Leadership Development for
Women in the Public Sector
Myrna L. Bair, Ph.D. – Director
Russell Zehtab-Noghiu, Research Assistant
Institute for Public Administration
College of Human Services, Education & Public Policy
University of Delaware
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Tips for Inspiring Creativity
1. Kate Quinlan, Inspiring Creativity, Edited by Rick Benzel
A. Your Creativity Journey
How many times have you said, “I’m just not very creative.”
Kate Quinlan, a creativity coach, would respond: “If you think
you are without creative ability, I think you’re wrong.”
There are two major points Quinlan notes:
1) “You have creative ability, regardless of your doubts.”
2) “You should apply your creativity to enjoy the process,
not solely its product.”
Now, we all might not be artists or composers, but we all have
creative talents. And, these “creative efforts will go through stages,
some thrilling, some disappointing, some causing you to want
to pull your hair out, some rich with satisfaction and reward.
It’s a journey of hills and valleys.
B. Five Notions to Resist:
1) False Assumptions.
Do not assume that the creativity of others is better than yours.
In fact, the creative accomplishments of others have no reflection
on your work. Your creative work stands alone as your creative work.
Your goal is to learn about your own abilities and limitations and to
thoroughly enjoy the process.
2) Intimidation.
Don’t let others’ evaluation of your work discourage you. While
constructive criticism can be very valuable; don’t let anyone else
intimidate you by negative comments.
3) Implication.
Don’t let others set your creative agenda or tell you how you should
be doing your creative work.
4) Expectation
Do not expect a single result from your creative efforts. If you are rigid
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in what you are working toward, you will bypass the process and miss
out on the exploration of options. It is the side-winding and veering off
the path that takes you to new creative places.
5) Imitation
Viewing the work of others is a great source of inspiration, but do not
attempt just to duplicate the creative efforts of others. The exploration
must be into the realm of your own creativity.
C. Five Practices to Embrace.
1) Daring:
You must have the courage to begin anywhere,
anytime. Then, keep going, keep exploring and
daring. It will get you much further than
being afraid to make mistakes.
2) Inkling:
Inklings are those little whispered suggestions, echoed bits of selfknowledge and kernels of wisdom you’re filed away. It is from these inklings
that ideas emerge to help you in that creative process. Honor your intuition. Don’t
listen to the voices that say, “we should do it this way,” and hear those quite whispers
that say, “What if we tried it another way?”
3) Doing:
At some point you have to take the risk, listen to your intuition, get your hands dirty, make a
mess and create something. Create anything! Doing is the difference.
4) Experiencing:
The reason to create is to experience the process. What you create is not
necessarily the objective. That you create, is the goal.
5) Rejoicing:
Celebrate your creative efforts. Be pleased, be proud. Take pleasure in what you have
experienced and what you have to show for it. It may not be a Picasso or a Mozart
Sonata, but it is yours. You kept your mind open and your hands busy. You dared to
take the lead and enjoyed your journey. Congratulations are definitely in order!
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2. Jill Badonsky, Inspiring Creativity, Edited by Rick Benzel
A) Beware of the Flying Monkeys:
Flying Monkeys are a term for
the evil-thwarters of the
creative process:
Those monkeys can impede our creativity by driving us to:
1. Thinking the creative process is quick & easy, and so giving up too
quickly when the normal stages of ambiguity & doubt arise.
2. Feeling that ideas are drying up.
3. Taking creativity too seriously and therefore choking it in the
process.
4. Having low self-confidence and self-esteem, constant negative selftalk and comparisons to others.
5. Creating unrealistic expectations or being caught in an epidemic of
immobilizing or crazy-making perfection.
6. Appling creativity and ingenuity to procrastination strategies
rather than to one’s creative passions.
7. Being overwhelmed with everything there is to do.
8. Believing there is not enough time to get creative.
---Jill Badonsky, in Inspiring Creativity,
edited by Rick Benzel
B. Call upon the Muses:
In Greek mythology, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne,
the Goddess of Memory, were considered the keepers of creative
inspiration, the Muses.*
The clever creative tactics devised specifically and exclusively
for mortals by the Modern Day Muses can tame your flying monkeys—and even train them
to work for you rather than against you. The Muses are there inside
of all of us. They are our strength, our wisdom, our will and our passion. Personified as
Muses, we can more easily conjure up their energy with creative imagination, the energy
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we want mobilized in the creative process. Be fueled by the voice of your creative potential.
