We all have the potential to increase our level of creativity. The Creativity and Innovation Effectiveness Profile provides a detailed process for assessing an individual's existing capacity to be creative.
Creativity and innovation is a complex subject area, with a considerable amount of debate about what it is, and how it is practiced. To be creative or innovative can be said to be original, expressive, inventive, imaginative, ground-breaking, or idea-generative. However, all these labels are context sensitive, or relative terms. We all have the opportunity to translate our unique personal perspectives and views of the world into new ideas and concepts that can be potentially useful not only to ourselves, but also to others. Consequently, we can often help other people think beyond their existing mental boundaries, or provide fresh insights that can take their thinking to entirely new planes, connecting them with new opportunities previously hidden from view.
Since everyone is capable of engaging in creative and innovative behaviour, the skills or competencies to be able to do this more of the time should be readily discoverable and common to everyone, in varying strength or degree. This assessment is a self-scoring creativity/innovation effectiveness instrument, designed to help individuals understand more about their relative skills in this critical area.
What to order: You will need 1 self assessment per participant. For maximum benefit, purchase 1 Facilitator Guide per trainer.
Extensive research suggests that there are seven uniquely identifiable competencies that contribute to effective creativity/innovation skills. These are:
• Creative Consciousness - examines whether your internal personal drive and your level of active interest will allow you to be creative or innovative.
• Levels of Curiosity - explores the extent to which you are naturally inquisitive and have a strong desire to know 'how' and 'why' as much as possible.
• Pattern Breaking Skills - determines the extent to which you can find new and different perspectives to existing problems and issues.
• Idea Nurturing Ability - analyses the extent to which you take the time to carefully reflect on the quality of ideas and support their growth and development.
• Willingness to Experiment and Take Risks - examines the extent to which you push the boundaries to effectively test ideas by applying them in relatively protected environments in which they can be developed.
• Courage and Resilience Levels - looks at the extent to which you are prepared to break with tradition to stand alone to pursue an idea, even when others heavily criticise or attack the initiator or its prompter.
• Energetic Persistence - explores the extent to which you tenaciously maintain a 'can-do' attitude when breaking new ground or doing something in a different way for the first time.
Each section also has interpretation, impact and action for low scorers notes.
These competencies are the main factors that constitute the relative ability to be creative or to innovate, and can be reviewed as individual competency components in the overall creativity skill mix. Each competency is explained briefly under each heading.
Please note: Every statement for each competency should be viewed as an 'aspirational' goal for those wishing to improve those skills in areas where they wish were stronger. i.e. the statements help to describe and define not only the competency, but what you should aim to 'almost always' do in order to be effective in your future efforts.
