativity floating around in our heads. If you have fluffy bunches of the stuff, you might often find yourself
If you do any of these - or any one of a thousand other things that don´t seem to make much sense - than you have the special gift of creativity.
Tips and Techniques
Here are some tips and techniques to use your creative intelligence to improve your memory. Using these techniques will also improve your creative intelligences!
Tools & Techniques
Magazines--Make a collage that summarizes your learning.
Paper --Write poems about your learning.
Quiet--Relax for ten minutes before and after studying a subject. Just watch your learning float by like clouds.
Friends---Make a one-act play that describes what you are learning. Actors might be historical figures, steps in a process, molecules, or anything.
Point of view--Look at your learning from different perspectives. Reverse, combine, change size, adjust time, or change the shape of the information. Ask "what if" questions and think up answers that are real or wacky.
Creating Your Own Future
Creativity is also used when imagining a vision for your future. Let´s take some time to exercise your creativity by looking into your future.
First, get four pieces of paper. On one page, write a short paragraph describing the past ten years of your life - what you did and what you loved.
On another sheet, write a short paragraph about where you are now. Include the things you like to do, people that bring out strong feelings for you, and your hopes and fears for the future.
On the third sheet, write a longer paragraph about where you want to be ten years from now. Where you will live, what will your house be like, what type of people will you be with?
Using the last piece of paper, draw 10 stair steps. On the bottom step write "today". On the top step write "10 years from now". On each step, write what you will need to do to get to the next step above it. Finally, think for a few minutes about the things you want to learn to get to the top of the stairs. If it seems overwhelming, just remember that today you only need to learn a small part of that, just a tiny step. As you learn, remind yourself from time to time of your goal at each step and how your learning will get you there.
Mass Creativity
Creativity can be like a spark flying between individuals. Every time it strikes, it can spark more creative thought for the whole group. Since one form of creativity involves linking information, you can play Information Tag.
In this game, one person tosses out a fact from your work situation (focused on a specific or general personnel situation, marketing analysis, etc.) and the next person must come up with a fact that is linked to it. Use dates, quotes, statistics, or whatever might be linked. Map the information on a big sheet of paper; you´ll be amazed at the results.
Where To Go From Here
If you want to get more creative about your creativity, you start by exploring outward as far as you can - and then going a little further. Try a random Web search; then find ways to link the results to your learning - the stranger, the better. Here are some places to start.
A Whack in the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech, Warner Books, 1998
www.randomwebsearch.com/index.html www.easygenius.net/library/creativity.doc