Go into the world and create. Remember to have fun. Be amused. -- Jill Badonsky
C. Advice Inspired by the Muses
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct
acting from inner necessity. ---Carl Jung
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and
becoming superior. ---Henry C. Link
It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really
doing nothing. ---Gertrude Stein
It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish. ---J.R.R. Tolkien
Take the obvious, add a cup of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, and a bucketful of
courage & daring, stir well and bring to a boil. ---Barnard Baruch, U.S. Businessman
We need to make the world safe for creativity & intuition, for it’s creativity and intuition
that will make the world safe for us. ---Edgar Mitchell, Apollo astronaut
* The Muses:
1) Calliope: Goddess of Eloquence, Epic Poetry, Drama, Performance, Communication
& Storytelling.
2) Clio: Muse of History & Writing, the impulse to find the Truth & Celebrate
Knowledge.
3) Erato: The Goddess with many faces. She is the Muse of the 4 aspects of Love
a) Agape, the compassion face, b) Eros, the drive to procreate
c) Libido, sensuality & sexuality d) Philia, Friendship.
4) Euterpe: Muse of Music and Lyric Poetry
5)Melpomene: Muse of Tragedy & she shows us how to overcome adversity
6) Polyhymnia: Muse of Oratory, Sacred Hymns & Poetry
7) Terpsichore: Muse of Dance
8) Thalia: Muse of Comedy
9) Urania: Muse of Astronomy & Mathematics
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3. Mining Creative Gold, Deborah Bouziden, in Inspiring Creativity,
Edited by Rick Maisel
In today’s world, we live on the edge, always in a hurry, taking for granted the things around
us, not enjoying our senses and the moments we’ve been given. We become so buried in the
deep mine of life that we can’t see the gold sparkling on the walls. It isn’t that the gold’s not
there, it’s just that we don’t have the light of perception to see it.
Here are 15 suggestions to help you discover your unique
vein of creative gold:
1. Change Your Work Area
If you can’t move into a new space, then move your desk, add posters to
your walls, etc. Just make that work area appear different and more
inspiring.
2. Do Nothing at All
Turn your consciousness off. Get up and away from your desk. Take a
walk, make yourself a cup of tea or sit quietly and just contemplate.
Release your mind, so it can release its best ideas to you.
3. Experiment
Try something completely new. A fresh perspective will sometimes
create exciting revelations.
4. Get Organized
Do you feel like you’re going in a million different directions at the same
time? Do tasks sit undone because you’re overwhelmed?
By organizing your time, space and thoughts, you might just find you
have more energy to be creative. Organization puts your world in order.
It frees your body, soul and spirit to create.
5. Listen to Music
Music has been called creative energy.
As you listen to music, ideas often start
to flow and you begin to create. Play music
that suits the mood you’re trying to create.
And, don’t be hesitant to be bold and experiment
with unfamiliar styles and mixes. It just might
open up a new area of creativity for you.
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6. Make an Appointment with Nature
Writers and artists have known and recommended “time with nature”
through the ages. Taking the time to “smell the roses” can clear your mind,
relax your body and put you in a wonderful mood to be creative.
Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, “We need the tonic of wildness. We
can never have enough nature.”
7. Meditate
In today’s world, we are surrounded by
so much technology and noise that
our brains are often over stimulated.
Meditation brings wisdom; lack of
meditation leaves ignorance. Know well
what leads you forward and what holds you
back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
---Buddha
8. Opposites Attract
Force two incompatible ideas together and see what happens. You never
know what will happen when you begin to play with things that don’t
relate to one another. Years ago, people may have thought that peanut
butter and chocolate couldn’t be compatible, but look what it’s done for
Reese’s.
9. Re-evaluate Your Goals
Take a realistic look at what you want to accomplish and see if it is really
doable within the time frame you have set for yourself. The great American
novel wasn’t written in a month.
