Essential Skills in the 21st Century: A Call for Creativity

and Creative Leadership

Gerard J. Puccio, Ph.D.International Center for Studies in Creativity

Buffalo State - State University of New York

Oklahoma State UniversityInstitute for Creativity & InnovationCreate, Innovate, Educate

Alex OsbornA Famous New Yorker

His dream…

“To bring a more creative trend to American Education”

International Center for Studies in Creativity

Buffalo State – State University of New York

Fast Facts

• Founded 1967

• Offer MS in Creativity

• Certificate in Creativity and Change Leadership

• Program for Distance Learners

• Nearly 400 alumni

Objectives of Workshop

1) To highlight the importance of developing creativity and creative thinking in students

2) To challenge you to be creative leaders

Workshop Flow

1) Trends

2) A Close Look at Creativity

1) Creative Leadership

2) Strategies for deliberate creativity

TrendsIn Our World & Education

Trends1. Exponential increase in speed of life altering changeIn the 2,000 years before 1800 - 10 technical/socialinventions

In the last 200 years, more than 25life altering technical/social inventionsSource: Henry (2001)

Trends2. Shorter Product Life Cycles

Manufactured products aresubject to fundamentalredesign every 5 to 10 years

High-tech products every 6 to 12 monthsSource: Hunter & Schmidt (1996), Williams & Yang (1999)

Trends3. Erosion of permanent/stable work life

Students in school todaycan expect to change jobsmore than 11 times between age 18 & 42.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008

Trends4. Changing Nature of Work

In 1991 expenditures Related to knowledge agesurpassed industrial age

In 1900 less than 10% of US population worked in creative jobsIn 2000 more than 30% of US population worked in creative jobsSource: Trilling & Fadel (2009); Florida (2002)

Welcome to the

Innovation Age

“After the age of efficiency in the1950s and 1960s, quality in the1970s and 1980s, and flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s, we now livein an age of innovation” (Janszen, 2000, p. 3).

More than 70% of senior executives report that innovation is in theirtop three divers for growth.Source: McKinsey Quarterly (2008)

Trends5. Exponential increase in content and its ubiquitous availability

Content doubles every 18 months (Mehaffy, 2010)

In 2006 YouTube posted 65,000 new videos every 24 hours. Today 2billion videos are viewed per day. (Sources: Wikipedia & http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet)

TrendsRecommended Focus in Education: Response to 21st Century Trends

Workplace BasicsWorkplace Basics

• The Foundation Knowing how to learn

• Competence Reading, writing, and computation

• Communication Listening and oral communication

• Adaptability Creative thinking and problem solving

• Personal Management Self esteem, goal setting, motivation, personal and career development

• Group Effectiveness Interpersonal skills, negotiation, team work

• Influence Organizational effectiveness and leadership

Carnevale, A. P., Gainer, L. J., & Meltzer, A. S. (1990) Workplace basics.

Beyond Workplace 2000

Effective performance in the workplace beyond 2000 requires three foundational skills:

• Basic Skills (Reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening)

• Thinking Skills (Thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind’s eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning)

• Personal Qualities (Individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity).

(Boyett & Boyett, 1994; based on SCANS report) (Boyett & Boyett, 1994; based on SCANS report)

Workplace Skills for the New Millennium

• Knowing more about the world

• Thinking Outside the Box

• Becoming smarter about new sources of information

• Developing good people skills

21st Century Skills:Learning for Life in Our Times

Learning and Innovation Skills Critical thinking & Problem Solving Communication & Collaboration Creativity & Innovation

Digital Literacy Skills Information Literacy Media Literacy Information & Communication Technologies

Career & Life Skills Flexibility & Adaptability Initiative & Self-Direction Social & Cross-Cultural Interaction Productivity & Accountability Leadership & Responsibility

Trilling & Fadel (2009)

The New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce

“Creativity, innovation, and flexibility will not be the special province of an elite. It will be demanded of virtually everyone who is making a decent living, from graphic artists to assembly line workers, from insurance brokers to home builders.”

Tough Choices or Tough Times (2008)

How well do schools prepare students to join today’s world?

“Most educational efforts emphasize convergent thinking, and therefore may do very little, if anything, for creative potential.”

Runco (2007)

“Our schools, on the whole, are hostile to ideas. Too often, our tests ask students to come up with the one right answer, and the curriculum, pegged to the tests, penalizes the creative student rather than rewarding him or her for the unexpected but thoughtful – or even brilliant – response.”

Tough Choices or Tough Times (2008)

Job Readiness Skills

Applied Skill Gap Between High Need & Provision

Creativity 68.6%

Ethics 55.0%

Professionalism 47.5%

Lifelong Learning 44.1%

Critical Thinking 43.6%

Written Communication 37.0%

Diversity 33.3%

Oral Communication 31.3%

Teamwork 24.5%

Information Technology 24.4%

Leadership 22.6%

Source: Society for Human Resource Management (2009)

A Closer Look at Creativity

Creativity is...Creativity is...

the ability to modifyself-imposed constraints.