If you feel anxious every time you sit down to work, you may want to adjust
your goals, cut the project into pieces or extend your time line.
10. Set Aside Time to be Alone and Think
Become your own think tank. Take an hour a week to do nothing but
ponder and brainstorm new ideas and new concepts. And, don’t let anyone
interrupt your special time.
11. Spend Time with Children
Children have a unique view of the world. They are honest, open, not jaded
by bad experiences and they don’t worry about coloring outside the lines.
The story is told about a grandmother who was watching her grandson play
with modeling clay. He just kept rolling the clay between his hands.
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“Are you going to make something?” his grandmother asked.
“Yeah,” he said as he continued to play with the clay.
“When?” she asked.
“When it tells me what it wants to be.”
Even great artists approach materials in the same way. Michelangelo is said
to have commented as he looked at a new piece of marble: “Inside of every
rock there is a sculpture waiting to emerge.” Even more impressive than
the famous “David” in Florence, are the “unfinished sculptures” he left
behind when a project he was working on was cancelled.
12. Take a Class
Our minds seek new experiences, fresh knowledge and like to stay engaged.
Expanding what we know increases our ability to share unique insights
with others. As we always say in the Leadership Program, “It is a Journey
of a Lifetime.”
13. Look, then Take Another Look
This is a process know as scanning.
When you look for only one thing, for
example the color brown, you miss all
the other colors that may be right
in front of you.
14. Turn off the Critic
Sometimes we begin censoring ourselves before we get to the good stuff.
Turn off the voice that says, “It isn’t good enough,” “It has to be perfect,”
“It has to be finished today.” These are all things that can put a barrier
between us and our creativity.
15. Use a Different Approach
Think about things from a different angle and from a different
perspective. Paint a tree orange instead of green.
There are many ways to be creative. We all must find what works for us to
get those creative juices flowing.
Believe in yourself, your ideas and your talents. That Eureka moment is only
one creative notion away.
4. Getting Unstuck, Rick Benzel in Inspiring Creativity, Edited by Rick
Maisel
Every artist gets stuck from time to time in
“creativity-halting goo.” It can happen at any phase
of your work: when you’re beginning a project,
middle or close to completion. The goo can overcome you
in many different ways – it can prevent you from finding
mind when choosing among many ideas, or pull you
in the
an idea, or cloud your
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downwards into a creative void.
Whenever it happens and whatever it takes, creativity
halting goo is frustrating, energy draining and harmful
to the self-esteem of the creative mind. It feels like a sticky poisonous tar that envelopes you.
No matter how much you try, you simply cannot escape from the gooey spot you have gotten
yourself into – and your creative work stops dead in its tracks.
Nine approaches to getting unstuck!
1) Reframe the Problem
Reframing means learning how to change
your view of the problem. Reality is, after
all, shaped by our thoughts and interpretations.
So reframing the problem can lead you to a more
fruitful interpretation of what that problem is.
2) Marcel Proust Approach
Marcel Proust, the great French writer (1871-1922) is known for a
style of writing called “stream of consciousness.” To do this he releases
his mind from rules and formulas and then pours his thoughts onto a
page like water over a dam. Steam of consciousness allows you to
connect with your innermost feelings and thoughts, a veritable “brain
dump” that lets your creativity “hang out” without regard to consciousness,
appropriateness or brilliance. As Proust learned, its very creative to simply
to let your mind spill out and even your ramblings can turn into a worldrenowned piece of literature.
3) Pottery Approach
When making pottery, the artist has
learned to place the clay on the center
of the wheel. Take that one step further
and it means centering your mind, your
feelings, your entire being. Ways to center
yourself can include meditation, going
for walks or having a talk with someone.
4) Buddy Approach
Sometimes you need a “buddy” to get unstuck, a colleague who can
push or pull you out, by listening to you or sharing some ideas.
5) Matrix Approach
This technique if based on using logic to evaluate your
ideas and choose the best one according to a set of
criteria you develop. It helps you check off which
column or row intersection makes the most logical sense.
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This is particularly useful when you have a
large number of choices.
6) Spiritual Approach
This is not limited to a religious experience, but is rooted in profound
respect and appreciation for human creativity in a mystical cosmos.
You can gain this power by going to a mountain top or a favorite outdoor
place. By going to this special place you can experience profound
insights into your place in the cosmos and your love for the creativity you
posses.
7) Rewards Approach
You simply offer yourself a reward for committing to get your work done
or achieving certain milestones.
8) Hero Approach
Think of yourself as a hero, a luminary in
your field. However, be careful about selecting
a hero and turning him or her into an object
of negative comparison for yourself. Choose
your heroes based on their human qualities
and the value they bring to their craft,
not based upon how famous they are.
9) Hire-A-Professional Approach
You can find creativity coaches at: www.creativitycoachingassociation.com.
5. Self-Appreciation: How to Star in your own Life. Beverly Down in
Inspiring Creativity, Edited by Eric Maisel
How we feel about ourselves will color every area of our life
to some degree. The good news is that we can learn
to appreciate ourselves more, as with any learned skill.
It doesn’t take long to put into practice new ideas, which
in turn will bring new results! When we are centered
in the truth of our beings, what we produce is authentic.
You live once – but if you work it right, once is enough.
---Joe E. Lewis
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The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon,
but that we wait so long to begin it.
---W.M. Lewis
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The primary purpose of all human life is to live a life that is full of joy and delight.
---John Payne
I have an everyday religion that works for me, Love yourself first and everything
else falls into line. You have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
---Lucille Ball
He does not look back who is bound to a star.
---Leonardo DaVinci
My wish for each of us is to fully awaken and to embrace the idea that each of us is a star.
May the creativity within guide us and help us to live lives filled with joy and love! Let the
veil be lifted so that our true identity, as co-creators is revealed. Let our creative expression
soar! May self-appreciation grow within each of us so that we become whole and
transform the world. May the force be with us.
Amen, and Awomen!
(An adaptation of the final section of Beverly Downs’ Chapter)
6. Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius
--- Michael Michalko
A. Seeing What No One Else is Seeing
1. Strategy One: Knowing How to See
Leonardo da Vinci believed that to gain
knowledge about the form of the
problem, you begin by learning how to
restructure it to see it in many different
ways. He would look at the problem
from one perspective and move to
another perspective and still another.
With each move, his understanding
would deepen, and he would begin
to understand the essence of the
problem. He called this thinking saper
vedere or “Knowing how to see.
a) For example, in the series of letters below, cross out six letters
to make a common word:
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CSRIEXLEATTTERES.
Answer at the end.
b) In the diagram below, you can look at it passively as a single
pattern of 4 dots inside a box,
or you can look at it as the four arms of
a cross, or four, corners of a diamond,
the points of a diamond, the bases
of a baseball diamond the points of a
compass etc. Looking at something from
different perspectives is not just a
passive registering of data, but an active
and creative process.
c) The Michelangelo Technique: Seeing thru the Surface
If you were asked to identify
Michelangelo’s most famous
sculpture in Florence, you
and many others would say:
“of course it is David.”
When I visited the Galleria Dell’Accademia in Florence, I, too, was awed by this beautiful and
massage sculpture. It is located in the middle of the museum in an alcove built to display it from
all sides.
But, what I found far more interesting were the
sculptures in the hallway leading to David. These are
the four Unfinished Slaves, originally intended for
the tomb of Pope Julius II in St. Peters. Julius died
before the tomb was completed and the sculptures
remained unfinished.
What is so amazing about these works is really
the process that Michelangelo used to create
his masterpieces. It is said, that whenever
Michelangelo looked at a block of marble, he
didn’t just see a rock, but a figure
“Imprisoned in the marble that needed to be liberated.”
Awakening Slave
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It often took him a great deal of time to select the “right” piece of
marble, as he would have to “see” what lay inside.
Myrna L. Bair, 2006
2. Strategy Two: Making Your Thoughts Visible
Galileo revolutionized science by making
his thoughts visible with diagrams and
drawings, while his contemporaries used
conventional verbal and algebraic
approaches. His diagrams of celestial
bodies unfolded a deeply visible logic
that produced insights far beyond those
achieved by his peers and changed the
history of science.
a) Tree Diagrams
Darwin frequently drew
diagrams of nature as an
irregularly branching tree.