Ackoff & Vergara (1988)

Creativity is an Ability

Ability implies…• All people are creative• People vary in regard to their

creative ability• Whatever your level of creative

ability it can be enhanced

Recent CBS Telephone Poll Showed People Believe…

• Creativity is inborn (53%)

• Creativity can be taught (35%)

• Both (7%)

Source: CBS News Poll (January 10, 2010)

Classic DefinitionsClassic Definitions

Creativity is the production of original ideas

that are made useful.

Innovation is the successfulintroduction of new useful ideas.

(Burnside, Amabile & Gryskiewicz, 1988)

A Formula for Creativity

Creativity = fa (KxIxE)Knowledge

Imagination

Evaluation

Attitude (i.e., Motivation)

CanCreativity be

Taught & Enhanced

Does Creativity Training Work?

“Perhaps the most clear-cut conclusion to emerge from this study is that creativity training is effective.”

(p. 381)

Scott, Leritz, & Mumford (2004)

Conclusions Regarding Effective Programs

“Some support for these conclusions may be found in the more successful of the creativity

training programs currently available…the Creative Problem Solving program begins by

describing the key cognitive processes underlying creative thought. Subsequently,

strategies for effectively applying these processes are described and illustrations of

their application provided”. (p. 383)

Scott, Leritz, & Mumford (2004)

Practicing Deliberate Creativity

Qualities of deliberate practice:

• Repetition

• Feedback on results

• Mentally demanding

• Isn’t much fun

Source: Colvin (2008).

A Look at Creative Leadership

Management and Leadership

“Management is basically a process, the function ofwhich is to produce consistent results on important

dimensions...Leadership, by contrast, is a process whosefunction is change.”

(Kotter, 1988)

IBM Global CEO Study2010

“CEOs told us they operate in a world that is substantially more volatile, uncertain and complex. Many shared the view that incremental changes are no longer sufficient in a world that is operating in fundamentally different ways.” (p. 8)

CEOs Experience with High Levels of Complexity

32 %increase

IBM Global CEO StudyPrimary Findings

4. Creativity is the most important leadership quality.

IBM Global CEO StudyCreative Leaders…

Practice and encourage experimentation and innovation throughout their organisations.

Make deep business model changes to realise strategies.

Take calculated risks, finding new ideas and keep innovating in how they lead and innovate.

Leadership Performance: An Ability to Solve Complex Social Problems

• Ill-defined: No single solution path – no right or wrong answer – thus allowing the problem to be defined in a number of ways.

• Novel: Past experience and knowledge is not sufficient to resolve the present situation, adaptive responses are needed for new or changing situations.

• Ambiguous: Gaps in information and/or a plethora of information of which only some is relevant.

CPS a Core Leadership Competency

“The available evidence indicates that creative problem solving may indeed represent an important influence on

leader performance”

Mumford et al. (2000)

Enhancing Creative-

Thinking Skills Through

Deliberate Practice

Don’t Short Change Your Thinking:Quantity Leads to Quality

• Scientists who have won the Nobel Prize publish, on average, 3.24 papers per year versus 1.48 by non-winners

• Edison held 1,093 patents• Einstein had 248 publications • Mozart had well over 600 compositions• J.S. Bach had more than 1,000 compositions to

his credit• Picasso completed more than 20,000 works

(Simonton, 1984)(Simonton, 1984)

Creative Thinking: The Dynamic Balance between Divergence &

Convergence

Area ofDiscovery

Area ofDiscovery

Are

a of

Fam

iliar

ity

Diver

ge Diverge

ConvergeCon

verg

e

Puccio, Murdock & Mance (2007)

Creative Problem SolvingAn introduction

Nielsen & Thurber (2010) based on the work of Puccio & Miller (2003)

The creative heartbeat

Creative Problem Solving

The Basics

Nielsen &

Thurber (2010) based on the w

ork of Puccio & M

iller (2003).

The FourSight Model

• universal & intuitive

• research based

• 4 distinct steps

• unique thinking skills

1. Clarify

Identifying the challenge

2. Ideate

Generating ideas

3. Develop

Bringing ideas to life

4. Implement

Giving ideas legs

Clarify

Identifying the challenge

• define a goal

• gather data

• formulate the challenge

When you clarify you use

strategic thinking.

The definition of

Strategic thinking

the ability to sense the problem,

identify the key issues, and see

paths that will move you toward

a desired future.

Ideate

Generating ideas

• think up lots of options

• explore new combinations

• build on ideas

When you ideate you use

ideational thinking.

The definition of

Ideational thinking

the ability to produce a variety of

original options, images or

thoughts that address challenges.

Develop

Bringing ideas to life

• evaluate and strengthen ideas

• craft ideas into useful solutions

• take an idea from good to great

When you develop you use

evaluative thinking.

The definition of

Evaluative thinking

the ability to evaluate and transform a

broad idea into a specific, workable

solution that resolves the challenge.

Implement

Giving ideas legs

• explore acceptance

• make a plan

• get into action

When you implement you use

tactical thinking.

The definition of

Tactical thinking

the ability to devise and carry out a plan that includes specific, measurable steps for attaining the desired state.

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Dynamic Balance: The Core to the CPS Process

Area ofDiscovery

Area ofDiscovery

Are

a of

Fam

iliar

ityDiver

ge Diverge

Converge Conve

rge

Divergent ThinkingGuidelines:- Suspend Judgment- Strive for Quantity- Allow for Combinations- Seek Novel Associations

58

Dynamic Balance: The Core to the CPS Process

Area ofDiscovery

Area ofDiscovery

Are

a of

Fam

iliar

ityDiver

ge Diverge

Converge Conve

rge

Convergent ThinkingGuidelines:- Use Affirmative Judgment- Consider Novelty- Check Your Objectives- Be Deliberate

1. Clarify

Identifying the challenge

2. Ideate

Generating ideas

3. Develop

Bringing ideas to life

4. Implement

Giving ideas legs

1. Clarify

Identifying the challenge

2. Ideate

Generating ideas

3. Develop

Bringing ideas to life

4. Implement

Giving ideas legs

Develop

Tips and Tools

PPCo

1. Plusses

• Strengths, Good Points, Positives, Pluses

2. Potentials

• Future Spin-offs, Possibilities, Novel Aspects

• What if thinking

3. Concerns

• Weaknesses, Trouble Spots, Minuses

• Phrased in "How to...”, “How might…”What might…” statements

• What if thinking

4. Overcome Concerns Through Diverging• Prioritize concerns• Generate Ideas to Overcome Main Concerns

5. Does your idea change?

• Refine, keep or kill

(Miller, Vehar & Firestien, 2001)

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PPCo

Plusses• The hopper has a lot of space• The handle seems reinforced• The wheelbarrow won’t tip over• The wheels give it more stability

Potentials• It might make gardening easier• It might reduce the number of accidents• It might replace the traditional wheelbarrow• It might cost less to produce• It might be used for storage

Concerns•How to make wheelbarrow easier to maneuver?•How to make it more attractive?•What might be ways to make the grip more comfortable?•How to improve traction?•How to identify buyers?•How to strengthen center of gravity?

Overcoming Concerns•How to strengthen center of gravity?• Make it a longer handle• Push down instead of lift up• Attach and extend braces on sides of barrow• Attach Segway technology to it• Make it heavier near the handles• Create a rail system for it

Some Sample Uses for PPCo

• Evaluating a proposed idea• Providing feedback• Capturing lessons learned from a project,

assignment or event• Conducting performance reviews• Developing a product concept• Improving team effectiveness

Thank You & Good Luck!!Puccio, G. J., Murdock, M. C., & Mance, M. (2007)

Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

www.buffalostate.edu/centers/creativity

Clarify

Identifying the challenge

• define a goal

• gather data

• formulate the challenge

When you clarify you use

strategic thinking.

The definition of

Strategic thinking

the ability to sense the problem,

identify the key issues, and see

paths that will move you toward

a desired future.

What’s the ‘real’ challenge?

68

Sample Challenge Statements

• Can we improve our performance?

• How to develop a new health care product that we can get to the market quickly and costs less to produce than our last venture?

• In what ways might we enhance our team’s performance on long-term projects?

• What might be some new product ideas within our health care line for seniors?

Before After

Example

• Packaging for dough balls– Original problem statement: We need new

packaging for our dough balls.– Revised problem statement: How might we

package our pizza dough balls to make it easier for our customers and drive out waste?

Characteristics of a Good Challenge Statement

1) Begins with a statement starter

2) Free from criteria

3) Specific focus or action

Statement Starters Usefulthe Clarify Step

• How to...? (H2)

• How might...? (HM)

• In what ways might...? (IWWM)

• What might...? (WM)

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Webbing Basics

Why?

What’s stopping you?

WhyElse?

WhyElse?

What elseIs stopping you?

What elseIs stopping you?

Original Problem Statement

Initial Problem Statement:

How to…

Why? Why?

How to…How to…

How to…

Why?Why? Why?

How to… How to…

How to…

Why?Why? Why?

How to… How to…

How to…How to…

What is stopping you?What is stopping you?

How to…

How to…

How to…

How to…

How to…How to…

What is stopping you?

What is stoppingyou?

What is stopping you? What is

stoppingyou?

What is Stopping you?

What is stopping you?

WebbingWorksheet

Webbing: An Example

How might I getpromoted to full professor?

How to publish more?

How to makemore money?

How to enhancereputation? How to achieve

self-satisfaction?

How to writemore books?

How to createmore products?

How to find time to write?

How to networkmore?

How to secureletters of support?

How to engagein mentorship rels.?

How to participatein more conferences?

How to buildcommunity?

How to keepCV up-to-date?