These diagrams helped him
capture his thoughts about
evolutionary change by allowing
him to reach out in many
directions at once and pull
seemingly unrelated information
together.
b) Mind Mapping
Mind mapping was formalized as a technique in the early
1970s by Tony Buzan, a British brain researcher, as a
whole-brain alternative to linear thinking. Mind mapping
makes it easier to access the tremendous potential of your
brain by representing your thoughts using key words. It is
an organized brainstorming method to find out what you
know by writing a central theme and then depicting
thoughts and associations as vines growing in all directions
from the central theme.
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In this example, the starting thought is: “exercise, relaxation & de-stressing. This
leads to thoughts of visualization, exercise, brain & meditation. Then each of these
key words lead to more thoughts (branches of the tree).
For further information on Mind Mapping, see Tony Buzan’s books or Google:
Buzan Mind Mapping.
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B. Thinking What No One Else is Thinking
Our minds build up patterns that enable us to simplify and cope with a
complex world, based on our experiences in life, education and work
that has been successful in the past.
But without any provision for variations,
ideas stagnate and lose their adaptive
advantages. If you always think the way
you’ve always thought, you’ll get what
you’ve always got, the same old, same old ideas.
Creativity implies a deviance from past experience and procedures.
Creativity produces a rich variety of original ideas and solutions because
they ignore conventional ways of thinking and look for different ways to
think about problems. We need to think by provoking different thinking
patterns that incorporate chance and unrelated factors into our thinking.
These different thinking patterns enable us to look at the same
information as everyone else and see something totally different.
Techniques:
1) Think Fluently (generating quantities of ideas) and Flexibly
(think beyond the ordinary and conventional nature of
things).
Thomas Edison one said that
creativity is “1 percent inspiration
& 99 percent perspiration.” It took
him 9,000 experiments to discover
a long-lasting filament for light bulbs.
In his mind he hadn’t failed once.
Instead, he discovered thousands of
things that didn’t work.
2) Make Novel Connections
The new combinations give
you different ways to focus
your attention and different
ways to interpret whatever
you are focusing on. This will
help you find new insights,
original ideas and creative
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solutions.
Some of these techniques include: 1) making a matrix of all the
possibilities and selecting one from each category, 2) breaking
down the problem into sub-parts and then putting together the
sub-parts into different formations, 3) creating new associations,
4) combining existing information 5) combining the unrelated,
6) combining problems, 7) combining words, 8) combining ideas,
9) combining multiple perspectives and 10) combining domains.
3) Connecting the Unconnected
People who are creative
have the ability to see
relationships to which
others are blind.
When you can change your
thinking patterns you catch
your brain’s processing by
surprise and it will change
your perception of the
problem or issue.
4) Looking at the Other Side
In tackling a problem, people commonly assume a set of
boundaries to limit the solution. The boundaries of the problem
are defined by assumption and then, within those boundaries,
conventional thinking is used to find a solution.
Techniques include: 1) Reversals
(reversing the way you think about
an issue) 2) Seeing all Sides and
3) Working Backward
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5) Looking in Other Worlds
Like a spark that jumps across a
gap, an idea from one world
is used to create a new idea or
creative solution to a problem
in another world.
For example, Alexander Graham Bell observed the similarities
between the inner workings of the ear and the ability of a strong
piece of membrane to move steel and conceived the telephone.
Techniques include:
a) Parallel Worlds
It helps you imagine comparison, similarities &
even differences between subjects in “other worlds.”
If one world does not help, try using several worlds
until you fine one that best suits the general
principles of your challenge. For example if the
challenge is to find better ways to sell “lumber”, try
using words from “computers.”
b) World of Essences
As humans, many of us have lost the sensitivity to
deeper relationships and essences because we’ve
been educated to focus on the particulars of
experience as opposed to the universals.
For example, if you were asked to design a new
can opener, your first thoughts might be to look
an existing can openers.
Leave that world and look
at opening a pea pod.
c) Worlds of Special Interest
Most of us have expert knowledge in some hobby,
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discipline or special activity. Transfer that
knowledge to the problem at hand. For example, if
your hobby is model trains and your job involves
designing better ways to move traffic. Look at what
you have learned from the design of the train tracks
and transfer that to issues in your job.
d) World of Nature
The world of nature often can provide us with
answers to problems or even new products and
techniques. For example the Swiss inventor George
de Mestral invented Velcro when he examined the
burrs that he removed from his dog when they were
out hunting.
e) The World of Imagination
One way to move toward creative thinking is to
forget your problem and take an imaginary
excursion. As your mind is on this journey, you
can activate more and different thought
patterns. In many cases, you can then find a
connection to the problem at hand.
f) World of Images
Try to represent the key elements of
your challenge to mental images that
symbolically represent your subject.
Then write down (or draw) the
images that just come to mind.
Look at all these images and look
for relationships and connections between the two.
6) Finding What You Are Not Looking For
A creative accident is a special event. It often provokes the
question, “What have we done.” Answering that question
in a novel, unexpected way is the essential creative act. It
is not luck, but creative insight of the highest order.
Many of history’s greatest discoveries were the result of
looking for one thing and finding another – from the
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discovery of electromagnetic laws to Post-its. The
difference between someone with creative ability and those
who aren’t, is that the creative person quickly realizes they
have discovered something new and then find a practical
use for it. Creative techniques include: 1) Exploring,
2) Finding the latent potential that exists is everything,
3)Free thinking or not over-thinking, 4) Asking yourself
“Are your Ideas Crazy Enough” 5) Fantasize about your
subject, and 6) Understanding that “Chance Favors the
Prepared Mind.”
7) Awakening the Collaborative Spirit
a) Open & Honest Conversations with Colleagues
Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli & Bohr
(four outstanding scientists of the last century)
spent years freely meeting and conversing
with each other. They exchanged ideas and
each felt free to propose what ever was on their
minds. This freedom to discuss without risk
led to the foundations of modern physics.
b) Group Brainstorming
Collaboration is one of the best kept
secrets in creativity. Walt Disney
wanted to create a full-length
animated feature film. So he
assembled a great team of diverse
talents to create the breakthrough feature film,
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” It
was Disney’s ability to tolerate diversity,
allowing his group to retain their
individuality while combining their talents
that created the cooperative synthesis that
made his vision a reality.
Group brainstorming, if done in the right spirit, can generate a
rich variety of different perspectives and ideas about any given
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subject. That is because individuals are magically different and
unique from each other.
3) Conclusions:
In summary, creative people are productive thinkers. When you need original ideas or
creative solutions for your professional and personal problems, you need to:
1) Generate a multiplicity of different perspectives about your subject until you
find the perspective you want. Creativity often comes from finding a new
perspective that no one else has taken.
2) Generate a large quantity of alternatives and conjectures. Then retain the best
ideas for further development.
3) Produce variation in your ideas by incorporating random, chance or unrelated
factors.
The author in his closing section recounts an ancient Chinese story
about a rainmaker who was hired to bring rain to a parched area of China.
The rainmaker, a small, wizened, old man upon arriving, sniffed the air with
obvious disgust as the got out of his cart. He asked to be left alone in a
cottage outside the village, even his meals were to be left outside the door.
Nothing was heard from him for three days. Then it not only rained, but
there was also a big downfall of snow. Very much impressed, the villagers
sought him out and asked him how he could make it rain and even snow.
The rainmaker replied, “I have not made the rain or the snow; I am not responsible for it.” “But,
how can that be?” the villagers asked. “Oh, I can explain that. You see, the rain and the snow were
always here. But as soon as I got here, I saw that your minds were out of order and that you had
forgotten how to see. So I remained here until once more you could see what was right before your
eyes.”
It is my hope that the strategies in this book will show you how
to look for different ways to think about your problems. When
you do that, you will rethink the ways you see things, and you,
like the villagers, will see what is right before your eyes.
---Michael Michalko
Answer to the letter puzzle: CREATE
These materials may be duplicated if permission is obtained and the Women’s Leadership Development Program is properly credited.
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Please contact mbair@udel.edu or rzehtab@udel.edu.